Sidwell throttling down college admissions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1. Sidwell should be able to attract strong counselors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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."

Look, I'm a prof at a top 20 private. You would not believe how terrible most incoming freshmen are at writing. It's bad--even for kids coming from top area schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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."

Look, I'm a prof at a top 20 private. You would not believe how terrible most incoming freshmen are at writing. It's bad--even for kids coming from top area schools.

This is true. Many (or even most) very bright kids do not read for pleasure, ever. It's understandable given the allure of social media and their phones. But the gap between intellect and writing ability is so much bigger than it used to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1. Sidwell should be able to attract strong counselors.

Sidwell does have great counselors. They can't control the college admissions process, however, which is harder than it has ever been at the most selective colleges for all the reasons discussed. If your child doesn't get in, it's not their fault (for not achieving more); it's not your fault for not helping them design a better list; and it's not the counselor's fault for not being able to make it happen. It is just the reality of low single digit admission rates at the most selective and sought after colleges and universities. Everyone would be happier if this could be internalized. We as parents need to be the ones restoring the sanity -- the kids will take their most important cues from us. If we talk more with them about what they want to learn and how to learn it, rather than just *where* they will be doing their post-HS learning, it will be better for them (and us).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

SFS kids can apply to eleven (11) schools now

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1. Sidwell should be able to attract strong counselors.

Sidwell does have great counselors. They can't control the college admissions process, however, which is harder than it has ever been at the most selective colleges for all the reasons discussed. If your child doesn't get in, it's not their fault (for not achieving more); it's not your fault for not helping them design a better list; and it's not the counselor's fault for not being able to make it happen. It is just the reality of low single digit admission rates at the most selective and sought after colleges and universities. Everyone would be happier if this could be internalized. We as parents need to be the ones restoring the sanity -- the kids will take their most important cues from us. If we talk more with them about what they want to learn and how to learn it, rather than just *where* they will be doing their post-HS learning, it will be better for them (and us).

Overall, Sidwell Friends is a great school. But this is drinking the KoolAid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1. Sidwell should be able to attract strong counselors.

Sidwell does have great counselors. They can't control the college admissions process, however, which is harder than it has ever been at the most selective colleges for all the reasons discussed. If your child doesn't get in, it's not their fault (for not achieving more); it's not your fault for not helping them design a better list; and it's not the counselor's fault for not being able to make it happen. It is just the reality of low single digit admission rates at the most selective and sought after colleges and universities. Everyone would be happier if this could be internalized. We as parents need to be the ones restoring the sanity -- the kids will take their most important cues from us. If we talk more with them about what they want to learn and how to learn it, rather than just *where* they will be doing their post-HS learning, it will be better for them (and us).

Overall, Sidwell Friends is a great school. But this is drinking the KoolAid.

They have excellent counselors, who deserve better than disgruntled parents anonymously shivving them online. Your behavior is indicative of why the Sidwell parent body in general gets a bad name. Clearly your "Drink Me" potion contained entitlement, not Kool-Aid (TM).

[Anonymous]

The quality of the college office is very uneven.

[Anonymous]

so I feel like there has been some back and forth: counseling is uneven countered by counseling is great and parents have unrealistic expectations about placement. How are counselors assigned? is it totally random? Based on relationship/familiarity with student?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

SFS kids can apply to eleven (11) schools now

^^^^This. Is it even worth going to Sidwell if they cap applications to 11? Isnt the best strategy for the individual student in the context of hyper-increased ivy applications and low percentage (random lottery) admissions simply to just apply for as many "lottery tickets" as possible in order to linearly improve their probability of admission to a desirable but competative college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The quality of the college office is very uneven.

+1 -- parent of two grads and a current student, as well as a student who graduated from another DC independent. My comment is based not on outcomes, but on process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

SFS kids can apply to eleven (11) schools now

^^^^This. Is it even worth going to Sidwell if they cap applications to 11? Isnt the best strategy for the individual student in the context of hyper-increased ivy applications and low percentage (random lottery) admissions simply to just apply for as many "lottery tickets" as possible in order to linearly improve their probability of admission to a desirable but competative college?

No. This is a huge misconception and something that is driving those acceptance rates only lower. An increase in applications only matters if it represents an increase in QUALIFIED applicants. If that happens, then obviously a given qualified applicant has less of a chance of being admitted. An increase in applications on its own could mean that--as you alluded to above--lots of kids are throwing in "lottery tickets" just because they figure the chances of getting into any given selective school is so low. If those kids aren't qualified to go to the school, then them applying has zero impact on your kid's chances of getting admitted. They'll be filtered out of the system on the first cut, based on the their SAT score and GPA.

Your kid is competing against kids with a similar profile: kids from private schools in the DC area. Period. Same as it's been forever.

Sidwell is right to limit the number of college applications. 11 is a perfectly fine number. With the proper mix of reach, fit, and safety schools, 11 applications should yield every kid an appropriate college choice.

[Anonymous]

Disagree if the student is at the tippy top of the class. Sure, they can decide which of the top 20-25 colleges are their favorites, but their chances of getting in to any one of those are indeed akin to winning the lottery. Then they have to start allocating their remaining slots to at least a few “sure things” while hoping that yield protection will not be an issue. It is easy to see how that kid could end up with choices that he/she is not too excited about, whereas a few more lottery tickets could have completely changed the result.

[Anonymous]

Yield protection...luckily it turned out great but the bottom match and all safety schools were bombs. I don't think DC would have done more apps though and refused to apply to most of the Ivies so it was hard to come up with even that short list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The quality of the college office is very uneven.

+1 -- parent of two grads and a current student, as well as a student who graduated from another DC independent. My comment is based not on outcomes, but on process.

Agree with this.