Sidwell throttling down college admissions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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?

Not a whole lot, no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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?

Not a whole lot, no.

I think PP is thinking about political connections...the president's children, etc. That's a different connection base. It may be of some value if your DC wants to go into politics. Beyond that, not sure if it adds much.

[Anonymous]

This piece of shit thread is still going?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This piece of shit thread is still going?

So much antipathy for Sidwell -- so much fuel for this thread.

[Anonymous]

To answer the OP's original question:

My DCs went through Sidwell college counseling in 2013 and 2016. The school does limit the total number of applications your child can submit, to 9. Or at least they did at the time. Counselors work with you and your child to develop a list of 9 schools that DC is excited about and that includes some reaches, safeties, etc., based on Naviance data. (They didn't share the Naviance plots but that's how they come up with recommendations about what's a reach, a safety, etc.) They will not (would not) agree to send transcripts to more than 9 schools. So they can, in fact, effectively limit the number to which your DC applies.

In addition, both counselors we worked with were very up front about the fact that admission to HYPS is such a crap shoot, for EVERYONE, that they were always going consider them reach schools (i.e., "unlikely" admission) on every student's college list. Both of our DCs ended up with more than one admission to HYP but our counselors really pushed them to think about less competitive schools for the list of 9 as well -- in fact, that's where they spent most of their time and energy in the counseling process. It's easy to decide your top choice is Harvard. The harder question is, if you don't get in to Harvard, what's your plan B? Where else will you be equally excited to attend? That's where you need a counselor.

Put those two things to together (the list is limited to 9, and you will be strongly advised to allocate only 3-4 of those slots to the most competitive schools), and you can imagine some students (more likely, parents) feeling that they've been counseled away from applying to some Ivies.

IMHO, this approach is reasonable and tamps down on some of the college application craziness. The school won't let you apply to all 8 Ivies and 10 more schools, which is a ridiculous plan anyway. They really make students think about the kind of school they are looking for and work to come up with a reasonable, balanced list.

I have no idea if the counselor rec matters much, if at all. For parents who haven't been through this process, bear in mind that you will never see the recommendation letter, so everything you read here about counselor recs is speculation. If I were a counselor, I would be writing ONE letter for each kid, ie., I'd be sending the same letter to Harvard and to the safety school. So there's no incentive to do anything other than make the best case that I could for each child. If a counselor is a bad writer I think colleges make allowances for that (imagine the letters they get from public school counselors who have 100+ kids to advise -- I'm sure they do their best not to penalize kids for short and hastily written letters.)

I do think some parents assume that the counselor rec matters more than it really does -- it's one way to justify the crazy high tuition we pay. I think the most important thing that counselors do is help kids come up with that list of 9 and then sort options once the admissions come in. Its NOT the recommendation.

[Anonymous]

Wow. I just worked with my child on college applications--fewer than 9. However, 9 seems very arbitrary to me. I would not be happy to know they WILL NOT send transcripts to more. If it were a guideline that's one thing, but sounds pretty rigid!

[Anonymous]

Not at Sidwell, but interested because we have started to look. How many students per counselor? The website shows much more counseling than our our school.

[Anonymous]

Sidwell 9th grade parent and I was told kids could apply to ten. I was disappointed as older DC at a different school applied to 12. Whether it is 9 or 10 that seems very arbitrary to me. Some kids like mine have no idea what they want to study and can see themselves at almost every school they visit, other kids are chasing merit and really need to cast a wide net, other kids, again like mine, have tippy top stats but know that the top schools are a lottery. My older DC was accepted at Stanford and 3 of the 6 Ivies applied to. I can confirm that there are lots of Sidwell kids at Yale.

My older DC’s school had a very strong relationship with one top 20 school. They literally could tell you that if you had above a 700 on all sections of the SAT or above a 33 on the ACT and above an UW 4.0, you could consider this school a safety. Does Sidwell have a relationship like this?

[Anonymous]

7:20 here. I’m not surprised to hear the limits has been raised to 10 applications.

There are three college counselors w a caseload of about 40 each.

If SFS has that kind of a relationship with a top 20 school, I haven’t heard of it. That’s not to say it doesn’t exist. You do sometimes hear of a kid who doesn’t get in anywhere and then the counselors start making calls to places where they have relationships. Of course that is the exact scenario they are trying to avoid in the first place, which is why they are conservative in their predictions re very competitive schools.

[Anonymous]

Good post at 7:20. Thx for finally bringing some knowledge and thought to this pot of speculation and backbiting.

[Anonymous]

What happens if a kid gets in EA to a school but wants to apply to more, either to explore FA packages or just because. Let's say he got into Yale in December. Would Sidwell allow an additional 8 or 9 schools and all of them be reaches?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What happens if a kid gets in EA to a school but wants to apply to more, either to explore FA packages or just because. Let's say he got into Yale in December. Would Sidwell allow an additional 8 or 9 schools and all of them be reaches?

The just because would be looked at very unfavorably by peers. You don’t want to be perceived as taking a spot away from another student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What happens if a kid gets in EA to a school but wants to apply to more, either to explore FA packages or just because. Let's say he got into Yale in December. Would Sidwell allow an additional 8 or 9 schools and all of them be reaches?

Yes. Ivy FA packages at the top tier are very similar. However, once into an EA school, some kids like to apply to similar schools to see if they get in, for ego or whatever. Sidwell can't, or won't, limit that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Congrats to him for getting an A in "Fresman writing."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:7:20 here. I’m not surprised to hear the limits has been raised to 10 applications.

There are three college counselors w a caseload of about 40 each.

If SFS has that kind of a relationship with a top 20 school, I haven’t heard of it. That’s not to say it doesn’t exist. You do sometimes hear of a kid who doesn’t get in anywhere and then the counselors start making calls to places where they have relationships. Of course that is the exact scenario they are trying to avoid in the first place, which is why they are conservative in their predictions re very competitive schools.

If the counselors have relationships with schools, do they usually make contacts about applicants before decisions come out?