After all the drama, Big3 college admissions are really as strong as ever this year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another parent from another DMV school: the shift away from APs has hurt these students. Families are told the schools know the rigor of your curriculum. Maybe they do, but how much do they care when they spend a couple of minutes on each application? And if you want to apply to the UC schools or ones abroad, good luck without any APs.

A little more guidance early on would have been helpful.

But yes, I'm very happy about the education and opportunities dc has received at this DMV independent school.

The students still take the AP tests, it is simply that the classes are not called "AP XXXX" in the school's listings or transcript.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another parent from another DMV school: the shift away from APs has hurt these students. Families are told the schools know the rigor of your curriculum. Maybe they do, but how much do they care when they spend a couple of minutes on each application? And if you want to apply to the UC schools or ones abroad, good luck without any APs.

A little more guidance early on would have been helpful.

But yes, I'm very happy about the education and opportunities dc has received at this DMV independent school.

Yes from another top 5 school that has told us they provide a school data sheet that outlines the rigor with the applications--had a college admissions officer specifically tell me, no one reading applications will know your school or have time to read their data sheet...unless your dream school is an east coast LAC familiar with your school, going to a rigorous DMV private without APs is a detriment to college admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another parent from another DMV school: the shift away from APs has hurt these students. Families are told the schools know the rigor of your curriculum. Maybe they do, but how much do they care when they spend a couple of minutes on each application? And if you want to apply to the UC schools or ones abroad, good luck without any APs.

A little more guidance early on would have been helpful.

But yes, I'm very happy about the education and opportunities dc has received at this DMV independent school.

The students still take the AP tests, it is simply that the classes are not called "AP XXXX" in the school's listings or transcript.

The problem is that the honors classes don't specifically prepare you for AP tests so kids have to study separately which is difficult with the homework load of the rigorous privates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another parent from another DMV school: the shift away from APs has hurt these students. Families are told the schools know the rigor of your curriculum. Maybe they do, but how much do they care when they spend a couple of minutes on each application? And if you want to apply to the UC schools or ones abroad, good luck without any APs.

A little more guidance early on would have been helpful.

But yes, I'm very happy about the education and opportunities dc has received at this DMV independent school.

The students still take the AP tests, it is simply that the classes are not called "AP XXXX" in the school's listings or transcript.

Colleges don’t really care about what you get on the AP test. They care about weighted GPAs & most rigorous courseload.

AOs lie through teeth repeatedly on podcasts & blogs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is at NCS.
From what I can tell:
20% Ivies
10% U of Chicago
10% other top 20 universities
10% top 10 liberal arts colleges
Etc.
That is 50% of the class into TOP20 colleges/universities. Minimum.

Even with the deflated GPAs (well under 4.0), almost no APs, etc.

STA is similar.
Sidwell has pretty much gotten the entire class in top50 schools.
GDS is a bit uneven.

Am I the only one that actually thinks the %age going to top 20 schools should be much higher than 50%?

Curious if anyone knows the %age from 10 or 20 years ago.

No. Why should going to a freaking $50,000/year private high school entitle you to go to a top 20 school?

You are missing the point…OP is bragging that the school did so well with top 20 admissions…I thought they were going to say 80%+ were accepted Top 20…50% is fine, but I bet it was much higher in previous years.

How did the NCS arrive at the 20% Ivy statistic?

My understanding is that NCS usually has 70-75 graduating seniors. So far, 66 NCS students have posted their college destinations. Of the 66 students, 8 (12%) are heading to Ivies. Are we to believe that the remaining 4 students are all heading to the Ivies? Even if the 4 students, who haven’t posted, are attending Ivies in the fall that still brings the total for future NCS Ivy Leaguers to only 17%.

[Anonymous]

^ How did the NCS Poster…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The title of this post is BS. GDS parent here and GDS had a bad year. No going to lie or sugar coat it- last year was stellar, this year is not anywhere near that in terms of ivy league and top 15 schools. Lackluster overall. Of course the school's party line is that this was a "weak class" which is not true. Maybe less connected than last year i.e. no Supreme Court Justice's kids... but not weak. I know for a fact Sidwell and St Albans also had worse years than in the past despite the boosterism in these posts.

I think GDS's arrogance (and this goes for the other Big 3's as well) in thinking that all the colleges "know how hard GDS is" is coming home to roost. Nope. They don't know and don't care that many GDS teachers don't give A's. And our kids are seeing the impact. Case in point: Kids with 36 and 35 ACT or 1570 SAT's with high (for GDS) GPA's in the most rigorous classes (we don't have AP's anymore) are getting shut out at schools they would have gotten into 5 years ago. It's a new world, and GDS needs to keep up with the competition- which in part, is public school kids with 5.0 weighted GPA's. I'm not knocking the public schools or even saying the grade inflation is a bad thing, it's just that colleges are not comparing apples with apples when it comes to rigor. GDS kids are not getting credit for how ridiculously hard the classes are. And frankly, yes, I'm happy my kid will be well prepared but getting into a good college that is a good match for them is ALSO part of the equation of sending your kid to private. At this point I actually feel being in a private is a negative when it comes to the admissions game. Whether or not it will be a positive as my kid moves through life, who knows.

the problem is a top school can only take so many kids from a single school or area. So the concentration of high performing privates in DC makes the competition that much stiffer. A top performer at a terrbile DC public school would probably get more attention from a top university in the name of equity and access.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The title of this post is BS. GDS parent here and GDS had a bad year. No going to lie or sugar coat it- last year was stellar, this year is not anywhere near that in terms of ivy league and top 15 schools. Lackluster overall. Of course the school's party line is that this was a "weak class" which is not true. Maybe less connected than last year i.e. no Supreme Court Justice's kids... but not weak. I know for a fact Sidwell and St Albans also had worse years than in the past despite the boosterism in these posts.

I think GDS's arrogance (and this goes for the other Big 3's as well) in thinking that all the colleges "know how hard GDS is" is coming home to roost. Nope. They don't know and don't care that many GDS teachers don't give A's. And our kids are seeing the impact. Case in point: Kids with 36 and 35 ACT or 1570 SAT's with high (for GDS) GPA's in the most rigorous classes (we don't have AP's anymore) are getting shut out at schools they would have gotten into 5 years ago. It's a new world, and GDS needs to keep up with the competition- which in part, is public school kids with 5.0 weighted GPA's. I'm not knocking the public schools or even saying the grade inflation is a bad thing, it's just that colleges are not comparing apples with apples when it comes to rigor. GDS kids are not getting credit for how ridiculously hard the classes are. And frankly, yes, I'm happy my kid will be well prepared but getting into a good college that is a good match for them is ALSO part of the equation of sending your kid to private. At this point I actually feel being in a private is a negative when it comes to the admissions game. Whether or not it will be a positive as my kid moves through life, who knows.

the problem is a top school can only take so many kids from a single school or area. So the concentration of high performing privates in DC makes the competition that much stiffer. A top performer at a terrbile DC public school would probably get more attention from a top university in the name of equity and access.

Maybe because they are a better applicant.

Just joking with ya there. Everyone knows that would be just silly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The title of this post is BS. GDS parent here and GDS had a bad year. No going to lie or sugar coat it- last year was stellar, this year is not anywhere near that in terms of ivy league and top 15 schools. Lackluster overall. Of course the school's party line is that this was a "weak class" which is not true. Maybe less connected than last year i.e. no Supreme Court Justice's kids... but not weak. I know for a fact Sidwell and St Albans also had worse years than in the past despite the boosterism in these posts.

I think GDS's arrogance (and this goes for the other Big 3's as well) in thinking that all the colleges "know how hard GDS is" is coming home to roost. Nope. They don't know and don't care that many GDS teachers don't give A's. And our kids are seeing the impact. Case in point: Kids with 36 and 35 ACT or 1570 SAT's with high (for GDS) GPA's in the most rigorous classes (we don't have AP's anymore) are getting shut out at schools they would have gotten into 5 years ago. It's a new world, and GDS needs to keep up with the competition- which in part, is public school kids with 5.0 weighted GPA's. I'm not knocking the public schools or even saying the grade inflation is a bad thing, it's just that colleges are not comparing apples with apples when it comes to rigor. GDS kids are not getting credit for how ridiculously hard the classes are. And frankly, yes, I'm happy my kid will be well prepared but getting into a good college that is a good match for them is ALSO part of the equation of sending your kid to private. At this point I actually feel being in a private is a negative when it comes to the admissions game. Whether or not it will be a positive as my kid moves through life, who knows.

I think part of the arrogance is thinking your kid is working harder than the top public school kids, many of whom are taking 10 APs, doing activities after school, and so on. The colleges know this even if private school parents don't. I've had kids in both.

Another minor point--no college is impressed by a 5.0 weighted GPA wherever it's earned. They all have their own, proprietary weighting systems. They take your kid's transcript, strip out the existing weights, and reweight so those As in gym and APES or whatever count for less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The title of this post is BS. GDS parent here and GDS had a bad year. No going to lie or sugar coat it- last year was stellar, this year is not anywhere near that in terms of ivy league and top 15 schools. Lackluster overall. Of course the school's party line is that this was a "weak class" which is not true. Maybe less connected than last year i.e. no Supreme Court Justice's kids... but not weak. I know for a fact Sidwell and St Albans also had worse years than in the past despite the boosterism in these posts.

I think GDS's arrogance (and this goes for the other Big 3's as well) in thinking that all the colleges "know how hard GDS is" is coming home to roost. Nope. They don't know and don't care that many GDS teachers don't give A's. And our kids are seeing the impact. Case in point: Kids with 36 and 35 ACT or 1570 SAT's with high (for GDS) GPA's in the most rigorous classes (we don't have AP's anymore) are getting shut out at schools they would have gotten into 5 years ago. It's a new world, and GDS needs to keep up with the competition- which in part, is public school kids with 5.0 weighted GPA's. I'm not knocking the public schools or even saying the grade inflation is a bad thing, it's just that colleges are not comparing apples with apples when it comes to rigor. GDS kids are not getting credit for how ridiculously hard the classes are. And frankly, yes, I'm happy my kid will be well prepared but getting into a good college that is a good match for them is ALSO part of the equation of sending your kid to private. At this point I actually feel being in a private is a negative when it comes to the admissions game. Whether or not it will be a positive as my kid moves through life, who knows.

I think part of the arrogance is thinking your kid is working harder than the top public school kids, many of whom are taking 10 APs, doing activities after school, and so on. The colleges know this even if private school parents don't. I've had kids in both.

Another minor point--no college is impressed by a 5.0 weighted GPA wherever it's earned. They all have their own, proprietary weighting systems. They take your kid's transcript, strip out the existing weights, and reweight so those As in gym and APES or whatever count for less.

.

Well I had a kids in both too and you are incorrect, at least now. Our kid in MOCO public taking a max-ed out AP course load and a kid at a Big 3- and there was no comparison in terms of rigor. During Covid, my kid got A's in public literally for turning their computer on. My kid in private continued to learn and be given difficult assignments, that were graded as usual.

Post-Covid the disparity continues. I am not saying AP courses are not rigorous- they are. But the standards for writing and analysis demanded at our Big 3 are seriously college-level. And in addition to this, there is a school-wide reluctance to give A's- and certain teachers who pride themselves on not giving them. Like it or not, this is the reality of the disparity. Also no school looks at grades in art or gym, private or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The title of this post is BS. GDS parent here and GDS had a bad year. No going to lie or sugar coat it- last year was stellar, this year is not anywhere near that in terms of ivy league and top 15 schools. Lackluster overall. Of course the school's party line is that this was a "weak class" which is not true. Maybe less connected than last year i.e. no Supreme Court Justice's kids... but not weak. I know for a fact Sidwell and St Albans also had worse years than in the past despite the boosterism in these posts.

I think GDS's arrogance (and this goes for the other Big 3's as well) in thinking that all the colleges "know how hard GDS is" is coming home to roost. Nope. They don't know and don't care that many GDS teachers don't give A's. And our kids are seeing the impact. Case in point: Kids with 36 and 35 ACT or 1570 SAT's with high (for GDS) GPA's in the most rigorous classes (we don't have AP's anymore) are getting shut out at schools they would have gotten into 5 years ago. It's a new world, and GDS needs to keep up with the competition- which in part, is public school kids with 5.0 weighted GPA's. I'm not knocking the public schools or even saying the grade inflation is a bad thing, it's just that colleges are not comparing apples with apples when it comes to rigor. GDS kids are not getting credit for how ridiculously hard the classes are. And frankly, yes, I'm happy my kid will be well prepared but getting into a good college that is a good match for them is ALSO part of the equation of sending your kid to private. At this point I actually feel being in a private is a negative when it comes to the admissions game. Whether or not it will be a positive as my kid moves through life, who knows.

I think part of the arrogance is thinking your kid is working harder than the top public school kids, many of whom are taking 10 APs, doing activities after school, and so on. The colleges know this even if private school parents don't. I've had kids in both.

Another minor point--no college is impressed by a 5.0 weighted GPA wherever it's earned. They all have their own, proprietary weighting systems. They take your kid's transcript, strip out the existing weights, and reweight so those As in gym and APES or whatever count for less.

.

Well I had a kids in both too and you are incorrect, at least now. Our kid in MOCO public taking a max-ed out AP course load and a kid at a Big 3- and there was no comparison in terms of rigor. During Covid, my kid got A's in public literally for turning their computer on. My kid in private continued to learn and be given difficult assignments, that were graded as usual.

Post-Covid the disparity continues. I am not saying AP courses are not rigorous- they are. But the standards for writing and analysis demanded at our Big 3 are seriously college-level. And in addition to this, there is a school-wide reluctance to give A's- and certain teachers who pride themselves on not giving them. Like it or not, this is the reality of the disparity. Also no school looks at grades in art or gym, private or not.

What you are saying is that no public school kid could possibly be as good a kid from your “big x” school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The title of this post is BS. GDS parent here and GDS had a bad year. No going to lie or sugar coat it- last year was stellar, this year is not anywhere near that in terms of ivy league and top 15 schools. Lackluster overall. Of course the school's party line is that this was a "weak class" which is not true. Maybe less connected than last year i.e. no Supreme Court Justice's kids... but not weak. I know for a fact Sidwell and St Albans also had worse years than in the past despite the boosterism in these posts.

I think GDS's arrogance (and this goes for the other Big 3's as well) in thinking that all the colleges "know how hard GDS is" is coming home to roost. Nope. They don't know and don't care that many GDS teachers don't give A's. And our kids are seeing the impact. Case in point: Kids with 36 and 35 ACT or 1570 SAT's with high (for GDS) GPA's in the most rigorous classes (we don't have AP's anymore) are getting shut out at schools they would have gotten into 5 years ago. It's a new world, and GDS needs to keep up with the competition- which in part, is public school kids with 5.0 weighted GPA's. I'm not knocking the public schools or even saying the grade inflation is a bad thing, it's just that colleges are not comparing apples with apples when it comes to rigor. GDS kids are not getting credit for how ridiculously hard the classes are. And frankly, yes, I'm happy my kid will be well prepared but getting into a good college that is a good match for them is ALSO part of the equation of sending your kid to private. At this point I actually feel being in a private is a negative when it comes to the admissions game. Whether or not it will be a positive as my kid moves through life, who knows.

I think part of the arrogance is thinking your kid is working harder than the top public school kids, many of whom are taking 10 APs, doing activities after school, and so on. The colleges know this even if private school parents don't. I've had kids in both.

Another minor point--no college is impressed by a 5.0 weighted GPA wherever it's earned. They all have their own, proprietary weighting systems. They take your kid's transcript, strip out the existing weights, and reweight so those As in gym and APES or whatever count for less.

.

Well I had a kids in both too and you are incorrect, at least now. Our kid in MOCO public taking a max-ed out AP course load and a kid at a Big 3- and there was no comparison in terms of rigor. During Covid, my kid got A's in public literally for turning their computer on. My kid in private continued to learn and be given difficult assignments, that were graded as usual.

Post-Covid the disparity continues. I am not saying AP courses are not rigorous- they are. But the standards for writing and analysis demanded at our Big 3 are seriously college-level. And in addition to this, there is a school-wide reluctance to give A's- and certain teachers who pride themselves on not giving them. Like it or not, this is the reality of the disparity. Also no school looks at grades in art or gym, private or not.

What you are saying is that no public school kid could possibly be as good a kid from your “big x” school.

Nope. If you actually read the post without a chip on your shoulder you would see I am simply saying the private school is more rigorous and grades harder than the public, at least in our experience, NOT that my private school kid is better in any way than our kid in public. In fact, I think the kids in public may have a better outcome and a better trajectory. But the private school is academically harder - even when you compare it to kids taking a full load of AP's. Just our POV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The title of this post is BS. GDS parent here and GDS had a bad year. No going to lie or sugar coat it- last year was stellar, this year is not anywhere near that in terms of ivy league and top 15 schools. Lackluster overall. Of course the school's party line is that this was a "weak class" which is not true. Maybe less connected than last year i.e. no Supreme Court Justice's kids... but not weak. I know for a fact Sidwell and St Albans also had worse years than in the past despite the boosterism in these posts.

I think GDS's arrogance (and this goes for the other Big 3's as well) in thinking that all the colleges "know how hard GDS is" is coming home to roost. Nope. They don't know and don't care that many GDS teachers don't give A's. And our kids are seeing the impact. Case in point: Kids with 36 and 35 ACT or 1570 SAT's with high (for GDS) GPA's in the most rigorous classes (we don't have AP's anymore) are getting shut out at schools they would have gotten into 5 years ago. It's a new world, and GDS needs to keep up with the competition- which in part, is public school kids with 5.0 weighted GPA's. I'm not knocking the public schools or even saying the grade inflation is a bad thing, it's just that colleges are not comparing apples with apples when it comes to rigor. GDS kids are not getting credit for how ridiculously hard the classes are. And frankly, yes, I'm happy my kid will be well prepared but getting into a good college that is a good match for them is ALSO part of the equation of sending your kid to private. At this point I actually feel being in a private is a negative when it comes to the admissions game. Whether or not it will be a positive as my kid moves through life, who knows.

I think part of the arrogance is thinking your kid is working harder than the top public school kids, many of whom are taking 10 APs, doing activities after school, and so on. The colleges know this even if private school parents don't. I've had kids in both.

Another minor point--no college is impressed by a 5.0 weighted GPA wherever it's earned. They all have their own, proprietary weighting systems. They take your kid's transcript, strip out the existing weights, and reweight so those As in gym and APES or whatever count for less.

.

Well I had a kids in both too and you are incorrect, at least now. Our kid in MOCO public taking a max-ed out AP course load and a kid at a Big 3- and there was no comparison in terms of rigor. During Covid, my kid got A's in public literally for turning their computer on. My kid in private continued to learn and be given difficult assignments, that were graded as usual.

Post-Covid the disparity continues. I am not saying AP courses are not rigorous- they are. But the standards for writing and analysis demanded at our Big 3 are seriously college-level. And in addition to this, there is a school-wide reluctance to give A's- and certain teachers who pride themselves on not giving them. Like it or not, this is the reality of the disparity. Also no school looks at grades in art or gym, private or not.

What you are saying is that no public school kid could possibly be as good a kid from your “big x” school.

Nope. If you actually read the post without a chip on your shoulder you would see I am simply saying the private school is more rigorous and grades harder than the public, at least in our experience, NOT that my private school kid is better in any way than our kid in public. In fact, I think the kids in public may have a better outcome and a better trajectory. But the private school is academically harder - even when you compare it to kids taking a full load of AP's. Just our POV.

Same here. I had twins in both: Big3 and good public (public taking 12+ APs), Big3 was hands down more rigorous--Almost twice as hard, Im not sure it was worth it--but 5tgere was no doubt that it was night and day over public (no late work, no retakes, harder grading, 200% more writing in all subjects, etc etc)

Our third kid is in 7th grade and we're undecided what to do with this kid--will ultimately let her decide but she's our kid who had always looked to us for help with decisions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is at NCS.
From what I can tell:
20% Ivies
10% U of Chicago
10% other top 20 universities
10% top 10 liberal arts colleges
Etc.
That is 50% of the class into TOP20 colleges/universities. Minimum.

Even with the deflated GPAs (well under 4.0), almost no APs, etc.

STA is similar.
Sidwell has pretty much gotten the entire class in top50 schools.
GDS is a bit uneven.

GDS is not a Big 3. Why even mention it?

You are rather a kid or a looser.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is at NCS.
From what I can tell:
20% Ivies
10% U of Chicago
10% other top 20 universities
10% top 10 liberal arts colleges
Etc.
That is 50% of the class into TOP20 colleges/universities. Minimum.

Even with the deflated GPAs (well under 4.0), almost no APs, etc.

STA is similar.
Sidwell has pretty much gotten the entire class in top50 schools.
GDS is a bit uneven.

Am I the only one that actually thinks the %age going to top 20 schools should be much higher than 50%?

Curious if anyone knows the %age from 10 or 20 years ago.

No. Why should going to a freaking $50,000/year private high school entitle you to go to a top 20 school?

You are missing the point…OP is bragging that the school did so well with top 20 admissions…I thought they were going to say 80%+ were accepted Top 20…50% is fine, but I bet it was much higher in previous years.

How did the NCS arrive at the 20% Ivy statistic?

My understanding is that NCS usually has 70-75 graduating seniors. So far, 66 NCS students have posted their college destinations. Of the 66 students, 8 (12%) are heading to Ivies. Are we to believe that the remaining 4 students are all heading to the Ivies? Even if the 4 students, who haven’t posted, are attending Ivies in the fall that still brings the total for future NCS Ivy Leaguers to only 17%.

I personally know two NCS seniors who haven't posted on IG = one is going to Harvard; the other to Yale