Why does Brown Admissions like GDS so much more than Sidwell?

[Anonymous]

Likely a better cultural fit overall.

That said, Sidwell needs a heart to heart with Brown. That 16:0 ED admit needs to be addressed both internally and externally, and I say this as a public school parent. If Brown does not come to the table, Sidwell may consider discouraging ED applications there, which may already naturally happen in the future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Likely a better cultural fit overall.

That said, Sidwell needs a heart to heart with Brown. That 16:0 ED admit needs to be addressed both internally and externally, and I say this as a public school parent. If Brown does not come to the table, Sidwell may consider discouraging ED applications there, which may already naturally happen in the future.

I am sure Brown is quaking in its Birkenstocks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GDS did really, really well this year. Maybe because they have less grade deflation and also because their kids are more likely to be involved in social justice extracurriculars which are en vogue with colleges.
I have a kid at STA and the admits across the board are not half as good at GDS OR Sidwell. The student/athelete prep boy persona did not seem to go over well this year.

Have a younger STA kid and am curious - did the kids do poorly across the board? Heard of some pretty good admits but maybe those were recruited athletes? Did the really academic boys do poorly? Such a bummer for how much they work.

Why would you believe a random anonymous poster on the Internet over what you are hearing yourself?

I have heard of great outcomes for athletes and the class President but haven’t heard much about academic kids who were not athletes so that is why I asked.

[Anonymous]

^STA had a lot of success in admissions this year - CCO even noted it in recent meeting. Definitely not just athletes who are happy with options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GDS did really, really well this year. Maybe because they have less grade deflation and also because their kids are more likely to be involved in social justice extracurriculars which are en vogue with colleges.
I have a kid at STA and the admits across the board are not half as good at GDS OR Sidwell. The student/athelete prep boy persona did not seem to go over well this year.

Have a younger STA kid and am curious - did the kids do poorly across the board? Heard of some pretty good admits but maybe those were recruited athletes? Did the really academic boys do poorly? Such a bummer for how much they work.

Why would you believe a random anonymous poster on the Internet over what you are hearing yourself?

I have heard of great outcomes for athletes and the class President but haven’t heard much about academic kids who were not athletes so that is why I asked.

The class president is going to Harvard and there are some athletes going to Ivys but that is about it. Ivy admission isn't the end-all, be-all by any means but it's sort of symbolic of the strength of an admissions year at these schools. GDS and Sidwell have double digit (20+?) non-athlete Ivy admits. STA has maybe 5?
Without a public instagram you hear about the Harvard admit but you don't hear about the large group of other kids who are going to places like Clemson, Syracuse, SMU, Richmond. All perfectly fine schools but the list (from what I know) isn't anywhere in the same league this year as GDS or Sidwell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^STA had a lot of success in admissions this year - CCO even noted it in recent meeting. Definitely not just athletes who are happy with options.

Of course the CCO is going to put a positive spin on things. I mean, they have to be positive each and every year. Can you imagine the fall-out if they (or any CCO office) came out and said "hey, guys, really rough year this year".
They'd be setting themselves up to be tortured by the rising junior parents.
No, their whole job is creating positive spin: to kids who have committed to schools, to kids who will be going through this process next year, etc. It's as much a PR job as it is a counseling job.
I don't know if STA admissions were great or mediocre but I don't think you can trust the yearly review of any CCO. They are going to be positive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GDS did really, really well this year. Maybe because they have less grade deflation and also because their kids are more likely to be involved in social justice extracurriculars which are en vogue with colleges.
I have a kid at STA and the admits across the board are not half as good at GDS OR Sidwell. The student/athelete prep boy persona did not seem to go over well this year.

Have a younger STA kid and am curious - did the kids do poorly across the board? Heard of some pretty good admits but maybe those were recruited athletes? Did the really academic boys do poorly? Such a bummer for how much they work.

Why would you believe a random anonymous poster on the Internet over what you are hearing yourself?

I have heard of great outcomes for athletes and the class President but haven’t heard much about academic kids who were not athletes so that is why I asked.

The class president is going to Harvard and there are some athletes going to Ivys but that is about it. Ivy admission isn't the end-all, be-all by any means but it's sort of symbolic of the strength of an admissions year at these schools. GDS and Sidwell have double digit (20+?) non-athlete Ivy admits. STA has maybe 5?
Without a public instagram you hear about the Harvard admit but you don't hear about the large group of other kids who are going to places like Clemson, Syracuse, SMU, Richmond. All perfectly fine schools but the list (from what I know) isn't anywhere in the same league this year as GDS or Sidwell.

STA parents interested in this should just wait until the bulletin comes out over the summer that lists matriculations. No sense getting anxious because of one poster with sketchy information. See the list, decide for yourself whether you think it's good or not.

[Anonymous]

The decline of ETA is inevitable whether it has occurred this year on not.

The acceptance of the weak pool of students coming from the Beauvoir feeder guarantee mediocre college results on the other end.

Fix Beauvoir admissions and over time you will fix STA college results.

[Anonymous]

Apple turned STA into ETA above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The decline of ETA is inevitable whether it has occurred this year on not.

The acceptance of the weak pool of students coming from the Beauvoir feeder guarantee mediocre college results on the other end.

Fix Beauvoir admissions and over time you will fix STA college results.

you can apply that 'logic' equally to GDS, Sidwell or another K12 school. Of course, we can overlook the fact that Beauvoir kids usually no more than 30% of a graduating class and that a number of Beauvoir kids typically do very, very well in college admissions. So exactly what would you want to fix? You think throwing open admissions in 4th grade really will make a difference 8 years later?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GDS did really, really well this year. Maybe because they have less grade deflation and also because their kids are more likely to be involved in social justice extracurriculars which are en vogue with colleges.
I have a kid at STA and the admits across the board are not half as good at GDS OR Sidwell. The student/athelete prep boy persona did not seem to go over well this year.

Have a younger STA kid and am curious - did the kids do poorly across the board? Heard of some pretty good admits but maybe those were recruited athletes? Did the really academic boys do poorly? Such a bummer for how much they work.

Why would you believe a random anonymous poster on the Internet over what you are hearing yourself?

I have heard of great outcomes for athletes and the class President but haven’t heard much about academic kids who were not athletes so that is why I asked.

The class president is going to Harvard and there are some athletes going to Ivys but that is about it. Ivy admission isn't the end-all, be-all by any means but it's sort of symbolic of the strength of an admissions year at these schools. GDS and Sidwell have double digit (20+?) non-athlete Ivy admits. STA has maybe 5?
Without a public instagram you hear about the Harvard admit but you don't hear about the large group of other kids who are going to places like Clemson, Syracuse, SMU, Richmond. All perfectly fine schools but the list (from what I know) isn't anywhere in the same league this year as GDS or Sidwell.

STA parents interested in this should just wait until the bulletin comes out over the summer that lists matriculations. No sense getting anxious because of one poster with sketchy information. See the list, decide for yourself whether you think it's good or not.

It's not sketchy information. It's information. I get that it's not information that you want to hear.
You want information? Talk to some senior parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GDS did really, really well this year. Maybe because they have less grade deflation and also because their kids are more likely to be involved in social justice extracurriculars which are en vogue with colleges.
I have a kid at STA and the admits across the board are not half as good at GDS OR Sidwell. The student/athelete prep boy persona did not seem to go over well this year.

Have a younger STA kid and am curious - did the kids do poorly across the board? Heard of some pretty good admits but maybe those were recruited athletes? Did the really academic boys do poorly? Such a bummer for how much they work.

Why would you believe a random anonymous poster on the Internet over what you are hearing yourself?

I have heard of great outcomes for athletes and the class President but haven’t heard much about academic kids who were not athletes so that is why I asked.

The class president is going to Harvard and there are some athletes going to Ivys but that is about it. Ivy admission isn't the end-all, be-all by any means but it's sort of symbolic of the strength of an admissions year at these schools. GDS and Sidwell have double digit (20+?) non-athlete Ivy admits. STA has maybe 5?
Without a public instagram you hear about the Harvard admit but you don't hear about the large group of other kids who are going to places like Clemson, Syracuse, SMU, Richmond. All perfectly fine schools but the list (from what I know) isn't anywhere in the same league this year as GDS or Sidwell.

STA parents interested in this should just wait until the bulletin comes out over the summer that lists matriculations. No sense getting anxious because of one poster with sketchy information. See the list, decide for yourself whether you think it's good or not.

It's not sketchy information. It's information. I get that it's not information that you want to hear.
You want information? Talk to some senior parents.

what makes you think I haven't?

[Anonymous]

You can't really judge based on one year. The numbers are just too small to effectively gauge long-term trends. That, plus the lingering effects of the first year of the pandemic mean that it's difficult to predict how next year's class will fare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Likely a better cultural fit overall.

That said, Sidwell needs a heart to heart with Brown. That 16:0 ED admit needs to be addressed both internally and externally, and I say this as a public school parent. If Brown does not come to the table, Sidwell may consider discouraging ED applications there, which may already naturally happen in the future.

I am sure Brown is quaking in its Birkenstocks.

When I went to Brown in 1980, they had 20K apps for 4K acceptances to get about 1300 enrolled in the freshman class. Now they get 36K apps for the same number of places (the campus has no room to grow).

No, they won't be concerned if one school starts to talk them down. It's like DCUM parents who think they have leverage over the local top privates. Not when those schools get 5-10 apps for every available space.

[Anonymous]

Yay pass/fail and make-your-own-major school.