GDS has the best college matriculation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know who did well and didn't pay? Jackson Reed.

out of 600 kids how many went to top 25 schools? not a very high percentage

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How can someone looks up St. Albans? Those kids don’t post.

Agree w sports team analogy. Gds had a great year in ‘24.
Many of them are pretty active though

This sort of question is so odd. People in the community get a complete update sent to them in the mail telling where every single kid went to college the year prior. It does tells how many kids went to each college - some have one and others have 5 or more. That is how we know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can someone looks up St. Albans? Those kids don’t post.

Agree w sports team analogy. Gds had a great year in ‘24.
Many of them are pretty active though

This sort of question is so odd. People in the community get a complete update sent to them in the mail telling where every single kid went to college the year prior. It does tells how many kids went to each college - some have one and others have 5 or more. That is how we know.

I am viewing it right now btw...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Correct me if I am wrong but it seems that students from GDS with good grades, and not much else outside the classroom, are getting accepted to strong schools like Ivies, Vanderbilt, Emory, Wash U. On the other hand, kids from other schools going to even the less competitive of these schools all seem to have lots of other things going on besides good grades. Just an observation that if getting into a top college if your goal, it pays to go to GDS and just focus on your grades.

overall same percentage of kids going to top 25 as STA, Sidwell and NCS last year - yup just looked

NCS 41 out of 71 students class of 2024 attending top 25 schools - many of those are ivies

Would these results be better than say the top 71 students coming out of Whitman or Langley?

Yes of course they are better. Whitman and Langley are not sending almost 2/3 of the class to top 25 schools. sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know who did well and didn't pay? Jackson Reed.

Ha—JR sent about 10 kids to Ivies in 2024 (out of more than 500 students). You’re doing well if you graduate from JR in 4 years without becoming pregnant/getting someone pregnant or getting into a fistfight on campus. JR boosters need to exit this discussion. You’re not qualified.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Correct me if I am wrong but it seems that students from GDS with good grades, and not much else outside the classroom, are getting accepted to strong schools like Ivies, Vanderbilt, Emory, Wash U. On the other hand, kids from other schools going to even the less competitive of these schools all seem to have lots of other things going on besides good grades. Just an observation that if getting into a top college if your goal, it pays to go to GDS and just focus on your grades.

Basis has a higher percentage of kids getting into the top schools than any of the other schools mentioned above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Correct me if I am wrong but it seems that students from GDS with good grades, and not much else outside the classroom, are getting accepted to strong schools like Ivies, Vanderbilt, Emory, Wash U. On the other hand, kids from other schools going to even the less competitive of these schools all seem to have lots of other things going on besides good grades. Just an observation that if getting into a top college if your goal, it pays to go to GDS and just focus on your grades.

overall same percentage of kids going to top 25 as STA, Sidwell and NCS last year - yup just looked

NCS 41 out of 71 students class of 2024 attending top 25 schools - many of those are ivies

Would these results be better than say the top 71 students coming out of Whitman or Langley?

Yes of course they are better. Whitman and Langley are not sending almost 2/3 of the class to top 25 schools. sorry.

In fairness…they asked about the top 71 students coming out of Whitman, not the entire class.

Why 71…who knows.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Correct me if I am wrong but it seems that students from GDS with good grades, and not much else outside the classroom, are getting accepted to strong schools like Ivies, Vanderbilt, Emory, Wash U. On the other hand, kids from other schools going to even the less competitive of these schools all seem to have lots of other things going on besides good grades. Just an observation that if getting into a top college if your goal, it pays to go to GDS and just focus on your grades.

Basis has a higher percentage of kids getting into the top schools than any of the other schools mentioned above.

That's like saying Grenada had the most gold medals per capita at the Olympics. Mathematically true, but no one considers them to be an athletic powerhouse country.

[Anonymous]

This p!$4ing contest doesn't matter for more than half of the kids at every one of these schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You have no idea whatsoever what kids are factoring into their choices, which schools they chose to apply to and which they did not, which schools they turn down any why, nor do you know what ADs are seeing when they choose a student.

I was on a board committee of one of these schools several years ago. The college guidance head at the time presented to us, and it was eye-opening. Sure, the school had the usual percentage of students going to "top 25" or whatever, but it was where kids had made other choices that were interesting. Many of the kids had gained admission to "higher ranked' schools but chose differently for specific programs or merit aid. so, someone might choose College of the Atlantic over a higher name school because of the marine biology program, just as an example.

But for at least the time I heard this presentation, it seemed to be quite normal. So when you look at those instagram pages, know that none of us have any idea where these kids were admitted, or what factors ultimately pushed them to one choice or another. Not everyone is chasing a "name" school, even from a "big 3"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have no idea whatsoever what kids are factoring into their choices, which schools they chose to apply to and which they did not, which schools they turn down any why, nor do you know what ADs are seeing when they choose a student.

I was on a board committee of one of these schools several years ago. The college guidance head at the time presented to us, and it was eye-opening. Sure, the school had the usual percentage of students going to "top 25" or whatever, but it was where kids had made other choices that were interesting. Many of the kids had gained admission to "higher ranked' schools but chose differently for specific programs or merit aid. so, someone might choose College of the Atlantic over a higher name school because of the marine biology program, just as an example.

But for at least the time I heard this presentation, it seemed to be quite normal. So when you look at those instagram pages, know that none of us have any idea where these kids were admitted, or what factors ultimately pushed them to one choice or another. Not everyone is chasing a "name" school, even from a "big 3"

Not to mention sports recruits…the Alabama commit is picking a top college that very well could lead to playing professionally.

[Anonymous]

Time will tell. GDS ‘25 is not supposed to be as strong as last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell > GDS

Bizarrely Sidwell feels the way to repeat it ad nauseam. Almost as if they needed to persuade themselves.

[Anonymous]

People need to stop obsessing with matriculation data. The matriculation numbers are usually just reflective of how many hooked students there are in an application cycle. Prep schools like GDS have many Ivy legacies, athletes, and URMs. Even with affirmative action technically banned, many of the URMs are low income and are on scholarship (which colleges are using as a race-proxy).

If your kid isn't hooked, their college admissions outcomes will always be stronger if they go to a school where they can end up at the top of their class. The top 5% at Jackson-Reed will have much better outcomes than a 4th decile unhooked student at any elite private school.

[Anonymous]

GDS sends 4 students (out of 125) to Harvard and Princeton per year. (This is not speculation, this is according to the polaislist.com, which bases its stats on Harvard, Princeton, MIT yearbooks.) GDS stats are just average and probably below average for $40,000 per year schools. So OP, despite your connection to "many families," you're wrong.