are the STA college admits this year as dismal as they appear?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I’m kind of annoyed by all the emphasis on college admission - it makes the high schools take primarily kids who will have the hooks (legacy, athletics)

What do you think they should emphasize, summer vacations?!? These are High school seniors.

I think they should emphasize academic and extracurricular achievement. Not just legacy and sports.

It’s not a zero sum game, the legacies also need great academics and extracurriculars/sports to get in. It’s gotten that competitive.

Legacies have a 33% chance of admission at Harvard vs 3% for general population. I doubt legacies are 11x more accomplished

This maybe true for the legacy population at large but not at places like STA. There are probably 20 kids in my kid's class who are legacy for Yale. twenty more for Harvard (some overlap) . And on and on. even more if you count law school, medical school, business school etc. it's absurd. Only a tiny, tiny handful of these kids will get in. (And of course, not all will even apply). But the numbers in some classes at these schools are absurd. You can't shake a hand at a parent's event without shaking a double Ivy of some variety. legacy only goes so far for admissions with this degree of over-saturation.

STA has 75 boys in a class. 20 boys with Harvard or Yale legacy in one class is a patently absurd claim

It's 85 boys. And between all the professional school degrees it's mighty close. Figure 4 degrees per kid. That's 340 degrees per grade. Easily 20 are Yale and 20 are Harvard. Easily.

You’re deluded. You realize there are other colleges besides Harvard and Yale?

Yes, of course. And I attended them, as did my husband. There is just a really high concentration of Harvard and Yale grads at a place like STA. It's striking

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I’m kind of annoyed by all the emphasis on college admission - it makes the high schools take primarily kids who will have the hooks (legacy, athletics)

What do you think they should emphasize, summer vacations?!? These are High school seniors.

I think they should emphasize academic and extracurricular achievement. Not just legacy and sports.

It’s not a zero sum game, the legacies also need great academics and extracurriculars/sports to get in. It’s gotten that competitive.

Legacies have a 33% chance of admission at Harvard vs 3% for general population. I doubt legacies are 11x more accomplished

This maybe true for the legacy population at large but not at places like STA. There are probably 20 kids in my kid's class who are legacy for Yale. twenty more for Harvard (some overlap) . And on and on. even more if you count law school, medical school, business school etc. it's absurd. Only a tiny, tiny handful of these kids will get in. (And of course, not all will even apply). But the numbers in some classes at these schools are absurd. You can't shake a hand at a parent's event without shaking a double Ivy of some variety. legacy only goes so far for admissions with this degree of over-saturation.

STA has 75 boys in a class. 20 boys with Harvard or Yale legacy in one class is a patently absurd claim

It's 85 boys. And between all the professional school degrees it's mighty close. Figure 4 degrees per kid. That's 340 degrees per grade. Easily 20 are Yale and 20 are Harvard. Easily.

Legacy doesn’t really come from grad school though. Sure, lots of harvard law, yale law, a smattering of ivy business schools in there, and a handful of stanford law. Undergrad? Not nearly as many, even at sta, which is ivy heavy. Just not that ivy heavy.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:What OP describes, if it is accurate, is on par on with what one would expect for all private high schools. Some Ivy and other top 20 acceptances; many others in good, selective colleges where many factors including student preference play a big role as well (such as the preference of many in Sidwell or GDS for SLACs over comparable, in terms of reputation, bigger state schools). Many students with very good options are still deciding. Based on what I know anecdotally about a small sample, I suspect STA acceptances when the dust settles down is going to be similar to other comparable private schools in the area.

To those attacking OP for looking at college acceptances of kids, instagram pages tracking senior college choices are not hard to find. Sidwell and GDS seem to have pretty well-populated ones, although clearly they aren't exhaustive given the no. of posts, as many kids probably haven't provided the info or haven't decided among multiple options yet. For those who haven't seen these, below are the links. Haven't found one for STA or NCS, but didn't look very hard so they might very well exist.

Finally, it's absolutely natural and human to be curious about college destinations, particularly for parents of younger kids going to any of these schools. Most of us don't send our kids to private schools to get a high "ROI" (ugh!) measured exclusively in terms of college admits. But I don't know of many who wouldn't - in addition to all other real and perceived benefits of private education for our kids - also look at college admits as a short-hand signal for a school's reputation, academic rigor, peer group and quality of college counselling. A highly imperfect signal no doubt, and probably not even the most important one, but not a useless signal all the same. And there is absolutely nothing creepy and "stalky" about looking at public instagram pages where kids report their own college acceptances.

https://www.instagram.com/sidwellseniors2022/
https://www.instagram.com/gdsseniors22/

Hmm, both schools have photos of girls wearing only bras, but only GDS has a photo of a guy sitting on the toilet. Go GDS

That is a bathing suit top. Sicko.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I’m kind of annoyed by all the emphasis on college admission - it makes the high schools take primarily kids who will have the hooks (legacy, athletics)

What do you think they should emphasize, summer vacations?!? These are High school seniors.

I think they should emphasize academic and extracurricular achievement. Not just legacy and sports.

It’s not a zero sum game, the legacies also need great academics and extracurriculars/sports to get in. It’s gotten that competitive.

Legacies have a 33% chance of admission at Harvard vs 3% for general population. I doubt legacies are 11x more accomplished

This maybe true for the legacy population at large but not at places like STA. There are probably 20 kids in my kid's class who are legacy for Yale. twenty more for Harvard (some overlap) . And on and on. even more if you count law school, medical school, business school etc. it's absurd. Only a tiny, tiny handful of these kids will get in. (And of course, not all will even apply). But the numbers in some classes at these schools are absurd. You can't shake a hand at a parent's event without shaking a double Ivy of some variety. legacy only goes so far for admissions with this degree of over-saturation.

STA has 75 boys in a class. 20 boys with Harvard or Yale legacy in one class is a patently absurd claim

Umm, different poster and , no, its not absurd. Actually, its a fact.

This is Washington, after all. The city is a funnel for the whole country drawing the highly educated like a magnet. Heck, I bet not even at STA but just if you walk down any street in Columbia Heights or NOMA and just randomly ask people sitting in a coffee shop where they went to college you will yield a very high percentage of " I went to college in Boston" ( Meaning Harvard ) or Yale or Penn.

Getting a job in DC that brings you to washington isn't easy, after all.

Getting your kid into STA is 10 X harder than that so, yes, a walk around the parent gathering at STA is basically bumping into more Harvard law degrees anywhere outside of maybe SCOTUS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m kind of annoyed by all the emphasis on college admission - it makes the high schools take primarily kids who will have the hooks (legacy, athletics)

What do you think they should emphasize, summer vacations?!? These are High school seniors.

I think they should emphasize academic and extracurricular achievement. Not just legacy and sports.

It’s not a zero sum game, the legacies also need great academics and extracurriculars/sports to get in. It’s gotten that competitive.

Legacies have a 33% chance of admission at Harvard vs 3% for general population. I doubt legacies are 11x more accomplished

Perhaps in the old days. In my family, one of us went to Stanford, one to MIT for undergrad. Both went to Yale Law (where we met). Both Summa Cum Laude as undergrads. Our kids are pretty smart and we made sure they were driven and engaged. Their doing well is a lot of things beyond their being hooked. Finally, grandparents did not have great opportunities (ie we were not hooked ourselves). One set are immigrants and the other, only one went to community college after serving in Vietnam.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m kind of annoyed by all the emphasis on college admission - it makes the high schools take primarily kids who will have the hooks (legacy, athletics)

What do you think they should emphasize, summer vacations?!? These are High school seniors.

I think they should emphasize academic and extracurricular achievement. Not just legacy and sports.

It’s not a zero sum game, the legacies also need great academics and extracurriculars/sports to get in. It’s gotten that competitive.

Legacies have a 33% chance of admission at Harvard vs 3% for general population. I doubt legacies are 11x more accomplished

This maybe true for the legacy population at large but not at places like STA. There are probably 20 kids in my kid's class who are legacy for Yale. twenty more for Harvard (some overlap) . And on and on. even more if you count law school, medical school, business school etc. it's absurd. Only a tiny, tiny handful of these kids will get in. (And of course, not all will even apply). But the numbers in some classes at these schools are absurd. You can't shake a hand at a parent's event without shaking a double Ivy of some variety. legacy only goes so far for admissions with this degree of over-saturation.

STA has 75 boys in a class. 20 boys with Harvard or Yale legacy in one class is a patently absurd claim

Umm, different poster and , no, its not absurd. Actually, its a fact.

This is Washington, after all. The city is a funnel for the whole country drawing the highly educated like a magnet. Heck, I bet not even at STA but just if you walk down any street in Columbia Heights or NOMA and just randomly ask people sitting in a coffee shop where they went to college you will yield a very high percentage of " I went to college in Boston" ( Meaning Harvard ) or Yale or Penn.

Getting a job in DC that brings you to washington isn't easy, after all.

Getting your kid into STA is 10 X harder than that so, yes, a walk around the parent gathering at STA is basically bumping into more Harvard law degrees anywhere outside of maybe SCOTUS

It’s actually a lot more Yale Law than Harvard which is even more amazing bc Yale is about 200 per class and Harvard 600.

[Anonymous]

geez who the f cares?

Their kids still are ending up at 3rd tier schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m kind of annoyed by all the emphasis on college admission - it makes the high schools take primarily kids who will have the hooks (legacy, athletics)

What do you think they should emphasize, summer vacations?!? These are High school seniors.

I think they should emphasize academic and extracurricular achievement. Not just legacy and sports.

It’s not a zero sum game, the legacies also need great academics and extracurriculars/sports to get in. It’s gotten that competitive.

Legacies have a 33% chance of admission at Harvard vs 3% for general population. I doubt legacies are 11x more accomplished

This maybe true for the legacy population at large but not at places like STA. There are probably 20 kids in my kid's class who are legacy for Yale. twenty more for Harvard (some overlap) . And on and on. even more if you count law school, medical school, business school etc. it's absurd. Only a tiny, tiny handful of these kids will get in. (And of course, not all will even apply). But the numbers in some classes at these schools are absurd. You can't shake a hand at a parent's event without shaking a double Ivy of some variety. legacy only goes so far for admissions with this degree of over-saturation.

I believe that is likely true.

STA has 75 boys in a class. 20 boys with Harvard or Yale legacy in one class is a patently absurd claim

Umm, different poster and , no, its not absurd. Actually, its a fact.

This is Washington, after all. The city is a funnel for the whole country drawing the highly educated like a magnet. Heck, I bet not even at STA but just if you walk down any street in Columbia Heights or NOMA and just randomly ask people sitting in a coffee shop where they went to college you will yield a very high percentage of " I went to college in Boston" ( Meaning Harvard ) or Yale or Penn.

Getting a job in DC that brings you to washington isn't easy, after all.

Getting your kid into STA is 10 X harder than that so, yes, a walk around the parent gathering at STA is basically bumping into more Harvard law degrees anywhere outside of maybe SCOTUS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m kind of annoyed by all the emphasis on college admission - it makes the high schools take primarily kids who will have the hooks (legacy, athletics)

What do you think they should emphasize, summer vacations?!? These are High school seniors.

I think they should emphasize academic and extracurricular achievement. Not just legacy and sports.

It’s not a zero sum game, the legacies also need great academics and extracurriculars/sports to get in. It’s gotten that competitive.

Certain Ivies seem to to only take a certain type still - white, wealthy and only big donors. Seems to be the trend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The GDS are crazy good. I have no GDS connection at all (my youngest was just rejected there for 9th ). But their admits are easily the best I've seen this year.

But you have not seen lists for all their students for one. These are the only a percentage of the class. Secondly NCS had 4 ED to Columbia plus Brown and other Ivies plus so far all students I have heard of are into top 25 schools. Have also heard of great placement at STA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The GDS are crazy good. I have no GDS connection at all (my youngest was just rejected there for 9th ). But their admits are easily the best I've seen this year.

But you have not seen lists for all their students for one. These are the only a percentage of the class. Secondly NCS had 4 ED to Columbia plus Brown and other Ivies plus so far all students I have heard of are into top 25 schools. Have also heard of great placement at STA.

Calm down, PP! We believe you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I have noticed any trend over the years it is not legacy admits per se, but rather the graduating senior/ child of head of annual giving parents gets the plum HYP admit

Doubly so if that Board/ key fund raiser is member is a URM or the kid is bright enough but just not valedictorian bright.

Legacy not so much a shoe in, but bring in 2 mill in annual giving and smile while doing it and, yeah, your kid gets the Harvard offer for the school

Why would Harvard care about what some kids parents raised for their high school? The longer this thread goes on the dumber the wisdom.

Board member or recent board member for sure to HYP

[Anonymous]

So gross. This process is completely broken.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The GDS are crazy good. I have no GDS connection at all (my youngest was just rejected there for 9th ). But their admits are easily the best I've seen this year.

But you have not seen lists for all their students for one. These are the only a percentage of the class. Secondly NCS had 4 ED to Columbia plus Brown and other Ivies plus so far all students I have heard of are into top 25 schools. Have also heard of great placement at STA.

The 4 to Columbia are all legacy (and big donor legacy at that) plus one crew recruit. The brown is crew.

[Anonymous]

If you're a hard working white student from an upper middle class family at STA, you're screwed. Save your money and go to public.