GDS and Sidwell comparison?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
As someone with a high-stats/topmathtrack/unhooked kid who will be facing this soon, this is precisely what I want. One would assume that it is in the school's and the counselors' interest to place as many students as highly as possible; what might be affected by the various hooks and ladders people bring to the process is which schools a kid like mine would have the best shot at. "Penn is going to be hard to ED this year, maybe place your bet on X or Y" and so on is all one can ask for. I mean, what benefit would they derive from not passing that info along? My assumption is that the parents are likely to be the stubborn ones in these scenarios, insisting on EDing a particular school despite the odds being clearly laid out by a counselor?

Because no college guidance counselor is going to know what school is going to be tough in any given year. Add to it, for the types of schools discussed on DCUM, ALL of the schools are tough EVERY year. So you take your best shot and let the dust falls where it does,.

Yeah - but if there are 5 legacies applying early for school X, and those legacies include athletes and/or other very strong academic kids....the counselors should know that your kid is less likely to get in early there than at school y where there other applicants don't include legacies, URM, athletes applying.

They do know this, and they can advise you accordingly if they view that as part of their job. At Sidwell, they don't view it as part of their job and they won't do it. We have friends at comparable schools in other cities around the country where the counselor definitely gives this type of advice.

Disagree on this. I have a senior DC at Sidwell; DCs counselor has been terrific and very upfront about acceptance chances. Made it clear that final decision on ED was ours but absolutely gave us the facts, including that DC would be competing against legacies.

[Anonymous]

+1

They were very specific in terms of categorizing reach versus reach+

And really, any school that has a 3% or 9% acceptance rate is going to be a reach or reach plus. It is all a crapshoot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
As someone with a high-stats/topmathtrack/unhooked kid who will be facing this soon, this is precisely what I want. One would assume that it is in the school's and the counselors' interest to place as many students as highly as possible; what might be affected by the various hooks and ladders people bring to the process is which schools a kid like mine would have the best shot at. "Penn is going to be hard to ED this year, maybe place your bet on X or Y" and so on is all one can ask for. I mean, what benefit would they derive from not passing that info along? My assumption is that the parents are likely to be the stubborn ones in these scenarios, insisting on EDing a particular school despite the odds being clearly laid out by a counselor?

Because no college guidance counselor is going to know what school is going to be tough in any given year. Add to it, for the types of schools discussed on DCUM, ALL of the schools are tough EVERY year. So you take your best shot and let the dust falls where it does,.

Yeah - but if there are 5 legacies applying early for school X, and those legacies include athletes and/or other very strong academic kids....the counselors should know that your kid is less likely to get in early there than at school y where there other applicants don't include legacies, URM, athletes applying.

They do know this, and they can advise you accordingly if they view that as part of their job. At Sidwell, they don't view it as part of their job and they won't do it. We have friends at comparable schools in other cities around the country where the counselor definitely gives this type of advice.

Disagree on this. I have a senior DC at Sidwell; DCs counselor has been terrific and very upfront about acceptance chances. Made it clear that final decision on ED was ours but absolutely gave us the facts, including that DC would be competing against legacies.

MC was our kid's counselor. Absolutely would not give us any insight like that. Who was yours?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So this kid took 5 SAT subject tests as a 10th grader?

They took them in 9th/10th grade. While was a bit of an outlier at DC's school, not completely as the school does not offer APs, so a lot of advanced subjects are covered in earlier grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[quoteYou either do not have a kid in cycle or, if you do, the kid did not take subject tests. While the SAT no longer offers them in the United States, students "will still be able to get and submit Subject Test scores from previous administrations...."

This class was in 10th grade spring when the pandemic started, and subject tests were announced as eliminated January of their junior year. Interesting choice and priorities to take 5 subject tests in that window, much less find open testing sites where it would have been possible...

IDK who this is but not the person who posted about 5 subject tests. The kid, as did mine, started taking subject tests in 9th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
As someone with a high-stats/topmathtrack/unhooked kid who will be facing this soon, this is precisely what I want. One would assume that it is in the school's and the counselors' interest to place as many students as highly as possible; what might be affected by the various hooks and ladders people bring to the process is which schools a kid like mine would have the best shot at. "Penn is going to be hard to ED this year, maybe place your bet on X or Y" and so on is all one can ask for. I mean, what benefit would they derive from not passing that info along? My assumption is that the parents are likely to be the stubborn ones in these scenarios, insisting on EDing a particular school despite the odds being clearly laid out by a counselor?

Because no college guidance counselor is going to know what school is going to be tough in any given year. Add to it, for the types of schools discussed on DCUM, ALL of the schools are tough EVERY year. So you take your best shot and let the dust falls where it does,.

Yeah - but if there are 5 legacies applying early for school X, and those legacies include athletes and/or other very strong academic kids....the counselors should know that your kid is less likely to get in early there than at school y where there other applicants don't include legacies, URM, athletes applying.

They do know this, and they can advise you accordingly if they view that as part of their job. At Sidwell, they don't view it as part of their job and they won't do it. We have friends at comparable schools in other cities around the country where the counselor definitely gives this type of advice.

Disagree on this. I have a senior DC at Sidwell; DCs counselor has been terrific and very upfront about acceptance chances. Made it clear that final decision on ED was ours but absolutely gave us the facts, including that DC would be competing against legacies.

MC was our kid's counselor. Absolutely would not give us any insight like that. Who was yours?

Interesting! I have a senior DC at Sidwell too. Our counselor sbsolutely would not give us any insight like that.

[Anonymous]

This thread reminds me of why my kid disliked the experience at Sidwell and decided that GDS wouldn't be an improvement. We went in a different direction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At least in 6th grade on at GDS MS (5th was very recently added to MS, and I understand it's the same), kids go to different classrooms/teachers for their different subjects. (The pandemic of course greatly impacted this for the 20-21 school year.). A kid isn't with the same group of students all day, It's pretty much the same as what you would have in any public MS, just smaller classes and far fewer kids in each grade. I have no idea how Sidwell does it, but I can't imagine it's much different, but maybe it is.

Sidwell 5th grade kids are in their first year of middle school and have one dedicated teacher and classroom with 18-19 kids for English/History/Math, etc. They have separate teachers for science, art/drama, PE, language (Chinese or Spanish), and music.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At least in 6th grade on at GDS MS (5th was very recently added to MS, and I understand it's the same), kids go to different classrooms/teachers for their different subjects. (The pandemic of course greatly impacted this for the 20-21 school year.). A kid isn't with the same group of students all day, It's pretty much the same as what you would have in any public MS, just smaller classes and far fewer kids in each grade. I have no idea how Sidwell does it, but I can't imagine it's much different, but maybe it is.

Sidwell 5th grade kids are in their first year of middle school and have one dedicated teacher and classroom with 18-19 kids for English/History/Math, etc. They have separate teachers for science, art/drama, PE, language (Chinese or Spanish), and music.

And when they go to those science, art/drama, language and music classes, it is often half going to the special and half staying with the homeroom teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At least in 6th grade on at GDS MS (5th was very recently added to MS, and I understand it's the same), kids go to different classrooms/teachers for their different subjects. (The pandemic of course greatly impacted this for the 20-21 school year.). A kid isn't with the same group of students all day, It's pretty much the same as what you would have in any public MS, just smaller classes and far fewer kids in each grade. I have no idea how Sidwell does it, but I can't imagine it's much different, but maybe it is.

Sidwell 5th grade kids are in their first year of middle school and have one dedicated teacher and classroom with 18-19 kids for English/History/Math, etc. They have separate teachers for science, art/drama, PE, language (Chinese or Spanish), and music.

And when they go to those science, art/drama, language and music classes, it is often half going to the special and half staying with the homeroom teacher.

There is a lot of incorrect information here. People should really just contact the admissions office. They will tell you everything that you need to know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
As someone with a high-stats/topmathtrack/unhooked kid who will be facing this soon, this is precisely what I want. One would assume that it is in the school's and the counselors' interest to place as many students as highly as possible; what might be affected by the various hooks and ladders people bring to the process is which schools a kid like mine would have the best shot at. "Penn is going to be hard to ED this year, maybe place your bet on X or Y" and so on is all one can ask for. I mean, what benefit would they derive from not passing that info along? My assumption is that the parents are likely to be the stubborn ones in these scenarios, insisting on EDing a particular school despite the odds being clearly laid out by a counselor?

Because no college guidance counselor is going to know what school is going to be tough in any given year. Add to it, for the types of schools discussed on DCUM, ALL of the schools are tough EVERY year. So you take your best shot and let the dust falls where it does,.

Yeah - but if there are 5 legacies applying early for school X, and those legacies include athletes and/or other very strong academic kids....the counselors should know that your kid is less likely to get in early there than at school y where there other applicants don't include legacies, URM, athletes applying.

They do know this, and they can advise you accordingly if they view that as part of their job. At Sidwell, they don't view it as part of their job and they won't do it. We have friends at comparable schools in other cities around the country where the counselor definitely gives this type of advice.

Disagree on this. I have a senior DC at Sidwell; DCs counselor has been terrific and very upfront about acceptance chances. Made it clear that final decision on ED was ours but absolutely gave us the facts, including that DC would be competing against legacies.

MC was our kid's counselor. Absolutely would not give us any insight like that. Who was yours?

Interesting! I have a senior DC at Sidwell too. Our counselor sbsolutely would not give us any insight like that.

Did you ask, point blank? And press a little for the real information?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
As someone with a high-stats/topmathtrack/unhooked kid who will be facing this soon, this is precisely what I want. One would assume that it is in the school's and the counselors' interest to place as many students as highly as possible; what might be affected by the various hooks and ladders people bring to the process is which schools a kid like mine would have the best shot at. "Penn is going to be hard to ED this year, maybe place your bet on X or Y" and so on is all one can ask for. I mean, what benefit would they derive from not passing that info along? My assumption is that the parents are likely to be the stubborn ones in these scenarios, insisting on EDing a particular school despite the odds being clearly laid out by a counselor?

Because no college guidance counselor is going to know what school is going to be tough in any given year. Add to it, for the types of schools discussed on DCUM, ALL of the schools are tough EVERY year. So you take your best shot and let the dust falls where it does,.

Yeah - but if there are 5 legacies applying early for school X, and those legacies include athletes and/or other very strong academic kids....the counselors should know that your kid is less likely to get in early there than at school y where there other applicants don't include legacies, URM, athletes applying.

They do know this, and they can advise you accordingly if they view that as part of their job. At Sidwell, they don't view it as part of their job and they won't do it. We have friends at comparable schools in other cities around the country where the counselor definitely gives this type of advice.

Disagree on this. I have a senior DC at Sidwell; DCs counselor has been terrific and very upfront about acceptance chances. Made it clear that final decision on ED was ours but absolutely gave us the facts, including that DC would be competing against legacies.

MC was our kid's counselor. Absolutely would not give us any insight like that. Who was yours?

Interesting! I have a senior DC at Sidwell too. Our counselor sbsolutely would not give us any insight like that.

Did you ask, point blank? And press a little for the real information?

Are you the pp who claims to have gotten this type of information at Sidwell? We did not, but we're not the poster you are responding to. Pressing the counselor should not be the standard by which this type of counseling is provided, assuming that your account is credible. Even so, we did press a little, but not to the point of being confrontational. And we got no real advice or counseling, just evasion. Which of the 4 was your kid's counselor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
As someone with a high-stats/topmathtrack/unhooked kid who will be facing this soon, this is precisely what I want. One would assume that it is in the school's and the counselors' interest to place as many students as highly as possible; what might be affected by the various hooks and ladders people bring to the process is which schools a kid like mine would have the best shot at. "Penn is going to be hard to ED this year, maybe place your bet on X or Y" and so on is all one can ask for. I mean, what benefit would they derive from not passing that info along? My assumption is that the parents are likely to be the stubborn ones in these scenarios, insisting on EDing a particular school despite the odds being clearly laid out by a counselor?

Because no college guidance counselor is going to know what school is going to be tough in any given year. Add to it, for the types of schools discussed on DCUM, ALL of the schools are tough EVERY year. So you take your best shot and let the dust falls where it does,.

Yeah - but if there are 5 legacies applying early for school X, and those legacies include athletes and/or other very strong academic kids....the counselors should know that your kid is less likely to get in early there than at school y where there other applicants don't include legacies, URM, athletes applying.

They do know this, and they can advise you accordingly if they view that as part of their job. At Sidwell, they don't view it as part of their job and they won't do it. We have friends at comparable schools in other cities around the country where the counselor definitely gives this type of advice.

Disagree on this. I have a senior DC at Sidwell; DCs counselor has been terrific and very upfront about acceptance chances. Made it clear that final decision on ED was ours but absolutely gave us the facts, including that DC would be competing against legacies.

MC was our kid's counselor. Absolutely would not give us any insight like that. Who was yours?

Interesting! I have a senior DC at Sidwell too. Our counselor sbsolutely would not give us any insight like that.

Did you ask, point blank? And press a little for the real information?

Are you the pp who claims to have gotten this type of information at Sidwell? We did not, but we're not the poster you are responding to. Pressing the counselor should not be the standard by which this type of counseling is provided, assuming that your account is credible. Even so, we did press a little, but not to the point of being confrontational. And we got no real advice or counseling, just evasion. Which of the 4 was your kid's counselor?

"Even so, we did press a little, but not to the point of being confrontational. And we got no real advice or counseling, just evasion." Same here

[Anonymous]

Time to hire a private college counselor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're applying for elementary school, but would like to keep DC at the school through 12th if they're thriving there. I've researched this board, but couldn't find a recent thread comparing these two schools. We liked what we saw virtually, but of course that's a far cry from actually visiting in person or having DC shadow a student. What are the major differences between them? Also, I realize they're both competitive.

Thank you!

Gds is pretty quirky and lets everyone do whatever they want - teachers, students, clubs. Lots of project based work, lots of social justice books, history, speakers, teachers. Wide mix of students and teachers. Pressure to dress down.

Sfs is professional. More structured curriculum, classroom time, same amount of talking in class. Expects a lot from its students and teachers. Narrower mix of students and teachers. Dress better.