Sidwell college advisor leaves

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was anyone surprised that Obama's daughter got z-listed with her Harvard application?
What was her hook, besides being a legacy and presidents daughter

What evidence does anyone have that this was the case? Her acceptance was announced publicly in May.

Her parents are both Harvard alums and extremely bright people to boot. It’s just as plausible that she as accepted ED but still decided to take a year out before starting college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ll bet this is related to the scandal.

I bet not. the director is going to Gonzaga.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so what did these awful parents do exactly that caused this advisor to leave?

The director hired someone who turned out to be spectacularly unsuited for the job. It happens. But rather than admit a mistake, make a change and move on, he refused to acknowledge the problem, got very defensive, and dug in. Now both are leaving.

You didn’t answer the question.

Bingo. Does anyone know or is the person who made the assertion just blowing smoke?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll bet this is related to the scandal.

I bet not. the director is going to Gonzaga.

ABSOLUTELY NOT related to national scandal.

[Anonymous]

Get it through your thick skulls. Patrick was burnt out dealing with a bunch of douchebag Type A parents who had unrealistic expectations re college admissions and then were abusive to the college counseling staff when things didn't go their way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And then one parent made an anonymous phone call to a college dean of admissions to undermine a classmate competing against his DC.

What disciplinary action, if any, was taken against the student of the parent who did this?

Hopefully the student wasn't punished for the behavior of their idiotic, entitled parent.

Why not? The actions were taken to benefit the kid. The adult almost certainly only knew of the competing candidate based on information provided by the kid. Seems like the kid is complicit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This year’s senior class at SFS wasn’t academically the best overall class in recent years. Individual exceptions of course.

[Anonymous]

have heard mixed things about college counseling at sidwell over the years. do many kids/families have their own private college counselors to make up for the perceived deficit?

[Anonymous]

yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The early decision cycle was not great for Sidwell and several parents were aggressively rude to the college placement office. And then one parent made an anonymous phone call to a college dean of admissions to undermine a classmate competing against his DC.

No way Sidwell pays college counselors enough to deal with the crazy parents

Early decision was not good for Holton either.

These private schools grade so hard, don’t offer AP’s, and just hope their name is enough to get kids in. But publics are offering dual enrollments, magnets, IB diplomas and tons of AP’s. Plus they inflate grades. It is really hard for private schools to keep up, especially now that many kids want big schools like Mich, Wisconsin, USC, UCLA, etc... over Williams and Amherst. I think social media has had a big influence on kids deciding SLAC’s are pretty boring.

Yes, we’re not at Sidwell, but are seeing the same thing at our school. I have no doubt my son is at the right school, but college admissions will be a disappointment.

Also not at Holton or Sidwell, but seeing the same at our private. I completely agree about private kids wanting public universities or urban schools over small liberal arts schools in tiny towns. I think it has a lot to do with price. Once you drop from from top 10 SLACs and Ivy, is the cost worth it? Save for the masters is the motto around our school. Even the rich families. The sad thing is not only is it affecting admissions for the private school kids, but these small colleges are struggling to keep up filled classes for admissions.

I also don’t think privates are doing enough in STEM and kids are having a tough time getting into MIT, GT, Cal Tech, now more than ever before. Small private high schools and private colleges have a tough time keeping up with publcs in advancement of stem classes, facilities, and research.

I loved my child going to private. That he had to work hard just to achieve a 90. That he learned how to write well, speak in class, and have a lot of personal growth and opportunity. But I am starting to realize that a 3.7 UW from his private doesn’t mean as much as it did 4 years ago.

As someone whose kid was applying 5 years ago, we had the same issue because they wanted a big school and was trying to enter computer science programs. With these programs, you are competing with the TJ's and the Bronx High School of Science kids who have a much better transcript of classes for science/engineering programs. As other PP's have mentioned, privates are great for college if you want to go to a SLAC, but it is much more difficult to get into a top engineering/science program coming from a small private. They just don't have the depth and breadth of classes. There may be some grade inflation with some of the applicants but these kids are taking the classes, scoring high on Math SAT/ACT sections and science achievements. Their extra curricular for science are also stellar.

Agree. Our first went to private and we realized quickly while the education and teachers were great, there was not enough resources and classes for stem kids. We moved our next to public in 9th grade and into an IB program. We are only sending the last one to private for middle school. Like SLAC's, the cost of private high school is getting way too high and the lack of resources, athletics, and courses are staying the same. Not to mention, our school is graduating about 20 more people a year than it did just 5 years ago. That is a lot of new money for very little in return.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The early decision cycle was not great for Sidwell and several parents were aggressively rude to the college placement office. And then one parent made an anonymous phone call to a college dean of admissions to undermine a classmate competing against his DC.

No way Sidwell pays college counselors enough to deal with the crazy parents

Early decision was not good for Holton either.

These private schools grade so hard, don’t offer AP’s, and just hope their name is enough to get kids in. But publics are offering dual enrollments, magnets, IB diplomas and tons of AP’s. Plus they inflate grades. It is really hard for private schools to keep up, especially now that many kids want big schools like Mich, Wisconsin, USC, UCLA, etc... over Williams and Amherst. I think social media has had a big influence on kids deciding SLAC’s are pretty boring.

Yes, we’re not at Sidwell, but are seeing the same thing at our school. I have no doubt my son is at the right school, but college admissions will be a disappointment.

Also not at Holton or Sidwell, but seeing the same at our private. I completely agree about private kids wanting public universities or urban schools over small liberal arts schools in tiny towns. I think it has a lot to do with price. Once you drop from from top 10 SLACs and Ivy, is the cost worth it? Save for the masters is the motto around our school. Even the rich families. The sad thing is not only is it affecting admissions for the private school kids, but these small colleges are struggling to keep up filled classes for admissions.

I also don’t think privates are doing enough in STEM and kids are having a tough time getting into MIT, GT, Cal Tech, now more than ever before. Small private high schools and private colleges have a tough time keeping up with publcs in advancement of stem classes, facilities, and research.

I loved my child going to private. That he had to work hard just to achieve a 90. That he learned how to write well, speak in class, and have a lot of personal growth and opportunity. But I am starting to realize that a 3.7 UW from his private doesn’t mean as much as it did 4 years ago.

As someone whose kid was applying 5 years ago, we had the same issue because they wanted a big school and was trying to enter computer science programs. With these programs, you are competing with the TJ's and the Bronx High School of Science kids who have a much better transcript of classes for science/engineering programs. As other PP's have mentioned, privates are great for college if you want to go to a SLAC, but it is much more difficult to get into a top engineering/science program coming from a small private. They just don't have the depth and breadth of classes. There may be some grade inflation with some of the applicants but these kids are taking the classes, scoring high on Math SAT/ACT sections and science achievements. Their extra curricular for science are also stellar.

Seems schools like Sidwell wants it both ways. They want to feed kids into competitive programs but limited by recruiting kids not necessarily geared or prepared for those programs. Recruiting kids are from certain privileged backgrounds definitely requires sacrificing kids who are better prepared academically...just my 2cents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This year’s senior class at SFS wasn’t academically the best overall class in recent years. Individual exceptions of course.

How would you know this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Seems schools like Sidwell wants it both ways. They want to feed kids into competitive programs but limited by recruiting kids not necessarily geared or prepared for those programs. Recruiting kids are from certain privileged backgrounds definitely requires sacrificing kids who are better prepared academically...just my 2cents.

Why do you assume "recruited kids" are of lesser academic ability? Not my experience at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Seems schools like Sidwell wants it both ways. They want to feed kids into competitive programs but limited by recruiting kids not necessarily geared or prepared for those programs. Recruiting kids are from certain privileged backgrounds definitely requires sacrificing kids who are better prepared academically...just my 2cents.

Why do you assume "recruited kids" are of lesser academic ability? Not my experience at all.

$$$$$$$ from parents

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Seems schools like Sidwell wants it both ways. They want to feed kids into competitive programs but limited by recruiting kids not necessarily geared or prepared for those programs. Recruiting kids are from certain privileged backgrounds definitely requires sacrificing kids who are better prepared academically...just my 2cents.

Why do you assume "recruited kids" are of lesser academic ability? Not my experience at all.

Because when you consider constraints of legacy, donors, influential parents, siblings, sports the admission seizes to be a meritorcracy, it will have to let less prepared kids slip in and possibly more than the admission committe would if it were a meritocracy.