Sidwell throttling down college admissions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a senior parent myself, I think the office could do better, and I know others who share my sentiments. It may depend on which counselor you have.

Sour grapes, perhaps? No guarantees.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why the private schools try to fudge their data by posting college admission results for 3 years or 5 years. Why don't they just post them every year.

[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?[/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.

It is not oversimplified for a school like Sidwell which touts itself as the best of the best. It clearly is not in the same league as Andover and Exeter although it would like to think it is.
At least 1/3 of the parents send their kids to Sidwell as a leg up to Ivy schools so it is a big deal. After going to the "best" school in DC, why would you settle for a second rate university?
Wilson HS had a banner year this year with college admissions so it is only natural to be asking questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why the private schools try to fudge their data by posting college admission results for 3 years or 5 years. Why don't they just post them every year.

Some do. Like Andover. Some people on this thread don’t like when i point that out, but like you said, it’s much better than fudging your data by reporting multiple years at once.

[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?[/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.

It is not oversimplified for a school like Sidwell which touts itself as the best of the best. It clearly is not in the same league as Andover and Exeter although it would like to think it is.
At least 1/3 of the parents send their kids to Sidwell as a leg up to Ivy schools so it is a big deal. After going to the "best" school in DC, why would you settle for a second rate university?
Wilson HS had a banner year this year with college admissions so it is only natural to be asking questions.

“Although it would like to think it is” ... yes. And people wonder why I said sidwell thinks it’s on the same level as Andover and Exeter.

[Anonymous]

"Wilson HS had a banner year this year with college admissions so it is only natural to be asking questions."\

Really? Please post those results so we can believe you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Middle school parents should be asking these questions.

Why? I assume my middle school daughter will get admitted to college based on her merits, not based on some school's rep on an anonymous message board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why the private schools try to fudge their data by posting college admission results for 3 years or 5 years. Why don't they just post them every year.

I don't think it's fudging. The graduating classes are so small, swings from year to year are likely, and an individual year's results are not that informative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why the private schools try to fudge their data by posting college admission results for 3 years or 5 years. Why don't they just post them every year.

I don't think it's fudging. The graduating classes are so small, swings from year to year are likely, and an individual year's results are not that informative.

Then they should post both the single year and cumulative results.

[Anonymous]

Sfs’ shine has been dulled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sfs’ shine has been dulled.

Sure, keep telling yourself that. Maybe you’ll convince someone to give up a spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a senior parent myself, I think the office could do better, and I know others who share my sentiments. It may depend on which counselor you have.

Sour grapes, perhaps? No guarantees.

There are no guarantees about colleges. But there ought to be an implicit guarantee from the school that each student has a high quality counselor experience. A student's college chances should not depend on his or her college counselor assignment.

[Anonymous]

Any individual year’s results will have more to do with how many legacies and athletes and other superstars there were in that particular class than anything meaningful. If a school is consistently landing a significant percentage of its students in elite schools (however you want to define that), that is a much more meaningful metric. Any school will have up years and down years, and people tend to jump to erroneous conclusions (in either direction) based on a single year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sfs’ shine has been dulled.

Sure, keep telling yourself that. Maybe you’ll convince someone to give up a spot.

"Sfs" -- you consistently use a strange way of capitalizing the school's letters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sfs’ shine has been dulled.

Sure, keep telling yourself that. Maybe you’ll convince someone to give up a spot.

"Sfs" -- you consistently use a strange way of capitalizing the school's letters.

It’s not strange- it’s called typing from a phone. Why don’t you go over to the political forum and tell people you don’t agree with they are Russian bots.