Compared Against Peers - T20 Admissions
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Anonymous
We are at Potomac and have been told they do not broker well unless you are a VIP |
Anonymous
My guess is that a lot of this relates to yield. If you’re applying ED, I don’t think public vs private has as much of a preference. Though I know some of those private school relationships still matter. I think the large publics probably often get better yield from public high schools whereas private colleges may be more likely to lose public school kids to lower cost publics. Brokering might also establish a likely yield for a private school kid. This is all, of course, speaking in gross generalities. |
Anonymous
Brokering from the private high schools helps these schools with (1) yield and (2) sussing out viable new parent donors who might not rise to the 7 figure level but would easily give the school an extra $50k a year (w/10 yr pledges) - as these parents simply replace the giving that they give to private schools with the new universities. There’s a lot more that goes into this than just stats. And it doesn’t have to be some VIP /celeb level family either. Largest source of new giving money for all of these universities is not the “big”donations- but it’s from the upper class working families (big law; doctors; business owners). That’s the holy grail. I know firsthand that this definitely makes a difference at schools like Vanderbilt, Wash U, USC and even Duke. |
Anonymous
I am not seeing this at our private. Admits to Duke, Vanderbilt, Wash U, etc (among the unhooked) completely follow the GPAs. |
Anonymous
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Maybe the NYC privates and boarding schools have pull with admissions but the DC privates have very little with the top universities.
For our Big3 school the "line in the sand" for Duke is about a 3.9. I know several kids with a 3.8, legacy parents who were TOP donors at the high school who did not get into Duke over the past 2 years. It's not something the high school can push through. |
Anonymous
There are different lines in the sand because top universities recalculate GPA. This means a 3.9 isn’t really a 3.9 if there is not advanced classes. This is becoming a huge issue for top students who took hard classes and didn’t realize they were better situated and for those with 4.0 who really were not looked at favorable to colleges as they didn’t have enough advanced classes. It may be better to have to pay for private counselor to understand all this stuff. It is complicated. |
Anonymous
At my kids' school most of the top kids have taken difficult classes. Maybe not to a person but there is a strong correlation between top GPAs and top classes. These schools (the Big3) are almost 3 schools in one: the superstars, the hard worker/strong students who aren't superstars and the laggers/slackers. The superstars who have GPAs above 3.85 or so (many above 3.9) generally take hard classes. The same thing that motivates a kid to do well all the hard general classes motivates them to take challenging electives. Again, not to a person but in general. I've seen all the admissions data for our school and the acceptances really mirror GPA and unfortunately, most of the top 20 universities don't take kids below a 3.80 or even 3.9 (and some of us didn't even know there was a cohort of kids at our school that had grades that high...lol). But they exist and they do well with admissions. Legacy will get a dip down maybe 0.1 or 0.2 from the non-legacy kids. But it's nothing like Duke taking a 3.5 instead of a 3.9. |
Anonymous
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Basically the moral of the story is... it's hard out there. And you better get a 3.9+, even at Sidwell or GDS or NCS if you want a chance at a very top school.
Unless you're an athlete. They're on their own curve entirely. |
Anonymous
This is not the case with our school. For example the hard classes are not even close to entry classes and the hard class teachers tend to give more A- so you are already at a 3.7 and the math and science also hard so again many A- and even Bs. Then you have kids with straight As who only take maybe a hard history or English -and one at a time so they can say they have taken a harder class junior year. It is difficult reading the data because you tend to see a lower GPA for tougher schools so you imagine that those are the kids who took harder classes. Most top universities figure this out. You hope that your school also articulated this to those schools. This is why when someone says their child has a 4.0 I usually guess they didn’t take hard classes which my kid the. usually confirms. Very Very fee with a 4.0 in all honors. The world of the hard class kids who take everything hard is actually very very small. |
Anonymous
Agree w/this. It sux. |
Anonymous
| So if your kid takes everything hard, most rigorous across all subjects and gets straight As in private, is that really a big advantage? |
Anonymous
Many above a 3.9? Aren’t you the same crowd whining about grade deflation in private schools? Looks pretty inflated to me. |
Anonymous
The thing with privates is there is so much variability. I have two kids at top 20 non-Ivy universities. They both went to public. They both took a lot of AP classes. They were both in the highest math classes - Calculus BC and multivariable. I think they had maybe four Bs between them over four years. They both had GPAs around 4.7. And test scores above 1500/35. Both applied ED to their selective schools and got in. All that is pretty standardized. You can compare a Maryland public student to a California public student. Privates increasingly don't do AP. And many don't offer the higher math classes. So an admissions officer really needs to be familiar with the particular private. I know the big 3 are a big deal around here. But nationally they are not. They are not the NY privates. They are not the boarding schools. So someone getting a 3.8 at a big 3, which I'm sure is outstanding, is competing against public students that are rolling with a 4.6 or higher. And generally higher level STEM classes, which the good publics do. Also, since they offer so much more, it's easier for public students to build an EC portfolio - whether its sports or clubs or the newspaper or student government. If you're hooked, it's probably still better to go to private. For unhooked in the DC area, I really don't see the benefit when it comes to colleges admissions to elite schools. |
Anonymous
Hahahahaha. That post is chock full o' ignorant assumptions. Good thing you have the means to buy your kid a decent education. |
Anonymous
DP. Actually Yale admissions used both acronyms to refer to their early admissions on their podcast recently. |