Sidwell College Admissions This Year

[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.

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.

Wow. I’m the pp you are responding to. I think our DC has the counselor that you are referring to, but I am not certain? Anyway, DC’s counselor was super frustrating for us, and you’re right to characterize it as putting parents in a position where they would have to play ridiculous games. This is all especially frustrating given the anti-parent environment fostered by Bryan and Mamadou. They put reasonable parents in a position where they feel as if it’s impossible to speak up, regardless of how bad things might be. And then to think that Mamadou recently scoffed at the idea of getting parent feedback about the CCO...makes me even more frustrated.

[Anonymous]

Does Sidwell play favorites all the time or is it just the CCO?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does Sidwell play favorites all the time or is it just the CCO?

I actually don’t believe they are playing favorites. Just a mixture of inconsistency and ineptitude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does Sidwell play favorites all the time or is it just the CCO?

I actually don’t believe they are playing favorites. Just a mixture of inconsistency and ineptitude.

I agree 1000%. I’m pretty sure this particular CC doesn’t even know that what they are providing is not consistent with what the other counselors are providing. More generally, I have not had any experiences at Sidwell where I perceive that the school “plays favorites”, in CC or any other area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

A 3rd Sidwell senior parent here. Our family booked multiple meetings throughout last fall for the express purpose to look at scattergrams together with counselor. I attended 2 with student via Zoom. Student went to at least one in person in counselor's office.

In the 2 zoom meetings I attended with student, my recollection was that we saw maybe 6? at a time. Each meeting was no less than 15 minutes and no more than 30 minutes. It was 5 months ago so I don't recall the exact number of minutes.

Our family scheduled these meetings in intervals separated by several weeks, on purpose, rather than back to back to back. We put a lot of thought into which schools to pull up on Naviance after we discussed and refined our plan. I, personally, don't understand people who find this approach punishing. Idiosyncratic, maybe, but not nearly as limiting and crippling as you make it out to be.

Why would you find it useful to look at 50 schools at one sitting (aka, "full access"), and why don't you have a better idea of what you actually want? It would be fun, sure, to look at all 50 state flagships or something with unfettered access but if you're being honest, that doesn't actually help your kid.

My kid is also at a Big3 that does not provide unfettered access to Naviance. I have older kids who did have that access. There is no question that I prefer easy access in this regard. Neither I nor my kid wants to be chaperoned while reviewing the data, and it definitely limits conversation between us to have to do it with the counselor. I also want to be able to take my time reviewing the scattergrams, and want the ability to switch back and forth between screens as often as I want while I process. Doing this at home on the weekend while my kid is more focused and less tired is also a plus. My older kids applied to fewer than 10 schools each, but we probably looked at 25 different scattergrams to compose their lists. There is no question in my mind that the usefulness of Naviance is marginalized by the "make an appointment" approach, whether those appointments are easy to schedule or not. The gatekeeping is annoying and unnecessary.

We are at a different independent that allows students (and parents who want it) remote access to Naviance. I think Sidwell is controlling access because it helps Sidwell's college counseling office. I just used my kid's login to view Naviance and poke around a bit. We didn't go nuts with it, but appreciated being able to move around our own pace. A couple of times it prompted us to go back and look at schools again. Not gaming the system but realizing that the same school kept poppoing up on the "students who looked at this school also like X school." Being able to do this on our own helped my student refine his list as well as ask better questions pertaining to the elements of their application. We also talkled with our csenior about how Naviance doesn't note that someone was an athlete or legacy, but that they should keep in mind that was likely a factor in some of these "green dots." Our child's college counselor at our independent school is wonderful as are the other college counselors. They have done an incredible job helping students navigate this stressful process in a way that has helped keep the stress level low.

[Anonymous]

To be clear, Sidwell students have Naviance access, just not the scattergrams.

[Anonymous]

would love to know the school with the good counselor

[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.

Because you are THOSE PARENTS!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To be clear, Sidwell students have Naviance access, just not the scattergrams.

But the value of Naviance is the scattergram. Other information in Naviance is limited and you can get it from other sources.

[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.

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.

Can you give a hint who this “bad” counselor is?

[Anonymous]

new accept to GDS - do they get Naviance scattergram access in upper school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:new accept to GDS - do they get Naviance scattergram access in upper school?

No.

[Anonymous]

New acceptance to NCS - does NCS give Naviance access to students in upper school?

[Anonymous]

I mean does NCS give Naviance scattergram access to US students?

[Anonymous]

What is the scatter gram?