GDS - Wow!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not just because of enviable Ivy admissions, but GDS arguably is DC's leading independent school now. The Cathedral schools are too inflexible and stuck in the past. Sidwell has been cruising on its reputation for a long time. But without the buzz from presidential or vice presidential children on its campuses, Sidwell's stagnation is showing.

No one affiliated with the school talks like this. In all our years as GDS parents, these topics have never come up in conversations with anyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Actual Parent: here's what's posted on the Insta page in terms of top tier
Other kids may have gotten in places but have not posted yet.
3 harvard
2 cornell
1 princeton
1 penn
1 Columbia
1 Vanderbilt
This seems good but not Stellar
Let's see what happens tommorrow with Northwestern Etc

What would you consider stellar???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Worse outcome than a public high school in fairfax county. Shameful.

Yup, and that public HS is doing better than GDS without legacies, athletic recruitment, URMs and donations etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actual Parent: here's what's posted on the Insta page in terms of top tier
Other kids may have gotten in places but have not posted yet.
3 harvard
2 cornell
1 princeton
1 penn
1 Columbia
1 Vanderbilt
This seems good but not Stellar
Let's see what happens tommorrow with Northwestern Etc

What would you consider stellar???

Take a look at outcomes at publics like Montgomery Blair or RMIB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let’s celebrate hard working kids!

who are going to change the world!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Worse outcome than a public high school in fairfax county. Shameful.

Yup, and that public HS is doing better than GDS without legacies, athletic recruitment, URMs and donations etc.

Which public high school has no sports, no people of color, and gets 2% of their seniors into Harvard?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Worse outcome than a public high school in fairfax county. Shameful.

Yup, and that public HS is doing better than GDS without legacies, athletic recruitment, URMs and donations etc.

Which public high school has no sports, no people of color, and gets 2% of their seniors into Harvard?

Huh? GDS is like 50 percent people of color… I am unsure what you are trying to imply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yup, and that public HS is doing better than GDS without legacies, athletic recruitment, URMs and donations etc.

That's right, no athletes or Ivy legacies from rich families in DC area public schools at all.

[Anonymous]

One interesting thing about GDS is that they limit students to 10 applications, only 3 of which may be “reaches.” And they define any school with an acceptance rate of 20% (or 25%?) or less to be a reach. That means GDS students are effectively unable to shotgun all the top 10 schools, or all Ivy League, or whatever.

(They are allowing students this year to apply to 2 more schools beyond the usual 10, but the additional ones must be “foundational” — or safety — schools. This is a response to the uncertainty created by the Supreme Court.)

I don’t know if other private schools have similar policies. But I do think that in the absence of these policies, you would probably find more “shotgunning” and thus more admissions to highly selective schools. They are quite serious about the policy — my kid got into a couple safeties in early action, but the school would not permit him to add another reach school for regular admission. He could only add “foundational” schools even with admissions in hand.

[Anonymous]

How about - it’s a bit of both. GDS’s CCO is mixed. You can see the complaints on the private school forum. These kids, however, have been encouraged to pursue their specific interests while being held to a high academic standard. Colleges like smart kids with pointy, well documented strengths. GDS overall does a good job of this and discouraging kids to be directly competitive with each other.

So you're going tell me that the kid whose sibling and both parents attended the same Ivy would have just slid into a life of mediocrity had he attended Sidwell or (god forbid) Jackson Reed? Thank goodness he was so inspired at GDS that his four years lifted him up into his own Ivy acceptance!

Or the kid whose parent is on a faculty at another top 10 university (and who site on the admission's commmittee for that school's most illustrious graduate program?) Well thank goodness that kid discovered his passions at GDS because he/she too was almost certainly destined for failure if he/she had attended STA/NCS or Montgomery Blair.

Listen, this cohort kids is super, super smart. But they were also born into some pretty sweet situations. I wouldn't even call it being born on third base. More like being born having hit a home and sitting in the clubhouse drinking the post-game beer.
GDS has almost nothing to do with any of it .

PP your jealousy and sour grapes are appalling. Hopefully this post will be taken down. You made identifiable references to two hard working seniors from GDS and sarcastically said they would have "Slid into a life of mediocrity." at another school. Your post is so badly written that it's not clear you are being sarcastic. Also you ARE implying privilege and GDS were responsible for their success not the kids themselves. WTF? How do you know? You OBVIOUSLY are a GDS senior's parent to know these details. Would you dare say such a thing to these kids' faces? I do know who you are talking about and they are both outstanding. Get over your competitive bad karma and stop trashing kids on this forum. It's not a good look and hopefully your post will be removed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yup, and that public HS is doing better than GDS without legacies, athletic recruitment, URMs and donations etc.

That's right, no athletes or Ivy legacies from rich families in DC area public schools at all.

TJ has virtually no legacies, virtually no athletic recruits and virtually no URM advantages although this might change in the future. Still does better than GDS when you look back past 5 years or 10 years.

[Anonymous]

TJ's graduating class is also triple the size and entirely curated starting in 9th grade.

[Anonymous]

The W schools are killing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One interesting thing about GDS is that they limit students to 10 applications, only 3 of which may be “reaches.” And they define any school with an acceptance rate of 20% (or 25%?) or less to be a reach. That means GDS students are effectively unable to shotgun all the top 10 schools, or all Ivy League, or whatever.

(They are allowing students this year to apply to 2 more schools beyond the usual 10, but the additional ones must be “foundational” — or safety — schools. This is a response to the uncertainty created by the Supreme Court.)

I don’t know if other private schools have similar policies. But I do think that in the absence of these policies, you would probably find more “shotgunning” and thus more admissions to highly selective schools. They are quite serious about the policy — my kid got into a couple safeties in early action, but the school would not permit him to add another reach school for regular admission. He could only add “foundational” schools even with admissions in hand.

How can they restrict the number of schools a kid applies to?? That seems ridiculous

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One interesting thing about GDS is that they limit students to 10 applications, only 3 of which may be “reaches.” And they define any school with an acceptance rate of 20% (or 25%?) or less to be a reach. That means GDS students are effectively unable to shotgun all the top 10 schools, or all Ivy League, or whatever.

(They are allowing students this year to apply to 2 more schools beyond the usual 10, but the additional ones must be “foundational” — or safety — schools. This is a response to the uncertainty created by the Supreme Court.)

I don’t know if other private schools have similar policies. But I do think that in the absence of these policies, you would probably find more “shotgunning” and thus more admissions to highly selective schools. They are quite serious about the policy — my kid got into a couple safeties in early action, but the school would not permit him to add another reach school for regular admission. He could only add “foundational” schools even with admissions in hand.

How can they restrict the number of schools a kid applies to?? That seems ridiculous

Restricted and semi controlled who applies where = greater chance of success. If the top 5 candidates apply to every T10 and get in then less room for other candidates. Your first competition is within your school, so by restricting applicants it helps all candidates and also makes the school have better yield.