Sidwell Junior - GPA concerns

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP You should be worried if your kid is shooting for Ivy's/Stanford/Duke/MIT and even highly selective state schools.

We are at another big 3 and the party line is "All the colleges know how hard our school is and that no one gets all A's" Our kid took the most rigorous classes and had a similar GPA- bit higher and a 1540 SAT plus good ec's etc etc. Guess what - Rejected early at Ivy. Friend with similar stats rejected at Michigan. I know a dozen examples. Yes alums, athletes and URM are still getting in - but the regular "smart" kids who don't have the 4.0 Plus because our schools don't weight and now we don't have AP's are getting shut out.

Things are changing the colleges want the 4.8's and don't care that our schools don't give out 4.0's easily And our schools are too arrogant to acknowledge it. If this continues to play out with lackluster admissions something will hopefully change. Too Late for my kid.

Your kid would have been rejected whether there was grade deflation or not. You don't get it. The only Big 3 kids the T20 want are hooked kids.

I'm still holding out some hope in RD for my 3.85+ kid...but it definitely feels bleak so far.

What is the class rank of 3.85 at Sidwell?

Roughly 20/25

Do you work at Sidwell? I think you made this up. There should not be 20/25 kids above 3.85 if the median is 3.55/3.60.

Did not make it up. Make of it what you will.

How many then at 3.9-4.0?

Maybe 1-2 per year. Very rare.

Totally wrong.

I understand that there is only one current 11th grade student with straight As (no A- or below). One, not 1-2, but rather only one. And that’s only halfway through junior year. So who knows if there will be any students with a 4.0 by the end of senior year.

How many straight As (no A- or below) in current 12th grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP You should be worried if your kid is shooting for Ivy's/Stanford/Duke/MIT and even highly selective state schools.

We are at another big 3 and the party line is "All the colleges know how hard our school is and that no one gets all A's" Our kid took the most rigorous classes and had a similar GPA- bit higher and a 1540 SAT plus good ec's etc etc. Guess what - Rejected early at Ivy. Friend with similar stats rejected at Michigan. I know a dozen examples. Yes alums, athletes and URM are still getting in - but the regular "smart" kids who don't have the 4.0 Plus because our schools don't weight and now we don't have AP's are getting shut out.

Things are changing the colleges want the 4.8's and don't care that our schools don't give out 4.0's easily And our schools are too arrogant to acknowledge it. If this continues to play out with lackluster admissions something will hopefully change. Too Late for my kid.

Your kid would have been rejected whether there was grade deflation or not. You don't get it. The only Big 3 kids the T20 want are hooked kids.

I'm still holding out some hope in RD for my 3.85+ kid...but it definitely feels bleak so far.

I don’t know. Don’t want to say anything I don’t know based on close information.

What is the class rank of 3.85 at Sidwell?

Roughly 20/25

Do you work at Sidwell? I think you made this up. There should not be 20/25 kids above 3.85 if the median is 3.55/3.60.

Did not make it up. Make of it what you will.

How many then at 3.9-4.0?

Maybe 1-2 per year. Very rare.

Totally wrong.

I understand that there is only one current 11th grade student with straight As (no A- or below). One, not 1-2, but rather only one. And that’s only halfway through junior year. So who knows if there will be any students with a 4.0 by the end of senior year.

How many straight As (no A- or below) in current 12th grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP You should be worried if your kid is shooting for Ivy's/Stanford/Duke/MIT and even highly selective state schools.

We are at another big 3 and the party line is "All the colleges know how hard our school is and that no one gets all A's" Our kid took the most rigorous classes and had a similar GPA- bit higher and a 1540 SAT plus good ec's etc etc. Guess what - Rejected early at Ivy. Friend with similar stats rejected at Michigan. I know a dozen examples. Yes alums, athletes and URM are still getting in - but the regular "smart" kids who don't have the 4.0 Plus because our schools don't weight and now we don't have AP's are getting shut out.

Things are changing the colleges want the 4.8's and don't care that our schools don't give out 4.0's easily And our schools are too arrogant to acknowledge it. If this continues to play out with lackluster admissions something will hopefully change. Too Late for my kid.

Your kid would have been rejected whether there was grade deflation or not. You don't get it. The only Big 3 kids the T20 want are hooked kids.

I'm still holding out some hope in RD for my 3.85+ kid...but it definitely feels bleak so far.

What is the class rank of 3.85 at Sidwell?

Roughly 20/25

Do you work at Sidwell? I think you made this up. There should not be 20/25 kids above 3.85 if the median is 3.55/3.60.

Did not make it up. Make of it what you will.

How many then at 3.9-4.0?

Maybe 1-2 per year. Very rare.

Totally wrong.

I understand that there is only one current 11th grade student with straight As (no A- or below). One, not 1-2, but rather only one. And that’s only halfway through junior year. So who knows if there will be any students with a 4.0 by the end of senior year.

How do people even know this kind of information? I have no clue where my GDS high schooler's GPA falls in the class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP You should be worried if your kid is shooting for Ivy's/Stanford/Duke/MIT and even highly selective state schools.

We are at another big 3 and the party line is "All the colleges know how hard our school is and that no one gets all A's" Our kid took the most rigorous classes and had a similar GPA- bit higher and a 1540 SAT plus good ec's etc etc. Guess what - Rejected early at Ivy. Friend with similar stats rejected at Michigan. I know a dozen examples. Yes alums, athletes and URM are still getting in - but the regular "smart" kids who don't have the 4.0 Plus because our schools don't weight and now we don't have AP's are getting shut out.

Things are changing the colleges want the 4.8's and don't care that our schools don't give out 4.0's easily And our schools are too arrogant to acknowledge it. If this continues to play out with lackluster admissions something will hopefully change. Too Late for my kid.

Your kid would have been rejected whether there was grade deflation or not. You don't get it. The only Big 3 kids the T20 want are hooked kids.

I'm still holding out some hope in RD for my 3.85+ kid...but it definitely feels bleak so far.

What is the class rank of 3.85 at Sidwell?

Roughly 20/25

Do you work at Sidwell? I think you made this up. There should not be 20/25 kids above 3.85 if the median is 3.55/3.60.

Did not make it up. Make of it what you will.

How many then at 3.9-4.0?

Maybe 1-2 per year. Very rare.

Totally wrong.

I understand that there is only one current 11th grade student with straight As (no A- or below). One, not 1-2, but rather only one. And that’s only halfway through junior year. So who knows if there will be any students with a 4.0 by the end of senior year.

How do people even know this kind of information? I have no clue where my GDS high schooler's GPA falls in the class.

Must be kids talking to each other and then child talking to parent. Neither is applicable for us - and if you have a kid who isn't sharing grades with others (or one who isn't honest with others), that system breaks down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP You should be worried if your kid is shooting for Ivy's/Stanford/Duke/MIT and even highly selective state schools.

We are at another big 3 and the party line is "All the colleges know how hard our school is and that no one gets all A's" Our kid took the most rigorous classes and had a similar GPA- bit higher and a 1540 SAT plus good ec's etc etc. Guess what - Rejected early at Ivy. Friend with similar stats rejected at Michigan. I know a dozen examples. Yes alums, athletes and URM are still getting in - but the regular "smart" kids who don't have the 4.0 Plus because our schools don't weight and now we don't have AP's are getting shut out.

Things are changing the colleges want the 4.8's and don't care that our schools don't give out 4.0's easily And our schools are too arrogant to acknowledge it. If this continues to play out with lackluster admissions something will hopefully change. Too Late for my kid.

Your kid would have been rejected whether there was grade deflation or not. You don't get it. The only Big 3 kids the T20 want are hooked kids.

I'm still holding out some hope in RD for my 3.85+ kid...but it definitely feels bleak so far.

What is the class rank of 3.85 at Sidwell?

Roughly 20/25

Do you work at Sidwell? I think you made this up. There should not be 20/25 kids above 3.85 if the median is 3.55/3.60.

Did not make it up. Make of it what you will.

How many then at 3.9-4.0?

Maybe 1-2 per year. Very rare.

Totally wrong.

I understand that there is only one current 11th grade student with straight As (no A- or below). One, not 1-2, but rather only one. And that’s only halfway through junior year. So who knows if there will be any students with a 4.0 by the end of senior year.

So, 4.0 is rare. But 3.9-4, much less so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have kids at two Big3 schools and have found that a 3.8 or even 3.85 is totally doable for a smart, super diligent student.

A 3.95 is different territory. It means that the student excels equally in all subjects and never receives more than one A- a year. It's rare for a kid to be able to get As in all disciplines--usually you have the kids who get high As in math/science but A minuses in the humanities (or the other way around).

Plus a lot of this comes down to luck--teachers do not grade the same. There are teachers at these schools who don't give As. Or maybe they max out at giving two As per year. If you're not in the top 2 kids in the class, you get an A-. Goodbye to your 4.0 or 3.95 right there.

All correct. But, do not underestimate the ability of wealthy parents to arrange things for their DCs (tutoring/paper writers etc) to make life easier. And there are a lot of ultra wealthy parents at Sidwell.

Totally BS. With $55K tutiion, Sidwell probably has at least 50% wealthy parents by your standard. Are there 50% students in a grade having 3.95 GPA?

These are your assumptions/extrapolations (50 percent, 3.95 etc). The fact is that the ultra wealthy nudge their DCs outcomes upwards in all manner of ways (some more aggressively than others). This is not especially controversial news -- everyone in the school community is well aware.

Yes, and, in this context, worth distinguishing between the very well off, the wealthy and the ultra wealthy. The latter two categories do not notice much the 55K they pay for each kid. They would be quite happy to pay double that, get rid of the riff-riff and double their DC's chances at HYPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The letters can indicate this stuff. The school knows and finds ways.

I hope this is true. The accommodations abuse has simply gone out of hand. Not much the school can do when faced with medical certification.

You have no idea what you are talking about. Why would you impose a barrier to a child with a disability being able to illustrate their knowledge of a subject matter? Why wouldn't you eliminate the barrier caused by their disability so they can show what they know, instead of simply being tested for how bad the disability impairs them? All of these accommodations simply eliminate physical processing issues, slow writing, attention refocusing time, visual impairments. None of them help a kid to know the answers. Some kids with extra time get high scores and some get low scores according to their knowledge of the subject matter. What has been eliminated is the barrier to showing what they know caused by a real disability.

Do you really wish your kid had ADHD? Fool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP You should be worried if your kid is shooting for Ivy's/Stanford/Duke/MIT and even highly selective state schools.

We are at another big 3 and the party line is "All the colleges know how hard our school is and that no one gets all A's" Our kid took the most rigorous classes and had a similar GPA- bit higher and a 1540 SAT plus good ec's etc etc. Guess what - Rejected early at Ivy. Friend with similar stats rejected at Michigan. I know a dozen examples. Yes alums, athletes and URM are still getting in - but the regular "smart" kids who don't have the 4.0 Plus because our schools don't weight and now we don't have AP's are getting shut out.

Things are changing the colleges want the 4.8's and don't care that our schools don't give out 4.0's easily And our schools are too arrogant to acknowledge it. If this continues to play out with lackluster admissions something will hopefully change. Too Late for my kid.

Your kid would have been rejected whether there was grade deflation or not. You don't get it. The only Big 3 kids the T20 want are hooked kids.

I'm still holding out some hope in RD for my 3.85+ kid...but it definitely feels bleak so far.

What is the class rank of 3.85 at Sidwell?

Roughly 20/25

Do you work at Sidwell? I think you made this up. There should not be 20/25 kids above 3.85 if the median is 3.55/3.60.

Did not make it up. Make of it what you will.

How many then at 3.9-4.0?

Maybe 1-2 per year. Very rare.

Totally wrong.

I understand that there is only one current 11th grade student with straight As (no A- or below). One, not 1-2, but rather only one. And that’s only halfway through junior year. So who knows if there will be any students with a 4.0 by the end of senior year.

How do people even know this kind of information? I have no clue where my GDS high schooler's GPA falls in the class.

Must be kids talking to each other and then child talking to parent. Neither is applicable for us - and if you have a kid who isn't sharing grades with others (or one who isn't honest with others), that system breaks down.

Because it’s not a system; it’s gossip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The letters can indicate this stuff. The school knows and finds ways.

I hope this is true. The accommodations abuse has simply gone out of hand. Not much the school can do when faced with medical certification.

You have no idea what you are talking about. Why would you impose a barrier to a child with a disability being able to illustrate their knowledge of a subject matter? Why wouldn't you eliminate the barrier caused by their disability so they can show what they know, instead of simply being tested for how bad the disability impairs them? All of these accommodations simply eliminate physical processing issues, slow writing, attention refocusing time, visual impairments. None of them help a kid to know the answers. Some kids with extra time get high scores and some get low scores according to their knowledge of the subject matter. What has been eliminated is the barrier to showing what they know caused by a real disability.

Do you really wish your kid had ADHD? Fool.

Real ADHD, no. Fake ADHD is a different matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The letters can indicate this stuff. The school knows and finds ways.

I hope this is true. The accommodations abuse has simply gone out of hand. Not much the school can do when faced with medical certification.

You have no idea what you are talking about. Why would you impose a barrier to a child with a disability being able to illustrate their knowledge of a subject matter? Why wouldn't you eliminate the barrier caused by their disability so they can show what they know, instead of simply being tested for how bad the disability impairs them? All of these accommodations simply eliminate physical processing issues, slow writing, attention refocusing time, visual impairments. None of them help a kid to know the answers. Some kids with extra time get high scores and some get low scores according to their knowledge of the subject matter. What has been eliminated is the barrier to showing what they know caused by a real disability.

Do you really wish your kid had ADHD? Fool.

Exactly, it was the abuse re ADHD that PP was mentioning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have kids at two Big3 schools and have found that a 3.8 or even 3.85 is totally doable for a smart, super diligent student.

A 3.95 is different territory. It means that the student excels equally in all subjects and never receives more than one A- a year. It's rare for a kid to be able to get As in all disciplines--usually you have the kids who get high As in math/science but A minuses in the humanities (or the other way around).

Plus a lot of this comes down to luck--teachers do not grade the same. There are teachers at these schools who don't give As. Or maybe they max out at giving two As per year. If you're not in the top 2 kids in the class, you get an A-. Goodbye to your 4.0 or 3.95 right there.

All correct. But, do not underestimate the ability of wealthy parents to arrange things for their DCs (tutoring/paper writers etc) to make life easier. And there are a lot of ultra wealthy parents at Sidwell.

Totally BS. With $55K tutiion, Sidwell probably has at least 50% wealthy parents by your standard. Are there 50% students in a grade having 3.95 GPA?

These are your assumptions/extrapolations (50 percent, 3.95 etc). The fact is that the ultra wealthy nudge their DCs outcomes upwards in all manner of ways (some more aggressively than others). This is not especially controversial news -- everyone in the school community is well aware.

Yes, and, in this context, worth distinguishing between the very well off, the wealthy and the ultra wealthy. The latter two categories do not notice much the 55K they pay for each kid. They would be quite happy to pay double that, get rid of the riff-riff and double their DC's chances at HYPS.

At double that plus a bit you’re looking at schools that don’t in fact have a chance at HYP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The letters can indicate this stuff. The school knows and finds ways.

Are you from Sidwell CCO? How do you know the couselor's letter indicates a student has accomendations?

No one wants a Varsity Blues on their hands. So there are ways to signal when fakers. There are obvious bs certificates or highly exaggerated situations. Kids talk too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP You should be worried if your kid is shooting for Ivy's/Stanford/Duke/MIT and even highly selective state schools.

We are at another big 3 and the party line is "All the colleges know how hard our school is and that no one gets all A's" Our kid took the most rigorous classes and had a similar GPA- bit higher and a 1540 SAT plus good ec's etc etc. Guess what - Rejected early at Ivy. Friend with similar stats rejected at Michigan. I know a dozen examples. Yes alums, athletes and URM are still getting in - but the regular "smart" kids who don't have the 4.0 Plus because our schools don't weight and now we don't have AP's are getting shut out.

Things are changing the colleges want the 4.8's and don't care that our schools don't give out 4.0's easily And our schools are too arrogant to acknowledge it. If this continues to play out with lackluster admissions something will hopefully change. Too Late for my kid.

Your kid would have been rejected whether there was grade deflation or not. You don't get it. The only Big 3 kids the T20 want are hooked kids.

I'm still holding out some hope in RD for my 3.85+ kid...but it definitely feels bleak so far.

What is the class rank of 3.85 at Sidwell?

Roughly 20/25

Do you work at Sidwell? I think you made this up. There should not be 20/25 kids above 3.85 if the median is 3.55/3.60.

Did not make it up. Make of it what you will.

How many then at 3.9-4.0?

Maybe 1-2 per year. Very rare.

Totally wrong.

I understand that there is only one current 11th grade student with straight As (no A- or below). One, not 1-2, but rather only one. And that’s only halfway through junior year. So who knows if there will be any students with a 4.0 by the end of senior year.

So, 4.0 is rare. But 3.9-4, much less so.

This focus on school GPAs is all very cute. Warms my heart to see such belief that we are operating in a meritocracy. It has nearly nothing to do with admissions at the very top schools, however. Questions you need to ask yourself: Are you URM. If your DC a top athlete? Do you cover the White House for CNN? And so on..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP You should be worried if your kid is shooting for Ivy's/Stanford/Duke/MIT and even highly selective state schools.

We are at another big 3 and the party line is "All the colleges know how hard our school is and that no one gets all A's" Our kid took the most rigorous classes and had a similar GPA- bit higher and a 1540 SAT plus good ec's etc etc. Guess what - Rejected early at Ivy. Friend with similar stats rejected at Michigan. I know a dozen examples. Yes alums, athletes and URM are still getting in - but the regular "smart" kids who don't have the 4.0 Plus because our schools don't weight and now we don't have AP's are getting shut out.

Things are changing the colleges want the 4.8's and don't care that our schools don't give out 4.0's easily And our schools are too arrogant to acknowledge it. If this continues to play out with lackluster admissions something will hopefully change. Too Late for my kid.

Your kid would have been rejected whether there was grade deflation or not. You don't get it. The only Big 3 kids the T20 want are hooked kids.

I'm still holding out some hope in RD for my 3.85+ kid...but it definitely feels bleak so far.

What is the class rank of 3.85 at Sidwell?

Roughly 20/25

Do you work at Sidwell? I think you made this up. There should not be 20/25 kids above 3.85 if the median is 3.55/3.60.

Did not make it up. Make of it what you will.

How many then at 3.9-4.0?

Maybe 1-2 per year. Very rare.

Totally wrong.

I understand that there is only one current 11th grade student with straight As (no A- or below). One, not 1-2, but rather only one. And that’s only halfway through junior year. So who knows if there will be any students with a 4.0 by the end of senior year.

How do people even know this kind of information? I have no clue where my GDS high schooler's GPA falls in the class.

Must be kids talking to each other and then child talking to parent. Neither is applicable for us - and if you have a kid who isn't sharing grades with others (or one who isn't honest with others), that system breaks down.

Because it’s not a system; it’s gossip.

Yes - that's why I added the that point. It's not fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The letters can indicate this stuff. The school knows and finds ways.

Are you from Sidwell CCO? How do you know the couselor's letter indicates a student has accomendations?

No one wants a Varsity Blues on their hands. So there are ways to signal when fakers. There are obvious bs certificates or highly exaggerated situations. Kids talk too

No college counselor is going to share private disability information in a rec letter. They don’t even know the kids well enough to assess whether their disability is “fake” or not. And they’re not qualified to make that assessment, even if they did have the time to do a full neuropsych evaluation. You’re being ridiculous.