2023 college acceptances at DCI and rivals

[Anonymous]

We should be getting this sort of info at DCI. We don’t. No wonder private college counselors are becoming fashionable.

[Anonymous]

In our experience senior year at DCI, the school/college counselors aren't aiming v. high in college admissions. Latin, Walls, JR and BASIS aim higher overall mainly because they've been in the game much longer.

There's nothing to stop families of top DCI performers from aiming higher than the school does. Families can hustle and strategize on their own, maybe pay for extra help.

Fantastic college acceptances for UMC students obviously don't come out of nowhere, even if the academics can support them (they can).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your poor children. Making them do AP tests on top of IB exams? That’s insane.

No it isn't. In fact, it's standard practice in IB programs around the country where kids are aiming for competitive colleges.

My nieces and nephews in Falls Church have earned IB Diploma at Marshall HS (full IB school, not test-in) where college counselors advise students to apply to competitive colleges with at least a few AP scores, preferably more.

IB Diploma is geared toward admission to universities in Europe, where kids get "conditional offers" in the spring contingent on getting certain exam results in June. In the US, it's risky business apply to competitive colleges without any subject standardized test scores.

This was standard when I got an IB HS diploma; that was, admittedly, several centuries ago, but at the time, many colleges didn't recognize IB exams for credit or only gave credit for 7s, not for 6s, and if you could get a 6 on an IB test, you could probably also manage a 5 on the AP.

[Anonymous]

Colleges know all about IBD these days, especially competitive colleges attracting many foreign applicants (loads more applications from abroad than in the 90s, when I did IB).

Few elite colleges give credit for HS work anymore, AP or IBD.

Most colleges went test optional during the pandemic and few have reinstated testing requirements for SATs or ACT. What this means is increasing emphasis on standardized subject test scores in admissions.

You can probably apply to competitive colleges with confidence w/out standardized subject test scores if you're an URM and low-income applicant. GPA and IB predicted scores should work in that case. Not a great idea to do so as an UMC applicant applying to competitive colleges.

[Anonymous]

Agree.

[Anonymous]

Wow, two in at harvard and yale already this year? Can you provide context? Was it the same person? Recruited athlete? URM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, two in at harvard and yale already this year? Can you provide context? Was it the same person? Recruited athlete? URM?

+1 Impressive for just the 3rd graduating class. DCI parent who posted said it was 2 different kids.

Kids also got into Ivies last year from the 2nd graduating class. I heard URM but that also one of them was white.

[Anonymous]

What is "URM"?

[Anonymous]

Underrepresented minority: black or Latino. I'm not going to out the handful of UMC seniors who've been admitted to Ivies by mentioning family specifics. If you want to believe that DCI did the heavy lifting in these cases, you can. The reality is that these families supplemented a lot and paid a lot to supplement. The kids were go-getters on the Spanish track without being pushed hard. I know of at least one family that hired their own college adviser (not cheap). Thinking in terms of DCI having become a powerhouse program producing white and Asian seniors destined for the Ivy League is naive. Not a bad school but not on a par with "rivals" (BASIS, Latin, JR, Walls) for UMC college acceptances and not on track to become one. The focus at DCI remains firmly on IBD for all/providing college pathways to disadvantaged urban youth.

[Anonymous]

You’re not wrong, PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Underrepresented minority: black or Latino. I'm not going to out the handful of UMC seniors who've been admitted to Ivies by mentioning family specifics. If you want to believe that DCI did the heavy lifting in these cases, you can. The reality is that these families supplemented a lot and paid a lot to supplement. The kids were go-getters on the Spanish track without being pushed hard. I know of at least one family that hired their own college adviser (not cheap). Thinking in terms of DCI having become a powerhouse program producing white and Asian seniors destined for the Ivy League is naive. Not a bad school but not on a par with "rivals" (BASIS, Latin, JR, Walls) for UMC college acceptances and not on track to become one. The focus at DCI remains firmly on IBD for all/providing college pathways to disadvantaged urban youth.

Sincere question: Why do most of these threads here not talk about Banneker on this list? Isn't Banneker the best in test scores of all these DC public schools? But it gets left off the BASIS, Latin, JR, SWW, DCI list almost every time.

Why is that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Underrepresented minority: black or Latino. I'm not going to out the handful of UMC seniors who've been admitted to Ivies by mentioning family specifics. If you want to believe that DCI did the heavy lifting in these cases, you can. The reality is that these families supplemented a lot and paid a lot to supplement. The kids were go-getters on the Spanish track without being pushed hard. I know of at least one family that hired their own college adviser (not cheap). Thinking in terms of DCI having become a powerhouse program producing white and Asian seniors destined for the Ivy League is naive. Not a bad school but not on a par with "rivals" (BASIS, Latin, JR, Walls) for UMC college acceptances and not on track to become one. The focus at DCI remains firmly on IBD for all/providing college pathways to disadvantaged urban youth.

LOL! You are naive if you think families at Latin and JR don’t supplement a lot and use college counseling also. Basis maybe not as much but it’s a pressure cooker that focuses way too much on AP and memorization so that’s that.

No school is going to be perfect but I got a laugh about your naïveté.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Underrepresented minority: black or Latino. I'm not going to out the handful of UMC seniors who've been admitted to Ivies by mentioning family specifics. If you want to believe that DCI did the heavy lifting in these cases, you can. The reality is that these families supplemented a lot and paid a lot to supplement. The kids were go-getters on the Spanish track without being pushed hard. I know of at least one family that hired their own college adviser (not cheap). Thinking in terms of DCI having become a powerhouse program producing white and Asian seniors destined for the Ivy League is naive. Not a bad school but not on a par with "rivals" (BASIS, Latin, JR, Walls) for UMC college acceptances and not on track to become one. The focus at DCI remains firmly on IBD for all/providing college pathways to disadvantaged urban youth.

LOL! You are naive if you think families at Latin and JR don’t supplement a lot and use college counseling also. Basis maybe not as much but it’s a pressure cooker that focuses way too much on AP and memorization so that’s that.

No school is going to be perfect but I got a laugh about your naïveté.

Latin college counseling is amazing. I've never heard of a family hiring an outside private counselor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Underrepresented minority: black or Latino. I'm not going to out the handful of UMC seniors who've been admitted to Ivies by mentioning family specifics. If you want to believe that DCI did the heavy lifting in these cases, you can. The reality is that these families supplemented a lot and paid a lot to supplement. The kids were go-getters on the Spanish track without being pushed hard. I know of at least one family that hired their own college adviser (not cheap). Thinking in terms of DCI having become a powerhouse program producing white and Asian seniors destined for the Ivy League is naive. Not a bad school but not on a par with "rivals" (BASIS, Latin, JR, Walls) for UMC college acceptances and not on track to become one. The focus at DCI remains firmly on IBD for all/providing college pathways to disadvantaged urban youth.

Sincere question: Why do most of these threads here not talk about Banneker on this list? Isn't Banneker the best in test scores of all these DC public schools? But it gets left off the BASIS, Latin, JR, SWW, DCI list almost every time.

Why is that?

Banneker doesn’t have the best test scores? Eg last year Banneker’s average SAT was 1088, SWW was 1317.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not at DCI but heard they have 2 ED to Ivy and few other top schools this year.

They had Ivy admits last year too.

They only have had 3 graduating classes so not a lot of past info to follow. But above is impressive for a school only in their 4th graduating class this year I believe.


Frankly I don’t care about Ivy admits and not shooting for that although DC is high performing and we are in a feeder. I care more that they have the IB diploma which will prepare my kid for college.

I went to a state school on a full scholarship and turned our way more than fine.

You heard? Feel free to post the schools.

DCI will post the list of colleges for the class of 2023 in 2026 when they update the website, so we can then see if what you “heard” is correct.

They have posted currently the Class of 2020 college list, which has zero Ivies.

You mean the 1st graduating class OK. 2nd and 3rd class is different story

I mean the only one DCI has bothered to post on its website.

They paste all the plans on the Facebook feed around graduation time. The first class was tiny and the pioneer class typically struggles more than later ones.