GDS and Sidwell comparison?
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Anonymous
They talk to the regional reps who are responsible for communicating with the high schools in their region and who want access to recruit the best kids they can for their college. It's a two-way street. |
Anonymous
| No, you’re missing the point. Because the non-existent hypothetical kid that you pulled out of the air would get accepted pretty much everywhere, regardless of legacies and other hooks who might also be applying. And there are people reading this thread who might know nothing about Sidwell and reasonably infer from your hypo that 1) such kids come around regularly and 2) they still fare poorly in admissions if they aren’t hooked. Neither inference would be correct. |
Anonymous
Yeah, I don’t like mothers who arrogantly claim to know everything about a group of 120 kids and ignorantly proclaim some of them as “the best.” I try to be a bit more humble than that and embrace the SPICES. Some chip... |
Anonymous
I'm the parent who isn't upset by the ED/EA outcomes people are claiming to top math/science kids had this year. But as a parent whose child will go through this in the future and whose child (and family) is not Ivy or bust focused (so far, child may not want to apply to any Ivies).... I definitely would appreciate it if during admissions a counselor tipped us off that based on what they were observing. I'm all for letting family/child determine their own choice (and risk) ultimately but it is definitely useful information to hear " I see your top ED choice is to X and that might be a big challenge, but I see you also really like Y and your ED chances may be better there". This is valuable....assuming, of course. that as the counselors still genuinely put same effort into each child's ultimate choice and are not playing favorites or trying to block students from competing when they genuinely want to take a shot. |
Anonymous
| What happened before 2020 is very different than what is happening now with respect to college admissions (which is all very different than the 1980's and 1990's when most people reading this went through the process) - as such, the current college guidance staffs are all adjusting themselves to this new paradigm. |
Anonymous
My DCs do not attend Sidwell, but attended another Big 3 before relocating to another metro area. Am guessing the rules are pretty much the same: no direct posting on social media though no prohibition on listing college followed by new graduation year as kids now trying to connect with kids at their new school. Some students circumvent the first one by having their friends post for them. Our DCs' school also prohibits wearing college shirt at school until the beginning of May when nearly everyone has made a decision, though some still holding on for WLs, etc. Guessing they also make it clear that they frown on "accidental" posts - two months past ED and they "just forgot" that they had their college shirt on. FWIW, our DCs pretty much volunteer about what is going with their peer group and class. It's kinda the number one thing on their mind: even if they have gotten in, some of their friends haven't and they seem to feel that just as acutely. |
Anonymous
So true! Folks come on here with their X, Y, and Z and a couple pages later they reveal their kids graduated college in the mid aughts. The admissions world for my nieces and nephews before 2020 is just not the same as for my DCs and younger nieces and nephews now. Everyone is trying to figure it out. |
Anonymous
Step back - I'm not saying they are the best of the school - there are clearly many dimensions colleges are looking for and Sidwell does the same in it's admissions. What I'm saying these are the academic high-fliers at the school whose goal will more likely to be to get into one of the Uber competitive schools. There are other Sidwell kids who have this goal too but the % of these top math/top science track kids with this goal is likely higher than the % who have this goal among other kids at Sidwell. I suspect other students at Sidwell (not all) may have a more broad approach to admissions - and while they could also be Ivy material - they are happy to choose an SLAC instead. Therefore if these top math/science track kids are predominantly applying Restricted Early to one of the HYPSM schools, there's a much higher chance that these kids are shut out in the ED cycle than other kids at Sidwell. That's it. No judging them to be better....but given their choice in courses and getting high grades across all disciplines, they are the top academic kids in the school. But that won't guarantee them Dec admission to HYPSM or other uber competitive programs. |
Anonymous
But you keep referring to them as the top academic kids in the school. You have no way to know about that, and I think you're both wrong and exceedingly arrogant to say that. |
Anonymous
Are you dense? The top math/science kids know who the top math/science kids are because they've been in small classes with them since 9th grade. Let's say the highest math level is honors algebra 2 in 9th grade. At my kid's school this is a cohort of 10 kids. They will go on to take honors pre-calc together in 10th grade. It's not like there is a stealth 9th grader who is taking honors algebra 2 in his own private section in 9th grade an no-one knows about him. |
Anonymous
Yes, absolutely! My kid is a Sidwell senior who did get accepted ED. My kid was wrestling between 2 schools to apply ED. Counseling office provided no advice or feedback about that choice and the two schools under consideration, which we would have appreciated greatly. Just to be clear, this type of advice and counseling does occur at some schools. It just doesn't happen at Sidwell. At Sidwell they don't advise or counsel, they approve lists and try to make sure that all the recs and forms are submitted on time. In contrast, here's a recent account from a parent on the college board (3.7 student at St. Albans thread) about the type of advice they got from their counselor (not a DC area independent):
Our kid really won the lottery when getting assigned this advisor, though I am not sure all parents want that kind of candid advice. Our three conversations with the counselor - one more than the customary two - were always frank and substantive. He tells the parents that the kids drive the process and he is there to provide guidance and feedback. If a DC decides to roll the dice for a high reach, he works to make it the best possible dice the kid can roll based on their stats, etc. |
Anonymous
No. But are you dense? The top math and science kids are not necessarily the top academic kids in the school. You are committing numerous logical fallacies to assert otherwise. |
Anonymous
As someone with a high-stats/topmathtrack/unhooked kid who will be facing this soon, this is precisely what I want. One would assume that it is in the school's and the counselors' interest to place as many students as highly as possible; what might be affected by the various hooks and ladders people bring to the process is which schools a kid like mine would have the best shot at. "Penn is going to be hard to ED this year, maybe place your bet on X or Y" and so on is all one can ask for. I mean, what benefit would they derive from not passing that info along? My assumption is that the parents are likely to be the stubborn ones in these scenarios, insisting on EDing a particular school despite the odds being clearly laid out by a counselor? |
Anonymous
Parent of a Sidwell senior here. I agree you should want that kind of advice and feedback, but sadly you aren't going to get it at Sidwell. I don't think they view it as part of their job description and they are never going to handicap a kid's chances at a reach school. Especially when they are still relatively new and inexperienced in their jobs at Sidwell. They are really just pushing paper and watching their backs by making sure kids apply to enough safeties. |
Anonymous
Because no college guidance counselor is going to know what school is going to be tough in any given year. Add to it, for the types of schools discussed on DCUM, ALL of the schools are tough EVERY year. So you take your best shot and let the dust falls where it does,. |