do college admissions get ugly at the Big3 when all the parents are Ivy grads?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe its because only a few years ago the mother of a Sidwell SR called the Admissions office of an IVY to inform on/defame a kid who's application to that Ivy she considered a threat to her snowflakes chances of Admission

Don’t forget the death threat parent. They ran that poor Director out. Nice guy, he didn’t deserve all that.

What Death Threats ?

I know the former CCO @ Sidwell wrote an Op-ED in WAPO about why he was leaving for ? Gonzaga, but I thought it was over the parent who defamed the student to an Ivy. I didn't that they had also received death threats

I take it the offender was not one of the few actual Quaker families in the school

That's NW DC for ya' where 2 inches of snow and we close the schools, but " deny my child access to an Ivy " results in Death Threats

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

nope. sidwell parent here and no idea where to find this information. it would be interesting to see a list. so if you can tell us where to find it, that would be great.

Sidwell CCO tracks this and sends 5-year info to schools students apply to. But they don't share it with parents.

Not Quakerly? How do parents put up with this crap?

The school is small enough that you can track who went to what school and see their Naviance information by cross listing yourself. As such, to protect privacy, the school doesn't share the comprehensive lists by grade. However, each class posts informal lists, and this happens at most schools. That is where the previous information came from.

It's crazy that Sidwell doesn't publish a college destination list each year. No justification for not doing it.

Why? The publish a 4 year list. If you track it each year, you can figure it out. Why do you care where someone you don't know is going to college? That is weird.

Because a school should celebrate its graduates. Sidwell celebrates its student-athletes and provides information about where they are going to college. It's in the magazine (leaving aside the social media coverage). Why not celebrate the entire class in the magazine?

Also, I don't know why you assume that I don't know the graduates, but sophomores and juniors who actually do know these kids shouldn't need to piece together where their peer leaders and older friends are going to college from word of mouth or following Instagram accounts.

If you know them that well, then you will know where they are going to school. Your kid probably is connected via Instagram, ask them.

Honestly, you're just making up excuses and justifications. The school should celebrate its graduates. Period.

They do. It's called graduation. The seniors also have a "shirt day" and generally post on social media where they are going.

You do realize that it is standard at pretty much every other independent school in the country to publish a list within the school, right? Why do you think they shouldn't publish a list?

[Anonymous]

They have your Money already, PP...it's too late to negotiate

Plus, if the Death Threats are true.... it seems its a security issue and has cost them some valued employees in the past

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

What Death Threats ?

I know the former CCO @ Sidwell wrote an Op-ED in WAPO about why he was leaving for ? Gonzaga, but I thought it was over the parent who defamed the student to an Ivy. I didn't that they had also received death threats

I take it the offender was not one of the few actual Quaker families in the school

That's NW DC for ya' where 2 inches of snow and we close the schools, but " deny my child access to an Ivy " results in Death Threats

The Director complained about "verbal assaults" on Sidwell's counselors.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/06/sidwell-friends-college-admissions-varsity-blues/591124/

Whether or not the assaults reached the level of "death threats," I have no idea...

[Anonymous]

There were no death threats. Sheesh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. Legacy preference is going the way of the dodo. Kids will have to compete on merit.
2. But, life isn’t fair, and most of the Ivy parents take parenting just as seriously as they did their SATs, so a lot of their kids are going to be competitive, even without legacy preference.
3. Can’t we all just collectively NOT CARE about who gets in where anymore?

On the UP side OP, if you somehow made it in Washington well enough to afford to pay $ 450,000 K for your kid's grade 4-12 education and you DIDN'T go to an IVY nor did your spouse AND your kid is smart enough to be accepted to a Big 3, they are likely pretty well set on their own ability and merit.

Right ?

This. One would think that would be enough. But that's non-Ivy, UMC thinking, or so I have been informed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My point is that ALL of these schools have a budget each year and the whole ED thing is their way of locking in 2 key pillars of their Budget:

1) How many Full Pay applicants are applying ED that they can count on to enroll helps them with # 2

2) How many highly qualified and truly talented kids can they admit - irregardless of their ability to pay

The yield on the former determines the schools ability to live up to the latter.

URM target numbers may be separate or cross in a Ven diagram of one or the other ( wealthy URM who may be an alum/ full pay OR low income URM - both check the box just the same )

So, take that number of spots off the table right away. If your kid then forgoes applying ED anywhere to " just go for it and let the chips fall" - then your kid is NOT in any schools first round of numbers crunching.... and they get what's left, both in terms of Offer of Admission AND FA

So, from my perspective, if these schools didn't cost 80K a year then the financial pressure that pushes them to have this ED cycle every year would not exist and then , yes, just really amazing kids could all apply for Admission at same time- need blind- and " let the chips fall"

Instead, with ED- try that and your kid might just get shut out

That's the one area where going to a public school helps. Your kid can apply ED and if they don't like the aid offer keep on applying elsewhere. Public schools aren't going to care or do anything to stop them, but a big 3 certainly would.

Amazing that you tried to spin “rich families have a leg up through the ED admissions process” into “poor families have a leg up because they need financial aid.”

Yes, it’s true that if you need FA and the school doesn’t come through with enough, that’s the only way you can turn down an ED admissions offer. But you still can’t apply ED to multiple colleges at once. So then you’re back in the general admissions pool and a lot of the FA has been given away at the other schools—a losing strategy if ever there was one.

Bottom line: there’s a reason private schools send a disproportionate number of kids to Ivies—they can apply as full pay ED and they have a proven track record of forking out for $50k tuition bills every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What Death Threats ?

I know the former CCO @ Sidwell wrote an Op-ED in WAPO about why he was leaving for ? Gonzaga, but I thought it was over the parent who defamed the student to an Ivy. I didn't that they had also received death threats

I take it the offender was not one of the few actual Quaker families in the school

That's NW DC for ya' where 2 inches of snow and we close the schools, but " deny my child access to an Ivy " results in Death Threats

The Director complained about "verbal assaults" on Sidwell's counselors.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/06/sidwell-friends-college-admissions-varsity-blues/591124/


Whether or not the assaults reached the level of "death threats," I have no idea...

OMG, what a disgrace.

Sidwell parents calling CCO from blocked numbers and secretly recording the CC when meeting with them in their office- That is Just Bat Sh*T

[Anonymous]

Parent.

Singular.

And good riddance to that family and the CCO staff. Everyone is better off now for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What Death Threats ?

I know the former CCO @ Sidwell wrote an Op-ED in WAPO about why he was leaving for ? Gonzaga, but I thought it was over the parent who defamed the student to an Ivy. I didn't that they had also received death threats

I take it the offender was not one of the few actual Quaker families in the school

That's NW DC for ya' where 2 inches of snow and we close the schools, but " deny my child access to an Ivy " results in Death Threats

The Director complained about "verbal assaults" on Sidwell's counselors.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/06/sidwell-friends-college-admissions-varsity-blues/591124/


Whether or not the assaults reached the level of "death threats," I have no idea...

OMG, what a disgrace.

Sidwell parents calling CCO from blocked numbers and secretly recording the CC when meeting with them in their office- That is Just Bat Sh*T

My job has a blocked number. That person could have been at work

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

nope. sidwell parent here and no idea where to find this information. it would be interesting to see a list. so if you can tell us where to find it, that would be great.

Sidwell CCO tracks this and sends 5-year info to schools students apply to. But they don't share it with parents.

Not Quakerly? How do parents put up with this crap?

The school is small enough that you can track who went to what school and see their Naviance information by cross listing yourself. As such, to protect privacy, the school doesn't share the comprehensive lists by grade. However, each class posts informal lists, and this happens at most schools. That is where the previous information came from.

The college lists are irrelevant to the privacy issues raised by Naviance.

A college list doesn't say who went where, just the list of matriculation.

Naviance shows for each school the grades/test scores of all applicants, including whether they got in. For any school with a low number of applicants/acceptances, if you know where a specific person got it you can figure out their GPA/test stores. But knowing the colleges everyone in a class went to tells you nothing that helps decipher that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have a high school age kid and you are using Harvard alum email address that’s extremely strange because email had barely begun when you were in college. Those alum accounts are for the 35 and under crowd.

Only if your college was slow in email adoption . . .

Regardless, parents of HS age kids, at least in the professional world so kids not at age 22, likely started using email when accounts were either AOL or your local ISP. When offered an alumni/ae address that was better because it was transferable.

And really who wants to switch email addresses constantly, let alone locking yourself into a gmail address and the google ecosystem at this point.

My first email address was at my first job. We didn't have them at my undergrad. I left that job after a few years for grad school and the job didn't let me keep the email. Never had aol. Next email address was at grad school (6yr program) and they allowed us to keep them when we graduated. It was the real [e-mail] address (not some [e-mail] version) and everyone I know from our program still uses those original emails. We all got them at a time when internet accounts were opening and all of our logins to various services use that email address. It's not an IVY and none of us is doing it to flex but for convenience.

I'm curious how many people I know are offended by doing this. It makes me laugh at those who are, as I am not at all about brand name, or prestige, or flexing. I think only one person has ever asked me about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, genetics are a little bit more of a crap shoot than that, including when it comes to intelligence

And that's Life.

Otherwise, you would not have the Tutor/ SAT prep industry livin' large in this town. Hint, it isn't the poor kids these companies were created to serve.

Some traits are recessive: Height is one. Athletic ability is a crap shoot- just ask Michael Jordan's son or the son's daughters of some of your friends.

Even level of determination is not inherited and cannot be forced- just ask all the high achieving, but frustrated with their kid's lack of achievement parents in this town.

The only thing that is pretty much consistent: money pays the bills

My kids go to a school with extraordinarily accomplished parents--almost all are CEOs or senior law partners or similar with crazy impressive degrees. Their kids are all smart but mixed academically because most are on their own with school.
My husband and I are far less accomplished but our 40 hour per week jobs allow us to spend A LOT of time teaching our kids. As a result our high schoolers are now at the very top of their classes. This is mostly because we've sat down for hours and taught them
Algebra, geometry, biology, etc. Meanwhile most of my kids' peers are on their own to understand things in the evenings. Some have tutors but I don't think it can replace the sheer volume of time that some parents put in.

And then there are kids who do it on their own without parent input or tutors.

Whether you pay a tutor or you are teaching your child, it's still investing in them. Not all parents can do that. But also, there are high flying kids that don't need any of that (and don't want it either)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent.

Singular.

And good riddance to that family and the CCO staff. Everyone is better off now for it.

One parent for that one incident referenced earlier.

Parents plural harassed him, in multiple ways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

nope. sidwell parent here and no idea where to find this information. it would be interesting to see a list. so if you can tell us where to find it, that would be great.

Sidwell CCO tracks this and sends 5-year info to schools students apply to. But they don't share it with parents.

The list is public. They post it on the internet. https://www.sidwell.edu/academics/college-counseling/college-matriculation