Sidwell GDS and Michigan

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not all doom and gloom. Many kids get into excellent schools from private.
You can’t just look at top ivy results. I bet more than a few kids got into Cornell for example

No, not unconnected kids. At my kid's Big3 there was one Ivy admit (of any kind) last year for an unconnected kid.

Can you name the school? I can say that wasn’t the case at STA.

You're not playing the game right. You have to look at all the people whose kids did better than yours in the admissions game (by whatever standards you measure that) and then make up some category of hook that applies to them and not your kid.

You can find a hook for everyone! It will make you feel better that your kid ended up at a SLAC or state flagship.

Huh? My kid will attend his first choice T20 school.

You are hooked then in some way. You don’t want to admit it but you probably used your connections. That is hooked.

Legacy is not as huge a hook anymore. And most Big-3 parents, while wealthy, are not in a position to donate $20M to their alma mater. The hook coming from a Big-3 is the college counseling office, which has close relationships with admissions officers at the nationally ranked colleges and universities. Sometimes, college counselors at B-3s have even come from these admissions offices. And the one-on-one attention that Big-3 students receive means that their college counselors can ring up an admissions office and discuss individual applicants. Public school college counseling offices simply do not have the time to get to know every kid in the junior and senior classes who are applying to colleges. And private college counselors can be helpful, but they are not in the same category as the college counselors at Big-3 schools. The incentive for admissions officers to get to know private college counselors is simply not as great as getting to know the college counselors at the Big-3.

Well the college counselors only use their relationships to help certain kids as we are all now seeing. They push for all but are a little more enthusiast and a little more detailed in their rec letters for certain kids than others. They are afraid of certain families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not all doom and gloom. Many kids get into excellent schools from private.
You can’t just look at top ivy results. I bet more than a few kids got into Cornell for example

No, not unconnected kids. At my kid's Big3 there was one Ivy admit (of any kind) last year for an unconnected kid.

Can you name the school? I can say that wasn’t the case at STA.

You're not playing the game right. You have to look at all the people whose kids did better than yours in the admissions game (by whatever standards you measure that) and then make up some category of hook that applies to them and not your kid.

You can find a hook for everyone! It will make you feel better that your kid ended up at a SLAC or state flagship.

Huh? My kid will attend his first choice T20 school.

You are hooked then in some way. You don’t want to admit it but you probably used your connections. That is hooked.

Legacy is not as huge a hook anymore. And most Big-3 parents, while wealthy, are not in a position to donate $20M to their alma mater. The hook coming from a Big-3 is the college counseling office, which has close relationships with admissions officers at the nationally ranked colleges and universities. Sometimes, college counselors at B-3s have even come from these admissions offices. And the one-on-one attention that Big-3 students receive means that their college counselors can ring up an admissions office and discuss individual applicants. Public school college counseling offices simply do not have the time to get to know every kid in the junior and senior classes who are applying to colleges. And private college counselors can be helpful, but they are not in the same category as the college counselors at Big-3 schools. The incentive for admissions officers to get to know private college counselors is simply not as great as getting to know the college counselors at the Big-3.

Well the college counselors only use their relationships to help certain kids as we are all now seeing. They push for all but are a little more enthusiast and a little more detailed in their rec letters for certain kids than others. They are afraid of certain families.

Sidwell counselors don't go to bat with individual outreach to college admissions officers for any kids. Sad, but true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not all doom and gloom. Many kids get into excellent schools from private.
You can’t just look at top ivy results. I bet more than a few kids got into Cornell for example

No, not unconnected kids. At my kid's Big3 there was one Ivy admit (of any kind) last year for an unconnected kid.

Can you name the school? I can say that wasn’t the case at STA.

You're not playing the game right. You have to look at all the people whose kids did better than yours in the admissions game (by whatever standards you measure that) and then make up some category of hook that applies to them and not your kid.

You can find a hook for everyone! It will make you feel better that your kid ended up at a SLAC or state flagship.

Huh? My kid will attend his first choice T20 school.

You are hooked then in some way. You don’t want to admit it but you probably used your connections. That is hooked.

Legacy is not as huge a hook anymore. And most Big-3 parents, while wealthy, are not in a position to donate $20M to their alma mater. The hook coming from a Big-3 is the college counseling office, which has close relationships with admissions officers at the nationally ranked colleges and universities. Sometimes, college counselors at B-3s have even come from these admissions offices. And the one-on-one attention that Big-3 students receive means that their college counselors can ring up an admissions office and discuss individual applicants. Public school college counseling offices simply do not have the time to get to know every kid in the junior and senior classes who are applying to colleges. And private college counselors can be helpful, but they are not in the same category as the college counselors at Big-3 schools. The incentive for admissions officers to get to know private college counselors is simply not as great as getting to know the college counselors at the Big-3.

Um - this doesn't describe our child's relationship with their Sidwell counselor. Furthermore, CCO has never said that they use cultivated close relationships with college AO's to help students. It could be this is happening for those kids in hooked buckets (especially the ones in the "VIP parent plus legacy parent" category) but I very much doubt my deferred kid is getting a special phone call made on their behalf. I'd love to be wrong on this, but I don't think I am.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not all doom and gloom. Many kids get into excellent schools from private.
You can’t just look at top ivy results. I bet more than a few kids got into Cornell for example

No, not unconnected kids. At my kid's Big3 there was one Ivy admit (of any kind) last year for an unconnected kid.

Can you name the school? I can say that wasn’t the case at STA.

You're not playing the game right. You have to look at all the people whose kids did better than yours in the admissions game (by whatever standards you measure that) and then make up some category of hook that applies to them and not your kid.

You can find a hook for everyone! It will make you feel better that your kid ended up at a SLAC or state flagship.

Ha, very funny.

No, there are 3 hooks:

-URM
-Legacy which at the Big3 generally means VIP legacy (a big donor or famous person who is legacy)
-recruited athlete

NCS had one kid last year admitted to an Ivy of any kind without being one (or generally more than 1) of these.

So if the stats I am finding online are correct, then NCS has about 45 white or Asian girls in a class. Let’s imagine that 5 of them have parents who went to an Ivy or will be recruited.

That means that 2.5% of the kids in that category got into Ivies. That is an incredibly high number. Way higher than public school kids. If you think that attending NCS isn’t a hook you are seriously delusional.

So, doing my advanced math, you are basically saying that 1/45 = 2.2% (which is close to 2.5%) got into an Ivy that was unhooked, which is a great result?

Comparing to public school is really apples-to-oranges. You had to score high on the SSAT and have high grades just to get into NCS to begin, while a public school might have 300-500 kids per class where you just need to live in-boundary or go to a feeder school in-boundary. If you compare NCS to just the top 10% of JR (roughly 50 kids) you may actually not think 2.5% is a great result.

True apples-to-apples is to compare NCS to magnet schools like TJ or Blair Magnet program...even Walls. Your 1/45 will actually look terrible.

Lots of Ivy admits at NCs and You’re missing the point those kids would not have gotten in as athletes if they were at a public school. The fact that they’re at a big 3 gives them added attention and the Ivies like that. That’s what you’re missing they may not have gotten in from public. Coming from a big three in this area and being a good athlete means you’re a scholar athlete and it puts you in a different level. You’re very obtuse if you don’t get that. Besides percentage wise a lot of kids went to Ivy’s last year from NCS, Sidwell, GDS, and St. Albans. Much higher percentage than from public so hands down kids at the big three are going to more ivies and whether they’re hooked or not means part of that hook means attending a big three. There’s a lot of clout in that because they know the quality of work these kids are doing plus the sports requirements and then outside sports teams. So that being a student plus a great athlete requires a lot had a big three in colleges like that clearly. That’s why you had four kids from NCS get into Columbia last year alone. You can keep saying they’re hooked to make yourself feel better but part of the hook is that they’re smart and attending a rigorous school with demanding schedule.

Not really understanding this. Even Ivy leagues are not recruiting sub-par athletes with high stats from NCS...why would that athlete not get accepted if they go to public school and have high SATs and 10+APs? If they are truly a recruited athlete, then their athletic ability is paramount and their grades and test scores are part of the package. Where are they getting added attention?

Again, how it is possibly fair or equivalent to compare private schools with cultivated classes (and recruited athletes) to a general public school that is much larger and anyone can attend? Of course the privates will send a larger %age to Ivy league schools.

[Anonymous]

There are a disproportionate number of private school students at elite colleges/universities. BUT that's because there are a disproportionate number of extremely wealthy and/or famous families are private schools. If you're an upper middle class unhooked student, your odds at a private are not different from your odds at a public school. The private school kids who get into elite colleges/universities are almost all hooked -- children of famous and extremely rich families, recruited althetes, and URMs (with overlap in these categories.

For regular smart kids, it's better to stay in public.

[Anonymous]

Pp - it’s only better to stay in public if your top priority is college admissions results

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are a disproportionate number of private school students at elite colleges/universities. BUT that's because there are a disproportionate number of extremely wealthy and/or famous families are private schools. If you're an upper middle class unhooked student, your odds at a private are not different from your odds at a public school. The private school kids who get into elite colleges/universities are almost all hooked -- children of famous and extremely rich families, recruited althetes, and URMs (with overlap in these categories.

For regular smart kids, it's better to stay in public.

I disagree with this based on my kid’s friends at both public and private. I would say my kid’s private school friends were happier with college choices than public kids. But it is also a vast generalized hypothetical, so hard to know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did anyone get in?

Actually did anyone get in from any top DC private? I don't know of any.

Yes multiples from holton

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not all doom and gloom. Many kids get into excellent schools from private.
You can’t just look at top ivy results. I bet more than a few kids got into Cornell for example

No, not unconnected kids. At my kid's Big3 there was one Ivy admit (of any kind) last year for an unconnected kid.

Can you name the school? I can say that wasn’t the case at STA.

You're not playing the game right. You have to look at all the people whose kids did better than yours in the admissions game (by whatever standards you measure that) and then make up some category of hook that applies to them and not your kid.

You can find a hook for everyone! It will make you feel better that your kid ended up at a SLAC or state flagship.

Ha, very funny.

No, there are 3 hooks:

-URM
-Legacy which at the Big3 generally means VIP legacy (a big donor or famous person who is legacy)
-recruited athlete

NCS had one kid last year admitted to an Ivy of any kind without being one (or generally more than 1) of these.

So if the stats I am finding online are correct, then NCS has about 45 white or Asian girls in a class. Let’s imagine that 5 of them have parents who went to an Ivy or will be recruited.

That means that 2.5% of the kids in that category got into Ivies. That is an incredibly high number. Way higher than public school kids. If you think that attending NCS isn’t a hook you are seriously delusional.

However, way, way more than 5 parents went to an Ivy in any NCS class. Many kids have both parents having gone to an Ivy and often different Ivies.

So, how many "unhooked" kids are there in a class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not all doom and gloom. Many kids get into excellent schools from private.
You can’t just look at top ivy results. I bet more than a few kids got into Cornell for example

No, not unconnected kids. At my kid's Big3 there was one Ivy admit (of any kind) last year for an unconnected kid.

Can you name the school? I can say that wasn’t the case at STA.

You're not playing the game right. You have to look at all the people whose kids did better than yours in the admissions game (by whatever standards you measure that) and then make up some category of hook that applies to them and not your kid.

You can find a hook for everyone! It will make you feel better that your kid ended up at a SLAC or state flagship.

Ha, very funny.

No, there are 3 hooks:

-URM
-Legacy which at the Big3 generally means VIP legacy (a big donor or famous person who is legacy)
-recruited athlete

NCS had one kid last year admitted to an Ivy of any kind without being one (or generally more than 1) of these.

So if the stats I am finding online are correct, then NCS has about 45 white or Asian girls in a class. Let’s imagine that 5 of them have parents who went to an Ivy or will be recruited.

That means that 2.5% of the kids in that category got into Ivies. That is an incredibly high number. Way higher than public school kids. If you think that attending NCS isn’t a hook you are seriously delusional.

However, way, way more than 5 parents went to an Ivy in any NCS class. Many kids have both parents having gone to an Ivy and often different Ivies.

So, how many "unhooked" kids are there in a class?

NCS
Class of 80?
Depends on the year but I'd say:
-Less than 5 athletes (this year there are 4 recruits). It is not an athletic school.
-Maybe 20 URM (some classes in younger years are more like 30-35)
-I'd say 50 have a parent (considering there are 2 parents per kid) who is an Ivy grad. This number is REALLY high. Maybe 2-3 per class are Ivy legacy at the VIP level (parent committee members at the Ivy, former faculty, million dollar donor, etc).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not all doom and gloom. Many kids get into excellent schools from private.
You can’t just look at top ivy results. I bet more than a few kids got into Cornell for example

No, not unconnected kids. At my kid's Big3 there was one Ivy admit (of any kind) last year for an unconnected kid.

Can you name the school? I can say that wasn’t the case at STA.

You're not playing the game right. You have to look at all the people whose kids did better than yours in the admissions game (by whatever standards you measure that) and then make up some category of hook that applies to them and not your kid.

You can find a hook for everyone! It will make you feel better that your kid ended up at a SLAC or state flagship.

Ha, very funny.

No, there are 3 hooks:

-URM
-Legacy which at the Big3 generally means VIP legacy (a big donor or famous person who is legacy)
-recruited athlete

NCS had one kid last year admitted to an Ivy of any kind without being one (or generally more than 1) of these.

So if the stats I am finding online are correct, then NCS has about 45 white or Asian girls in a class. Let’s imagine that 5 of them have parents who went to an Ivy or will be recruited.

That means that 2.5% of the kids in that category got into Ivies. That is an incredibly high number. Way higher than public school kids. If you think that attending NCS isn’t a hook you are seriously delusional.

However, way, way more than 5 parents went to an Ivy in any NCS class. Many kids have both parents having gone to an Ivy and often different Ivies.

So, how many "unhooked" kids are there in a class?

NCS
Class of 80?
Depends on the year but I'd say:
-Less than 5 athletes (this year there are 4 recruits). It is not an athletic school.
-Maybe 20 URM (some classes in younger years are more like 30-35)
-I'd say 50 have a parent (considering there are 2 parents per kid) who is an Ivy grad. This number is REALLY high. Maybe 2-3 per class are Ivy legacy at the VIP level (parent committee members at the Ivy, former faculty, million dollar donor, etc).

So, obviously there would be overlap. Would you say there are 20 kids who are none of the above? So, 1 "unhooked kid" is 5%? 5% admissions to Ivies (not 5% of applicants, but 5% of the entire group) is light years above the public school admissions rates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not all doom and gloom. Many kids get into excellent schools from private.
You can’t just look at top ivy results. I bet more than a few kids got into Cornell for example

No, not unconnected kids. At my kid's Big3 there was one Ivy admit (of any kind) last year for an unconnected kid.

Can you name the school? I can say that wasn’t the case at STA.

You're not playing the game right. You have to look at all the people whose kids did better than yours in the admissions game (by whatever standards you measure that) and then make up some category of hook that applies to them and not your kid.

You can find a hook for everyone! It will make you feel better that your kid ended up at a SLAC or state flagship.

Ha, very funny.

No, there are 3 hooks:

-URM
-Legacy which at the Big3 generally means VIP legacy (a big donor or famous person who is legacy)
-recruited athlete

NCS had one kid last year admitted to an Ivy of any kind without being one (or generally more than 1) of these.

So if the stats I am finding online are correct, then NCS has about 45 white or Asian girls in a class. Let’s imagine that 5 of them have parents who went to an Ivy or will be recruited.

That means that 2.5% of the kids in that category got into Ivies. That is an incredibly high number. Way higher than public school kids. If you think that attending NCS isn’t a hook you are seriously delusional.

However, way, way more than 5 parents went to an Ivy in any NCS class. Many kids have both parents having gone to an Ivy and often different Ivies.

So, how many "unhooked" kids are there in a class?

NCS
Class of 80?
Depends on the year but I'd say:
-Less than 5 athletes (this year there are 4 recruits). It is not an athletic school.
-Maybe 20 URM (some classes in younger years are more like 30-35)
-I'd say 50 have a parent (considering there are 2 parents per kid) who is an Ivy grad. This number is REALLY high. Maybe 2-3 per class are Ivy legacy at the VIP level (parent committee members at the Ivy, former faculty, million dollar donor, etc).

So, obviously there would be overlap. Would you say there are 20 kids who are none of the above? So, 1 "unhooked kid" is 5%? 5% admissions to Ivies (not 5% of applicants, but 5% of the entire group) is light years above the public school admissions rates.

I think you have to look at it from the Cum Laude society (top 20% academically in the class). Last year there were 15 of them.
8 went to the Ivy league
6 were legacy
1 was an athlete
1 was unconnected.

Then you had a whole bunch of URM and crew kids who went to the Ivy league from outside the top 20% of the class academically.

[Anonymous]

Oops:
let me post this again:

I think you have to look at it from the Cum Laude society (top 20% academically in the class). Last year there were 15 of them.
8 went to the Ivy league
-6 were legacy
-1 was an athlete
-1 was unhooked (the solo unhooked Ivy kid last year)

Then you had a whole bunch of URM and crew kids who went to the Ivy league but were outside the top 20% of the class academically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not all doom and gloom. Many kids get into excellent schools from private.
You can’t just look at top ivy results. I bet more than a few kids got into Cornell for example

No, not unconnected kids. At my kid's Big3 there was one Ivy admit (of any kind) last year for an unconnected kid.

Can you name the school? I can say that wasn’t the case at STA.

You're not playing the game right. You have to look at all the people whose kids did better than yours in the admissions game (by whatever standards you measure that) and then make up some category of hook that applies to them and not your kid.

You can find a hook for everyone! It will make you feel better that your kid ended up at a SLAC or state flagship.

Ha, very funny.

No, there are 3 hooks:

-URM
-Legacy which at the Big3 generally means VIP legacy (a big donor or famous person who is legacy)
-recruited athlete

NCS had one kid last year admitted to an Ivy of any kind without being one (or generally more than 1) of these.

So if the stats I am finding online are correct, then NCS has about 45 white or Asian girls in a class. Let’s imagine that 5 of them have parents who went to an Ivy or will be recruited.

That means that 2.5% of the kids in that category got into Ivies. That is an incredibly high number. Way higher than public school kids. If you think that attending NCS isn’t a hook you are seriously delusional.

However, way, way more than 5 parents went to an Ivy in any NCS class. Many kids have both parents having gone to an Ivy and often different Ivies.

So, how many "unhooked" kids are there in a class?

NCS
Class of 80?
Depends on the year but I'd say:
-Less than 5 athletes (this year there are 4 recruits). It is not an athletic school.
-Maybe 20 URM (some classes in younger years are more like 30-35)
-I'd say 50 have a parent (considering there are 2 parents per kid) who is an Ivy grad. This number is REALLY high. Maybe 2-3 per class are Ivy legacy at the VIP level (parent committee members at the Ivy, former faculty, million dollar donor, etc).

So, obviously there would be overlap. Would you say there are 20 kids who are none of the above? So, 1 "unhooked kid" is 5%? 5% admissions to Ivies (not 5% of applicants, but 5% of the entire group) is light years above the public school admissions rates.

I think you have to look at it from the Cum Laude society (top 20% academically in the class). Last year there were 15 of them.
8 went to the Ivy league
6 were legacy
1 was an athlete
1 was unconnected.

Then you had a whole bunch of URM and crew kids who went to the Ivy league from outside the top 20% of the class academically.

So you know what percentage of the cum laude society didn't go to Ivies were legacies or athletes? Even if the answer is zero, it's still a really high acceptance rate.

[Anonymous]

It is not as high as it used to be which is why people are wringing their hands in despair.
Tuition has gone up at private schools but your kids odds of getting into a top 10 school have diminished.
Not the best combination. There are some parents for whom the cost of tuition is truly a drop in the bucket but that is not true for most families