Sidwell Junior - GPA concerns

[Anonymous]

What is the Post-COVID “sea-change” that makes a 3.7-3.8 gpa at sidwell (or other similar) not the same or considered as good as that gpa was before COVID?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Holton doesn’t give A+ either. And I appreciate that.

For current juniors/seniors they definitely do. Not sure if they've made a change for the younger grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the Post-COVID “sea-change” that makes a 3.7-3.8 gpa at sidwell (or other similar) not the same or considered as good as that gpa was before COVID?

current senior parent and we didn't hear there was a difference in grading during COVID

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC's GPA is a 3.7 (9th, 10th, first half of 11th). Any thoughts from parents as go where this places him relative to peers? Looking to plan for college admissions etc in the coming year. I gather that the Naviance data that we will be shown are hugely unreliable. I am hoping that awareness of rank relative to one's peers will help to focus on where to apply etc..

Get tutors immediately.

[Anonymous]

I have a senior at a different and competitive high school with a 3.7 and no ACT or SAT. He did early decision to his first choice university and got in. He probably would not have gotten in as a regular decision. It’s not Ivy League, but certainly a very well respected, East Coast, private university. So, if by chance your kid has the ability to get super excited about one particular school by next November, early decision is a great strategy.

[Anonymous]

One kid from Sidwell did in fact get into Brown last year and he was a very top student in that graduating class with both extremely high GPA (and high rigor) and SAT. Unhooked.

[Anonymous]

Sidwell 2022/2023 school profile is public on their site and does not have class or grade distributions:
https://www.sidwell.edu/academics/college-counseling

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think you are a Sidwell parent. If you were, you would know that a 3.7 at sidwell is really high, to a rare degree.

This

Go talk to the college counselor on it, not dcum.

[Anonymous]

The 4.0 in top rigor classes last year went to Stanford.
That GPA from Sidwell (or similar) is truly remarkable. It takes crazy diligence and a bit of luck as well (getting fair teachers). 95% skill, 5% luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The 4.0 in top rigor classes last year went to Stanford.
That GPA from Sidwell (or similar) is truly remarkable. It takes crazy diligence and a bit of luck as well (getting fair teachers). 95% skill, 5% luck.

Absolutely true. You need to get all fair teachers to have a 4.0.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And on the flip side, here's a link to Penn Charter's, which provides much more information including grade distribution for each class. https://www.penncharter.com/academics/college-counseling/collegeprofile

Sidwell's does this as well.

How do you know? Sidwell does not make their profile available to parents.

Some of us have seen them, or worked in the office.

I see the profile on the Sidwell website - what am I missing here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought Sidwell doesn’t rank.

They don't but the parents do.

[Anonymous]

There are plenty of colleges out there for everybody. Just try not to make your child feel like if she doesn’t get into a top 100 college that you’re going to be disappointed. It’s going to be what it’s going to be in that isn’t going to help.

Check out High Point College, apparently the students there are quite happy and it’s not so competitive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell senior parent here of kid with slightly higher GPA. 3.7 is excellent for the school. Your DD is correct that there will be a handful of kids > 3.9, but it’s a tiny group in each grade for the reasons PP said.

Our experience this year is that these “low” compared to public schools GPAs only hold you back if you apply to giant public universities **that are unknown to Sidwell specifically** Places with a well worn pathway— Michigan, UVA, Wisconsin, W&M — are no issue. Problems arise with competitive flagships where kids from Sidwell never apply. They seem to take a dim view of a 3.7-3.9 compared to the thousands of applicants with 4.7s. Let’s use Florida, Texas and Georgia as examples. California schools are their own beast and just made huge admissions changes this year …. UNC admits no one, so.

The > 3.5 doesn’t hold your kid back from very competitive LACs or T20 if the rest of their package is very good. “Very good” need not mean URM or recruited athlete btw. There are a lot of kids this year not in those groups and not 3.9+ according to my son who will attend some very very top schools next year. Keeping it vague for their privacy

What about the UC schools? They are on our radar and I am afraid they won't look twice at my very hardworking and top student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The 4.0 in top rigor classes last year went to Stanford.
That GPA from Sidwell (or similar) is truly remarkable. It takes crazy diligence and a bit of luck as well (getting fair teachers). 95% skill, 5% luck.

And 435 hours a night of work and maybe even a parent reviewing it all real time.

It’s a lot of incremental time on time of a lot of time.

My coworkers kid firm Churchill head to the Farm all the time. Also addicted to work.