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Sidwell throttling down college admissions?
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Anonymous
You don't HAVE to, dummy. If you're a paranoid loser who stresses out your kid all by yourself, then sure, maybe that's the way to go for you. |
Anonymous
At least if the private college counselor can't write well, you don't hire her. |
Anonymous
| Even if you hire a private counselor, it's the school counselor who writes the recommendation. Private counselors are no substitute for good school counselors. |
Anonymous
| So, are the recommendations just not cutting it? |
Anonymous
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Too colleges don’t want more smart rich kids, they want to take a flyer on 1st gen.
Tune back in in five years to see what they majored in or where they work. |
Anonymous
Ah, so you are absolutely certain that only rich kids can be smart enough to do well in life. No one ever rose from humble beginnings in this world. |
Anonymous
First line is sorta BS, it's more-so too much rich kid competition, domestic and international. Second line nails it though. 5 years is when the differences show. Sidwell kids can go to uva, but then they're headed to top law schols or medical school. The normal kid, even if they got into a t15 private, is likely just working some normal job. |
Anonymous
Like a lot of us, they will rise up to be judged as privileged rich folks whose children are too entitled to "deserve" admission to an elite college. |
Anonymous
That's when Sidwell daddy's and mommy's networking and professional connections finally have some influence to yield impressive opportunities. For an equivalent STA example, see Luke Russert. |
Anonymous
Our oldest kids are 5 and 7 years out of Sidwell, respectively, and we see a wide range in terms of what their peers are doing. It's just silly to think that admission to any school high school is a golden ticket. |
Anonymous
I am a tenured professor at a highly selective university and I find this absurd. I generally have no idea where my students went to high school. I wouldn't know unless I asked them and I have no reason to do that. Nor do they usually tell me. I am definitely not sitting around making comparative assessments of their high school educations. Obviously some kids come into college better prepared than others. But there are few things that annoy college professors more than smug first-year students who think they have nothing to learn from their classmates and professors. I also cannot imagine a professor saying to a sophomore that they have nothing more to teach them. There is no college sophomore who knows as much about English or philosophy than their PhD-holding professor. Some of them may think they do, but they are wrong. |
Anonymous
Even if it's not a "golden ticket," are you suggesting that the potential network and connections of having graduated from Sidwell are somehow of no value whatsoever? |
Anonymous
NP here. It's not that they are not of value. It's that the game changes down the road with college and grad school. Those are deeper connections in many ways. They can better get me an investment banking interview or into a nice social club or c-suite contacts. Probably not so much with only a high school connection. It's nice to say that you went to a certain high school, but truth be told, people move from the area and where you went to college and grad school carries far more weight. Only locally does it seem to carry some value. Moreover, if you tend to make it such a big deal, that sort of indicates that your college and/or grad school offerings were not as impressive. I went to a well respected hschool in another city. No one cares about this. I'm not going back there to live, so it's of little relevance to me except for when a class reunion comes around. Then I might get a little nostaglic about the experience. But where I went to college and grad school just carry far more weight globally, and the conversations are totally different than the high school conversations. Maybe if you went to a top boarding school, that might have a little interesting carry power. Overall, though, the only time that I've cared about where someone went to high school is if it were for my own DC's networking purposes, or to gauge the values/backgrounds of the other parents that I am dealing with. Sometimes it helps to gain more insight into how a person was raised. Beyond that, not much value the more degrees that you have. |
Anonymous
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The difference in the social sciences may be in the preparation. My kid went to Sidwell and is now at an Ivy . In his Fresman writing seminar he got an “A” on his first paper. His professor took him aside and asked where he went to high school. He told her and she said that several of her best students had gone to Sidwell. Similar in an upper division area studies and s statistics class. By the end of college everyone will be caught up and high school will not matter . But for now it is still helpful.
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Anonymous
| What a load of bull. I also got an A on my first freshman paper and in fact all my classes in freshman year. Not one professor pulled me aside to ask me where I went to high school. Went on to top graduate school. Seriously nobody cares about high school. It's college and grad school that matter more. |