Sidwell Junior - GPA concerns

[Anonymous]

You are right to be concerned.

This year's senior class is a cautionary tale. The school's rampant grade deflation is a huge problem. You may think a 3.7 is "sidwell good," but no college cares. Top colleges need to see a 3.9. When colleges get 50k applications, do you really think they care that sidwell grades tough? Nope.

The kids with sky high GPAs did great this year. the 3.7's not so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think you are a Sidwell parent. If you were, you would know that a 3.7 at sidwell is really high, to a rare degree.

This.

Total troll post. Your kid is too 20 if not too 10 in the class with a summa cum laude GPA.

[Anonymous]

Sidwell senior parent here of kid with slightly higher GPA. 3.7 is excellent for the school. Your DD is correct that there will be a handful of kids > 3.9, but it’s a tiny group in each grade for the reasons PP said.

Our experience this year is that these “low” compared to public schools GPAs only hold you back if you apply to giant public universities **that are unknown to Sidwell specifically** Places with a well worn pathway— Michigan, UVA, Wisconsin, W&M — are no issue. Problems arise with competitive flagships where kids from Sidwell never apply. They seem to take a dim view of a 3.7-3.9 compared to the thousands of applicants with 4.7s. Let’s use Florida, Texas and Georgia as examples. California schools are their own beast and just made huge admissions changes this year …. UNC admits no one, so.

The > 3.5 doesn’t hold your kid back from very competitive LACs or T20 if the rest of their package is very good. “Very good” need not mean URM or recruited athlete btw. There are a lot of kids this year not in those groups and not 3.9+ according to my son who will attend some very very top schools next year. Keeping it vague for their privacy

[Anonymous]

If the goal of spending gobs of money on Private is your plan to get in to a T20 then you may be disappointed. The only people that get into T20 are those with significant hooks (URM, recruited athletes, nationally recognized awards, first gen, etc). Otherwise, throw the application in the the pile with the other 30k straight A students and spin the wheel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think you are a Sidwell parent. If you were, you would know that a 3.7 at sidwell is really high, to a rare degree.

OP here. Genuinely confused with the 3.7: The courses/grading is so tough that I feel a 3.7 should be VERY good, putting DC in the top quarter of the class or higher. However, DC tells me that her impression is that a significant number of kids claim to have 4.0 or close to 4.0 GPAs by this stage. Is this possible? Don't know what to make of it and the school clearly gives no guidance on class rank.

What is "a significant number"? 10, 20?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the goal of spending gobs of money on Private is your plan to get in to a T20 then you may be disappointed. The only people that get into T20 are those with significant hooks (URM, recruited athletes, nationally recognized awards, first gen, etc). Otherwise, throw the application in the the pile with the other 30k straight A students and spin the wheel.

OP ignore this troll post from an Ohio basement please

[Anonymous]

I think a lot of people are looking at these admits and seeing different things, Someone sees a kid at Northwestern who was rejected at their top choice as a negative where I amazed they got into Northwestern. Others see only 1-2 admits to each Ivy (many of whom will play sports) and can’t believe how “poorly” they have done where I can’t believe a single graduating class gets that many kids into Ivies. Or someone has a choice between Cornell and UVA and is angry bc they had 5 other rejections where I see a kid who can only go to 1 school so having two top 30 choices is an embarrassment of riches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot of people are looking at these admits and seeing different things, Someone sees a kid at Northwestern who was rejected at their top choice as a negative where I amazed they got into Northwestern. Others see only 1-2 admits to each Ivy (many of whom will play sports) and can’t believe how “poorly” they have done where I can’t believe a single graduating class gets that many kids into Ivies. Or someone has a choice between Cornell and UVA and is angry bc they had 5 other rejections where I see a kid who can only go to 1 school so having two top 30 choices is an embarrassment of riches.

Agree with this 100%.

Someone posted upthread that the only acceptable schools were the Ivys, MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Hopkins, Chicago and maybe Northwestern (I can't remember if Northwestern was included on their list).
THIS IS INSANITY.
Where do parents get this incredibly skewed perspective? Somehow they think that their kid deserves this college trajectory simply because they graduated from Sidwell?
I have two kids there (earlier high school grades) who came from public. They're doing really well (no Bs so far). They have some very bright classmates. But many of their classmates are just average smart.
They do fine. They study some. They blow off other assignments. They're not geniuses and they're not academic whizzes. But yet their parents clearly believe they are worthy of an Ivy admit. This
is evident by the fact that something like 15 of the kids ED'd (all unsuccessfully) to Brown. Now, this was not the top 15 kids in the senior class. There were plenty of kids that truly believed that their
Sidwell education (no matter their grades) entitled them to a spot at Brown. It's really warped thinking. Spend a day in public school where you have to be perfect to even consider these options.
A Sidwell degree is not some birthright that entitles you to a top 10 ten college spot although many parents seem to honestly believe this.

Signed,
A Sidwell parent that would be quite happy with Colby or Vanderbilt or Dickinson or Wake or any top 75 school. Because you know what? My kid will certainly do well at any of these schools. AND the odds of attending
a decent school are far more secure coming from Sidwell than it would have been from public. You just have to graduate from Sidwell to all but guarantee a top 75 placement. In public, you have to be essentially perfect
for 4 years plus hope the odds go in your favor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot of people are looking at these admits and seeing different things, Someone sees a kid at Northwestern who was rejected at their top choice as a negative where I amazed they got into Northwestern. Others see only 1-2 admits to each Ivy (many of whom will play sports) and can’t believe how “poorly” they have done where I can’t believe a single graduating class gets that many kids into Ivies. Or someone has a choice between Cornell and UVA and is angry bc they had 5 other rejections where I see a kid who can only go to 1 school so having two top 30 choices is an embarrassment of riches.

Agree with this 100%.

Someone posted upthread that the only acceptable schools were the Ivys, MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Hopkins, Chicago and maybe Northwestern (I can't remember if Northwestern was included on their list).
THIS IS INSANITY.
Where do parents get this incredibly skewed perspective? Somehow they think that their kid deserves this college trajectory simply because they graduated from Sidwell?
I have two kids there (earlier high school grades) who came from public. They're doing really well (no Bs so far). They have some very bright classmates. But many of their classmates are just average smart.
They do fine. They study some. They blow off other assignments. They're not geniuses and they're not academic whizzes. But yet their parents clearly believe they are worthy of an Ivy admit. This
is evident by the fact that something like 15 of the kids ED'd (all unsuccessfully) to Brown. Now, this was not the top 15 kids in the senior class. There were plenty of kids that truly believed that their
Sidwell education (no matter their grades) entitled them to a spot at Brown. It's really warped thinking. Spend a day in public school where you have to be perfect to even consider these options.
A Sidwell degree is not some birthright that entitles you to a top 10 ten college spot although many parents seem to honestly believe this.

Signed,
A Sidwell parent that would be quite happy with Colby or Vanderbilt or Dickinson or Wake or any top 75 school. Because you know what? My kid will certainly do well at any of these schools. AND the odds of attending
a decent school are far more secure coming from Sidwell than it would have been from public. You just have to graduate from Sidwell to all but guarantee a top 75 placement. In public, you have to be essentially perfect
for 4 years plus hope the odds go in your favor.

Why do you lecture people? OP only asked about her child's relative ranking in the class for her to determine what colleges they should apply. If you know, provide this information. If not, no one wants to hear your lecture on what is right and what is wrong. Sidwell parents are educated adults and can make judgement for themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot of people are looking at these admits and seeing different things, Someone sees a kid at Northwestern who was rejected at their top choice as a negative where I amazed they got into Northwestern. Others see only 1-2 admits to each Ivy (many of whom will play sports) and can’t believe how “poorly” they have done where I can’t believe a single graduating class gets that many kids into Ivies. Or someone has a choice between Cornell and UVA and is angry bc they had 5 other rejections where I see a kid who can only go to 1 school so having two top 30 choices is an embarrassment of riches.

Agree with this 100%.

Someone posted upthread that the only acceptable schools were the Ivys, MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Hopkins, Chicago and maybe Northwestern (I can't remember if Northwestern was included on their list).
THIS IS INSANITY.
Where do parents get this incredibly skewed perspective? Somehow they think that their kid deserves this college trajectory simply because they graduated from Sidwell?
I have two kids there (earlier high school grades) who came from public. They're doing really well (no Bs so far). They have some very bright classmates. But many of their classmates are just average smart.
They do fine. They study some. They blow off other assignments. They're not geniuses and they're not academic whizzes. But yet their parents clearly believe they are worthy of an Ivy admit. This
is evident by the fact that something like 15 of the kids ED'd (all unsuccessfully) to Brown. Now, this was not the top 15 kids in the senior class. There were plenty of kids that truly believed that their
Sidwell education (no matter their grades) entitled them to a spot at Brown. It's really warped thinking. Spend a day in public school where you have to be perfect to even consider these options.
A Sidwell degree is not some birthright that entitles you to a top 10 ten college spot although many parents seem to honestly believe this.

Signed,
A Sidwell parent that would be quite happy with Colby or Vanderbilt or Dickinson or Wake or any top 75 school. Because you know what? My kid will certainly do well at any of these schools. AND the odds of attending
a decent school are far more secure coming from Sidwell than it would have been from public. You just have to graduate from Sidwell to all but guarantee a top 75 placement. In public, you have to be essentially perfect
for 4 years plus hope the odds go in your favor.

This is very true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell senior parent here of kid with slightly higher GPA. 3.7 is excellent for the school. Your DD is correct that there will be a handful of kids > 3.9, but it’s a tiny group in each grade for the reasons PP said.

Our experience this year is that these “low” compared to public schools GPAs only hold you back if you apply to giant public universities **that are unknown to Sidwell specifically** Places with a well worn pathway— Michigan, UVA, Wisconsin, W&M — are no issue. Problems arise with competitive flagships where kids from Sidwell never apply. They seem to take a dim view of a 3.7-3.9 compared to the thousands of applicants with 4.7s. Let’s use Florida, Texas and Georgia as examples. California schools are their own beast and just made huge admissions changes this year …. UNC admits no one, so.

The > 3.5 doesn’t hold your kid back from very competitive LACs or T20 if the rest of their package is very good. “Very good” need not mean URM or recruited athlete btw. There are a lot of kids this year not in those groups and not 3.9+ according to my son who will attend some very very top schools next year. Keeping it vague for their privacy

OP here. Very grateful for this this thoughtful and hugely informative response. Thanks for sharing your knowledge/experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think you are a Sidwell parent. If you were, you would know that a 3.7 at sidwell is really high, to a rare degree.

OP here. Genuinely confused with the 3.7: The courses/grading is so tough that I feel a 3.7 should be VERY good, putting DC in the top quarter of the class or higher. However, DC tells me that her impression is that a significant number of kids claim to have 4.0 or close to 4.0 GPAs by this stage. Is this possible? Don't know what to make of it and the school clearly gives no guidance on class rank.

What is "a significant number"? 10, 20?

OP again. Sorry, should have been clearer. Significant: approximately 15 kids. Strikes me as a bit high, but no way to tell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 11th grader has a 3.0, so a 3.7 seems amazing to me!

Interesting that no one seems to know where the modal GPA even is at Sidwell. Neither students nor parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are right to be concerned.

This year's senior class is a cautionary tale. The school's rampant grade deflation is a huge problem. You may think a 3.7 is "sidwell good," but no college cares. Top colleges need to see a 3.9. When colleges get 50k applications, do you really think they care that sidwell grades tough? Nope.

The kids with sky high GPAs did great this year. the 3.7's not so much.

That's great. where did the "sky high" kids end up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think you are a Sidwell parent. If you were, you would know that a 3.7 at sidwell is really high, to a rare degree.

OP here. Genuinely confused with the 3.7: The courses/grading is so tough that I feel a 3.7 should be VERY good, putting DC in the top quarter of the class or higher. However, DC tells me that her impression is that a significant number of kids claim to have 4.0 or close to 4.0 GPAs by this stage. Is this possible? Don't know what to make of it and the school clearly gives no guidance on class rank.

What is "a significant number"? 10, 20?

OP again. Sorry, should have been clearer. Significant: approximately 15 kids. Strikes me as a bit high, but no way to tell.

15 kids (12%) in a class have 4.0 or close to 4.0 GPAs? It does not seem any big3 privates would have that number of students with high GPAs. Any Sidwell teachers here?