Does sidwell have class rank? Letter grades?

[Anonymous]

How does naviance fit in? Doesn’t that program take one’s grades and spit out a gpa for the colleges plus has all the other past and current student grades and profiles?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It has class rank when a top college calls the school and asks which kid is better, yeah.

And it has class rank when it tells the top 10 students to only apply to 3 colleges and they’ll go to bat for you. First they’ll guid you to where they can go to bat for you (ie higher rank or big donor kid not wanting same school or major).

This is contradictory to everything we know about and/or have experienced with CCO at Sidwell.

NP -- This absolutely happens, but everything is very subtle. It's like a code. Kind of cringy actually.

We would never presume our child is in "top 10" (whatever that means) but our DC has a very high GPA/test scores and is in hardest classes and was NEVER told to apply to "just 3 schools and we'll go to bat for you".

Same here, and I’ve never heard of anything like this happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does naviance fit in? Doesn’t that program take one’s grades and spit out a gpa for the colleges plus has all the other past and current student grades and profiles?

Do colleges even have access to a specific school's Naviance?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does naviance fit in? Doesn’t that program take one’s grades and spit out a gpa for the colleges plus has all the other past and current student grades and profiles?

With Naviance, the school inputs the student's GPA and standardized test scores and that yields a place in a scattergram from which previous years of applicants are included with their outcomes, so the student can see where they fall in relation to historical numbers and outcomes.

With COVID and test optional, the usefulness of this tool are greatly undermined.

[Anonymous]

Can a Sidwell kid decide to be test optional or is it frowned upon?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can a Sidwell kid decide to be test optional or is it frowned upon?

Of course they can choose to apply test optional. CCO would advise based on the child and the school's they wish to apply to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does naviance fit in? Doesn’t that program take one’s grades and spit out a gpa for the colleges plus has all the other past and current student grades and profiles?

With Naviance, the school inputs the student's GPA and standardized test scores and that yields a place in a scattergram from which previous years of applicants are included with their outcomes, so the student can see where they fall in relation to historical numbers and outcomes.

With COVID and test optional, the usefulness of this tool are greatly undermined.

Don’t colleges subscribe to it as well, and keep track of all XYZ high school students grades and accomplishments. If they see poor college gpa, changing majors, or stellar grades, recruiting, and reputation of Hs alums they’ll act accordingly for current applicants. Naviance works both ways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can a Sidwell kid decide to be test optional or is it frowned upon?

Of course they can choose to apply test optional. CCO would advise based on the child and the school's they wish to apply to.

No one knows what to advise in this no new metrics environment. That’s why it was a crapshoot dumpster fire last year and this year even more so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can a Sidwell kid decide to be test optional or is it frowned upon?

Absolutely. My child submitted test scores to some schools and not others - i.e, the advice is so long as your scores are above the 25% band for acceptance at the school go ahead, but it's up to each student.

Basically if it will be likely to impress the school or confirm your grades are legit you submit. If it would hurt you you don't submit.

Obviously over time this is going to make the 25-75% range reported by colleges meaningless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can a Sidwell kid decide to be test optional or is it frowned upon?

Of course they can choose to apply test optional. CCO would advise based on the child and the school's they wish to apply to.

The attitude I don't like (my kid is not quite there yet but they've been working to get people used to this idea for years already) is that you have to surrender the process to the college counseling people, and follow their advice about where to apply, because when they write you a recommendation they they consider the fit of the school, and so they're not necessarily sending the same recommendation to each place you apply. Which to me sounds like a threat to torpedo your kid's application if it's not something they approve of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can a Sidwell kid decide to be test optional or is it frowned upon?

Absolutely. My child submitted test scores to some schools and not others - i.e, the advice is so long as your scores are above the 25% band for acceptance at the school go ahead, but it's up to each student.

Basically if it will be likely to impress the school or confirm your grades are legit you submit. If it would hurt you you don't submit.

Obviously over time this is going to make the 25-75% range reported by colleges meaningless.

This was a helpful post, thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can a Sidwell kid decide to be test optional or is it frowned upon?

Frowned upon? What an odd term. Why would the school care?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can a Sidwell kid decide to be test optional or is it frowned upon?

Of course they can choose to apply test optional. CCO would advise based on the child and the school's they wish to apply to.

The attitude I don't like (my kid is not quite there yet but they've been working to get people used to this idea for years already) is that you have to surrender the process to the college counseling people, and follow their advice about where to apply, because when they write you a recommendation they they consider the fit of the school, and so they're not necessarily sending the same recommendation to each place you apply. Which to me sounds like a threat to torpedo your kid's application if it's not something they approve of.

My DC is a current senior at Sidwell so we have just completed the college process and unless I am misunderstanding you, this is not how the process works. The CCO does not tell your DC where to apply. They do want your DC to chose a minimum number of schools in the "reach", "target" and "likely" categories and they determine which schools fit in which categories. As far as I can tell, the categories are determined by acceptance rates not by your DCs individual profile, though I could be wrong. However, they do not tell your DC where to apply. In our experience they give your DC very little strategic advise about how to chose where to apply.

I agree that they sincerely and earnestly and repetitively insist that you surrender to their process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can a Sidwell kid decide to be test optional or is it frowned upon?

Of course they can choose to apply test optional. CCO would advise based on the child and the school's they wish to apply to.

The attitude I don't like (my kid is not quite there yet but they've been working to get people used to this idea for years already) is that you have to surrender the process to the college counseling people, and follow their advice about where to apply, because when they write you a recommendation they they consider the fit of the school, and so they're not necessarily sending the same recommendation to each place you apply. Which to me sounds like a threat to torpedo your kid's application if it's not something they approve of.

My DC is a current senior at Sidwell so we have just completed the college process and unless I am misunderstanding you, this is not how the process works. The CCO does not tell your DC where to apply. They do want your DC to chose a minimum number of schools in the "reach", "target" and "likely" categories and they determine which schools fit in which categories. As far as I can tell, the categories are determined by acceptance rates not by your DCs individual profile, though I could be wrong. However, they do not tell your DC where to apply. In our experience they give your DC very little strategic advise about how to chose where to apply.

I agree that they sincerely and earnestly and repetitively insist that you surrender to their process.

I generally agree with this.

The CCO's job is to make sure that the applicant is happy with their choices, regardless of whether they are reaches, targets or safeties. Their job is also to make sure that there are enough safeties that no one is scrambling in April to find a landing spot.