Why the lack of VTech for Sidwell Seniors?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is an obvious answer. The student body is not wealthy enough to be an appealing option for students from a prestigious private school. Parents don’t want their kids to marry down and the dating pool of students from families in the top 1% of the income distribution is too small at Tech. Why would you want your kid to go to school where only 3% of the students come from very affluent families. They will not marry well at a school like that.

NP. Interesting angle. What about Wisconsin? The kids there were overall very attractive. How many are top 1% at Wisconsin?

I can't wait to see what the PPP's "source" is for this nonsense.

This is a reputable source. An NYT interactive article about the income composition of colleges based on social mobility research data. Nope, Wisconsin is an even worse choice if you want to maintain your kids/future grandkids social status. Only 1.7% of the University of Wisconsin student body come from families in the top 1% of the income distribution.

Think about this logically people. A lot of these kids from very wealthy families. Their children don’t necessarily need to work (even though most kids do work). The biggest worry for these parents is maintaining what their family already has. Ensuring that your kid doesn’t marry down (too much) is more important that making sure that your kid attends the best engineering program. It’s better for your kid to study a useless degree at an (affluent) SLAC and marry into a similarly wealthy family than marry into a middle class family at a good engineering school. This is unspoken truth of American Society. Very rich people pretend to be egalitarian in public, but their actual behavior they encourage for their own children is reminiscent of Victorian England.

OMG what a delusional post. I met no one in our time at Sidwell whose primary goal was marrying their kid off to the right stock. They were all gunning for top schools and their kids had high academic and career aspirations.

Of course no one will admit to this because it is not socially acceptable to say, but significant fraction of the parents are definitely thinking this (at prestigious private schools) . They want their kid to socialize with the right people and marry well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cannot believe there was a matriculation from Sidwell to JMU. Parents must be reeling.

This is so rude - it could have been financial reasons, wanting to stay close to home, etc.

Agree that is a mean post and shame on whoever wrote that post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cannot believe there was a matriculation from Sidwell to JMU. Parents must be reeling.

This is so rude - it could have been financial reasons, wanting to stay close to home, etc.

Agree that is a mean post and shame on whoever wrote that post.

It’s what people at Sidwell are thinking. It’s what they always think. Of course it’s rude and mean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cannot believe there was a matriculation from Sidwell to JMU. Parents must be reeling.

This is so rude - it could have been financial reasons, wanting to stay close to home, etc.

Agree that is a mean post and shame on whoever wrote that post.

Just because the comment is rude or mean doesn't mean it's not likely or true. Think about it. Here are my reasons why JMU is not popular with the Sidwell crowd.

Status. The two main reasons parents send a kid to a school like Sidwell are status and the belief that an elite private will help get your kid into an elite college. JMU doesn't check the box for an elite private or public. Realistically, it's Virginia's version of a directional school. It's a good school and great option, but not when you've dropped at least $240K on high school. Thus JMU fails the status test.

Affordability. Sidwell costs $60K-ish per year, so presumably if you could afford Sidwell for high school, school cost isn't a major factor. Sure, Sidwell may have a token scholarship kid, but those kids are likely higher academic and aiming for something different.

Location. JMU is approximately a two-hour drive from DC. There are a number of schools within a two-hour drive including Richmond, JHU, GWU, Maryland, Delaware, UVA, etc. Choosing JMU for distance could be a factor, but it's not like there aren't more prestigious schools that are closer to DC.

Athletics. JMU is D1, FBS for football. So it's possible that a Sidwell kid could be playing a sport at JMU. This would actually be prestigious as being a D1 athlete does carry prestige with some people. I'm also thinking that some of the random schools attended by Sidwell students such as RPI and Towson could be for athletics. I'll also add that if your kid is good enough to play a sport at JMU, then you could have probably leveraged that sport for an Ivy, so I'm doubtful on the JMU athletic angle as well.

So there is my reasoning on why JMU is a disappointment. At the end of the day when you're paying $60K a year for private HS for whatever reason, you're hoping to get your kid into a school with more prestige than JMU

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.sidwell.edu/academics/college-counseling/college-matriculation

Pitt, Penn State, Wisconsin are all bolded but not neighboring VT?

Pittsburgh, Happy valley and Madison are better places to live than Blacksburg. Also, unless you are in-state, Wisconsin and Pitt are better "national" schools than VaTech.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.sidwell.edu/academics/college-counseling/college-matriculation

Pitt, Penn State, Wisconsin are all bolded but not neighboring VT?

Pittsburgh, Happy valley and Madison are better places to live than Blacksburg. Also, unless you are in-state, Wisconsin and Pitt are better "national" schools than VaTech.

But don’t they have the same demographic as tech, I.e. not elite enough for those worried about social status?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.sidwell.edu/academics/college-counseling/college-matriculation

Pitt, Penn State, Wisconsin are all bolded but not neighboring VT?

Pittsburgh, Happy valley and Madison are better places to live than Blacksburg. Also, unless you are in-state, Wisconsin and Pitt are better "national" schools than VaTech.

But don’t they have the same demographic as tech, I.e. not elite enough for those worried about social status?

The social status thing was just something someone made up on DCUM. The PP is right that for kids who are OOS for all four, Pitt, Penn State and Madison are generally more appealing than Virginia Tech.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.sidwell.edu/academics/college-counseling/college-matriculation

Pitt, Penn State, Wisconsin are all bolded but not neighboring VT?

Pittsburgh, Happy valley and Madison are better places to live than Blacksburg. Also, unless you are in-state, Wisconsin and Pitt are better "national" schools than VaTech.

But don’t they have the same demographic as tech, I.e. not elite enough for those worried about social status?

I think we're overcomplicating this. Outside of engineering, Virginia Tech's academic profile is comparable to JMU with solid but not standout programs. Schools like Pitt, Penn State, and Wisconsin offer stronger non-engineering departments than VT. My impression is that most Sidwell students tend to avoid engineering, finding it challenging and perhaps less prestigious. Those who do pursue engineering would probably rather go schools like Tufts or Washington U, where they can combine technical training with an elite liberal arts education.

[Anonymous]

They're way more concerned about school reputations and about if a school is "well regarded" than about making money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.sidwell.edu/academics/college-counseling/college-matriculation

Pitt, Penn State, Wisconsin are all bolded but not neighboring VT?

Pittsburgh, Happy valley and Madison are better places to live than Blacksburg. Also, unless you are in-state, Wisconsin and Pitt are better "national" schools than VaTech.

But don’t they have the same demographic as tech, I.e. not elite enough for those worried about social status?

I think we're overcomplicating this. Outside of engineering, Virginia Tech's academic profile is comparable to JMU with solid but not standout programs. Schools like Pitt, Penn State, and Wisconsin offer stronger non-engineering departments than VT. My impression is that most Sidwell students tend to avoid engineering, finding it challenging and perhaps less prestigious. Those who do pursue engineering would probably rather go schools like Tufts or Washington U, where they can combine technical training with an elite liberal arts education.

The reality is there are plenty of Sidwell alumni who go into engineering but as previously noted, unless they are in-state for VaTech, there is no reason to go there for places like other state flagships with better settings, or private schools with better profiles but similar tuitions.

[Anonymous]

It's too 'public' ie it's too much like a typical public school like Alabama or KSU. It would need to be 2-3x more selective than it is now.

[Anonymous]

Location. End of story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The reality is there are plenty of Sidwell alumni who go into engineering, but, as previously noted, unless they are in-state for VaTech, there is no reason to go there for places like other state flagships with better settings, or private schools with better profiles but similar tuitions.

This. Sidwell student aiming for Engineering/CS is probably thinking about CMU or Princeton or Cornell or MIT.

[Anonymous]

If you are a full pay Sidwell kid that can’t get into a top 40ish school, there are many SLACs that are high ranked that will take you. This is true of most DMV schools. The SLACs will vary from school to school, but if the best school your kid can get into is VT these kids will be choosing a SLAC. They may stay there for 4 years, but some will choose to stay one year and then transfer to Vanderbilt, Cornell, UVA, USC or other schools that take a ton of sophomore transfers. This is a playbook at many top DC schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They're way more concerned about school reputations and about if a school is "well regarded" than about making money.

Lot of truth to this.