Early Decision Results at Top DC Privates

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The cold, hard truth is that Sidwell as an institution does not pay much attention to college rankings either. It is not a priority for the administration to get kids into Ivys or comparable schools. Parents may disagree with that, but they should know what they are getting into. Tom Farquhar flat out says this to newly accepted students each year. For me, the jury is still out on whether the education at Sidwell is worth the college trade-off, but make no mistake, there is a trade-off.

This is one reason Tom is on his way out.

More fundamentally, though, of course "the school" -- the kids, parents, and teachers -- care; the administration has just been saying this to cover its collective butt. The cold, hard truth is that Sidwell college counseling sucks.

Multiple choice quiz:

The quoted poster is:
(a) nasty
(b) a know-it-all
(c) pressures their child about college
(d) still brags about where s/he went to college
(e) all of the above

Maybe -- or she's just not as naive and inexperienced as you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our public school has had at least 3 Harvard admits and 3 Stanford admits so far. Those are just among DCs friends so I'm sure there are more. Of course a number of other Ivy admits and deferrals as well. Interestingly Yale and Princeton are not popular. Not sure there were any early applicants to those two. So all is not lost if your DD does not get into one of the top private schools.

I do not believe this. Only TJ really has this kind of admits and not to Harvard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: On a positive note, I would share with the group that we have been very pleased and impressed with the college counseling office at St. Andrew's. In our experience, the team is incredibly hard working, knowledgeable, and responsive, and the counselors take the time to really get to know the kids. Never any guarantees, of course, but as stressful as the college application process can be I feel that the counselors there have really bent over backwards to be helpful in every way for our DC to find those schools where our DC would likely have a great college experience given DC's interests, talents, preferences, etc. and to guide DC (and us) through all phases of the application process -- senior year course selection, summer activities, testing/retesting, etc. I am sure there are other schools with great offices, but given the amount of stress and negativity sometimes surrounding the college app process I wanted to just share one positive story about college counselors.

I've also heard good things about SAES college counseling -- and about the school in general. Can you elaborate a little on how the counseling process works? In particular, when do students first meet individually with counselors? When are parents included in these meetings and how often do they occur? Do counselors help students and parents develop a list of schools to visit and apply to? Do counselors provide guidance on essays?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The cold, hard truth is that Sidwell as an institution does not pay much attention to college rankings either. It is not a priority for the administration to get kids into Ivys or comparable schools. Parents may disagree with that, but they should know what they are getting into. Tom Farquhar flat out says this to newly accepted students each year. For me, the jury is still out on whether the education at Sidwell is worth the college trade-off, but make no mistake, there is a trade-off.

This is one reason Tom is on his way out.

More fundamentally, though, of course "the school" -- the kids, parents, and teachers -- care; the administration has just been saying this to cover its collective butt. The cold, hard truth is that Sidwell college counseling sucks.

It has, but I hope it will get better. There is a new counselor, another new one coming next year, and hopefully a new, more active approach to college admissions. In fairness to the new counselor, this is her first year and she came in halfway through.

Fair enough, though it's been a rocky start.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our public school has had at least 3 Harvard admits and 3 Stanford admits so far. Those are just among DCs friends so I'm sure there are more. Of course a number of other Ivy admits and deferrals as well. Interestingly Yale and Princeton are not popular. Not sure there were any early applicants to those two. So all is not lost if your DD does not get into one of the top private schools.

I do not believe this. Only TJ really has this kind of admits and not to Harvard.

Really?

Flint Hlll (a school everyone on this board loves to hate since its not in DC) announced its early decisions with admits to Princenton, Penn, Cornell (and let's throw in Middlebury to boot). Not half bad ? (Trolls et. al....come on out now and attack Flint Hill...) Harvard, Yale and Stanford didn't have applicants this go around.

[Anonymous]

If people thought this through, I'm not sure what they mean with remarks like "Sidwell needs to step it up" in college counseling. From what I've seen, Sidwell gets about 15 or so National Merit Semifinalists every year. From what I understand (friends' kids, etc.), the NMSF semifinalists who ALSO have good grades get into the schools that the people on this board are most interested in: Ivy League, Stanford, University of Chicago. So the top kids -- the kids who would be "top kids" at TJ or St. Albans or Whitman as well as at Sidwell -- are getting in to the schools they "should" get into.

Sidwell could hire 100 college counselors and I don't think they would be able to get materially more students into the colleges with admission percentages below 10%. The landscape has changed so much since the current private school parent body applied to college in the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the Ivies had admission rates in the 30% range back then -- not true today. The "democratization" (Common App and internet) and internationalization of college admissions, along with colleges' increased interest in geographic diversity, mean that the outcomes are only going to be so good. Your child will still get great teacher rec letters from teachers who know him/her really well, but most importantly they will be really well prepared to excel once they get to college -- and the U.S. has the greatest concentration of good colleges and universities in the world for them to choose from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If people thought this through, I'm not sure what they mean with remarks like "Sidwell needs to step it up" in college counseling. From what I've seen, Sidwell gets about 15 or so National Merit Semifinalists every year. From what I understand (friends' kids, etc.), the NMSF semifinalists who ALSO have good grades get into the schools that the people on this board are most interested in: Ivy League, Stanford, University of Chicago. So the top kids -- the kids who would be "top kids" at TJ or St. Albans or Whitman as well as at Sidwell -- are getting in to the schools they "should" get into.

Sidwell could hire 100 college counselors and I don't think they would be able to get materially more students into the colleges with admission percentages below 10%. The landscape has changed so much since the current private school parent body applied to college in the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the Ivies had admission rates in the 30% range back then -- not true today. The "democratization" (Common App and internet) and internationalization of college admissions, along with colleges' increased interest in geographic diversity, mean that the outcomes are only going to be so good. Your child will still get great teacher rec letters from teachers who know him/her really well, but most importantly they will be really well prepared to excel once they get to college -- and the U.S. has the greatest concentration of good colleges and universities in the world for them to choose from.

I have had two children graduate from Sidwell and go on to universities among those you cite. Regardless of the outcome, I still think the college counseling program needs to be overhauled. IME the counselors' approach was not supportive and created unnecessary stress for our family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If people thought this through, I'm not sure what they mean with remarks like "Sidwell needs to step it up" in college counseling. From what I've seen, Sidwell gets about 15 or so National Merit Semifinalists every year. From what I understand (friends' kids, etc.), the NMSF semifinalists who ALSO have good grades get into the schools that the people on this board are most interested in: Ivy League, Stanford, University of Chicago. So the top kids -- the kids who would be "top kids" at TJ or St. Albans or Whitman as well as at Sidwell -- are getting in to the schools they "should" get into.

Sidwell could hire 100 college counselors and I don't think they would be able to get materially more students into the colleges with admission percentages below 10%. The landscape has changed so much since the current private school parent body applied to college in the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the Ivies had admission rates in the 30% range back then -- not true today. The "democratization" (Common App and internet) and internationalization of college admissions, along with colleges' increased interest in geographic diversity, mean that the outcomes are only going to be so good. Your child will still get great teacher rec letters from teachers who know him/her really well, but most importantly they will be really well prepared to excel once they get to college -- and the U.S. has the greatest concentration of good colleges and universities in the world for them to choose from.

++1. Well said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If people thought this through, I'm not sure what they mean with remarks like "Sidwell needs to step it up" in college counseling. From what I've seen, Sidwell gets about 15 or so National Merit Semifinalists every year. From what I understand (friends' kids, etc.), the NMSF semifinalists who ALSO have good grades get into the schools that the people on this board are most interested in: Ivy League, Stanford, University of Chicago. So the top kids -- the kids who would be "top kids" at TJ or St. Albans or Whitman as well as at Sidwell -- are getting in to the schools they "should" get into.

Sidwell could hire 100 college counselors and I don't think they would be able to get materially more students into the colleges with admission percentages below 10%. The landscape has changed so much since the current private school parent body applied to college in the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the Ivies had admission rates in the 30% range back then -- not true today. The "democratization" (Common App and internet) and internationalization of college admissions, along with colleges' increased interest in geographic diversity, mean that the outcomes are only going to be so good. Your child will still get great teacher rec letters from teachers who know him/her really well, but most importantly they will be really well prepared to excel once they get to college -- and the U.S. has the greatest concentration of good colleges and universities in the world for them to choose from.

++1. Well said.

Ditto.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our public school has had at least 3 Harvard admits and 3 Stanford admits so far. Those are just among DCs friends so I'm sure there are more. Of course a number of other Ivy admits and deferrals as well. Interestingly Yale and Princeton are not popular. Not sure there were any early applicants to those two. So all is not lost if your DD does not get into one of the top private schools.

I do not believe this. Only TJ really has this kind of admits and not to Harvard.

Sorry you don't believe me - it's a W school in MCPS. I know at least one was admitted to Yale, not sure if there were more. At least one Dartmouth. At least a dozen to Cornell, but I know that's below many people on this board. Some to Columbia and Penn. Haven't heard about any Browns or Princetons though. I'm sure the numbers will go up for all the schools in regular decision - most of these schools admit 60% of the class in RD so it's really too early to tell at this point.

[Anonymous]

If people thought this through, I'm not sure what they mean with remarks like "Sidwell needs to step it up" in college counseling. From what I've seen, Sidwell gets about 15 or so National Merit Semifinalists every year. From what I understand (friends' kids, etc.), the NMSF semifinalists who ALSO have good grades get into the schools that the people on this board are most interested in: Ivy League, Stanford, University of Chicago. So the top kids -- the kids who would be "top kids" at TJ or St. Albans or Whitman as well as at Sidwell -- are getting in to the schools they "should" get into.

Sidwell could hire 100 college counselors and I don't think they would be able to get materially more students into the colleges with admission percentages below 10%. The landscape has changed so much since the current private school parent body applied to college in the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the Ivies had admission rates in the 30% range back then -- not true today. The "democratization" (Common App and internet) and internationalization of college admissions, along with colleges' increased interest in geographic diversity, mean that the outcomes are only going to be so good. Your child will still get great teacher rec letters from teachers who know him/her really well, but most importantly they will be really well prepared to excel once they get to college -- and the U.S. has the greatest concentration of good colleges and universities in the world for them to choose from.

I agree with this. I graduated high school in the 2000s from a top suburban school...akin to the likes of Whitman in quality but in another major city. Admission to the ivies and other top schools was somewhat of a crapshoot. Of course, there was a certain range of student who had a chance at admission, but those schools get nine qualified applicants for every ten spots. I have heard admissions officers say that well over 70% of the applicants that apply are essentially qualified. At my school (which had a very large class) in the year ahead of me, eleven people went to Yale. In my year, only ~1 person got into Yale. I believe that as long as your kid is in an environment where there are opportunities to take advanced classes and a strong peer cohort, they will be fine. I don't know that the "connection" with the school, or the counselor's rec is necessarily going to be the tie breaker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our public school has had at least 3 Harvard admits and 3 Stanford admits so far. Those are just among DCs friends so I'm sure there are more. Of course a number of other Ivy admits and deferrals as well. Interestingly Yale and Princeton are not popular. Not sure there were any early applicants to those two. So all is not lost if your DD does not get into one of the top private schools.

I do not believe this. Only TJ really has this kind of admits and not to Harvard.

Sorry you don't believe me - it's a W school in MCPS. I know at least one was admitted to Yale, not sure if there were more. At least one Dartmouth. At least a dozen to Cornell, but I know that's below many people on this board. Some to Columbia and Penn. Haven't heard about any Browns or Princetons though. I'm sure the numbers will go up for all the schools in regular decision - most of these schools admit 60% of the class in RD so it's really too early to tell at this point.

Cornell most certainly is not some fly by night school regardless what anyone says. Here's a list of Bethesda schools and their admits for 2013. While Bethesda is not the only game in town (or this area), I would say Cornell is well represented especially at Whitman. Private schools are not on this list.

http://bethesdamagazine.com/College_Chart.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If people thought this through, I'm not sure what they mean with remarks like "Sidwell needs to step it up" in college counseling. From what I've seen, Sidwell gets about 15 or so National Merit Semifinalists every year. From what I understand (friends' kids, etc.), the NMSF semifinalists who ALSO have good grades get into the schools that the people on this board are most interested in: Ivy League, Stanford, University of Chicago. So the top kids -- the kids who would be "top kids" at TJ or St. Albans or Whitman as well as at Sidwell -- are getting in to the schools they "should" get into.

Sidwell could hire 100 college counselors and I don't think they would be able to get materially more students into the colleges with admission percentages below 10%. The landscape has changed so much since the current private school parent body applied to college in the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the Ivies had admission rates in the 30% range back then -- not true today. The "democratization" (Common App and internet) and internationalization of college admissions, along with colleges' increased interest in geographic diversity, mean that the outcomes are only going to be so good. Your child will still get great teacher rec letters from teachers who know him/her really well, but most importantly they will be really well prepared to excel once they get to college -- and the U.S. has the greatest concentration of good colleges and universities in the world for them to choose from.

I have had two children graduate from Sidwell and go on to universities among those you cite. Regardless of the outcome, I still think the college counseling program needs to be overhauled. IME the counselors' approach was not supportive and created unnecessary stress for our family.

Fair enough. If it's about process, that's fair game. I just feel like a lot of parents are only focused on outcome, and if it is not what they like, they criticize the process. But it is a stressful time period for the kids/families and I do think schools should recognize that reality even as they do their best to educate and support so that it doesn't become "Ivy or bust."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our public school has had at least 3 Harvard admits and 3 Stanford admits so far.

I'm having trouble believing this.

Why would you doubt this? My sibling, an HYP grad married to another HYP grad, has really smart kids at their local MoCo high school. The kids are doing great academically, and they appear to have many talented classmates. Their high school gets plenty of National Merit Semifinalists every year. The parent bodies are sophisticated enough to have read all the articles about the advantages to kids who apply early, and I'm sure most of the top students will apply EA or ED. It is a high socio-economic high school. I don't know what high school this is, but it wouldn't have to be TJ for this to be true.

I believe TJ had six into Stanford ED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If people thought this through, I'm not sure what they mean with remarks like "Sidwell needs to step it up" in college counseling. From what I've seen, Sidwell gets about 15 or so National Merit Semifinalists every year. From what I understand (friends' kids, etc.), the NMSF semifinalists who ALSO have good grades get into the schools that the people on this board are most interested in: Ivy League, Stanford, University of Chicago. So the top kids -- the kids who would be "top kids" at TJ or St. Albans or Whitman as well as at Sidwell -- are getting in to the schools they "should" get into.

Sidwell could hire 100 college counselors and I don't think they would be able to get materially more students into the colleges with admission percentages below 10%. The landscape has changed so much since the current private school parent body applied to college in the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the Ivies had admission rates in the 30% range back then -- not true today. The "democratization" (Common App and internet) and internationalization of college admissions, along with colleges' increased interest in geographic diversity, mean that the outcomes are only going to be so good. Your child will still get great teacher rec letters from teachers who know him/her really well, but most importantly they will be really well prepared to excel once they get to college -- and the U.S. has the greatest concentration of good colleges and universities in the world for them to choose from.

I have had two children graduate from Sidwell and go on to universities among those you cite. Regardless of the outcome, I still think the college counseling program needs to be overhauled. IME the counselors' approach was not supportive and created unnecessary stress for our family.

Fair enough. If it's about process, that's fair game. I just feel like a lot of parents are only focused on outcome, and if it is not what they like, they criticize the process. But it is a stressful time period for the kids/families and I do think schools should recognize that reality even as they do their best to educate and support so that it doesn't become "Ivy or bust."

The problem isn't that there's any "Ivy or bust" mentality, either on the part of the school or the parents. The problem is that the counselors offer very little guidance. Many kids and parents feel they're flying blind. which, creates a lot of stress along the way, as well as confusion or dissatisfaction with the results.