Sidwell College Admissions This Year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a child who graduated from Stuyvesant HS in NYC, which is a large, public, test-in school. Parents and kids were given full access to Naviance and we found it really helpful in generating a college list. It was packed with data for the school and really good information. I'm really surprised that Sidwell doesn't give parents full access to Naviance.

People need to calm down. Sidwell senior parent here. We do not have remote access to Naviance but my DC made appointments with CCO to see graphs and I did as well. I wlll say there were some that were such a crap shoot it did not help with the list but I was allowed to see as many scattergrams as I wanted and DC was to. If you want to see the scattergrams - reach out to the CCO and look at them! Geez

+1

And if your individual counselor won't do it, then reach out to the department head. She is easy to work with.

My DC has the CC that severely limited access to Naviance and it was presented as CCO policy. How were we to know that other counselors were giving their seniors more, easier access? I didn't know until I started reading this thread, loooong after my DC's applications were complete.

In hindsight, I could have gone to the head of CC to ask for more, but should the CCO operate this way? Should parents be forced to read threads on DCUM to know what should be available to students and parents?

There has been a lot of bellyaching here about the Sidwell CCO not getting LARLA into Harvard, rude, demanding, entitled parents expecting XYZ because "that's what we paid for", etc and I have not doubt that is entirely driven by the DUCM troll army.

However, there are some very legitimate complaints about the Sidwell CCO being shared here, not the least of which being the extremely inconsistent level of "counseling" offered by the various CC's. I hope actual Sidwell parents (because, lets be honest, 50%?, 75%, of the posters here have no actual experience with Sidwell) will read the comments of other actual Sidwell parents who's experience differ and extend a little grace to those of us who've found the experience of working with the CCO to be frustrating and disappointing.

Well said. As a Sidwell parent, wish know this earlier

We have about 24,000 people dying each year due to lack of health insurance or access to adequate health care. Stop whining. Do better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a child who graduated from Stuyvesant HS in NYC, which is a large, public, test-in school. Parents and kids were given full access to Naviance and we found it really helpful in generating a college list. It was packed with data for the school and really good information. I'm really surprised that Sidwell doesn't give parents full access to Naviance.

People need to calm down. Sidwell senior parent here. We do not have remote access to Naviance but my DC made appointments with CCO to see graphs and I did as well. I wlll say there were some that were such a crap shoot it did not help with the list but I was allowed to see as many scattergrams as I wanted and DC was to. If you want to see the scattergrams - reach out to the CCO and look at them! Geez

+1

And if your individual counselor won't do it, then reach out to the department head. She is easy to work with.

My DC has the CC that severely limited access to Naviance and it was presented as CCO policy. How were we to know that other counselors were giving their seniors more, easier access? I didn't know until I started reading this thread, loooong after my DC's applications were complete.

In hindsight, I could have gone to the head of CC to ask for more, but should the CCO operate this way? Should parents be forced to read threads on DCUM to know what should be available to students and parents?

There has been a lot of bellyaching here about the Sidwell CCO not getting LARLA into Harvard, rude, demanding, entitled parents expecting XYZ because "that's what we paid for", etc and I have not doubt that is entirely driven by the DUCM troll army.

However, there are some very legitimate complaints about the Sidwell CCO being shared here, not the least of which being the extremely inconsistent level of "counseling" offered by the various CC's. I hope actual Sidwell parents (because, lets be honest, 50%?, 75%, of the posters here have no actual experience with Sidwell) will read the comments of other actual Sidwell parents who's experience differ and extend a little grace to those of us who've found the experience of working with the CCO to be frustrating and disappointing.

Well said. As a Sidwell parent, wish know this earlier

We have about 24,000 people dying each year due to lack of health insurance or access to adequate health care. Stop whining. Do better.

Why are you still in this board?LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a child who graduated from Stuyvesant HS in NYC, which is a large, public, test-in school. Parents and kids were given full access to Naviance and we found it really helpful in generating a college list. It was packed with data for the school and really good information. I'm really surprised that Sidwell doesn't give parents full access to Naviance.

People need to calm down. Sidwell senior parent here. We do not have remote access to Naviance but my DC made appointments with CCO to see graphs and I did as well. I wlll say there were some that were such a crap shoot it did not help with the list but I was allowed to see as many scattergrams as I wanted and DC was to. If you want to see the scattergrams - reach out to the CCO and look at them! Geez

+1

And if your individual counselor won't do it, then reach out to the department head. She is easy to work with.

My DC has the CC that severely limited access to Naviance and it was presented as CCO policy. How were we to know that other counselors were giving their seniors more, easier access? I didn't know until I started reading this thread, loooong after my DC's applications were complete.

In hindsight, I could have gone to the head of CC to ask for more, but should the CCO operate this way? Should parents be forced to read threads on DCUM to know what should be available to students and parents?

There has been a lot of bellyaching here about the Sidwell CCO not getting LARLA into Harvard, rude, demanding, entitled parents expecting XYZ because "that's what we paid for", etc and I have not doubt that is entirely driven by the DUCM troll army.

However, there are some very legitimate complaints about the Sidwell CCO being shared here, not the least of which being the extremely inconsistent level of "counseling" offered by the various CC's. I hope actual Sidwell parents (because, lets be honest, 50%?, 75%, of the posters here have no actual experience with Sidwell) will read the comments of other actual Sidwell parents who's experience differ and extend a little grace to those of us who've found the experience of working with the CCO to be frustrating and disappointing.

Well said. As a Sidwell parent, wish know this earlier

We have about 24,000 people dying each year due to lack of health insurance or access to adequate health care. Stop whining. Do better.

Why are you still in this board?LOL

Do you mean ON this board? You must not be Sidwell parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a child who graduated from Stuyvesant HS in NYC, which is a large, public, test-in school. Parents and kids were given full access to Naviance and we found it really helpful in generating a college list. It was packed with data for the school and really good information. I'm really surprised that Sidwell doesn't give parents full access to Naviance.

People need to calm down. Sidwell senior parent here. We do not have remote access to Naviance but my DC made appointments with CCO to see graphs and I did as well. I wlll say there were some that were such a crap shoot it did not help with the list but I was allowed to see as many scattergrams as I wanted and DC was to. If you want to see the scattergrams - reach out to the CCO and look at them! Geez

Another Sidwell senior parent here. That was not the way it worked for us and our DC, at all.

How long was your meeting at which you were allowed to see as many scattergrams as you wanted? How many did you look at?

We had a 40-45min meeting and looked at about 10-12 scattergrams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell is the same every year.

Legacy (there are A LOT of them), URM, Athletes: They do great and create the mystique of the almighty Sidwell.

By the way, this exact same group would have done just as well from public schools.

Then there is the rest - about 2/3rds of the school. They have mostly paid full tuition so the people in the first 1/3 group get to go to their first choice school. The rest financed that for group 1.

It's such a scam.

They wont even show naviance until it's too late. Then you realize: wait, there is no Sidwell bump. In fact, because the people in the first group were already accepted mostly early, there arent many spots left in the Top 25 schools for a normal kid.

GOOD LUCK suckers

We can totally relate to this but aren’t feeling that cynical.

Well said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I'm just reading this and I'm really confused as to why parents at Sidwell would accept not having your own login to Naviance. And what's with students having to make appointments to meet with the counselors?!

My kid is a senior at Basis DC. There are about 50 seniors. They have a class each day with their college counselor (2 of them) when they get help with all stages of the application process from generating a list of schools to brainstorming their essays and writing and then editing them. My DC's counselor is a really helpful and competent person who knows what she's doing. She reviewed DC's scores and GPA and a questionnaire that DC completed about interests and school preferences, then met with DC and us for over an hour twice junior year to share her thoughts on the types of schools that should get included on DC's list. During the class senior year, the counselors had lots of school reps do Zoom presentations to the students. They also did things like encourage us to sign up for the CTCL sessions that spanned a few days and that was super helpful. Over the summer we had to do some travel, so in June I gave our itinerary to the counselor and she came up with a list of about a dozen schools that fit the criteria for DC and links to them. In the fall semester of senior year, she was available on weekends, especially those before the big filing deadlines. She was even available over the winter holidays for the kids and us parents. I felt bad about bothering her at night and on weekends at first, but then it became clear that she was happy to be of help. We had two formal meetings as a family with her that lasted over an hour each. But our email chains and phone conversations need their own folder in my email box because we have communicated multiple times each week during senior year. And of course, Basis DC gave all of us free access to Naviance so that we could do all the comparison between various schools of interest ourselves and make better use of the counselor's time when we did ask for guidance.

I really have a hard time believing that we got all this for free when people who pay top dollar at Sidwell don't. It's just so odd. Oh, and Basis DC does not limit how many schools the students can apply to. I had planned to hire someone to help with the application process, but it turned out that this wasn't necessary since the school provided so much support.

+100 Same at Latin. Also for free. Why do Sidwell parents put up with this?

Because we have no choice. We are cowed into submission. Because if we try to push back at all, we are labeled as too difficult, too demanding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell is the same every year.

Legacy (there are A LOT of them), URM, Athletes: They do great and create the mystique of the almighty Sidwell.

By the way, this exact same group would have done just as well from public schools.

Then there is the rest - about 2/3rds of the school. They have mostly paid full tuition so the people in the first 1/3 group get to go to their first choice school. The rest financed that for group 1.

It's such a scam.

They wont even show naviance until it's too late. Then you realize: wait, there is no Sidwell bump. In fact, because the people in the first group were already accepted mostly early, there arent many spots left in the Top 25 schools for a normal kid.

GOOD LUCK suckers

No school has a "bump"...no one sends their kids to Sidwell or any other school for "better" college matriculation. In fact, if the kid is truly talented, it is actually a negative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I'm just reading this and I'm really confused as to why parents at Sidwell would accept not having your own login to Naviance. And what's with students having to make appointments to meet with the counselors?!

My kid is a senior at Basis DC. There are about 50 seniors. They have a class each day with their college counselor (2 of them) when they get help with all stages of the application process from generating a list of schools to brainstorming their essays and writing and then editing them. My DC's counselor is a really helpful and competent person who knows what she's doing. She reviewed DC's scores and GPA and a questionnaire that DC completed about interests and school preferences, then met with DC and us for over an hour twice junior year to share her thoughts on the types of schools that should get included on DC's list. During the class senior year, the counselors had lots of school reps do Zoom presentations to the students. They also did things like encourage us to sign up for the CTCL sessions that spanned a few days and that was super helpful. Over the summer we had to do some travel, so in June I gave our itinerary to the counselor and she came up with a list of about a dozen schools that fit the criteria for DC and links to them. In the fall semester of senior year, she was available on weekends, especially those before the big filing deadlines. She was even available over the winter holidays for the kids and us parents. I felt bad about bothering her at night and on weekends at first, but then it became clear that she was happy to be of help. We had two formal meetings as a family with her that lasted over an hour each. But our email chains and phone conversations need their own folder in my email box because we have communicated multiple times each week during senior year. And of course, Basis DC gave all of us free access to Naviance so that we could do all the comparison between various schools of interest ourselves and make better use of the counselor's time when we did ask for guidance.

I really have a hard time believing that we got all this for free when people who pay top dollar at Sidwell don't. It's just so odd. Oh, and Basis DC does not limit how many schools the students can apply to. I had planned to hire someone to help with the application process, but it turned out that this wasn't necessary since the school provided so much support.

+100 Same at Latin. Also for free. Why do Sidwell parents put up with this?

Because we have no choice. We are cowed into submission. Because if we try to push back at all, we are labeled as too difficult, too demanding.

It's a tiny bit worse: The school has to pay for Naviance - with tuition dollars. These parents are paying for it and not getting to use it the way it was intended.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happened with Brown? Why a washout?

An oversized number of kids applied ED and none were admitted and several were rejected outright.

Seems like Brown is sending a message to the Sidwell - you're letting too many apply.

Why is Brown so popular? It's a good school but not stupendously great compared to some others.

Maybe because it's perceived as slightly less desirable then HYP, for example, so kids may realize (correctly) that they don't have a chance at HYP, while overestimating their chances at a place like Brown.

Like, they think they are being reasonable about their chances by not going for HYP, when in reality, there isn't much difference in admissions standards at Brown. How's that for a theory?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happened with Brown? Why a washout?

An oversized number of kids applied ED and none were admitted and several were rejected outright.

Seems like Brown is sending a message to the Sidwell - you're letting too many apply.

Why is Brown so popular? It's a good school but not stupendously great compared to some others.

Maybe because it's perceived as slightly less desirable then HYP, for example, so kids may realize (correctly) that they don't have a chance at HYP, while overestimating their chances at a place like Brown.

Like, they think they are being reasonable about their chances by not going for HYP, when in reality, there isn't much difference in admissions standards at Brown. How's that for a theory?

New PP to this Brown thread. Agreed with last PP, but also... my kid doesn't like the pretentious nature of HYP and/or many of the kids who were set on going to HYP. DC feels that Brown isn't quite so bad.

PS - not saying this whether any of these are true, DC has come away from the college search process with some funny impressions/categorizations. There are other schools are folded in to DC's "pretention nix list" so it's not just an excuse for staying out of the extreme competition bucket.

[Anonymous]

grr - excuse many typos above!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happened with Brown? Why a washout?

An oversized number of kids applied ED and none were admitted and several were rejected outright.

Seems like Brown is sending a message to the Sidwell - you're letting too many apply.

Why is Brown so popular? It's a good school but not stupendously great compared to some others.

Maybe because it's perceived as slightly less desirable then HYP, for example, so kids may realize (correctly) that they don't have a chance at HYP, while overestimating their chances at a place like Brown.

Like, they think they are being reasonable about their chances by not going for HYP, when in reality, there isn't much difference in admissions standards at Brown. How's that for a theory?

New PP to this Brown thread. Agreed with last PP, but also... my kid doesn't like the pretentious nature of HYP and/or many of the kids who were set on going to HYP. DC feels that Brown isn't quite so bad.

PS - not saying this whether any of these are true, DC has come away from the college search process with some funny impressions/categorizations. There are other schools are folded in to DC's "pretention nix list" so it's not just an excuse for staying out of the extreme competition bucket.

Well, how did this year's class do at HYPSM in the early rounds? Why is everyone fixated on brown?

[Anonymous]

Students at a luxury private school are not necessarily indicative of the "pretentious nature" of students enrolled at HYP. Did these sidwell kids even look at the stats? Brown has as many or more private HS school students in attendance than Harvard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Students at a luxury private school are not necessarily indicative of the "pretentious nature" of students enrolled at HYP. Did these sidwell kids even look at the stats? Brown has as many or more private HS school students in attendance than Harvard.

Sure, but they see how classmates applying to "x" school behave and think "Do I still want to be with this person for 4 more years?". That's natural. We tell them life outside the Sidwell walls will/can be different - but in the end - they can only choose so many schools to apply to and they made a nice list that matches their interests. So, who cares if they were wrong about what it would be like once attending HYP (or Brown, for that matter).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a child who graduated from Stuyvesant HS in NYC, which is a large, public, test-in school. Parents and kids were given full access to Naviance and we found it really helpful in generating a college list. It was packed with data for the school and really good information. I'm really surprised that Sidwell doesn't give parents full access to Naviance.

People need to calm down. Sidwell senior parent here. We do not have remote access to Naviance but my DC made appointments with CCO to see graphs and I did as well. I wlll say there were some that were such a crap shoot it did not help with the list but I was allowed to see as many scattergrams as I wanted and DC was to. If you want to see the scattergrams - reach out to the CCO and look at them! Geez

+1

And if your individual counselor won't do it, then reach out to the department head. She is easy to work with.

My DC has the CC that severely limited access to Naviance and it was presented as CCO policy. How were we to know that other counselors were giving their seniors more, easier access? I didn't know until I started reading this thread, loooong after my DC's applications were complete.

In hindsight, I could have gone to the head of CC to ask for more, but should the CCO operate this way? Should parents be forced to read threads on DCUM to know what should be available to students and parents?

There has been a lot of bellyaching here about the Sidwell CCO not getting LARLA into Harvard, rude, demanding, entitled parents expecting XYZ because "that's what we paid for", etc and I have not doubt that is entirely driven by the DUCM troll army.

However, there are some very legitimate complaints about the Sidwell CCO being shared here, not the least of which being the extremely inconsistent level of "counseling" offered by the various CC's. I hope actual Sidwell parents (because, lets be honest, 50%?, 75%, of the posters here have no actual experience with Sidwell) will read the comments of other actual Sidwell parents who's experience differ and extend a little grace to those of us who've found the experience of working with the CCO to be frustrating and disappointing.

I agree with this 100%. I am a pp who has posted about the counselor severely limiting access and our frustrations.

Also, as to the suggestion that parents who were frustrated should have reached out to Lauren about it to get more access...really? First off, I am skeptical that such a meeting would have even been possible to arrange at all, or at minimum without seriously ruffling some feathers. Second, I agree with your take that it was presented as CCO policy. So I would have considered reaching out to her as essentially a complaint about their policy that would have been extremely unlikely to go anywhere, other than possibly provoking a bad reaction from the school. And given the amount of preemptive scolding that class of '22 parents received from Bryan and Mamadou about parents' dealings with the CCO (based on past parents' bad behavior), I think most parents reasonably would have been very reluctant to go down that road.

NP. I know of at least 2 parents who had the "bad" counselor who did this. They got a bit of a run around, but in the end, got the information they wanted. Agree with you that it's very bad form and parents should not have to play these ridiculous games. Class of '23 parents, take heed.