Sidwell Junior - GPA concerns

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are right to be concerned.

This year's senior class is a cautionary tale. The school's rampant grade deflation is a huge problem. You may think a 3.7 is "sidwell good," but no college cares. Top colleges need to see a 3.9. When colleges get 50k applications, do you really think they care that sidwell grades tough? Nope.

The kids with sky high GPAs did great this year. the 3.7's not so much.

This is patently false. The school profile that goes with the Guidance Office recommendation provides a full curriculum assessment and places the applicant in context of the current and past year standing. The Admissions officers (and regional officers for the bigger schools) understand this context, and will place the grades and grade point in the proper context as it weigh applicants from a variety of background. The deflation doesn't matter.

Does the profile provide ranges for GPAs? Our school's does not. It does provide summary SAT/ACT/AP info and a list of all classes offered.

I thought it did have some indication of GPA (the average and the top for the year). But even if I am wrong, the info you suggest it provides should be enough for an adept college admissions team to discern a lot of info. If the median ACT is a 34, then they know your kid’s 35 (and maybe even 36) is one of many, for example. If the school offers multivariable calculus and your kid only has calculus 1, then they know it isn’t most rigorous etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are right to be concerned.

This year's senior class is a cautionary tale. The school's rampant grade deflation is a huge problem. You may think a 3.7 is "sidwell good," but no college cares. Top colleges need to see a 3.9. When colleges get 50k applications, do you really think they care that sidwell grades tough? Nope.

The kids with sky high GPAs did great this year. the 3.7's not so much.

This is patently false. The school profile that goes with the Guidance Office recommendation provides a full curriculum assessment and places the applicant in context of the current and past year standing. The Admissions officers (and regional officers for the bigger schools) understand this context, and will place the grades and grade point in the proper context as it weigh applicants from a variety of background. The deflation doesn't matter.

Does the profile provide ranges for GPAs? Our school's does not. It does provide summary SAT/ACT/AP info and a list of all classes offered.

I thought it did have some indication of GPA (the average and the top for the year). But even if I am wrong, the info you suggest it provides should be enough for an adept college admissions team to discern a lot of info. If the median ACT is a 34, then they know your kid’s 35 (and maybe even 36) is one of many, for example. If the school offers multivariable calculus and your kid only has calculus 1, then they know it isn’t most rigorous etc.

No one knows what it provides...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are right to be concerned.

This year's senior class is a cautionary tale. The school's rampant grade deflation is a huge problem. You may think a 3.7 is "sidwell good," but no college cares. Top colleges need to see a 3.9. When colleges get 50k applications, do you really think they care that sidwell grades tough? Nope.

The kids with sky high GPAs did great this year. the 3.7's not so much.

This is patently false. The school profile that goes with the Guidance Office recommendation provides a full curriculum assessment and places the applicant in context of the current and past year standing. The Admissions officers (and regional officers for the bigger schools) understand this context, and will place the grades and grade point in the proper context as it weigh applicants from a variety of background. The deflation doesn't matter.

Darn right it’s false. My 3.4 DC did very well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are right to be concerned.

This year's senior class is a cautionary tale. The school's rampant grade deflation is a huge problem. You may think a 3.7 is "sidwell good," but no college cares. Top colleges need to see a 3.9. When colleges get 50k applications, do you really think they care that sidwell grades tough? Nope.

The kids with sky high GPAs did great this year. the 3.7's not so much.

This is patently false. The school profile that goes with the Guidance Office recommendation provides a full curriculum assessment and places the applicant in context of the current and past year standing. The Admissions officers (and regional officers for the bigger schools) understand this context, and will place the grades and grade point in the proper context as it weigh applicants from a variety of background. The deflation doesn't matter.

Does the profile provide ranges for GPAs? Our school's does not. It does provide summary SAT/ACT/AP info and a list of all classes offered.

I thought it did have some indication of GPA (the average and the top for the year). But even if I am wrong, the info you suggest it provides should be enough for an adept college admissions team to discern a lot of info. If the median ACT is a 34, then they know your kid’s 35 (and maybe even 36) is one of many, for example. If the school offers multivariable calculus and your kid only has calculus 1, then they know it isn’t most rigorous etc.

No one knows what it provides...

Here's what it looks like at NCS: https://ncs.myschoolapp.com/ftpimages/59/download/download_6743885.pdf

[Anonymous]

STA provides even less information: https://stalbansschool.myschoolapp.com/ftpimages/744/download/download_2514345.pdf

[Anonymous]

And on the flip side, here's a link to Penn Charter's, which provides much more information including grade distribution for each class. https://www.penncharter.com/academics/college-counseling/collegeprofile

[Anonymous]

Here's Harvard-Westlake. Talk about providing a lot of information! https://students.hw.com/Portals/44/profile21-22.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's Harvard-Westlake. Talk about providing a lot of information! https://students.hw.com/Portals/44/profile21-22.pdf

Earlier years also included grade distributions for junior year classes: https://www.hw.com/Portals/28/Harvard-WestlakeSchoolProfile2020-21v2.pdf?ver=2020-10-01-101325-867

[Anonymous]

Parent of a current Sidwell senior. My child thinks there is one student in the grade that has a 4.0. DC’s perception is she’s the smartest girl in the grade. I have no idea whatsoever how many kids have above a 3.9. Mine has a 3.7ish (3.7-3.75) and I have no idea where that stands relative to the rest of the class. Mine got into a top 10 school, but we feel like it was a lottery win.

Sidwell does not let parents see the school profile. They let parents see the naviance scattergram’s only when the college counselor pulls it up for them. Someone earlier posted that this is changing for next year which would be a wonderful change as it’s insulting that Sidwell doesn’t trust the parents to view this information on their own.

Unless Sidwell improves the college counseling, I will absolutely positively hire a consultant for my next one. At a minimum, I Reccomended you hire an essay coach for your junior. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a current Sidwell senior. My child thinks there is one student in the grade that has a 4.0. DC’s perception is she’s the smartest girl in the grade. I have no idea whatsoever how many kids have above a 3.9. Mine has a 3.7ish (3.7-3.75) and I have no idea where that stands relative to the rest of the class. Mine got into a top 10 school, but we feel like it was a lottery win.

Congrats on a T10 outcome. Was that a 3.7ish GPA with all the advanced math/science classes or a mix of of advanced and regular classes?

[Anonymous]

That NCS profile is super helpful - especially the info on which classes are considered most rigorous and mean tests scores and AP scores. I bet that helps high achieving girls. My son is at STA and wish they provided that much info!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a sidwell parent but rather another private - you probably also need to account for rigor of curriculum (math level, years of foreign language etc).

This is a bust in the dc top privates saying this. Many dc kids shut out of top schools because they have lower GPAs than kids across the country coming in with 4.0 averages. Colleges are overwhelmed with applications and don’t have a way to actually fairly compare each students course load.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a sidwell parent but rather another private - you probably also need to account for rigor of curriculum (math level, years of foreign language etc).

This is a bust in the dc top privates saying this. Many dc kids shut out of top schools because they have lower GPAs than kids across the country coming in with 4.0 averages. Colleges are overwhelmed with applications and don’t have a way to actually fairly compare each students course load.

+2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are right to be concerned.

This year's senior class is a cautionary tale. The school's rampant grade deflation is a huge problem. You may think a 3.7 is "sidwell good," but no college cares. Top colleges need to see a 3.9. When colleges get 50k applications, do you really think they care that sidwell grades tough? Nope.

The kids with sky high GPAs did great this year. the 3.7's not so much.

This is patently false. The school profile that goes with the Guidance Office recommendation provides a full curriculum assessment and places the applicant in context of the current and past year standing. The Admissions officers (and regional officers for the bigger schools) understand this context, and will place the grades and grade point in the proper context as it weigh applicants from a variety of background. The deflation doesn't matter.

Does the profile provide ranges for GPAs? Our school's does not. It does provide summary SAT/ACT/AP info and a list of all classes offered.

I don't know about ranges, but it provides ranges for each specific teacher, so the college can get a sense if a B+ is near the top of the curve for that section.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And on the flip side, here's a link to Penn Charter's, which provides much more information including grade distribution for each class. https://www.penncharter.com/academics/college-counseling/collegeprofile

Sidwell's does this as well.