2008 College Placement for "Elite" DC Area Private Schools?

[Anonymous]

I am one of those posters on other threads who is feeling major buyer's remorse after committing to paying nearly 25,000 per year for our DC's kindergarten class next year. Truth be told, we did it in large part because we felt that gaining admission to one of the "elite" private schools now would be easier than waiting until middle or high school, and that would ensure DC with a top notch college placement (Ivy or thereabouts).

I know that this is not necessarily the case. So how did this year's crop from the DC area private schools turn out? I would love to hear particularly from those who know about non-ivy or even non-top 20 placements. That might convince us down the road that the "investment" simply is not yielding an adequate return and bring us back to our senses and the public school system.

[Anonymous]

People like you make me sick. Give me a break.

[Anonymous]

As of May 5, Maret students will be attending the following colleges and universities:

American University
Bates (3)
Brown University (2)
Carnegie Mellon
Colgate University (2)
College of Charleston
Columbia University
Dartmouth
Dickinson
Duke University
Emory University (4)
Franklin and Marshall (2)
Grinnell
Hampshire
Harvard University (2)
Haverford
Johns Hopkins University
Loyola College of Maryland
Mary Washington
McGill University/Canada
Miami University of Ohio
Morehouse
New York University
Northwestern University (3)
Oberlin
Ohio Wesleyan University
Princeton University
School of the Arts Institute of Chicago
Scripps (2)
Sewanee (2)
Skidmore
Stanford University (2)
Syracuse University (2)
Tufts University (2)
Tulane University
University of Colorado
University of Georgia
University of Michigan
University of Pennsylvania (4)
University of Pittsburgh (2)
University of Wisconsin
UCLA
Wake Forest University (2)
Washington University (4)
Wesleyan University (2)
Williams (2)
Yale University (2)

[Anonymous]

Wilson's placement is as good or better than that, from what I've heard anectodally.

[Anonymous]

Wilson? Or Whitman?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wilson's placement is as good or better than that, from what I've heard anectodally.

Can you please share ? Am very curious....

[Anonymous]

placement isn't a great proxy, though. it is what the kids do in college and how they make use of their foundation to further their knowledge. kids who are taught "to the test" and do well at public schools, take the SAT courses, & get into good colleges may still not know how to problem-solve, they may still not have great intellectual curiosity, they may still be afraid to fail and learn from it...

now, i am CERTAINLY not saying this is true across the board...there are so FABULOUS public educations out there (and along the same lines, some pretty awful private ones). all i am pointing out is that admittance into a particular college does not a successful learner make.

[Anonymous]

WILSON? In the District? Better than Maret? Based on how many anecdotal reports, 14:34?

[Anonymous]

This information is posted on the websites of most of the private schools, Catholic schools and many of the public schools.

[Anonymous]

WILSON? In the District? Better than Maret? Based on how many anecdotal reports, 14:34?

Something to think about here .... Wilson has about 350 in the graduating class, and Maret has, what, 100 at most? (600 total enrolled, K-12th).

So in terms of absolute numbers, it is indeed very possible that the *number* of Wilson grads going to Yale, or Wesleyan, is the same number of Maret grads going to Yale, or Wesleyan in any given year.

DCUMs over the years always seem amazed that more than a few objectively bright, hardworking kids enter Wilson and succeed.

Speaking of anecdotes, the Wilson teens in my immediate neighborhood have basically been able to write their own ticket, post high school. Granted, these are kids who would probably do well in any HS, what my grandfather calls "go-getters." But yes, plenty of Wilson grads go to 1st tier colleges.

[Anonymous]

Wow, that list could not be less impressive.

People are thousands of dollars for that???

[Anonymous]

They could all be going to UMC or something... can we dispense with the superlatives?

[Anonymous]

Let's keep in mind that many high school seniors choose where they want to attend college. So many of them may not have chosen Harvard, Yale or the other Ivies. In speaking with some parents of independent school students they seem to want a new type of educational evironment; this plays heavily on their decisions.

I agree with a previous poster - it is not the college they choose but how they perform academically when they get there.

[Anonymous]

This is the worst year you could choose to ask about college placements--as anyone who reads a newspaper may know, there were record numbers of applicants this year and record low acceptance rates (for example, 8% of Columbia applicants were accepted). So if any of the schools' lists look less than stellar this year, that is one factor to keep in mind.

[Anonymous]

thank you, PP 7:05. I am PP 15:36 and was starting to wonder if people were just skipping over my post because it didn't seem like it was even considered in the discussion.

there are so many factors, and you pointed out another great one: the kids themselves may decide where they want to apply and ultimately go. or it may be dad or mom, who still wants them to attend their college which may be dartmouth or vassar or UVA. or perhaps some of these kids got scholarship $ to go to Carnegie Mellon and so chose that over MIT (and Carnegie Mellon is nothing to scoff at, anyway!). maybe they got a scholarship and are attending an unusual place because it was a sports scholarship - maybe the Tufts student got a rowing scholarship for their crew team, or whatever.... or perhaps they are going to Johns Hopkins U because their parents work there (there is a big tuition break if you work there for X number of years). Maybe the student going to Tulane wants to be down there to attend a special program to help re-develop New Orleans. HECK! The list could go on and on.

Not everyone applies to just the ivies. Or applies to the ivies at all.

And back to my original post, a long list of where students are admitted doesn't tell you much in terms of how well they will be able to perform at that school and, eventually, in the "real" world.

Please don't look at all of this too narrowly. Look at what your current education will be providing for your child: Is it sparking curiosity? Does it help your child to learn problem-solving skills? Is your child learning to work collaboratively with others in order to find answers? Does she understand that you can learn from failure, and that it isn't necessarily a bad thing?

If he or she (whatever the school - public, private, even home schooling) is learning critical thinking skills and how to solve problems both independently and collaboratively, then they will have a firm foundation for college and life. A measure of a school's worthiness should not be a list of where kids ultimately decide to go to college. That not only oversimplifies things, it gives the school and kids much less credit than they deserve (who you call a kid who chooses Tulane so that he or she can be a part of the rebuilding a loser? would you call the school for producing someone who cares about rebuilding a city a loser?)