Sidwell College Admissions This Year

[Anonymous]

Sidwell parents seem horrendous. I would be so embarrassed if our school community behaved this way

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell is a scam. The kids getting into top 15 schools from Sidwell are mostly legacy, URM and recruited athletes. They could have done this from literally any other school in the area. Sidwell admissions admits the parents and the situation to assure good outcomes down the road. Period.

counterpoint - not everyone, and I would venture *most* do not send their kids to any of these schools for the college outcomes...if that is the goal, the living in North dakota or alabama is a much better opportunity if the goal is HYP

Sidwell parent here. I disagree. Of course, most parents don't expect a specific college outcome. However, pretty much everyone I know expects or at least hopes that graduating from a top school with very rigorous standards should help students in the admissions process. Clearly, this is proving to be increasingly unfounded as college admissions have shifted further away from purely academic merit to include a range of other criteria in their decision making. The problem is made worse by "within-school" comparisons across students that college ADs are engaging in.

This is a good thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m lost as to what the CCO has to do with your child not getting into college.
I assume Sidwell parents are highly educated and capable of researching college admissions.

Did you feel out the common app with your child and honestly believe some magic was happening that you weren’t involved in that guaranteed their admission to every college they applied for?
Because, I’m thinking if you didn’t have the power to wil your child into Brown, the CCO sure didn’t either.

The role of a good CCO is to provide real advice and counseling, based on their knowledge of the student and also their knowledge and perspective as an inside expert at the school who has insight into all aspects of Sidwell's college placement process--an insight that parents, by definition, cannot and do not have on their own. Sidwell's CCO does not provide any of that meaningful advice and counseling.

Of course they're not going to will anyone's kid into a particular school. But there is a huge chasm between that absurd strawman you have created, and a CCO that is just pushing paper and making sure that deadlines are met (which is about all that Sidwell's office actually does).

They do this. It's just that many parents apparently don't want to or aren't willing to listen to what they are trying to tell you. and then fast forward a few months an you get a thread like this

No, they did not and do not do this. At least, our counselor did not. And it has already been discussed that there is a huge variance among the four counselors as to what they do. Also, I don’t know what you are talking about when you say “fast forward a few months.” Lots of parents have been consistently pointing out for months that the CCO is terrible and does not provide any advice or counseling. And before you accuse me of some sort of sour grapes complaining, let me tell you that my kid got in to their #1 choice. That was no thanks to the CCO though.

Last point: if the CCO is so great, why is the conventional wisdom among upper school parents that you need to hire a private counselor? I can’t even count how many 9th-11th grade parents there are who have told me that they have been advised this by parents of older kids or recent graduates.

people hire counselors for a variety of reasons, the primary being to have someone as a buffer between you and the junior/senior - not everyone has one, and I would posit that most don't. If a kid is enough of a self starter to manage the process and timelines themselves, then they don't need a parent or paid consultant to do it for them. In fact, the kids who put themselves in a position to be considered for a top 20 school are the same ones who can manage the process themselves with the school counselor.

That is not the reason parents are being advised by other parents to hire a private counselor. They are being advised to hire a private counselor because the CCO does not actually counsel kids and because they are viewed as doing a poor job. You’re just making stuff up now and speculating in some sort of weird way that seems designed to defend the school at all costs.

Private college counselors were not helpful this year. Just ask those kids who didn’t get into great colleges with pretty good GPAs. Actually they probably fared worse because of the reliance of them.

Good. In an ideal world they’d be absolutely useless.

Inequality is staggering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a high stats kid from another private school...our college counselors made it very, very clear that all bets are off for ANY college with acceptance rates <20%. Those schools cannot be counted on for any kid. They insisted that kids have at least 3 schools with acceptance rates over 50% and at least one had to have an acceptance rate over 60%. Other than that, kids were strongly encouraged to find at least 5-6 schools in the 20-50 percent range that they could really be happy at.

This seemed to work well when the advice was followed...the ones that ended up unhappy are those who disregarded the advice and just put in a couple of safeties and shotgun 20 plus applications for schools with <15% acceptance rates. These kids and their parents are now blaming the counselor for not doing more.

I'm not saying that is what is going on at Sidwell but it is certainly the case that people are upset that the process/outcomes were different that what they were 4-5 years ago and they didn't want to hear it.

This post should be pinned and mandatory reading for every current junior and sophomore high school family. Thank you.

I think this approach is a great one on paper. However, the schools that accept over 50% of applicants are not the schools that these kids or their parents are excited to attend. Not many of these parents want their kid going to Auburn. Oh wait, Auburn isn’t a good example since their admission rate dropped to 24% this year! What is a school with a 50% admit rate that these high achieving, 34 ACT kids are excited to attend? It is really hard to find one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell is a scam. The kids getting into top 15 schools from Sidwell are mostly legacy, URM and recruited athletes. They could have done this from literally any other school in the area. Sidwell admissions admits the parents and the situation to assure good outcomes down the road. Period.

counterpoint - not everyone, and I would venture *most* do not send their kids to any of these schools for the college outcomes...if that is the goal, the living in North dakota or alabama is a much better opportunity if the goal is HYP

Sidwell parent here. I disagree. Of course, most parents don't expect a specific college outcome. However, pretty much everyone I know expects or at least hopes that graduating from a top school with very rigorous standards should help students in the admissions process. Clearly, this is proving to be increasingly unfounded as college admissions have shifted further away from purely academic merit to include a range of other criteria in their decision making. The problem is made worse by "within-school" comparisons across students that college ADs are engaging in.

This is a good thing.

It's also not a new thing-- colleges have limited the number of admissions from a single school for a long time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a high stats kid from another private school...our college counselors made it very, very clear that all bets are off for ANY college with acceptance rates <20%. Those schools cannot be counted on for any kid. They insisted that kids have at least 3 schools with acceptance rates over 50% and at least one had to have an acceptance rate over 60%. Other than that, kids were strongly encouraged to find at least 5-6 schools in the 20-50 percent range that they could really be happy at.

This seemed to work well when the advice was followed...the ones that ended up unhappy are those who disregarded the advice and just put in a couple of safeties and shotgun 20 plus applications for schools with <15% acceptance rates. These kids and their parents are now blaming the counselor for not doing more.

I'm not saying that is what is going on at Sidwell but it is certainly the case that people are upset that the process/outcomes were different that what they were 4-5 years ago and they didn't want to hear it.

This post should be pinned and mandatory reading for every current junior and sophomore high school family. Thank you.

I think this approach is a great one on paper. However, the schools that accept over 50% of applicants are not the schools that these kids or their parents are excited to attend. Not many of these parents want their kid going to Auburn. Oh wait, Auburn isn’t a good example since their admission rate dropped to 24% this year! What is a school with a 50% admit rate that these high achieving, 34 ACT kids are excited to attend? It is really hard to find one.

People are going to need to significantly adjust their expectations. That is not the high school's fault.

[Anonymous]

Not a Sidwell parent, but I understand that after 13 years of paying half a million dollars of tuition, parents expect more than settling for a college with greater than 50% acceptance rate. If you ask parents to adjust their expectations, you are basically telling them the money invested has been wasted. Why? Because they could have gone to a 50% acceptance rate college from a public school for free and save the tuition money for college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a Sidwell parent, but I understand that after 13 years of paying half a million dollars of tuition, parents expect more than settling for a college with greater than 50% acceptance rate. If you ask parents to adjust their expectations, you are basically telling them the money invested has been wasted. Why? Because they could have gone to a 50% acceptance rate college from a public school for free and save the tuition money for college.

There are some things that money just can’t buy. I suspect that schools have tightened their “doors” post-Varsity Blues, extending that to tactics like college counselors advocating on behalf of individual students, which basically does not happen in public schools at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a Sidwell parent, but I understand that after 13 years of paying half a million dollars of tuition, parents expect more than settling for a college with greater than 50% acceptance rate. If you ask parents to adjust their expectations, you are basically telling them the money invested has been wasted. Why? Because they could have gone to a 50% acceptance rate college from a public school for free and save the tuition money for college.

Again, people should not assume that getting into one college or another is a goal for sending a kid to a school like Sidwell, and as others have noted, if that is the goal, move to Wyoming. The money isn't "wasted" - your kid learned how to think and got a great education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a Sidwell parent, but I understand that after 13 years of paying half a million dollars of tuition, parents expect more than settling for a college with greater than 50% acceptance rate. If you ask parents to adjust their expectations, you are basically telling them the money invested has been wasted. Why? Because they could have gone to a 50% acceptance rate college from a public school for free and save the tuition money for college.

Again, people should not assume that getting into one college or another is a goal for sending a kid to a school like Sidwell, and as others have noted, if that is the goal, move to Wyoming. The money isn't "wasted" - your kid learned how to think and got a great education.

I don’t disagree, but again, if you want to get in from an unknown high school you have to be an absolute superstar among your peers and your town, not only academically but in extracurriculars as well. I doubt that’s any easier than going to Sidwell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a Sidwell parent, but I understand that after 13 years of paying half a million dollars of tuition, parents expect more than settling for a college with greater than 50% acceptance rate. If you ask parents to adjust their expectations, you are basically telling them the money invested has been wasted. Why? Because they could have gone to a 50% acceptance rate college from a public school for free and save the tuition money for college.

+2 This is an anonymous forum, so I will be honest. I know I will get flamed, but here it is. Big3 parent. I can get excited about Wisconsin or Tulane, but sending my 34 ACT to Delaware or Elon is hard to take. Especially after spending $500k in private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m lost as to what the CCO has to do with your child not getting into college.
I assume Sidwell parents are highly educated and capable of researching college admissions.

Did you feel out the common app with your child and honestly believe some magic was happening that you weren’t involved in that guaranteed their admission to every college they applied for?
Because, I’m thinking if you didn’t have the power to wil your child into Brown, the CCO sure didn’t either.

The role of a good CCO is to provide real advice and counseling, based on their knowledge of the student and also their knowledge and perspective as an inside expert at the school who has insight into all aspects of Sidwell's college placement process--an insight that parents, by definition, cannot and do not have on their own. Sidwell's CCO does not provide any of that meaningful advice and counseling.

Of course they're not going to will anyone's kid into a particular school. But there is a huge chasm between that absurd strawman you have created, and a CCO that is just pushing paper and making sure that deadlines are met (which is about all that Sidwell's office actually does).

They do this. It's just that many parents apparently don't want to or aren't willing to listen to what they are trying to tell you. and then fast forward a few months an you get a thread like this

No, they did not and do not do this. At least, our counselor did not. And it has already been discussed that there is a huge variance among the four counselors as to what they do. Also, I don’t know what you are talking about when you say “fast forward a few months.” Lots of parents have been consistently pointing out for months that the CCO is terrible and does not provide any advice or counseling. And before you accuse me of some sort of sour grapes complaining, let me tell you that my kid got in to their #1 choice. That was no thanks to the CCO though.

Last point: if the CCO is so great, why is the conventional wisdom among upper school parents that you need to hire a private counselor? I can’t even count how many 9th-11th grade parents there are who have told me that they have been advised this by parents of older kids or recent graduates.

I'm going to need an example of what you expected. As in, Larla goes into the office with you and hubby. She has a 3.7 at the end of the last trimester of her junior year. She's looking at the admissions process ahead. You and your hubby explain she wants to study chemistry in college and both you and hubby graduated from MIT.

What are your expectations of this CCO? Someone educate the parents of lesser private schools who don't have someone in this role.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a high stats kid from another private school...our college counselors made it very, very clear that all bets are off for ANY college with acceptance rates <20%. Those schools cannot be counted on for any kid. They insisted that kids have at least 3 schools with acceptance rates over 50% and at least one had to have an acceptance rate over 60%. Other than that, kids were strongly encouraged to find at least 5-6 schools in the 20-50 percent range that they could really be happy at.

This seemed to work well when the advice was followed...the ones that ended up unhappy are those who disregarded the advice and just put in a couple of safeties and shotgun 20 plus applications for schools with <15% acceptance rates. These kids and their parents are now blaming the counselor for not doing more.

I'm not saying that is what is going on at Sidwell but it is certainly the case that people are upset that the process/outcomes were different that what they were 4-5 years ago and they didn't want to hear it.

This post should be pinned and mandatory reading for every current junior and sophomore high school family. Thank you.

I think this approach is a great one on paper. However, the schools that accept over 50% of applicants are not the schools that these kids or their parents are excited to attend. Not many of these parents want their kid going to Auburn. Oh wait, Auburn isn’t a good example since their admission rate dropped to 24% this year! What is a school with a 50% admit rate that these high achieving, 34 ACT kids are excited to attend? It is really hard to find one.

University of Vermont (if they like small cities), Pitt (if they want larger cities), Penn State (if they want football), Muhlenberg (if they prefer SLACs)...there are thousands of colleges in this country. The point is that people need to think beyond the 50 that USNews has deemed "best" to what is acceptable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a Sidwell parent, but I understand that after 13 years of paying half a million dollars of tuition, parents expect more than settling for a college with greater than 50% acceptance rate. If you ask parents to adjust their expectations, you are basically telling them the money invested has been wasted. Why? Because they could have gone to a 50% acceptance rate college from a public school for free and save the tuition money for college.

Again, people should not assume that getting into one college or another is a goal for sending a kid to a school like Sidwell, and as others have noted, if that is the goal, move to Wyoming. The money isn't "wasted" - your kid learned how to think and got a great education.

Again, you can keep repeating this to yourself, but in all honesty, parents expect more than a great education for half a million dollars. They are right to feel disappointed at their kids' college outcomes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a Sidwell parent, but I understand that after 13 years of paying half a million dollars of tuition, parents expect more than settling for a college with greater than 50% acceptance rate. If you ask parents to adjust their expectations, you are basically telling them the money invested has been wasted. Why? Because they could have gone to a 50% acceptance rate college from a public school for free and save the tuition money for college.

+2 This is an anonymous forum, so I will be honest. I know I will get flamed, but here it is. Big3 parent. I can get excited about Wisconsin or Tulane, but sending my 34 ACT to Delaware or Elon is hard to take. Especially after spending $500k in private school.

NP here, in this vein I will add, I was a merit scholarship kid at a regional SLAC and I transferred because the school offered so few resources and the kids didn’t care about current events, reading or any of the things I cared about. They just wanted to drink (or the ones who didn’t were so much more socially awkward than I was). So I want to avoid that for my kid who is definitely smarter than me and even more sophisticated having grown up in DC. Because transferring, while absolutely the right thing to do, definitely closed off some avenues for me. I am sure there are great kids at small schools but my research failed me back in the day as I didn’t find them - or at least not enough to stay.