Where to go from Big3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is just another reason to ask yourself if it’s all around worth it to spend 50k a year for your child to go to Sidwell or STA or Visitation and do hours upon hours of soul crushing school work when for the most part, these kids go onto generally the same places. And by these kids I mean kids who go to private schools here.

I would say yes. I've had different kids go through DCPS (JR) and now a Big3. It's night and day. My Big3 kid is actually learning to write, read and think. You really can't believe how little Jackson Reed kids learn until you've seen it first hand with your own kid. It's fairly horrifying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is just another reason to ask yourself if it’s all around worth it to spend 50k a year for your child to go to Sidwell or STA or Visitation and do hours upon hours of soul crushing school work when for the most part, these kids go onto generally the same places. And by these kids I mean kids who go to private schools here.

I would say yes. I've had different kids go through DCPS (JR) and now a Big3. It's night and day. My Big3 kid is actually learning to write, read and think. You really can't believe how little Jackson Reed kids learn until you've seen it first hand with your own kid. It's fairly horrifying.

Sure, but couldn't you just pay a private writing tutor to teach your kid this at a far cheaper price? The truth is that for many parents, private schools are a status symbol, no different than buying a BMW.

[Anonymous]

I wasn’t saying is private school worth it - I was asking is it worth it to send your child to the private schools that pride themselves on being ‘so hard’ ie hours and hours of homework Sidwell, STA, NCS, Visitation when kids from those and the kids from other private schools seem to be ending up at the same colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is just another reason to ask yourself if it’s all around worth it to spend 50k a year for your child to go to Sidwell or STA or Visitation and do hours upon hours of soul crushing school work when for the most part, these kids go onto generally the same places. And by these kids I mean kids who go to private schools here.

I would say yes. I've had different kids go through DCPS (JR) and now a Big3. It's night and day. My Big3 kid is actually learning to write, read and think. You really can't believe how little Jackson Reed kids learn until you've seen it first hand with your own kid. It's fairly horrifying.

Sure, but couldn't you just pay a private writing tutor to teach your kid this at a far cheaper price? The truth is that for many parents, private schools are a status symbol, no different than buying a BMW.

1)My kid doesn't want to go to school and then come home and work with a tutor for hours. That sounds nightmarish "Hey kid, you need to go twiddle your thumbs in DCPS each day 9-3pm and then come home and work with a tutor from 3-9pm to actually learn. Plus I don't have the bandwidth to schedule all of this. For decent tutors you'd need a different one in each subject.

2)We get aid at the Big3. We're not paying 50K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wasn’t saying is private school worth it - I was asking is it worth it to send your child to the private schools that pride themselves on being ‘so hard’ ie hours and hours of homework Sidwell, STA, NCS, Visitation when kids from those and the kids from other private schools seem to be ending up at the same colleges.

The reality is that these schools are not that hard for the brightest kids. They're not doing "hours and hours" of homework. My kid is at Sidwell/STA/NCS (rising senior in top classes at one of these schools) and does maybe an hour of homework per night and is in the top 10% or so in the class. He/she is really, really smart--photographic memory, writes extraordinarily well, etc. AND there are kids in the class who are even smarter and excel while doing even less work. They are taking the very top classes and they are breezing through. The issue is that there are many kids who came in when they were in PK or 7th grade or even 9th and the school is not a great fit academically but they have friends in the class or siblings at the school or their parents like the prestige or whatever and so they stay but have to work exceedingly hard to keep up.

Not everyone at Sidwell/STA/NCS is slaving away for hours and hours. If a kid is, it's frankly probably not the best fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is just another reason to ask yourself if it’s all around worth it to spend 50k a year for your child to go to Sidwell or STA or Visitation and do hours upon hours of soul crushing school work when for the most part, these kids go onto generally the same places. And by these kids I mean kids who go to private schools here.

I would say yes. I've had different kids go through DCPS (JR) and now a Big3. It's night and day. My Big3 kid is actually learning to write, read and think. You really can't believe how little Jackson Reed kids learn until you've seen it first hand with your own kid. It's fairly horrifying.

But OP isn’t looking at public so how does your story matter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wasn’t saying is private school worth it - I was asking is it worth it to send your child to the private schools that pride themselves on being ‘so hard’ ie hours and hours of homework Sidwell, STA, NCS, Visitation when kids from those and the kids from other private schools seem to be ending up at the same colleges.

The reality is that these schools are not that hard for the brightest kids. They're not doing "hours and hours" of homework. My kid is at Sidwell/STA/NCS (rising senior in top classes at one of these schools) and does maybe an hour of homework per night and is in the top 10% or so in the class. He/she is really, really smart--photographic memory, writes extraordinarily well, etc. AND there are kids in the class who are even smarter and excel while doing even less work. They are taking the very top classes and they are breezing through. The issue is that there are many kids who came in when they were in PK or 7th grade or even 9th and the school is not a great fit academically but they have friends in the class or siblings at the school or their parents like the prestige or whatever and so they stay but have to work exceedingly hard to keep up.

Not everyone at Sidwell/STA/NCS is slaving away for hours and hours. If a kid is, it's frankly probably not the best fit.

BS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wasn’t saying is private school worth it - I was asking is it worth it to send your child to the private schools that pride themselves on being ‘so hard’ ie hours and hours of homework Sidwell, STA, NCS, Visitation when kids from those and the kids from other private schools seem to be ending up at the same colleges.

The reality is that these schools are not that hard for the brightest kids. They're not doing "hours and hours" of homework. My kid is at Sidwell/STA/NCS (rising senior in top classes at one of these schools) and does maybe an hour of homework per night and is in the top 10% or so in the class. He/she is really, really smart--photographic memory, writes extraordinarily well, etc. AND there are kids in the class who are even smarter and excel while doing even less work. They are taking the very top classes and they are breezing through. The issue is that there are many kids who came in when they were in PK or 7th grade or even 9th and the school is not a great fit academically but they have friends in the class or siblings at the school or their parents like the prestige or whatever and so they stay but have to work exceedingly hard to keep up.

Not everyone at Sidwell/STA/NCS is slaving away for hours and hours. If a kid is, it's frankly probably not the best fit.

BS

Agree. This a weak troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kid is lifer at a big3. Entering 8th in September and we are starting to realize staying for high-school may give a good education but will seriously harm college chances (especially as school is highly selective, has not kept up with grade inflation elsewhere, and when other schools have many graduating at ABOVE 4.0).

APs and 4.0+ can help in getting past initial screens in bigger schools like UCLA - that our school can rarely get kids into.

We love the school experience otherwise but not willing to sacrifice college chances just because “only so many from one school can go T20”. Safety, access to varsity team participation, and teacher ratio all are factors that nudge us personally away from transfer to local public.

What is the best.private school in DC area that still offers AP classes and gives out grades at a level equivalent to public schools?

Thanks in advance for sincere advice.

Ivy League is a lottery for any applicant. Unless you are moving to South Dakota, your thesis is a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your example - UCLA - is random and specific. I would love to know how many kids from this entire area, not just Big 3, went to UCLA last year and I am guessing it’s not a lot?? Maybe see which school sent the most there and then reassess. I have literally no idea even what type of school here sends kids to UCLA so if you do find this out, let us know.

There were 2-3 at UCLA from our kids big 3 class a few years ago

We thought that was really impressive

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kid is lifer at a big3. Entering 8th in September and we are starting to realize staying for high-school may give a good education but will seriously harm college chances (especially as school is highly selective, has not kept up with grade inflation elsewhere, and when other schools have many graduating at ABOVE 4.0).

APs and 4.0+ can help in getting past initial screens in bigger schools like UCLA - that our school can rarely get kids into.

We love the school experience otherwise but not willing to sacrifice college chances just because “only so many from one school can go T20”. Safety, access to varsity team participation, and teacher ratio all are factors that nudge us personally away from transfer to local public.

What is the best.private school in DC area that still offers AP classes and gives out grades at a level equivalent to public schools?

Thanks in advance for sincere advice.

Ivy League is a lottery for any applicant. Unless you are moving to South Dakota, your thesis is a joke.

OP didn’t ask for comments on the thesis. They asked for specific information not random opinions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your example - UCLA - is random and specific. I would love to know how many kids from this entire area, not just Big 3, went to UCLA last year and I am guessing it’s not a lot?? Maybe see which school sent the most there and then reassess. I have literally no idea even what type of school here sends kids to UCLA so if you do find this out, let us know.

If you are curious - you can use this tool provided by UC system

https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/about-us/information-center/admissions-source-school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Huh? Have you seem the instagrams for the Big3 and compared them to other schools adjusted for numbers?

UC's are an exception, I will grant you that, but state schools in the other 49 states, and private schools in all 50 states, take kids from Big3's all the time.

I personally know kids at these schools that ended up at places like Michigan, NYU, Tufts, Wesleyan, etc. (all amazing colleges). But, these same kids were definitely Ivy material if they weren't applying from within the cutthroat applicant pool of these prep schools.

It's not uncommon at all to see kids in their senior year openly say "I would have a better shot at an Ivy if I weren't applying from Sidwell/NCS/STA, etc." The competition to get into an Ivy from these schools is extremely fierce because applicants are compared to others from their same school.

I think families/kids that say this are just not accepting that the landscape has changed. It may be that 6 years ago these kids might have been Ivy bound - but you cannot say they would have gotten into an Ivy if only they had been in public school. I have one of these kids - I don't regret sending them to private - they aren't at an Ivy but will do just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the example given - UCLA - Gonzaga had the best result - 3 students admitted out of 17 applicants. Sidwell had 3 admitted out of 27 and School Without Walls had 5 out of 27.

How many were recruited athletes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wasn’t saying is private school worth it - I was asking is it worth it to send your child to the private schools that pride themselves on being ‘so hard’ ie hours and hours of homework Sidwell, STA, NCS, Visitation when kids from those and the kids from other private schools seem to be ending up at the same colleges.

The reality is that these schools are not that hard for the brightest kids. They're not doing "hours and hours" of homework. My kid is at Sidwell/STA/NCS (rising senior in top classes at one of these schools) and does maybe an hour of homework per night and is in the top 10% or so in the class. He/she is really, really smart--photographic memory, writes extraordinarily well, etc. AND there are kids in the class who are even smarter and excel while doing even less work. They are taking the very top classes and they are breezing through. The issue is that there are many kids who came in when they were in PK or 7th grade or even 9th and the school is not a great fit academically but they have friends in the class or siblings at the school or their parents like the prestige or whatever and so they stay but have to work exceedingly hard to keep up.

Not everyone at Sidwell/STA/NCS is slaving away for hours and hours. If a kid is, it's frankly probably not the best fit.

Actually - this isn't true. Even the brightest kids we knew who went to Ivy schools (not on legacy status) were putting in very late nights to get those rare very high grades. Maybe your kid is brilliant though.