What is a hook for T25 schools?

[Anonymous]

MCPS sent 350 out of 12,000 students to T25 universities in 2024, which is 2.9%. Sidwell sent 46 out of 126 which is 36.5% or 12.6 times as many.

[Anonymous]

In this area, a hook is whatever thing some kid who got in has that my kid did not have. That way I can look down my nose at them and say they were undeserving and my kid was cheated.

[Anonymous]

The biggest hook for T25 is being a Sidwell student.

[Anonymous]

Being white is a hook and it always has been.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The biggest hook for T25 is being a Sidwell student.

Nope - not if unhooked. There are soo many hooks at Sidwell between legacy, VIP, athlete, URM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The easiest hook is simple being the top of your class. Even the worst inner city and back country rural schools send 1 student to Harvard per year. Look at the polaislist.com , which bases its data on Harvard yearbooks. However, when DCMoms hear that their DC needs to be at the top of the class, they claim that that is so unfair.

This really is NOT true. The worst inner city or very rural schools are sending 1 student to HYP maybe once a decade. I live in rural america and even the valedictorian at the local public HS is going to the state flagship. This is true of almost all of the other rural communities in my area.

I live in flyover country in suburbia. Top 50 high school in state. I think we've sent one kid to an Ivy in the last 10 years (Penn for a FGLI URM). Very few apply that I know of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The biggest hook for T25 is being a Sidwell student.

Nope - not if unhooked. There are soo many hooks at Sidwell between legacy, VIP, athlete, URM.

Being at Sidwell is absolutely a hook. You think that public school students with 3.8 or 3.9 GPAs would be competitive applicants for ultra-selective colleges?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The easiest hook is simple being the top of your class. Even the worst inner city and back country rural schools send 1 student to Harvard per year. Look at the polaislist.com , which bases its data on Harvard yearbooks. However, when DCMoms hear that their DC needs to be at the top of the class, they claim that that is so unfair.

This really is NOT true. The worst inner city or very rural schools are sending 1 student to HYP maybe once a decade. I live in rural america and even the valedictorian at the local public HS is going to the state flagship. This is true of almost all of the other rural communities in my area.

I live in flyover country in suburbia. Top 50 high school in state. I think we've sent one kid to an Ivy in the last 10 years (Penn for a FGLI URM). Very few apply that I know of.

That’s such a hook - kids are lucky

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The biggest hook for T25 is being a Sidwell student.

Nope - not if unhooked. There are soo many hooks at Sidwell between legacy, VIP, athlete, URM.

Being at Sidwell is absolutely a hook. You think that public school students with 3.8 or 3.9 GPAs would be competitive applicants for ultra-selective colleges?

No, and for good reason. A public school student with an UW 3.8/3.9 GPA would have a 3.1/3.2 GPA at Sidwell.

[Anonymous]

Why are Sidwell parents so insecure? Seriously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are Sidwell parents so insecure? Seriously.

A better question: Why are you so jealous of Sidwell parents/students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are Sidwell parents so insecure? Seriously.

They have spent so much money on SFS that they need to reassure themselves it was money well spent.

Reality is that any school, any, will be a good fit for some students and not a good fit for others. Folks should have their DC in schools which are best fit.

And an unhooked child's T20/Ivy admissions chances will be better from a lower-ranked public where they can be top 5% and which has few (if any) hooked students applying to the same college. Not that DCUM wants to hear this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are Sidwell parents so insecure? Seriously.

They have spent so much money on SFS that they need to reassure themselves it was money well spent.

Reality is that any school, any, will be a good fit for some students and not a good fit for others. Folks should have their DC in schools which are best fit.

And an unhooked child's T20/Ivy admissions chances will be better from a lower-ranked public where they can be top 5% and which has few (if any) hooked students applying to the same college. Not that DCUM wants to hear this.

Facts:

1. Public schools in this area have more hooked students (legacies) than any of the top privates, based on sheer numbers; and

2. All of the MoCo publics combined sent six (6) students to Harvard in 2023 (out of >300 applicants). GDS alone sent 6 students to Harvard last year. GDS only has about 130 students per grade. They didn’t all apply to Harvard.

https://moco360.media/2023/09/13/where-montgomery-county-high-school-graduates-are-going-to-college/

I’m sure you don’t want to hear that, huh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are Sidwell parents so insecure? Seriously.

They have spent so much money on SFS that they need to reassure themselves it was money well spent.

Reality is that any school, any, will be a good fit for some students and not a good fit for others. Folks should have their DC in schools which are best fit.

And an unhooked child's T20/Ivy admissions chances will be better from a lower-ranked public where they can be top 5% and which has few (if any) hooked students applying to the same college. Not that DCUM wants to hear this.

Facts:

1. Public schools in this area have more hooked students (legacies) than any of the top privates, based on sheer numbers; and

2. All of the MoCo publics combined sent six (6) students to Harvard in 2023 (out of >300 applicants). GDS alone sent 6 students to Harvard last year. GDS only has about 130 students per grade. They didn’t all apply to Harvard.

https://moco360.media/2023/09/13/where-montgomery-county-high-school-graduates-are-going-to-college/

I’m sure you don’t want to hear that, huh?

And Sidwell sent 4 c/o 2024 students to Harvard. That means that two schools (GDS and Sidwell) sent nearly twice the number of students to Harvard than the 8 listed MoCo publics combined (including the storied Blair Magnets).

Please stop pushing the false narrative that students stand a better chance at Ivies coming from public schools. The facts say otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are Sidwell parents so insecure? Seriously.

They have spent so much money on SFS that they need to reassure themselves it was money well spent.

Reality is that any school, any, will be a good fit for some students and not a good fit for others. Folks should have their DC in schools which are best fit.

And an unhooked child's T20/Ivy admissions chances will be better from a lower-ranked public where they can be top 5% and which has few (if any) hooked students applying to the same college. Not that DCUM wants to hear this.

Facts:

1. Public schools in this area have more hooked students (legacies) than any of the top privates, based on sheer numbers; and

2. All of the MoCo publics combined sent six (6) students to Harvard in 2023 (out of >300 applicants). GDS alone sent 6 students to Harvard last year. GDS only has about 130 students per grade. They didn’t all apply to Harvard.

https://moco360.media/2023/09/13/where-montgomery-county-high-school-graduates-are-going-to-college/

I’m sure you don’t want to hear that, huh?

And Sidwell sent 4 c/o 2024 students to Harvard. That means that two schools (GDS and Sidwell) sent nearly twice the number of students to Harvard than the 8 listed MoCo publics combined (including the storied Blair Magnets).

Please stop pushing the false narrative that students stand a better chance at Ivies coming from public schools. The facts say otherwise.

Yep, and the STA and NCS valedictorians last year both went to Harvard, unhooked. The STA one got in SCEA and the NCS one got into 5+ Ivies, including H, Y and P. These kids didn't have a long resume outside of doing extraordinarily well in high school. You don't see this in public school.