I should have kept my kid at Wilson; college admits are much better than the Big3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every single one if you is missing the point - if you care AT ALL about your kid having an enjoyable hs experience in a safe environment then no college outcome is more important. If you can afford private, you send your kid to private. Period.

LOL. Nope. DS had an entirely safe, enjoyable HS experience at Wilson, got into a great college and is succeeding there. If you feel private is better for your kid, more power to you. But assuming that all public school parents can’t afford private or don’t care about their kids is silly.

Go ahead if it makes you feel better about your choices, but if you want to actually understand reality then you shouldn’t make that assumption.

[Anonymous]

Think of all the money you spent on private school only to get shut out of top colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Think of all the money you spent on private school only to get shut out of top colleges.

Well, it hasn’t actually happened yet, but I’m thinking about it! Also thinking about the fact that my kid has been in school full-time in-person during the pandemic, and has generally had an incredible education that blows my own “top-rated” public experience out of the water.

Yeah, I’m good with it. Better luck next time.

Everything has trade-offs. If I’m trading “13 years of a wonderful education” for “admittance to a very short list of schools”, I can live with that. There are a lot of schools out there, and in the end (unless your goal is to be in academia) it doesn’t seem to matter very much. Successful people are successful for a lot of reasons besides what their diploma says.

Now you take a moment and think about why you want so badly for private school parents to be unhappy with their choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every single one if you is missing the point - if you care AT ALL about your kid having an enjoyable hs experience in a safe environment then no college outcome is more important. If you can afford private, you send your kid to private. Period.

The amount of private school drug use and drunk driving by private school students is the riskiest thing that either public or private school kids will face in their high school years. If you are a private school parent who is unaware that this is going on, better check in and find out what your kid is up to.

[Anonymous]

Please. I'm well aware of what goes at privates and Wilson.

When I was at Wilson students were openly selling in the bathrooms and in the alley/parking garage stairwell near Whole Foods in Tenleytown. Not saying private students don't imbibe but still it's not even close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please. I'm well aware of what goes at privates and Wilson.

When I was at Wilson students were openly selling in the bathrooms and in the alley/parking garage stairwell near Whole Foods in Tenleytown. Not saying private students don't imbibe but still it's not even close.

That’s no surprise. Wilson has housed students from some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every single one if you is missing the point - if you care AT ALL about your kid having an enjoyable hs experience in a safe environment then no college outcome is more important. If you can afford private, you send your kid to private. Period.

The amount of private school drug use and drunk driving by private school students is the riskiest thing that either public or private school kids will face in their high school years. If you are a private school parent who is unaware that this is going on, better check in and find out what your kid is up to.

Maybe in some cliques in private school. But definitely not all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please. I'm well aware of what goes at privates and Wilson.

When I was at Wilson students were openly selling in the bathrooms and in the alley/parking garage stairwell near Whole Foods in Tenleytown. Not saying private students don't imbibe but still it's not even close.

LOL, right. Who is doing the buying? The folks with the money....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please. I'm well aware of what goes at privates and Wilson.

When I was at Wilson students were openly selling in the bathrooms and in the alley/parking garage stairwell near Whole Foods in Tenleytown. Not saying private students don't imbibe but still it's not even close.

LOL, right. Who is doing the buying? The folks with the money....

Was it the rich, white Wilson kids or the GDS kids who were buying?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which team is winning? Does anyone know the current score?

I think all we have figured out is that parents from both GDS and Wilson are annoying.

I’ve decided to move out of the DMV before my kids hit high school is my takeaway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here.

the point of my post was

1)My high school kid who left DCPS is now doing about 5 times the work in private. It's been a giant step up and a challenge. It's honestly surprised me how big the jump has been. We left DCPS for the challenge because my kid was excelling without every studying and we got it.
This is a good thing.

2)DCPS grading and expectations during the pandemic were even more of a complete joke than usual. My kids got close to (or above) 100% in each class. This current grade (2022) is applying to college with these joke grades. They were based on nothing.

Honest question. How do college admissions officers not know this is happening. It wasn’t just DCPS. Seems that way across the board at publics during the pandemic. If we can figure this out on DCUM how is it that colleges have no idea this is going on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every single one if you is missing the point - if you care AT ALL about your kid having an enjoyable hs experience in a safe environment then no college outcome is more important. If you can afford private, you send your kid to private. Period.

LOL. Nope. DS had an entirely safe, enjoyable HS experience at Wilson, got into a great college and is succeeding there. If you feel private is better for your kid, more power to you. But assuming that all public school parents can’t afford private or don’t care about their kids is silly.

Go ahead if it makes you feel better about your choices, but if you want to actually understand reality then you shouldn’t make that assumption.

+1 Mine are private because that is what they needed, but their friends and my neighbors' kids are thriving at Wilson. There are many paths in this world, and no one path is best for every person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here.

the point of my post was

1)My high school kid who left DCPS is now doing about 5 times the work in private. It's been a giant step up and a challenge. It's honestly surprised me how big the jump has been. We left DCPS for the challenge because my kid was excelling without every studying and we got it.
This is a good thing.

2)DCPS grading and expectations during the pandemic were even more of a complete joke than usual. My kids got close to (or above) 100% in each class. This current grade (2022) is applying to college with these joke grades. They were based on nothing.

Honest question. How do college admissions officers not know this is happening. It wasn’t just DCPS. Seems that way across the board at publics during the pandemic. If we can figure this out on DCUM how is it that colleges have no idea this is going on?

What makes you think they don't? Anyway, there is much more to an application than a GPA. They will see the Wilson kids with 1600 SAT (I know of at least one), the lead roles with clips from fabulous productions, the musical pieces created and mastered, the internships with published papers, the outside of high school courses taken, the robotics competition victories, the debate standing, the athletic accomplishments, the National Latin/French/etc. awards, the AP test scores, etc. Maybe some of the classes were a mess, maybe you can't rely on the grades alone to tell you what the kids can accomplish academically. Luckily, that isn't the only part of an application.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The initial premise of this tread that is horrified that Wilson kids should be qualified or allowed to go to top colleges is clearly provocative. There are so many layers here!
By definition sending kids to elite big 3-5 schools is elitist. It comes with an attitude that those kids are more special and entitled to go to better colleges. The higher cost comes with lots of homework and constant stress to excel - and paid for the ability to cope much better during a global pandemic by having money to throw at the problem and smaller sizes of cherry picked kids to deal with. College admissions are used to nearly all the kids from these schools to get As and Bs. There’s a forced culture of achievement - and grade inflation. The amount of homework and stress aren’t proven to do much that’s really positive for kids. Proportionately these kids will always get into great colleges and do fine in life. Most of the kids are born on third base and think they hit a triple.
Wilson has for generations been “Yale or jail” - a reflection mostly of having higher income and low income families. The kids from higher income families at Wilson are very similar to those at the big 3-5 but the private school parents are so bought into the value of the schools they are paying for, they need to believe those kids won’t be able to cut it in college. Which is ridiculous. Yes many of the parents are just as insufferable as those at privates. But the private parents have chosen an intentionally elitist path. The demographics at Wilson have also changed in the recent 10-15 years and is continuing to change in make up. More and more kids are from higher income families are at Wilson than before. So the numbers applying for top schools and getting in will go up. Grade inflation has become a thing. The W schools in MoCo and the McLean and Fairfax schools have been doing it for while, with about 1/3 of classes getting all A’s.
Just a rant that private school parents can just feel happy with your privilege without kicking down at Wilson.

Agree with everything here but not all Big 3 Schools are handing out As and Bs, like candy.

Ditto. I agreed with everything is the post except the posture that there is grade inflation at my DC’s Big 3. There is ZERO grade inflation at his school. I honestly sometimes wish there was, but there is NO grade inflation. They almost bend over backwards to make the opposite true.

[Anonymous]

My home is in Langley HS and yet one of my kids is at SFS and the other one at Potomac. They are not attending Langley HS. I can't imagine that Wilson is any better than Langley HS.