Sidwell throttling down college admissions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BTW - The private boarding schools are in deliberation about withdrawing from APs.

Andover grad here. We've long not followed the AP curriculum. Courses might prepare kids for the AP exam, but it's never the express purpose. I think Exeter doesn't participate in the AP program either. This was the case when I was at Andover from 2001-2005, and I think it's still the case.

Regardless of class title or whatnot, do most kids sit for the AP tests if they know if will help with their Freshman college coursework?

PP here. Some do and some don't. I only took 1 AP exam. I think kids who took advanced math and science classes were more likely to take the requisite AP courses.

In any case, while it helps with getting a head start on credits, it doesn't help with college admissions from Andover. What matters are your grades in the 500 and 600 level courses, which are equivalent to college sophomore or even major-specific courses (so well beyond AP).

And to the PP who said no college professor thinks high schoolers can perform a college level: Let me put it to you this way. When I started in college, my English professor told me, "I don't have anything I can really teach you. You've already mastered everything I teach in this course." She attributed that to where I went to high school. My philosophy professor sophomore year said that, in her 25 years of experience teaching at the collegiate level, kids from Andover and Exeter come in knowing most of the freshman and sophomore curriculum.

I'm not trying to brag; I'm just pointing out that one of the reasons these schools do so well in college admissions is that they essentially act as junior colleges.

They why wouldn't you test out of this? You could have been taking 200, 300, or 400 level classes in college, doing internships, going on 1-2 study abroads, etc. Or do kids like to read Dante for the third time and get easy As for two years?

Grad schools look at your previous transcript and let you move beyond the pre-reqs.

There was no way to test out of it. I did study abroad for a semester in junior year. I wasn't able to test out of a lot of courses in college because I took a fairly specialized curriculum. I also couldn't have moved beyond pre-reqs for grad school, given that it was PhD coursework.

So your university would not have taken 4 or 5s on AP subject tests at all? So you spent freshman and sophomore year of university doing the same things as you did in high school? If you knew that going in sounds like that is what you deliberately chose to do. Other kids would have chosen to go to colleges that let them place out of undergrad pre-reqs and done 2-3 majors or maybe tacked on an MS/MA Jr or senior year.

No, not for most of the classes I needed to take. Most of my HS friends had similar experiences. Good universities increasingly aren't letting kids test out of core classes using AP test scores.

That's our experience too for core classes. And for each incoming class it's getting more restrictive. They can't have one set of rules for students like the poster above and another for the majority. High school curriculums across the country are too uneven. And I know you all really don't want to hear this but there is very little respect for the AP curriculum at the elite college level. Those APs have come in really handy though for fulfilling general electives. MY DC did a happy dance about language being waived although he ended up taking another voluntarily.

Yup. I don't mean to offend folks, but at Andover, the sense was that the AP curriculum was meant for less high quality high schools to have a curriculum that kids could complete that would broadcast to colleges that the kids had done somewhat advanced work. There was a sense (not conveyed by teachers explicitly, but the implication was strongly there) that places like Andover didn't need the AP curriculum because colleges know the courses are strong, and go farther than the AP curriculum does.

I'm going to fw your above post to all my friends who went to Andover and see if they are all as stuck up as you are. Meanwhile, next time my think tank comes across anyone that puts that on their CV, they're going to get grilled for humility, common sense, and sense of superiority.

You can call me stuck up, but I don’t put Andover on my CV.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure why everyone is being so hard on Sidwell. All schools have up years and down years. Maybe this year's graduating class was not so stellar - it happens at every school.
Sidwell can't work magic if the kids weren't amazing. Some classes are just stronger than others and college admissions reflects that. Next year, there may well be 5 Harvard admits and another 5 to Yale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure why everyone is being so hard on Sidwell. All schools have up years and down years. Maybe this year's graduating class was not so stellar - it happens at every school.
Sidwell can't work magic if the kids weren't amazing. Some classes are just stronger than others and college admissions reflects that. Next year, there may well be 5 Harvard admits and another 5 to Yale.

Don't you think that was a wee tad mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure why everyone is being so hard on Sidwell. All schools have up years and down years. Maybe this year's graduating class was not so stellar - it happens at every school.
Sidwell can't work magic if the kids weren't amazing. Some classes are just stronger than others and college admissions reflects that. Next year, there may well be 5 Harvard admits and another 5 to Yale.

Don't you think that was a wee tad mean?

It’s mean to say maybe the kids just aren’t as impressive? Why? It’s perfectly possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure why everyone is being so hard on Sidwell. All schools have up years and down years. Maybe this year's graduating class was not so stellar - it happens at every school.
Sidwell can't work magic if the kids weren't amazing. Some classes are just stronger than others and college admissions reflects that. Next year, there may well be 5 Harvard admits and another 5 to Yale.

Don't you think that was a wee tad mean?

It’s mean to say maybe the kids just aren’t as impressive? Why? It’s perfectly possible.

Maybe. But it seems that less than magical results are coming in throughout the area. So is this year’s vintage weaker all around? Or is the game changing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure why everyone is being so hard on Sidwell. All schools have up years and down years. Maybe this year's graduating class was not so stellar - it happens at every school.
Sidwell can't work magic if the kids weren't amazing. Some classes are just stronger than others and college admissions reflects that. Next year, there may well be 5 Harvard admits and another 5 to Yale.

Don't you think that was a wee tad mean?

It’s mean to say maybe the kids just aren’t as impressive? Why? It’s perfectly possible.

Maybe. But it seems that less than magical results are coming in throughout the area. So is this year’s vintage weaker all around? Or is the game changing?

Yes....

[Anonymous]

No one needs to call stuck up Andover Woman stuck up when she constantly demonstrate it to everyone. Why bother stating the obvious.

Just search “Andover” in dcum privates to see her in all her glory.

—NP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one needs to call stuck up Andover Woman stuck up when she constantly demonstrate it to everyone. Why bother stating the obvious.

Just search “Andover” in dcum privates to see her in all her glory.

—NP.

Sorry you can’t handle anyone pointing out that the school you paid $40k/year for can’t compete with NE schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure why everyone is being so hard on Sidwell. All schools have up years and down years. Maybe this year's graduating class was not so stellar - it happens at every school.
Sidwell can't work magic if the kids weren't amazing. Some classes are just stronger than others and college admissions reflects that. Next year, there may well be 5 Harvard admits and another 5 to Yale.

Don't you think that was a wee tad mean?

It’s mean to say maybe the kids just aren’t as impressive? Why? It’s perfectly possible.

Maybe. But it seems that less than magical results are coming in throughout the area. So is this year’s vintage weaker all around? Or is the game changing?

If Sidwell had a down year, it doesn't necessarily mean the class was weaker or college guidance was lacking. As colleges say over and over, they have too many qualified applicants fr the spots available. Getting in is a crap shoot. Maybe the dice just didn't roll the right way this year. Stinks for the kids involved, but it is just tough odds. Maybe that is why privates prefer to show a 5 year cumulative placement result.

Having said that, don't assume just because Sidwell is down, it is less than magical everywhere. Some area schools had great results. Again a bit of a crap shoot among great schools and great candidates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure why everyone is being so hard on Sidwell. All schools have up years and down years. Maybe this year's graduating class was not so stellar - it happens at every school.
Sidwell can't work magic if the kids weren't amazing. Some classes are just stronger than others and college admissions reflects that. Next year, there may well be 5 Harvard admits and another 5 to Yale.

Don't you think that was a wee tad mean?

It’s mean to say maybe the kids just aren’t as impressive? Why? It’s perfectly possible.

Maybe. But it seems that less than magical results are coming in throughout the area. So is this year’s vintage weaker all around? Or is the game changing?

If Sidwell had a down year, it doesn't necessarily mean the class was weaker or college guidance was lacking. As colleges say over and over, they have too many qualified applicants fr the spots available. Getting in is a crap shoot. Maybe the dice just didn't roll the right way this year. Stinks for the kids involved, but it is just tough odds. Maybe that is why privates prefer to show a 5 year cumulative placement result.

Having said that, don't assume just because Sidwell is down, it is less than magical everywhere. Some area schools had great results. Again a bit of a crap shoot among great schools and great candidates.

Some show single year and 5 year results because they value transparency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure why everyone is being so hard on Sidwell. All schools have up years and down years. Maybe this year's graduating class was not so stellar - it happens at every school.
Sidwell can't work magic if the kids weren't amazing. Some classes are just stronger than others and college admissions reflects that. Next year, there may well be 5 Harvard admits and another 5 to Yale.

Don't you think that was a wee tad mean?[/quote

Counting the number of admissions to Harvard and Yale is a pretty oversimplified, one-dimensional way of measuring whether the school has a good college advising program.

[Anonymous]

SFS took the hard step of revamping the athletics department a couple of years ago. I suspect that they will do a thorough review of the college function as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BTW - The private boarding schools are in deliberation about withdrawing from APs.

Andover grad here. We've long not followed the AP curriculum. Courses might prepare kids for the AP exam, but it's never the express purpose. I think Exeter doesn't participate in the AP program either. This was the case when I was at Andover from 2001-2005, and I think it's still the case.

Regardless of class title or whatnot, do most kids sit for the AP tests if they know if will help with their Freshman college coursework?

PP here. Some do and some don't. I only took 1 AP exam. I think kids who took advanced math and science classes were more likely to take the requisite AP courses.

In any case, while it helps with getting a head start on credits, it doesn't help with college admissions from Andover. What matters are your grades in the 500 and 600 level courses, which are equivalent to college sophomore or even major-specific courses (so well beyond AP).

And to the PP who said no college professor thinks high schoolers can perform a college level: Let me put it to you this way. When I started in college, my English professor told me, "I don't have anything I can really teach you. You've already mastered everything I teach in this course." She attributed that to where I went to high school. My philosophy professor sophomore year said that, in her 25 years of experience teaching at the collegiate level, kids from Andover and Exeter come in knowing most of the freshman and sophomore curriculum.

I'm not trying to brag; I'm just pointing out that one of the reasons these schools do so well in college admissions is that they essentially act as junior colleges.

They why wouldn't you test out of this? You could have been taking 200, 300, or 400 level classes in college, doing internships, going on 1-2 study abroads, etc. Or do kids like to read Dante for the third time and get easy As for two years?

Grad schools look at your previous transcript and let you move beyond the pre-reqs.

There was no way to test out of it. I did study abroad for a semester in junior year. I wasn't able to test out of a lot of courses in college because I took a fairly specialized curriculum. I also couldn't have moved beyond pre-reqs for grad school, given that it was PhD coursework.

So your university would not have taken 4 or 5s on AP subject tests at all? So you spent freshman and sophomore year of university doing the same things as you did in high school? If you knew that going in sounds like that is what you deliberately chose to do. Other kids would have chosen to go to colleges that let them place out of undergrad pre-reqs and done 2-3 majors or maybe tacked on an MS/MA Jr or senior year.

No, not for most of the classes I needed to take. Most of my HS friends had similar experiences. Good universities increasingly aren't letting kids test out of core classes using AP test scores.

That's our experience too for core classes. And for each incoming class it's getting more restrictive. They can't have one set of rules for students like the poster above and another for the majority. High school curriculums across the country are too uneven. And I know you all really don't want to hear this but there is very little respect for the AP curriculum at the elite college level. Those APs have come in really handy though for fulfilling general electives. MY DC did a happy dance about language being waived although he ended up taking another voluntarily.

Yup. I don't mean to offend folks, but at Andover, the sense was that the AP curriculum was meant for less high quality high schools to have a curriculum that kids could complete that would broadcast to colleges that the kids had done somewhat advanced work. There was a sense (not conveyed by teachers explicitly, but the implication was strongly there) that places like Andover didn't need the AP curriculum because colleges know the courses are strong, and go farther than the AP curriculum does.

I'm going to fw your above post to all my friends who went to Andover and see if they are all as stuck up as you are. Meanwhile, next time my think tank comes across anyone that puts that on their CV, they're going to get grilled for humility, common sense, and sense of superiority.

Anyone who puts a high school on their resume after @ age 25 needs to get a life. And I went to another top boarding school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one needs to call stuck up Andover Woman stuck up when she constantly demonstrate it to everyone. Why bother stating the obvious.

Just search “Andover” in dcum privates to see her in all her glory.

—NP.

Sorry you can’t handle anyone pointing out that the school you paid $40k/year for can’t compete with NE schools.

True! For the explosion in government dollars, DC's DNA is sleepy southern town. When it comes to education, they've not caught up with the Yankees yet. And may never catch up

[Anonymous]

I have never seen a Sidwell counselor tell a student they can't apply to a particular school. But, despite the party line from the administration, SFS did not have a good year. The counseling staff is uneven, to put it charitably, and the school needs to put some attention into making the process a good one for the students.