Sidwell to increase tuition a WHOPPING 6.7%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder what it’s like to live your life having an unhinged and unhealthy grudge against a school you voluntarily pay for your children to attend?

If you don’t like tuition costs, diversity, or the curriculum did the read the website before you applied? Basic due diligence would have determined that Sidwell probably isn’t the school for you.

But it’s not the end of the world! Don’t fall for sunk cost fallacy. There tons of schools that you could potentially transfer your kid to that could be a better fit.

If you’re unhappy with your circumstances, you can change them and the added bonus is that I’m sure there’s a kid and a family that would be absolutely thrilled to take your place. Everyone wins.

Yes, this exactly. Threads like this baffle me. The increases aren’t “unconscionable.” The curriculum isn’t deteriorating.

But if you think it is, there are a lot (A LOT!) of other schools. Attending any one private school is not a requirement in your life. And that’s the beauty of being the “consumer” in this case. You can quite literally take your money elsewhere.

I’m the “unconscionable” poster. Those that say to ‘just find another school’ are offering a complete red herring. My kids are in MS/US and are flourishing. We love the school, think the teachers are fantastic and very much appreciate the community of parents. However, a tuition hike of this amount really is over the top, especially with a lack of information as to why the increase is so large. It’s not a little thing to pull your teenager out of an environment that is working for them to move school. The administration knows that the vast majority of parents won’t pull their kids, but will suck it up and pay the increase. That’s what makes me angry.

+1
The academics are not rigorous at all. Kids are mainly learning from khan academy so what justifies this high of an increase?

This is hilarious. If you believed this why are you wasting your money?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder what it’s like to live your life having an unhinged and unhealthy grudge against a school you voluntarily pay for your children to attend?

If you don’t like tuition costs, diversity, or the curriculum did the read the website before you applied? Basic due diligence would have determined that Sidwell probably isn’t the school for you.

But it’s not the end of the world! Don’t fall for sunk cost fallacy. There tons of schools that you could potentially transfer your kid to that could be a better fit.

If you’re unhappy with your circumstances, you can change them and the added bonus is that I’m sure there’s a kid and a family that would be absolutely thrilled to take your place. Everyone wins.

Yes, this exactly. Threads like this baffle me. The increases aren’t “unconscionable.” The curriculum isn’t deteriorating.

But if you think it is, there are a lot (A LOT!) of other schools. Attending any one private school is not a requirement in your life. And that’s the beauty of being the “consumer” in this case. You can quite literally take your money elsewhere.

I’m the “unconscionable” poster. Those that say to ‘just find another school’ are offering a complete red herring. My kids are in MS/US and are flourishing. We love the school, think the teachers are fantastic and very much appreciate the community of parents. However, a tuition hike of this amount really is over the top, especially with a lack of information as to why the increase is so large. It’s not a little thing to pull your teenager out of an environment that is working for them to move school. The administration knows that the vast majority of parents won’t pull their kids, but will suck it up and pay the increase. That’s what makes me angry.

+1
The academics are not rigorous at all. Kids are mainly learning from khan academy so what justifies this high of an increase?

Funny. Not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder what it’s like to live your life having an unhinged and unhealthy grudge against a school you voluntarily pay for your children to attend?

If you don’t like tuition costs, diversity, or the curriculum did the read the website before you applied? Basic due diligence would have determined that Sidwell probably isn’t the school for you.

But it’s not the end of the world! Don’t fall for sunk cost fallacy. There tons of schools that you could potentially transfer your kid to that could be a better fit.

If you’re unhappy with your circumstances, you can change them and the added bonus is that I’m sure there’s a kid and a family that would be absolutely thrilled to take your place. Everyone wins.

Yes, this exactly. Threads like this baffle me. The increases aren’t “unconscionable.” The curriculum isn’t deteriorating.

But if you think it is, there are a lot (A LOT!) of other schools. Attending any one private school is not a requirement in your life. And that’s the beauty of being the “consumer” in this case. You can quite literally take your money elsewhere.

I’m the “unconscionable” poster. Those that say to ‘just find another school’ are offering a complete red herring. My kids are in MS/US and are flourishing. We love the school, think the teachers are fantastic and very much appreciate the community of parents. However, a tuition hike of this amount really is over the top, especially with a lack of information as to why the increase is so large. It’s not a little thing to pull your teenager out of an environment that is working for them to move school. The administration knows that the vast majority of parents won’t pull their kids, but will suck it up and pay the increase. That’s what makes me angry.

I'm glad your kids are thriving - hopefully, that includes being taught a correct understanding of the term "red herring," and then they can explain it to you.

Suggesting that you leave isn't a misdirection, it is literally the only thing you can do to avoid the tuition increase. You can decide it's an unpalatable option, and it's best for your kids to stay. That's fine. But if you are paying for a service, and the price increases to what you think is an unreasonable level, you either find another srevice provider, no matter how much you like your current one, or suck it up.

Oh, and feel free to whine impotently on anonymous message boards. That's always an option. As an aside, why do you think thy owe you an explanation? When the price of your new Land Rover (I'm just guessing, but it's a pretty safe bet) goes up $5000, do you grill the dealership about the reasons?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yea, the PPP thing is confusing at best. I may be wrong about how it worked and how many restaurants took advantage of it. My bad. Still, I think it's lame to justify doing something assholic by saying "others did it too."

What's assholic is continuing to grouse about entities that availed themselves of PPP funds under a program passed by Congress without understanding either how the program works or what the money went to, and why. It didn't go to $5m of plexiglass. It went to ensure eligible businesses did not have to lay of employees who weren't needed as a result of Covid. Sidwell, like many businesses, has a number of people they could have layed off or furloughed as unneeded (think cleaning crews, kitchen, etc.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The development office has quickly become huge under the new advancement head. And check out the job listings where they are looking for 5 more hires to start immediately.

They make more money for the school than they spend on the salaries. And they are replacing attrition, not expanding the staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't know how many Sidwell parents on this forum have or know senior students. Class of 2022 is one of the strongest but ED/EA results seem very poor this year. Most of us send our kids to SFS for quality education. Sooner or later your kids will be a senior. Parents should express our real concern and interests while paying increasing tuitions.

Isn't SFS the only private school with 10 national merit semifinalists or something like that?

But most NMSFs didn't get in EA/ED. LOL. Sidwell CCO is really subpar.

+1 (class of ‘22 parent here)

+2. Were apparently advising some seniors in mid-Jan to apply to more "safety" schools - mind you after the Jan. 1 deadline for many schools, and right up against the later deadlines of Jan. 15 for some schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't know how many Sidwell parents on this forum have or know senior students. Class of 2022 is one of the strongest but ED/EA results seem very poor this year. Most of us send our kids to SFS for quality education. Sooner or later your kids will be a senior. Parents should express our real concern and interests while paying increasing tuitions.

I don't see where the current senior class is having a poor year with colleges. Something like 25-30% got into their ED's. A bunch of kids have had positive results on EA's and ED2's are coming out over the next few weeks. It is pretty much on par with peer schools and previous years results.

-parent of a senior

But not for ordinary students especially EA/ED top 20/LAC

What is the admit rate so far for SFS seniors? What is the admit rate nationally for these schools? Compare the two numbers and you wlil see how well the current senior class is doing. Do you really expect most of the grade to have been admitted ED? It doesn't work like that.

+1 People are acting like not getting in ED is some mark of failure, but that was never intended to be used for most students -- so people are surprised with tens of thousands of students get deferred to RD where they should have applied in the first place.

Many SFS seniors got rejected (not deferred) from their ED school.

and?

Life happens. Do you expect that all seniors from one particular school will have 100% acceptances or deferrals in an environment that under 5% admissions is the norm?

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

Also learning specialist.

[/quote]

LOL, having learning specialists on staff means not having to pay even more for outside intervention if your kid is dyslexic of has ADHD or suffers from anxiety. If your kid doesn't need those services, then consider yourself lucky.[/quote]

Unfortunately I do have. However the school one is not very competent.

[Anonymous]

Wonder if this increase will bump more families to qualify for financial aid … or is financial aid also tied to an increase in annual HHI??

[Anonymous]

That is a different issue than eliminating the position.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The development office has quickly become huge under the new advancement head. And check out the job listings where they are looking for 5 more hires to start immediately.

They make more money for the school than they spend on the salaries. And they are replacing attrition, not expanding the staff.

Making more money for the school than their salaries is not the question. That’s a basic principle of independent school advancement, and it would be a serious problem if that was not the case.

The question is whether the development office is needlessly bloated, which it is. Also, they are absolutely expanding the staff, as confirmed to me by someone in the office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The development office has quickly become huge under the new advancement head. And check out the job listings where they are looking for 5 more hires to start immediately.

They make more money for the school than they spend on the salaries. And they are replacing attrition, not expanding the staff.

Making more money for the school than their salaries is not the question. That’s a basic principle of independent school advancement, and it would be a serious problem if that was not the case.

The question is whether the development office is needlessly bloated, which it is. Also, they are absolutely expanding the staff, as confirmed to me by someone in the office.

Is this to ramp up for a capital campaign, to fund the new building project? Just curious as to why all of this development is needed suddenly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't know how many Sidwell parents on this forum have or know senior students. Class of 2022 is one of the strongest but ED/EA results seem very poor this year. Most of us send our kids to SFS for quality education. Sooner or later your kids will be a senior. Parents should express our real concern and interests while paying increasing tuitions.

Isn't SFS the only private school with 10 national merit semifinalists or something like that?

But most NMSFs didn't get in EA/ED. LOL. Sidwell CCO is really subpar.

+1 (class of ‘22 parent here)

+2. Were apparently advising some seniors in mid-Jan to apply to more "safety" schools - mind you after the Jan. 1 deadline for many schools, and right up against the later deadlines of Jan. 15 for some schools.

+3 Try to schedule an appointment to check the Naviance Data and finalized the RD list prior to the winter break after knowing the ED result, but we were told her schedule was fully booked. COO was closed except for checking the emails.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The development office has quickly become huge under the new advancement head. And check out the job listings where they are looking for 5 more hires to start immediately.

They make more money for the school than they spend on the salaries. And they are replacing attrition, not expanding the staff.

Making more money for the school than their salaries is not the question. That’s a basic principle of independent school advancement, and it would be a serious problem if that was not the case.

The question is whether the development office is needlessly bloated, which it is. Also, they are absolutely expanding the staff, as confirmed to me by someone in the office.

Is this to ramp up for a capital campaign, to fund the new building project? Just curious as to why all of this development is needed suddenly.

If you look at the positions in the office and the open job listings, it goes beyond that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't know how many Sidwell parents on this forum have or know senior students. Class of 2022 is one of the strongest but ED/EA results seem very poor this year. Most of us send our kids to SFS for quality education. Sooner or later your kids will be a senior. Parents should express our real concern and interests while paying increasing tuitions.

Isn't SFS the only private school with 10 national merit semifinalists or something like that?

But most NMSFs didn't get in EA/ED. LOL. Sidwell CCO is really subpar.

+1 (class of ‘22 parent here)

+2. Were apparently advising some seniors in mid-Jan to apply to more "safety" schools - mind you after the Jan. 1 deadline for many schools, and right up against the later deadlines of Jan. 15 for some schools.

+3 Try to schedule an appointment to check the Naviance Data and finalized the RD list prior to the winter break after knowing the ED result, but we were told her schedule was fully booked. COO was closed except for checking the emails.

Indefensible. I hope you raised a storm. And good luck to your DC on RD decisions.