Worth it's own post: The Harvard-Westlake college matriculation data!!

[Anonymous]

GDS senior parent here. Entirely concur with this.

I’m tired of complaining here and quietly to other parent friends.

I’m going to go meet with CCO head. And if she just grin-f*cks me (yes that’s a technical GDS administrator vibe), it’s off to Russell and head of High school.

Many senior parents have been frustrated with the office and it’s lack of data. It’s complete garbage. The results are not the issue. ED has been pretty good to GDS this year. The issue is the lack of numerical guidance on two distinct fronts - recent historical acceptance rate by GPA and # of current year kids applying to a school. All of this in light of capping kids at 10 schools. And inflexible in raising the cap outside of UCs

Took weeks of cajoling to get CCO to tell us a particular socal private college was sky high popular this year. And even then, it was oblique, not grounded in facts and wink wink.

I just don’t get how parents think this is adequate. None of our peer schools act like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This data is amazing. Than you. What saddens me as a GDS parent is that they never once shared data like this with us. It was always a game to try to figure out the tone of the college counselor.

"What are my chances at XYZ?"
"Well if it's in your heart, you should apply"

WTF is that supposed to mean. We have no naviance. and they fall back on holistic review blah blah.

All I needed from the office is to tell me and my kid- should they apply to these schools and what's GDS historic record for unhooked kids in that GPA range.

We could never get a straight answer. It was always couched in feel good language.

I know GDS keeps such a list but they just don't share it w/ parents - even when direct questions are asked.

Are Sidwell/Potomac/Albans/NCS any better?

Do you have access to previous students’ acceptance through SCOIR scattergrams? We are at a different school and found them directionally helpful to somewhat gauge reasonability of consideration.

GDS does not allow students or families access to SCOIR scattergrams. CCO is not at all forthcoming with statistics, which severely erodes trust in the CCO. I do not understand how the CCO fails to grasp this. Transparency breeds trust.

GDS process has been entirely - i mean entirely - lacking any data/stats. ZERO. They share no data w/ parents or kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I don’t think we really know the unhooked number from HW. They took out athletes and legacy (and I am sort of suspect on the legacy… I can’t believe there is not more legacy at HW). It is easy to back out athletes at DC schools.

They would argue their NYU is like 11 boys to Chicago from STA. I am not saying HW is unimpressive just that there isn’t that big a difference compared to Sidwell/GDS and Cathedral schools.

But HW also has huge numbers to Chicago, and they appear to be kids one tier below the top kids (based on GPA).

Most of the STA kids are one tier below top GPA too, some even far below (though I have no doubt these kids can handle the college work). My point is more that you are splitting hairs and getting into the weeds doesn’t serve a lot of purpose bc sample sizes are so small. HW acceptances fairly on par with DC privates.

Sample sizes are not small. It's couple hundred kids per class for 3 classes and including a post-test optional class of 2021 (and 2020, I suppose). Ye are the grading scales different between HW and DC...perhaps. But not that different. Here's the newslash....our kids from GDS/Potomac/Sidwell/Albans are being ranked not just against DMV kids but nationally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This data is amazing. Than you. What saddens me as a GDS parent is that they never once shared data like this with us. It was always a game to try to figure out the tone of the college counselor.

"What are my chances at XYZ?"
"Well if it's in your heart, you should apply"

WTF is that supposed to mean. We have no naviance. and they fall back on holistic review blah blah.

All I needed from the office is to tell me and my kid- should they apply to these schools and what's GDS historic record for unhooked kids in that GPA range.

We could never get a straight answer. It was always couched in feel good language.

I know GDS keeps such a list but they just don't share it w/ parents - even when direct questions are asked.

Are Sidwell/Potomac/Albans/NCS any better?

Do you have access to previous students’ acceptance through SCOIR scattergrams? We are at a different school and found them directionally helpful to somewhat gauge reasonability of consideration.

GDS does not allow students or families access to SCOIR scattergrams. CCO is not at all forthcoming with statistics, which severely erodes trust in the CCO. I do not understand how the CCO fails to grasp this. Transparency breeds trust.

GDS process has been entirely - i mean entirely - lacking any data/stats. ZERO. They share no data w/ parents or kids.

We were not happy with GDS college counseling this year.
My son got into his first choice ED (not an ivy) but no thanks to his college counselor who tried to dissuade him from applying to his first choice school.
My suggestion is to hire a private counselor like so many folks at GDS do

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This data is amazing. Than you. What saddens me as a GDS parent is that they never once shared data like this with us. It was always a game to try to figure out the tone of the college counselor.

"What are my chances at XYZ?"
"Well if it's in your heart, you should apply"

WTF is that supposed to mean. We have no naviance. and they fall back on holistic review blah blah.

All I needed from the office is to tell me and my kid- should they apply to these schools and what's GDS historic record for unhooked kids in that GPA range.

We could never get a straight answer. It was always couched in feel good language.

I know GDS keeps such a list but they just don't share it w/ parents - even when direct questions are asked.

Are Sidwell/Potomac/Albans/NCS any better?

Do you have access to previous students’ acceptance through SCOIR scattergrams? We are at a different school and found them directionally helpful to somewhat gauge reasonability of consideration.

GDS does not allow students or families access to SCOIR scattergrams. CCO is not at all forthcoming with statistics, which severely erodes trust in the CCO. I do not understand how the CCO fails to grasp this. Transparency breeds trust.

GDS process has been entirely - i mean entirely - lacking any data/stats. ZERO. They share no data w/ parents or kids.

We were not happy with GDS college counseling this year.
My son got into his first choice ED (not an ivy) but no thanks to his college counselor who tried to dissuade him from applying to his first choice school.
My suggestion is to hire a private counselor like so many folks at GDS do

I totally agree. GDS parent here. Similar situation but kid did not apply ED. the counselor was just so far off the mark. I've heard from my kid that the kids all know that there is GREAT variability in the office. If you get the head of the office, at least she is capable. There's two others who are decent. And then there are two who are awful - by awful i mean unreachable for weeks. Off on school overnight trips as chaperones during peak application season or being grade dean - also a full time job.

What I also learned - GDS pays very very low wages to the CO staff. like way low. So they all need to supplement income by taking o these other side jobs at school which include overnoght trip chaperone w. the debate and other teams or being grade dean. Those jobs take up huge swaths of time.

I'm guessing way more than half - maybe 65% hire outside counselors. Problem is outside dont have enough sample size or data to know whether kids last 3 years from our school have gotten into certain colleges.

That said, our outside person was a great resource for kid to keep process organized. We also had an outside essay reader (as quite a few GDS families had) because the person GDS has for that read my kid's essay and said "looks good" - like no other comments. When I heard that I flipped out (because it needed a deep read). Kid said he heard the reader who GDS hired say in the office one day "if i have to read another of these student essays, I'll jump put a window"

I mean jesus christ. Then they promoted this person cycle in the fall to take on some kids as a full counselor because the other counselors were so stretched.

The office has been a litany of bad process, no data, and entire ack of transparency. They do these periodic morning parent zooms where they smile through non-answers.

I found them utterly worthless. Nice people who are all utterly worthless. Perhaps with the exception of the head of the office - but she must not believe in data so I'm not sure I should even be generous with her.

[Anonymous]

An A- is more like a 3.7. 3.8 is a solid A.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah that list is interesting - with the exception of NYU there doesn't seem to be any huge advantage to HW. Really shocked that 26 applications to UNC netted 0 acceptances - what's going on there?? Or Stanford, wouldn't you think they'd have more than 7 acceptances out of 86 applications? Same with UVA, Princeton, MIT, Harvard - these numbers don't look out of line with what you'd expect from any HS.

I agree that list is not any better than well-regarded DC privates.

Except for the huge NYU cohort

And other schools, such as UNC as mentioned upthread, DC private kids do better. I would still argue, as a whole, those lists are pretty on par with the most well regarded DC privates.

But you don’t know the unhooked numbers for DC privates. So you are comparing a list of unhooked HW to a whole class for the DC privates. I do not know how you can’t say that at all.

It is a credit to HW that they get so many unhooked kids into NYU, though. That I agree with.

Nyu seems like the sort of scgool where having a famous producer as a parent is a huge plus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GDS senior parent here. Entirely concur with this.

I’m tired of complaining here and quietly to other parent friends.

I’m going to go meet with CCO head. And if she just grin-f*cks me (yes that’s a technical GDS administrator vibe), it’s off to Russell and head of High school.

Many senior parents have been frustrated with the office and it’s lack of data. It’s complete garbage. The results are not the issue. ED has been pretty good to GDS this year. The issue is the lack of numerical guidance on two distinct fronts - recent historical acceptance rate by GPA and # of current year kids applying to a school. All of this in light of capping kids at 10 schools. And inflexible in raising the cap outside of UCs

Took weeks of cajoling to get CCO to tell us a particular socal private college was sky high popular this year. And even then, it was oblique, not grounded in facts and wink wink.

I just don’t get how parents think this is adequate. None of our peer schools act like this.

My DC attends NCS and there is no way the CCO would ever share the number of current year kids applying to a particular school. I doubt any school would do this, honestly.

[Anonymous]

Transactional LA- parents demand and get.

DC culture is more respectful of educators so you don’t know diddly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GDS senior parent here. Entirely concur with this.

I’m tired of complaining here and quietly to other parent friends.

I’m going to go meet with CCO head. And if she just grin-f*cks me (yes that’s a technical GDS administrator vibe), it’s off to Russell and head of High school.

Many senior parents have been frustrated with the office and it’s lack of data. It’s complete garbage. The results are not the issue. ED has been pretty good to GDS this year. The issue is the lack of numerical guidance on two distinct fronts - recent historical acceptance rate by GPA and # of current year kids applying to a school. All of this in light of capping kids at 10 schools. And inflexible in raising the cap outside of UCs

Took weeks of cajoling to get CCO to tell us a particular socal private college was sky high popular this year. And even then, it was oblique, not grounded in facts and wink wink.

I just don’t get how parents think this is adequate. None of our peer schools act like this.

My DC attends NCS and there is no way the CCO would ever share the number of current year kids applying to a particular school. I doubt any school would do this, honestly.

PP here. Understood. I think the rest of my post and the other GDS parents posting here stands. I suspect you guys get much more transparency on GPA vs prior year admits than we do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Transactional LA- parents demand and get.

DC culture is more respectful of educators so you don’t know diddly

I think there’s something to this. But other DC private schools give access to Naviance or SCOIR scattergrams. GDS doesn’t. w

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GDS senior parent here. Entirely concur with this.

I’m tired of complaining here and quietly to other parent friends.

I’m going to go meet with CCO head. And if she just grin-f*cks me (yes that’s a technical GDS administrator vibe), it’s off to Russell and head of High school.

Many senior parents have been frustrated with the office and it’s lack of data. It’s complete garbage. The results are not the issue. ED has been pretty good to GDS this year. The issue is the lack of numerical guidance on two distinct fronts - recent historical acceptance rate by GPA and # of current year kids applying to a school. All of this in light of capping kids at 10 schools. And inflexible in raising the cap outside of UCs

Took weeks of cajoling to get CCO to tell us a particular socal private college was sky high popular this year. And even then, it was oblique, not grounded in facts and wink wink.

I just don’t get how parents think this is adequate. None of our peer schools act like this.

My DC attends NCS and there is no way the CCO would ever share the number of current year kids applying to a particular school. I doubt any school would do this, honestly.

PP here. Understood. I think the rest of my post and the other GDS parents posting here stands. I suspect you guys get much more transparency on GPA vs prior year admits than we do.

Adding that STA would not share info about where classmates are applying, esp in some official document. But also, I feel like you are losing sight of the forest through the trees. If the GDS outcomes are great, which they seem to be, it wouldn’t bother me as much how we got there. Now having to hire an outside counselor is a different issue for sure and would feel troubling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah that list is interesting - with the exception of NYU there doesn't seem to be any huge advantage to HW. Really shocked that 26 applications to UNC netted 0 acceptances - what's going on there?? Or Stanford, wouldn't you think they'd have more than 7 acceptances out of 86 applications? Same with UVA, Princeton, MIT, Harvard - these numbers don't look out of line with what you'd expect from any HS.

Stanford is impossible to get into, I’m VERY impressed if 7 got in!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah that list is interesting - with the exception of NYU there doesn't seem to be any huge advantage to HW. Really shocked that 26 applications to UNC netted 0 acceptances - what's going on there?? Or Stanford, wouldn't you think they'd have more than 7 acceptances out of 86 applications? Same with UVA, Princeton, MIT, Harvard - these numbers don't look out of line with what you'd expect from any HS.

Stanford is impossible to get into, I’m VERY impressed if 7 got in!

Stanford has a regional bias. Way more kids from CA are admitted compared with other states.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GDS senior parent here. Entirely concur with this.

I’m tired of complaining here and quietly to other parent friends.

I’m going to go meet with CCO head. And if she just grin-f*cks me (yes that’s a technical GDS administrator vibe), it’s off to Russell and head of High school.

Many senior parents have been frustrated with the office and it’s lack of data. It’s complete garbage. The results are not the issue. ED has been pretty good to GDS this year. The issue is the lack of numerical guidance on two distinct fronts - recent historical acceptance rate by GPA and # of current year kids applying to a school. All of this in light of capping kids at 10 schools. And inflexible in raising the cap outside of UCs

Took weeks of cajoling to get CCO to tell us a particular socal private college was sky high popular this year. And even then, it was oblique, not grounded in facts and wink wink.

I just don’t get how parents think this is adequate. None of our peer schools act like this.

My DC attends NCS and there is no way the CCO would ever share the number of current year kids applying to a particular school. I doubt any school would do this, honestly.

PP here. Understood. I think the rest of my post and the other GDS parents posting here stands. I suspect you guys get much more transparency on GPA vs prior year admits than we do.

Adding that STA would not share info about where classmates are applying, esp in some official document. But also, I feel like you are losing sight of the forest through the trees. If the GDS outcomes are great, which they seem to be, it wouldn’t bother me as much how we got there. Now having to hire an outside counselor is a different issue for sure and would feel troubling.

The problem is that admissions might be great but you don’t know how it will go for your specific child.
A lot of the impressive admissions are for legacy kids, URM, athletes, well known people’s kids.
If you don’t have a hook, you should be worried