Sidwell college guidance office

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't get past the advice to 8th graders to study college websites.

That is just nutty.

When my 9th grader looked at college sites, he went directly to things that appealed to his interest. I doubt if kids are going to be looking for the astrophysics curriculum. And if they do, maybe they shouldn't be in 8th grade. Mine went to the college sports team and photography clases. Pretty normal stuff. Never thought he'd pull up the college English classes. Didn't expect it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't get past the advice to 8th graders to study college websites.

That is just nutty.

When my 9th grader looked at college sites, he went directly to things that appealed to his interest. I doubt if kids are going to be looking for the astrophysics curriculum. And if they do, maybe they shouldn't be in 8th grade. Mine went to the college sports team and photography clases. Pretty normal stuff. Never thought he'd pull up the college English classes. Didn't expect it.

If a 9th grader is interested in photography and sports, shouldn't they be looking for outlets and participating in those activities now, rather than looking at college websites?

To me this is so absurdly ridiculous, and the fact that I'm the only one who is aghast makes me realize that DCUM parents are not the ones I should hang out with.

[Anonymous]

PP. You're taking this way to seriously and way to personally. Chill out! If you want to leave then do so but not because people may or may not agree with you. There are people who may not agree who I voted for but they stuck around. Gotta love 'em!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't get past the advice to 8th graders to study college websites.

That is just nutty.

When my 9th grader looked at college sites, he went directly to things that appealed to his interest. I doubt if kids are going to be looking for the astrophysics curriculum. And if they do, maybe they shouldn't be in 8th grade. Mine went to the college sports team and photography clases. Pretty normal stuff. Never thought he'd pull up the college English classes. Didn't expect it.

If a 9th grader is interested in photography and sports, shouldn't they be looking for outlets and participating in those activities now, rather than looking at college websites?

To me this is so absurdly ridiculous, and the fact that I'm the only one who is aghast makes me realize that DCUM parents are not the ones I should hang out with.

PP here. DS is involved in those activities and has been for some time. Most kids are involved in some school driven activities and after school extracurriculars. Mine were curious about the college I went to and looked it up on their own. Obviously, there was nothing there from way back when but curiosity if my school offered his interest. There is nothing wrong or terrible about that. Sometimes it does seem 'nutty' or impractical for 8th graders to look at college websites but you never know what they might pick up or what might catch their eye triggering an interest. I never shut down curiosity (unless it's too mature).

I doubt too many kids are looking at college websites to decide their majors. I remember my siblings were triggered by the movie Animal House to check out colleges but, alas, those kind of activities were only in the movies. However, they picked up some realistic information about colleges so it wasn't a total failure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The USC page is nuts. Crossing that off DC's list.

I understand your reaction, but it reads like it is pitched for kids from families for whom college is not an automatic thing, or kids at big high schools in which the guidance counselors may have hundreds and hundreds of students. The message "if you want to go to college you need to try hard in high school and start thinking about college as a goal" may sound redundant in the independent school world, but it would be news to many high school kids and their families.

Just knowing that college is an expectation gives students an advantage over many others for whom it seems a mystery or an unattainable goal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The USC page is nuts. Crossing that off DC's list.

I understand your reaction, but it reads like it is pitched for kids from families for whom college is not an automatic thing, or kids at big high schools in which the guidance counselors may have hundreds and hundreds of students. The message "if you want to go to college you need to try hard in high school and start thinking about college as a goal" may sound redundant in the independent school world, but it would be news to many high school kids and their families.

Just knowing that college is an expectation gives students an advantage over many others for whom it seems a mystery or an unattainable goal.

This actually makes sense and perhaps the web page is part of an effort to recruit underrespresented groups. Thats great. but this is a section for independent schools and I highly doubt that the kids of posters here fall into that category.

[Anonymous]

Plenty of 'underrepresented groups' who attend private school and are familiar with the collegiate process. Dare I say that these groups or any group would welcome any additional information that might ease the strain of the process. The USC list is informational for anyone and to me doesn't appear to target any specific group.

[Anonymous]

I loved the USC page. I am going to show it to my rising 8th grader later today. It is perfectly suited to a young adolescent.

[Anonymous]

I believe Sidwell has the toughest grading standards of private schools in this area so the top GPA coming out of the school might be a 3.8 or something like that. Then you go all the way down to a 2.0 or below with most falling in the B range. Pretty much all of those kids are smart, capable of doing the work at any college, and get top standardized test scores. A few are less motivated but still pretty smart. They don't all belong at HPY, but they should all be going to good schools, and they definitely don't. Quite a few end up at lower tier LACs and state schools, and every year there are a couple who do not get into any college. Sidwell needs to do more to advocate for students as they apply to college and explain the toughness of the grading system to colleges. The office relies way too much on legacies and other hooks to make the difference. I also like Eric Monheim, but I think the office needs to step up its game or it will hurt the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe Sidwell has the toughest grading standards of private schools in this area so the top GPA coming out of the school might be a 3.8 or something like that. Then you go all the way down to a 2.0 or below with most falling in the B range. Pretty much all of those kids are smart, capable of doing the work at any college, and get top standardized test scores. A few are less motivated but still pretty smart. They don't all belong at HPY, but they should all be going to good schools, and they definitely don't. Quite a few end up at lower tier LACs and state schools, and every year there are a couple who do not get into any college. Sidwell needs to do more to advocate for students as they apply to college and explain the toughness of the grading system to colleges. The office relies way too much on legacies and other hooks to make the difference. I also like Eric Monheim, but I think the office needs to step up its game or it will hurt the school.

You sort of lost me with this claim: "every year there are a couple who do not get into any college." I can understand students being very disappointed with their college choices, and perhaps taking a gap year to bolster their applications before re-applying. But I find it hard to believe that students -- especially ones who have involved parents college counselors helping them -- are unaware of the concept of applying to a safety school.

[Anonymous]

They all apply to safeties, but nothing is a true safety these days. It actually can happen, and does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe Sidwell has the toughest grading standards of private schools in this area so the top GPA coming out of the school might be a 3.8 or something like that. Then you go all the way down to a 2.0 or below with most falling in the B range. Pretty much all of those kids are smart, capable of doing the work at any college, and get top standardized test scores. A few are less motivated but still pretty smart. They don't all belong at HPY, but they should all be going to good schools, and they definitely don't. Quite a few end up at lower tier LACs and state schools, and every year there are a couple who do not get into any college. Sidwell needs to do more to advocate for students as they apply to college and explain the toughness of the grading system to colleges. The office relies way too much on legacies and other hooks to make the difference. I also like Eric Monheim, but I think the office needs to step up its game or it will hurt the school.

You lost me with the notion that if a Sidwell grad doesn't get into HYP, then they definitely deserve a top SLAC and not some 2nd-rate SLAC or grungy state school. I guess my skepticism comes in part from knowing parents of current Sidwell high school kids, some of whom have said either the academics or the super- competitive atmosphere are really hard in their kids. But mostly, I disagree with the premise that most of the class at any school, Sidwell or any other school, should expect/feel entitled to slots at ivies and the best SLACs. The fact is there are thousands upon thousands of kids who are every bit as qualified as Sidwell kids, and they're all competing for a limited number of slots at the most selective colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They all apply to safeties, but nothing is a true safety these days. It actually can happen, and does.

There are some true safeties - only the top end of the US News ranking takes less than half of applicants. The problem is more that the kids don't want to apply to a school nobody in Washington has heard of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They all apply to safeties, but nothing is a true safety these days. It actually can happen, and does.

There are some true safeties - only the top end of the US News ranking takes less than half of applicants. The problem is more that the kids don't want to apply to a school nobody in Washington has heard of.

I find it hard to believe these are truly multiple students ("every year there are a couple" according to PP) who do not get admitted to any safety school. For all those Bethesda & Chevy Chase students, that can be any of the UMD campuses. For others it might be something like Ole Miss.

[Anonymous]

Sidwell kids can only apply to nine schools -- usually a range of reach to safety like everywhere else. There have been kids who did not get in to one of their nine choices. Of course the admissions office called around to other schools later and eventually got them in somewhere, but a true safety is a school that takes 100% not everyone defines safety that way.