Questions about College Placement

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If one believes maybe half of what the College forum says is true, then college admissions right now is basically a lottery.

A lottery is a good analogy. A rigged lottery is even better.

It’s always been rigged. The only reason some people are squawking about it now is that they think it’s rigged against them.

One imagines wonderful things about the process and the child's future, until it is your kid's turn and you find out the truth. Then one posts "insights" about how different the process is now and your great ideas for improving the terrible system, which are identical to those posted every year that list serves have existed.

Hope springs eternal. Everyone assume their kid will be the exception or the game itself will have changed.
The reality is that 95% of Big3 kids won't have top10 options when their college time comes--despite their parents doing everything right and they themselves being extremely bright, hard working, lovely kids.

[Anonymous]

There is hope for the "demographic cliff" that is supposed to drastically reduce the number of 17 year-old kids at some point 2026 or later. This should make things easier for colleges not in the T10. Also, TO is rapidly dying out, which will drastically help kids from the Big 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is hope for the "demographic cliff" that is supposed to drastically reduce the number of 17 year-old kids at some point 2026 or later. This should make things easier for colleges not in the T10. Also, TO is rapidly dying out, which will drastically help kids from the Big 3.

There are many times the number of public school kids with perfect test scores than there are seats at the T20. No idea why you think they aren’t. The return of required testing will only make the context of a pricey private even more of a liability. That said, there are proportionally more kids from private than public in the T50 colleges because schools need the money. So the rich advantage that has always been there still is.

[Anonymous]

Just one: How do you help students navigate the college process and find the colleges that represent the best fit for each student?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're considering private HS because of college placement, you are doing it wrong.

At best, private schools can help your child thrive academically - whether that means more rigor, more support, smaller class sizes, new and different clubs and ECs, etc.

And if your child reaches their academic potential, you're in the same boat as every other public and private HS parent - scrambling with an extremely dysfunctional and competitive college admissions landscape.

OP here - to clarify, we are already in a Big 3 private in 7th grade. We are weighing staying there vs moving to another private. We are not considering public.

If your goal is college placement, you need to be brutally honest with yourself and ask if your kid has what it takes to get in the top 10% of the class (preferably top 5%). Can they get a 3.9+ GPA or equivalent at Sidwell/GDS/NCS/STA? Do they have the work ethic or natural ability?

If not, then switch to an easier private with less competitive students. A 3.4-3.5 Big 3 student would almost-certainly get a 3.95+ UW at Burke, Field, SJC, etc. Top grades at a mediocre private will open far more college doors than being middle-of-the-pack in the elite private schools.

OP look at school profiles to see:
1. what their average gpa is (some list it others do not)
2. do they weight grades? you want somewhere that weights APs and Honors (colleges are swamped with applications and can't look as closely as they used to)
3. what gpa scale do they use?
4. look at colleges kids are attending
5. agree with pp in 8th grade you will select classes for 9th which is when grades start to matter and classes and rigor matter
6. yes some schools make it easier on your kid and they end up at better schools - this is a hard pill to swallow and causes conflict with parent who love a school but feel deep down it is not serving their kid well

[Anonymous]

I’d highly recommend focusing on your child’s happiness in their current social situation too. Once you hit upper school it will become extremely important for your kid to feel as though they have friends and belong in their school environment. We stayed in private for the academics but my kid was miserable socially-college worked out well but I’m not convinced it was worth my DC coming out of 4 years feeling like they had no friends at the end and in general not enjoying their peers or any of the usual HS activities. There is more to the equation than the academic piece. Look at the college forum now-a video has gone viral there of a Princeton student who is miserable and urging parents to focus on their kids mental health. I agree wholeheartedly. Who cares if you make it to the “promised land” if you can’t even enjoy it once you’ve arrived???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d highly recommend focusing on your child’s happiness in their current social situation too. Once you hit upper school it will become extremely important for your kid to feel as though they have friends and belong in their school environment. We stayed in private for the academics but my kid was miserable socially-college worked out well but I’m not convinced it was worth my DC coming out of 4 years feeling like they had no friends at the end and in general not enjoying their peers or any of the usual HS activities. There is more to the equation than the academic piece. Look at the college forum now-a video has gone viral there of a Princeton student who is miserable and urging parents to focus on their kids mental health. I agree wholeheartedly. Who cares if you make it to the “promised land” if you can’t even enjoy it once you’ve arrived???

This. That video is really sad and Princeton has had 8 suicides in 3 years and I think the social stuff and not fitting in continues at college for many or just begins at college. The social eating houses and frats and many of those things continue into college.

There are families that literally started networking for their kid to get into the right fraternity or eating house in highschool. That continues out of college into private business groups then clubs then so on and so forth. We luckily are not in a profession where this sort of thing matters but I see families talking about networking and contacts early on. It is so stressful on these kids. One family made their kid join a fraternity for the connections despite their kid not wanting to join - kid is painfully shy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d highly recommend focusing on your child’s happiness in their current social situation too. Once you hit upper school it will become extremely important for your kid to feel as though they have friends and belong in their school environment. We stayed in private for the academics but my kid was miserable socially-college worked out well but I’m not convinced it was worth my DC coming out of 4 years feeling like they had no friends at the end and in general not enjoying their peers or any of the usual HS activities. There is more to the equation than the academic piece. Look at the college forum now-a video has gone viral there of a Princeton student who is miserable and urging parents to focus on their kids mental health. I agree wholeheartedly. Who cares if you make it to the “promised land” if you can’t even enjoy it once you’ve arrived???

This. That video is really sad and Princeton has had 8 suicides in 3 years and I think the social stuff and not fitting in continues at college for many or just begins at college. The social eating houses and frats and many of those things continue into college.

There are families that literally started networking for their kid to get into the right fraternity or eating house in highschool. That continues out of college into private business groups then clubs then so on and so forth. We luckily are not in a profession where this sort of thing matters but I see families talking about networking and contacts early on. It is so stressful on these kids. One family made their kid join a fraternity for the connections despite their kid not wanting to join - kid is painfully shy.

PP eating clubs are at Princeton and Harvard and was referring to frats elsewhere.