Early Decision Results at DS or DD school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:8 to penn, 10 to yale, 18 to penn and yale combined

+1.

[Anonymous]

Hold on.....


10 + 8 = 18

OK, that checks out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just a quick note about our positive experience with college counseling.

First, I think there is not a family who has gone through the process that does not respect the very difficult work of our college advisors. Our children are very grateful for the help the college advisors gave them over the years, and I know many other students and families are as well. Thank you for doing that job.

The students and the college advisors confer independently - without parents - about their essays, completing the common app, requesting and securing teacher recommendations, and preparing any supplementary materials. Literally, as a parent at our school, you are expected to trust that your student - with the gentle guidance of their college advisor - is not only capable of doing all of that independently, but will get it right. We, as parents, had little to no involvement with any of that.

The students draft and write their own essays, and common app responses, and the college advisors read them over and make suggestions for improvement. The students also independently decide, sometimes with the advisor's help, who their teacher recommenders will be, and go about the process of securing those recommendations themselves.

There are two meetings that involve the parents, student, and college advisors. One is to go over the student's college choices, which the school prefers that you limit to eight total; and to get a sense of what the student's top choices would be.

The other meeting is closer to the application deadline, for both early and regular admission. By this second meeting, in the early application round, the student must have already informed the college counselors of which one school they will apply to in the early round.

At this meeting, then, the college advisor is able to say "there are X number of your classmates who also intend to apply to W college early." They are also able to tell you where, numerically, your standardized test scores and gpa rank compared to those other applicants. The college advisors will not tell you who the other applicants are, or obviously, what their specific standardized test scores or gpa are.

This exercise is very helpful in letting you know, for example, that your gpa is last among the students applying to X college, and your test scores fall somewhere in the middle. The college advisors will also be able to tell you how many students are applying to other colleges on your list, and where your scores and gpa rank in that subset. Again, this is very helpful in conveying to a student that 15 classmates are applying to Z early, but only 1 is applying to A.

What you cannot know, and the school is very good about confidentiality, is what other accomplishments or attributes the students in a particular applicant subset bring to their applications.

The students are also discrete, and I think they rarely, if ever, discuss gpa or test scores with one another. They are also discrete about their applications and admissions, although the good and bad news still eventually gets out about particular decisions.

It sounds like you had a great experience. We did not. We had one meeting with the counselor, who gave no reasons for schools suggested and was completely unhelpful with respect to essays. Moreover, the counselor predicted our child's likelihood of success without giving any rationale. Fortunately, the prediction turned out to be wrong. While we are pleased with the result, I'm glad we won't have to go through the process again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just a quick note about our positive experience with college counseling.

First, I think there is not a family who has gone through the process that does not respect the very difficult work of our college advisors. Our children are very grateful for the help the college advisors gave them over the years, and I know many other students and families are as well. Thank you for doing that job.

The students and the college advisors confer independently - without parents - about their essays, completing the common app, requesting and securing teacher recommendations, and preparing any supplementary materials. Literally, as a parent at our school, you are expected to trust that your student - with the gentle guidance of their college advisor - is not only capable of doing all of that independently, but will get it right. We, as parents, had little to no involvement with any of that.

The students draft and write their own essays, and common app responses, and the college advisors read them over and make suggestions for improvement. The students also independently decide, sometimes with the advisor's help, who their teacher recommenders will be, and go about the process of securing those recommendations themselves.

There are two meetings that involve the parents, student, and college advisors. One is to go over the student's college choices, which the school prefers that you limit to eight total; and to get a sense of what the student's top choices would be.

The other meeting is closer to the application deadline, for both early and regular admission. By this second meeting, in the early application round, the student must have already informed the college counselors of which one school they will apply to in the early round.

At this meeting, then, the college advisor is able to say "there are X number of your classmates who also intend to apply to W college early." They are also able to tell you where, numerically, your standardized test scores and gpa rank compared to those other applicants. The college advisors will not tell you who the other applicants are, or obviously, what their specific standardized test scores or gpa are.

This exercise is very helpful in letting you know, for example, that your gpa is last among the students applying to X college, and your test scores fall somewhere in the middle. The college advisors will also be able to tell you how many students are applying to other colleges on your list, and where your scores and gpa rank in that subset. Again, this is very helpful in conveying to a student that 15 classmates are applying to Z early, but only 1 is applying to A.

What you cannot know, and the school is very good about confidentiality, is what other accomplishments or attributes the students in a particular applicant subset bring to their applications.

The students are also discrete, and I think they rarely, if ever, discuss gpa or test scores with one another. They are also discrete about their applications and admissions, although the good and bad news still eventually gets out about particular decisions.

It sounds like you had a great experience. We did not. We had one meeting with the counselor, who gave no reasons for schools suggested and was completely unhelpful with respect to essays. Moreover, the counselor predicted our child's likelihood of success without giving any rationale. Fortunately, the prediction turned out to be wrong. While we are pleased with the result, I'm glad we won't have to go through the process again.

Likelihood of success is not a prediction. They are two very different concepts. Even the statistically strongest candidate is told that their odds of success at a college with a 5-8% acceptance rate is equal to or slightly better than the applicant pool overall, which can be interpreted as a 1 in 10 or 1 in 5 shot. You can take this message as, "you kid is not likely to get in" or as "the odds are long for everyone, but give it a shot if you are passionate about the school". Glad that it worked out, but don't expect the counselors to give false comfort about something they can't control.

[Anonymous]

Different poster here. 7:09, was your unhappy experience this year, meaning just within the past few months? Or are you describing frustration from some years ago? If so, how many years ago? And if it was just a few months ago, why haven't you talked to the college counseling office about your frustration?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It goes to show that NMSF status is not determinative.

NMSF is demonstratively not determinative and means nothing in the college admissions process - except at those schools that offer automatic admission/merit aid based on NMSF status.

This is even more true in DC, where the cutoff for NMSF status is the highest in the country. Whether a kid scores a 222 or a 225 on a PSAT given in October of junior year is meaningless in the world of highly selective college admissions.

[Anonymous]

Sidwell parents should be ashamed of themselves. No tact, no class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell parents should be ashamed of themselves. No tact, no class.

I've got no dog in the fight, but I'm curious ... Would you prefer the school publicize all it's college admissions results on the school website, as most other schools do? Would that somehow demonstrate more tact?

If I were queen for the day, I'd prefer no school reveal anything, and no parents either. But pure silence does not seem to be an option here. Most schools brag about their results openly. For those that don't, like Sidwell, the parents grapevine seems to fill the void. I don't see one approach as much worse than the other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell parents should be ashamed of themselves. No tact, no class.

How ridiculous. I'm not a Sidwell parent , and I admit to being envious that my child didn't apply anywhere in the early pools now, but how is anonymously posting how your child did worthy of a "no class" comment? I'd be curious if you are a parent or a student, but I doubt we would find out the truth anyway.

On a different note, now that we know at least one DC private got several kids into a few top schools, do people think that decreases the numbers they will take from other DC schools during RD? I'm nervous now that we weren't more encouraging to apply early, especially since I am now learning a lot of colleges fill more than half of their class through early admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell parents should be ashamed of themselves. No tact, no class.

How ridiculous. I'm not a Sidwell parent , and I admit to being envious that my child didn't apply anywhere in the early pools now, but how is anonymously posting how your child did worthy of a "no class" comment? I'd be curious if you are a parent or a student, but I doubt we would find out the truth anyway.

On a different note, now that we know at least one DC private got several kids into a few top schools, do people think that decreases the numbers they will take from other DC schools during RD? I'm nervous now that we weren't more encouraging to apply early, especially since I am now learning a lot of colleges fill more than half of their class through early admissions.

+1. My son was interested in Penn. Yikes!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell parents should be ashamed of themselves. No tact, no class.

I've got no dog in the fight, but I'm curious ... Would you prefer the school publicize all it's college admissions results on the school website, as most other schools do? Would that somehow demonstrate more tact?

If I were queen for the day, I'd prefer no school reveal anything, and no parents either. But pure silence does not seem to be an option here. Most schools brag about their results openly. For those that don't, like Sidwell, the parents grapevine seems to fill the void. I don't see one approach as much worse than the other.

Unfortunately, I don't think it's possible to shut down the gossip about ED acceptances. The thing is, ED results are not the end of the story, so no school is going to post anything until after May or June. Also, acceptances and matriculations are very different, and the former is a lot harder to verify.

That said, I'm a big believer in the idea that more info is better. Our school shows Naviance results for every college with >=5 acceptances, but not the results for fewer. I do agree that schools could shut down a lot of the gossip by posting stats on colleges, NMSSFs, and even their own admissions processes. I posted a couple of years ago that it would be helpful to know these things, esp. stats on admission to area schools, and you would have thought I criticized apple pie, the flaming that ensued.

[Anonymous]

My kids are years (many years) away from applying to college, but I have found this thread very informative. Times have changed, and it now appears that early decision is an important option for kids applying to highly selective schools. Many schools appear to have filled half their class this way. I have also heard that legacy status is only taken into consideration if your child applies early.

IMHO, this thread demonstrates the pros of an anonymous forum. Thanks to those who shared admissions information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just a quick note about our positive experience with college counseling.

First, I think there is not a family who has gone through the process that does not respect the very difficult work of our college advisors. Our children are very grateful for the help the college advisors gave them over the years, and I know many other students and families are as well. Thank you for doing that job.

The students and the college advisors confer independently - without parents - about their essays, completing the common app, requesting and securing teacher recommendations, and preparing any supplementary materials. Literally, as a parent at our school, you are expected to trust that your student - with the gentle guidance of their college advisor - is not only capable of doing all of that independently, but will get it right. We, as parents, had little to no involvement with any of that.

The students draft and write their own essays, and common app responses, and the college advisors read them over and make suggestions for improvement. The students also independently decide, sometimes with the advisor's help, who their teacher recommenders will be, and go about the process of securing those recommendations themselves.

There are two meetings that involve the parents, student, and college advisors. One is to go over the student's college choices, which the school prefers that you limit to eight total; and to get a sense of what the student's top choices would be.

The other meeting is closer to the application deadline, for both early and regular admission. By this second meeting, in the early application round, the student must have already informed the college counselors of which one school they will apply to in the early round.

At this meeting, then, the college advisor is able to say "there are X number of your classmates who also intend to apply to W college early." They are also able to tell you where, numerically, your standardized test scores and gpa rank compared to those other applicants. The college advisors will not tell you who the other applicants are, or obviously, what their specific standardized test scores or gpa are.

This exercise is very helpful in letting you know, for example, that your gpa is last among the students applying to X college, and your test scores fall somewhere in the middle. The college advisors will also be able to tell you how many students are applying to other colleges on your list, and where your scores and gpa rank in that subset. Again, this is very helpful in conveying to a student that 15 classmates are applying to Z early, but only 1 is applying to A.

What you cannot know, and the school is very good about confidentiality, is what other accomplishments or attributes the students in a particular applicant subset bring to their applications.

The students are also discrete, and I think they rarely, if ever, discuss gpa or test scores with one another. They are also discrete about their applications and admissions, although the good and bad news still eventually gets out about particular decisions.

It sounds like you had a great experience. We did not. We had one meeting with the counselor, who gave no reasons for schools suggested and was completely unhelpful with respect to essays. Moreover, the counselor predicted our child's likelihood of success without giving any rationale. Fortunately, the prediction turned out to be wrong. While we are pleased with the result, I'm glad we won't have to go through the process again.

Likelihood of success is not a prediction. They are two very different concepts. Even the statistically strongest candidate is told that their odds of success at a college with a 5-8% acceptance rate is equal to or slightly better than the applicant pool overall, which can be interpreted as a 1 in 10 or 1 in 5 shot. You can take this message as, "you kid is not likely to get in" or as "the odds are long for everyone, but give it a shot if you are passionate about the school". Glad that it worked out, but don't expect the counselors to give false comfort about something they can't control.

We were told, emphatically, "no, your child will not get in." That proved to be wrong. We didn't expect or want a crystal ball, but some analysis would have been helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were told, emphatically, "no, your child will not get in." That proved to be wrong. We didn't expect or want a crystal ball, but some analysis would have been helpful.

Well I'm sure you did not just mutely accept that emphatic "no," as you clearly were aware of your child's strengths. So what was the college counselor's response when you challenged her? What did she say when you pointed out all of your child's strengths? What did she offer when you asked for some analysis supporting her prediction?

[Anonymous]

On a different note, I've heard Sidwell will not prohibit a student from applying to a reach, but is the school good at recommending schools and/or telling kids how likely/unlikey it is that they will be successful at certain schools?