Approx GPA range of Top 25% at SFS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whip it good

Before the cream sits out too long

[Anonymous]

Why are the acceptance rates higher for independent schools? Many T50 show acceptance rates well above or double the overall acceptance rates. Does that relate to rigor and preparedness in part?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public school will be easier to maintain a high GPA-and with Top 20 colleges currently obsessed with DEI, less and less private school kids are going to get their spots. One exception might be the SLAC’s-they still want and need the full pay private school kids. So, kind of depends what you are hoping for for college.

I think this is true, and it's what parents don't understand. Sending your kid to SFS yields zero advantage in college admissions nowadays. Schools don't like that the school oozes privilege and want more kids from disadvantaged backgrounds. Your kid will also likely struggle to stand out in a school filled with Ivy-obsessed overachievers with private tutors.

If your goal is simply college, then send them to the easiest and least-competitive high school. Being in the top 2% of Dunbar will yield much better results than the top 25% of SFS. Yes, SFS is much more rigorous, but college admissions cares only about DEI and sob stories now, and they consider rich prep school kids to be "oppressors" that they want to keep out.

If the goal is both good overall education during K-12, and later a good college, then why not attend a private at K-11, and then a public in grade 12?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public school will be easier to maintain a high GPA-and with Top 20 colleges currently obsessed with DEI, less and less private school kids are going to get their spots. One exception might be the SLAC’s-they still want and need the full pay private school kids. So, kind of depends what you are hoping for for college.

I think this is true, and it's what parents don't understand. Sending your kid to SFS yields zero advantage in college admissions nowadays. Schools don't like that the school oozes privilege and want more kids from disadvantaged backgrounds. Your kid will also likely struggle to stand out in a school filled with Ivy-obsessed overachievers with private tutors.

If your goal is simply college, then send them to the easiest and least-competitive high school. Being in the top 2% of Dunbar will yield much better results than the top 25% of SFS. Yes, SFS is much more rigorous, but college admissions cares only about DEI and sob stories now, and they consider rich prep school kids to be "oppressors" that they want to keep out.

If the goal is both good overall education during K-12, and later a good college, then why not attend a private at K-11, and then a public in grade 12?

uh,
-because my kid would be devastated to leave her friends, school, community, traditions in 12th grade.
-because private school grades are much lower. I'm not sure it would change the end result if the kid has 3 years of a 3.7 and then the equivalent of a 4.7 for public senior year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public school will be easier to maintain a high GPA-and with Top 20 colleges currently obsessed with DEI, less and less private school kids are going to get their spots. One exception might be the SLAC’s-they still want and need the full pay private school kids. So, kind of depends what you are hoping for for college.

I think this is true, and it's what parents don't understand. Sending your kid to SFS yields zero advantage in college admissions nowadays. Schools don't like that the school oozes privilege and want more kids from disadvantaged backgrounds. Your kid will also likely struggle to stand out in a school filled with Ivy-obsessed overachievers with private tutors.

If your goal is simply college, then send them to the easiest and least-competitive high school. Being in the top 2% of Dunbar will yield much better results than the top 25% of SFS. Yes, SFS is much more rigorous, but college admissions cares only about DEI and sob stories now, and they consider rich prep school kids to be "oppressors" that they want to keep out.

If the goal is both good overall education during K-12, and later a good college, then why not attend a private at K-11, and then a public in grade 12?

uh,
-because my kid would be devastated to leave her friends, school, community, traditions in 12th grade.
-because private school grades are much lower. I'm not sure it would change the end result if the kid has 3 years of a 3.7 and then the equivalent of a 4.7 for public senior year.

Yes that's a problem but I am sure people sometimes switch HS due to moves, job changes in family etc. Colleges should know how to interpret the GPAs of students who switched schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Class of 2022 was app 3.7

I think 3.6 was the median GPA that year. Not sure about the mean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public school will be easier to maintain a high GPA-and with Top 20 colleges currently obsessed with DEI, less and less private school kids are going to get their spots. One exception might be the SLAC’s-they still want and need the full pay private school kids. So, kind of depends what you are hoping for for college.

I think this is true, and it's what parents don't understand. Sending your kid to SFS yields zero advantage in college admissions nowadays. Schools don't like that the school oozes privilege and want more kids from disadvantaged backgrounds. Your kid will also likely struggle to stand out in a school filled with Ivy-obsessed overachievers with private tutors.

If your goal is simply college, then send them to the easiest and least-competitive high school. Being in the top 2% of Dunbar will yield much better results than the top 25% of SFS. Yes, SFS is much more rigorous, but college admissions cares only about DEI and sob stories now, and they consider rich prep school kids to be "oppressors" that they want to keep out.

😝
Wishful thinking! Highly selective colleges, in this country, are businesses. They have always coveted privileged students…and they always will.
Don’t pay attention to what these colleges say, pay attention to what they do (and the wealth of their student body).

https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2022/10/cradle-to-cap-and-gown-the-prep-school-to-ivy-pipeline

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/07/24/upshot/ivy-league-elite-college-admissions.html

The kids getting into elite colleges from these prep schools are overwhelmingly athletes, legacies, and top of the class. These are students that could've gotten in from anywhere. When people ask "Will SFS help my kid in admissions?" they're asking if an above-average SFS kid has a better shot at a T10, because of the SFS pedigree.

The answer is just "no." Schools place a cap on how many students they're willing to admit from an individual high school. Even Harvard-Westlake, Exeter, and Andover understand this. This means that only the best-of-the-best students and those with hooks get into the most coveted schools. Everyone else usually ends up a level or so below.

If you're unhooked, it is far better to be in the top 5% of a mediocre public school than in the top 40% of SFS.

Nope. I’ll let the author of the Dartmouth article explain it to you:

“Private prep schools seem to be the key to success when it comes to getting into an elite college like Dartmouth. After all, 34% of Dartmouth’s Class of 2025 went to “Independent Schools” while only 14% of U.S. high schoolers attend such institutions. What about private school applicants makes them so desirable to Ivy+ colleges and universities? Is it that these students are smarter, more athletic or more interesting? No. It’s the delicious scent of money wafting from these candidates that keep elite colleges feeding from a handful of high-level prep schools.”

“Dylan Parikh ’26, an alumnus of Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., claimed that elite college doors aren’t just opened by attending private high school, but by the combination of familial and school resources that converge in these establishments.”

In other words, money talks and these T10/20/50 or whatever colleges are listening. It’s the American way.

Have your kids actually graduated from one of these schools yet? Once you get to that point, you'll see that the vast majority of the kids in Ivies are legacies, athletes, urms, or top of class. People who think that by virtue of being a "Big 3" student, you'll waltz into a T10 campus, are deluded. It just doesn't work that way.

You have even less of a shot (based on percentages) coming from a public school. Private school students are over represented at elite colleges. That’s simply a fact.

“I attend a prestigious university, Stanford, which accepted fewer than 4 percent of applicants last year. There, over a quarter of the current undergraduate population came from private schools, even though only 14 percent of U.S. high schoolers attend one. The numbers are reportedly similar at most Ivy League universities. Harvard is one of the worst of them: A survey of its class of 2019 saw 35 percent of respondents hail from private schools.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/01/opinion/school-private-college.html

Now, let’s see what’s happening at local “top” public schools. If you look at the 8 "Bethesda Area" MCPS high schools analyzed in last Sept.'s article, about 5% of all students matriculated to top 20 schools. You will find that in the private schools in this area, that percentage ranges between 15-25% depending on the school.

https://moco360.media/2023/09/13/where-montgomery-...raduates-are-going-to-college/

[Anonymous]

Pp here. And many take the less rigorous math or science classes to get a higher GPA.

[Anonymous]

Many at MCPS or many at private schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whip it good

Before the cream sits out too long

Now whip it
Into Shape
Go forward
Get Straight

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are the acceptance rates higher for independent schools? Many T50 show acceptance rates well above or double the overall acceptance rates. Does that relate to rigor and preparedness in part?

Oh good lord. Money. And don’t tell me about the T10s that will pick up the tuition for any student. Those schools wouldn’t last long if they didn’t have at least a few full pay students. Also, some families actually factor in cost and either don’t apply to schools they cannot afford or don’t accept at schools where they don’t get enough merit money. Not an issue for the wealthy kids who go to privates prep schools.

So private prep school = tuition = admissions advantage.

Money.

Same as it’s always been.

[Anonymous]

Same as it ever was.

[Anonymous]

Money — yes. But that conflicts with all the statements that private school kids are at a distinct admissions dis-advantage because colleges are much less interested in admitting their wealthy students.

[Anonymous]

Because people here want to believe that rhetoric so they have an explanation why their particular wealthy kid didn’t get admitted.

Look at the rise of ED and the stats for what percentage of freshman classes are admitted ED and what the demographics are for those admits. ED as a percentage has never been higher and the kids who are admitted ED are MUCH more likely to be full pay white kids from (surprise) private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Money — yes. But that conflicts with all the statements that private school kids are at a distinct admissions dis-advantage because colleges are much less interested in admitting their wealthy students.

Who is saying that? They certainly don’t speak for me. My children attend private school and I know they are not at a disadvantage competing for spots at top colleges.