Harvard-Westlake Is The Only Elite Prep School Transparent With College Admissions. Shame on DC Privates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you’re sending your kids to a private school just because you think it will give them a leg up on getting into a top college, you’ve already missed the point of private school. And be careful what you aspire to. Harvard Westlake has had a very sad string of suicides in the community.

I am so sorry to hear this - it’s devastating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Harvard-Westlake in Los Angeles gives transparent data on which kids are admitted to elite schools, and removes "hooked" applicants such as athletes and legacies. They give a very clear indication as to what unhooked students can expect in the application process, given their gpa range. It's truly a shame that our DC private schools won't give families similar information. GDS tells us absolutely nothing about the college admissions process except meaningless, feel-good buzzwords.


https://students.hw.com/Portals/44/handbook0524.pdf

I find the whole handbook guide a bit weird to be honest. I much prefer my child and us parents getting individualized explanations and discussions as to which schools would be a good fit.

As for publishing lists and denoting hooks - Bullis is pretty transparent; this is on their website, with Div 1 athletes marked: https://www.bullis.org/academics/college-counseling/college-matriculation

[Anonymous]

Probably because the colleges above have had HW grads and know what GPA is required to do well in their program. Privates don’t have the retakes and tend to grade harder than publics so some wiggle room in the GPA for a full pay applicant is allowed!

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t quite say “shame on the dc privates.” Harvard Westlake’s choice to publish this information is curious and problematic as much as it’s transparent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t quite say “shame on the dc privates.” Harvard Westlake’s choice to publish this information is curious and problematic as much as it’s transparent.

Why is it a bad thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t quite say “shame on the dc privates.” Harvard Westlake’s choice to publish this information is curious and problematic as much as it’s transparent.

Why is it a bad thing?

Read the last three pages of observations and opinions.

[Anonymous]

Privates don't owe the general public this information. The majority share SCOIR or Naviance scattergrams with parents of their students that allows them to get a pretty specific picture of who is admitted and where.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My aunt is a poorly rate Kaiser doc and her husband works for the CIA or something military and secret. My cousin swam for Harvard Westlake, and was poised for Tokyo Olympics-- accepted to Berkely. Failed out not long after.

They're not that special, believe me. I laugh to myself every time I see them because she was so uptight and focused on his swimming that she would make him go swim with the local Bahamians at 5am while on vacation. Look at them now. Still a 2.5 star rating on health grades and failure to thrive.

This is your reminder that no outcome is perfect and you can't control the outcome for your child.

Wow this is a bizarre post. How hard is it to identify these people?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is super interesting. Once you subtract the legacies and athletes, the outcomes for students at one of the best private schools in the country are not that different from the average.

Yes, there was a podcast analyzing this data at HW and concluding the same thing.

What’s the podcast?

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-game-a-guide-to-elite-college-admissions/id1745045021?i=1000676114826

[Anonymous]

I don't think there is any DC private school that would look this good re college acceptances if you took out hooks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Privates don't owe the general public this information. The majority share SCOIR or Naviance scattergrams with parents of their students that allows them to get a pretty specific picture of who is admitted and where.

+1

Why would a small, elite private school serving a very exclusive group of students need to widely publicize info about their students for wider audience consumption? I find it odd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Privates don't owe the general public this information. The majority share SCOIR or Naviance scattergrams with parents of their students that allows them to get a pretty specific picture of who is admitted and where.

+1

Why would a small, elite private school serving a very exclusive group of students need to widely publicize info about their students for wider audience consumption? I find it odd.

They don't but I appreciate the transparency about my unhooked kid's chances at elite schools given where their GPA is relative to others at the school. For instance, the college counselors at the DC schools will not say an unhooked kid with a 3.5 has never gotten into xxx college. With this data, you can see how many have applied there with your GPA and figure out if it is a realistic admit and not the college counselor strategizing to get another kid into that school or whatever. The actual data also protects the college counseling office IMO when they can show look, 18 kids applied to BU in your GPA range, 3 got in, its not impossible but not realistic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Privates don't owe the general public this information. The majority share SCOIR or Naviance scattergrams with parents of their students that allows them to get a pretty specific picture of who is admitted and where.

+1

Why would a small, elite private school serving a very exclusive group of students need to widely publicize info about their students for wider audience consumption? I find it odd.

They don't but I appreciate the transparency about my unhooked kid's chances at elite schools given where their GPA is relative to others at the school. For instance, the college counselors at the DC schools will not say an unhooked kid with a 3.5 has never gotten into xxx college. With this data, you can see how many have applied there with your GPA and figure out if it is a realistic admit and not the college counselor strategizing to get another kid into that school or whatever. The actual data also protects the college counseling office IMO when they can show look, 18 kids applied to BU in your GPA range, 3 got in, its not impossible but not realistic.

But, again, this data would be relevant to internal students at the same school but not necessary for others outside of that school to know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Privates don't owe the general public this information. The majority share SCOIR or Naviance scattergrams with parents of their students that allows them to get a pretty specific picture of who is admitted and where.

+1

Why would a small, elite private school serving a very exclusive group of students need to widely publicize info about their students for wider audience consumption? I find it odd.

They don't but I appreciate the transparency about my unhooked kid's chances at elite schools given where their GPA is relative to others at the school. For instance, the college counselors at the DC schools will not say an unhooked kid with a 3.5 has never gotten into xxx college. With this data, you can see how many have applied there with your GPA and figure out if it is a realistic admit and not the college counselor strategizing to get another kid into that school or whatever. The actual data also protects the college counseling office IMO when they can show look, 18 kids applied to BU in your GPA range, 3 got in, its not impossible but not realistic.

But, again, this data would be relevant to internal students at the same school but not necessary for others outside of that school to know.[/quote

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Privates don't owe the general public this information. The majority share SCOIR or Naviance scattergrams with parents of their students that allows them to get a pretty specific picture of who is admitted and where.

+1

Why would a small, elite private school serving a very exclusive group of students need to widely publicize info about their students for wider audience consumption? I find it odd.

+1

Agree with these previous two posters. Our school provides this info on their Naviance scattergrams. It's only annoying that the counselors let kids look at it during counseling meetings and not at home, but I have heard some schools don't provide this info at all.