UC college admits from the Big3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the OP. My kid wants to attend school in California and has grades that seem to be strong for UC admissions (lots of A minuses but no Bs--so a 4.0 under the UC GPA calculation) so in theory will be a stronger applicant under this grading paradigm than for many private universities.

If your child attends a Big 3, they are also a strong candidate for USC with those grades. Stanford is a reach for most, so they may as well try. Pepperdine and Oxy are good safeties.

No Pepperdine is horrible. Nothing like Oxy. UCLA and Cal are much better schools than USC. UCSD is worth looking at too.
OP, apply see what happens. Nothing will put them over the edge in terms of activity outside of grades.

Why is Pepperdine horrible?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the OP. My kid wants to attend school in California and has grades that seem to be strong for UC admissions (lots of A minuses but no Bs--so a 4.0 under the UC GPA calculation) so in theory will be a stronger applicant under this grading paradigm than for many private universities.

If your child attends a Big 3, they are also a strong candidate for USC with those grades. Stanford is a reach for most, so they may as well try. Pepperdine and Oxy are good safeties.

No Pepperdine is horrible. Nothing like Oxy. UCLA and Cal are much better schools than USC. UCSD is worth looking at too.
OP, apply see what happens. Nothing will put them over the edge in terms of activity outside of grades.

Why is Pepperdine horrible?

It is nothing close to the sort of education one gets at a good program within a UC or at Oxy. To put it in the same category is not giving anyone from out of the area the correct idea.
it is a small not great christian college that happens to be next to the ocean. horrible, maybe is too strong, but not great in terms of the education...

[Anonymous]

Pepperdine is where rich kids from l.a. that can’t get into usc go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gds is sending I think 5 or so to UCLA + cal this year so somehow they are getting past the weighted thing

GDS grades more leniently than Sidwell and NCS.

Sigh. Not true. Are you insane? No one has a 4.0 at GDS. This is sour grapes because GDS had the best college admissions in the DMV this year. GDS is ridiculously hard- and the grade deflation has hurt past classes just like all the other top privates. This year they crushed it -no sure why but grade deflation played no part in it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the OP. My kid wants to attend school in California and has grades that seem to be strong for UC admissions (lots of A minuses but no Bs--so a 4.0 under the UC GPA calculation) so in theory will be a stronger applicant under this grading paradigm than for many private universities.

If your child attends a Big 3, they are also a strong candidate for USC with those grades. Stanford is a reach for most, so they may as well try. Pepperdine and Oxy are good safeties.

No Pepperdine is horrible. Nothing like Oxy. UCLA and Cal are much better schools than USC. UCSD is worth looking at too.
OP, apply see what happens. Nothing will put them over the edge in terms of activity outside of grades.

Strongly disagree that UCLA and Cal are better than USC. I would not pay private school tuition prices to attend a school with impacted majors, large class sizes and a housing squeeze. The physical facilities of the UCs can’t compare to USC has the lowest acceptance rate of the three. Maybe a different calculus if a student is in state or a PhD student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gds is sending I think 5 or so to UCLA + cal this year so somehow they are getting past the weighted thing

GDS grades more leniently than Sidwell and NCS.

Sigh. Not true. Are you insane? No one has a 4.0 at GDS. This is sour grapes because GDS had the best college admissions in the DMV this year. GDS is ridiculously hard- and the grade deflation has hurt past classes just like all the other top privates. This year they crushed it -no sure why but grade deflation played no part in it

But aren’t all the kids sorely disadvantaged by this grade deflation? That’s been the story here on DCUM for months.

[Anonymous]

UC schools were very popular at GDS this year., especially UCLA. I believe 4 GDS grads are attending UCLA. There are also grads attending Berkeley, UCSD, UCI, and UC Riverside. (This is all on the GDS Class of 24 Instagram page.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And what are the big3?

Sidwell
GDS
Potomac

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And what are the big3?

Sidwell
GDS
Potomac

So the Big 3 are no longer the best 3 schools in the area - got it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gds is sending I think 5 or so to UCLA + cal this year so somehow they are getting past the weighted thing

GDS grades more leniently than Sidwell and NCS.

Grading leniency doesn't matter since I imagine we can assume that they all have 4.0s when UC calculates their GPAs (in that they have all "A" grades sophomore and Junior year)---
That aside, GDS doesn't have ANY APs. So these kids have a MAX GPA of 4.0 unweighted/weighted which according to the previous poster would put them miles below a typical public applicant with a weighted >4.5.
And yet they're getting in.

Did you just make my point? Grading leniency _does_ matter if we are talking about the top DC privates. Almost no one, literally, comes out of Sidwell with a 4.0uw. In contrast, you just said "we can assume" that a GDS student will "have all "A" grades sophomore and junior year."

You would never assume that a Sidwell student, or NCS student, will have all As for two years straight. Essentially no one does at these schools. Unlike GDS, according to you

No one is assuming the kids actually got a 4.0. These schools count A-s as As and B+s as Bs. So if a kid has a 3.7 that is comprised of all A-s they have a 4.0 for purposes of these schools. Perhaps that is even possible for those dealing w the real rigor down Wisconsin ave just as it is for those slacking up in tenleytown.

[Anonymous]

I don’t understand the dmv’s fascination with usc. Growing up in socal it was always kind of a laughingstock. University of spoiled children was for mediocre student rich kids of alumni and football players. It’s in the complete hood as well and had the reputation of being like a prison…you can’t leave campus.

If I had a kid at a “big 3” school and they ended up at usc I’d consider it a fail. Unless they wanted to study film.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if your kid or any you know were admitted to Cal, UCLA, etc from a Big3, what do you think put them over the edge?
I know these are hard admits under the private school paradigm of few APs, etc,

I don’t know any students at my children’s school (Sidwell) who talk about attending a UC. I’m sure there are some, it just hasn’t reached my ears. Generally speaking, I don’t think state schools are popular among Sidwell kids.

My son applied from Sidwell a couple of cycles ago. Denied. The problem is that a Sidwell GPA will never cut it in a sea of 4.8888888s, and GPA is literally the only thing UCs screen for now. That, and I think poverty.

Michigan, Virginia and Wisconsin "get" the Sidwell situation. UCs and Texas do not. So, Ann Arbor is a more reliable admit than UC Santa Barbara, oddly.

Also, many are looking for something beyond weathly and entitled.



UCs are not highly sought after by Sidwell students. That said, there are 5 c/o ‘24 students going to UCs (1 each to Cal, UCSD, and UCSC). The two students who are going to UCLA are recruited athletes.

Sidwell seems to send a handful of students (including non recruited athletes) to UCs every year. It’s not an impossible admit.

And yet Sidwell seniors send in close to 30 applications per year with only a few acceptances to Berkeley/UCLA.

Well, I think that’s been explained. They don’t understand the rigor of these schools, and since they are test blind, are looking for kids with extremely high gpas.

It's not the job of a massive public university to try to understand Sidwell and other private schools. APs and standardized tests exist for a reason, to provide a way to evaluate kids taking advanced coursework in a consistent way and maybe provide them with college credit. If Sidwell wants to be a special snowflake--it can send its kids to $$ SLACs like Bates or Oberlin, where they're small enough to care about how an individual private grades.

[Anonymous]

Mine was recruited to row for Berkeley. She would have loved to have gone, but when she asked around, she learned many of the students didn't graduate in 4 years because of a lack of course offerings and overcrowding. Make sure to ask! Kid was recruited to row at Ivy instead. Worked out well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand the dmv’s fascination with usc. Growing up in socal it was always kind of a laughingstock. University of spoiled children was for mediocre student rich kids of alumni and football players. It’s in the complete hood as well and had the reputation of being like a prison…you can’t leave campus.

If I had a kid at a “big 3” school and they ended up at usc I’d consider it a fail. Unless they wanted to study film.

Sounds like you are stuck in college landscape of thirty years ago and have no real knowledge on this topic.

[Anonymous]

3.8 big 3. Not in at UCB. WL and UCLA. In at Irvine, SB, SD. Going somewhere else altogether.