Sidwell GDS and Michigan

[Anonymous]

High schools would be better off trashing the volunteer experience and offering exotic sports like water polo and squash. Look at top 10 niche sports teams and they’re full of elite private school kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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

If the only reason to send a kid to a private school is the perception around college admissions, then save your money.

We appreciated the independent school experience for our kids and the college outcomes would have been similar regardless of high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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

If the only reason to send a kid to a private school is the perception around college admissions, then save your money.

We appreciated the independent school experience for our kids and the college outcomes would have been similar regardless of high school.

It is not the only reason but it is still an important reason.
As you get older, no one really cares what elementary or high school you went to.
They care about what college you went to.
It is disingenuous to act like you care so much about K-12 and then stop caring about post-secondary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As you get older, no one really cares what elementary or high school you went to.
They care about what college you went to.

LOL, what college you attended often doesn't matter to most people either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why does anyone want to go to a state school like Michigan where it is freezing.? The UM boosters here should get paid (if they are not already).

Winter can actually be fun. It’s actually possible to downhill ski in parts of Michigan. Michiganders embrace the outdoor life throughout the four seasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Where did the other Cum Laude kids go?

[Anonymous]

I don’t like Michigan. But I go to sell my used car I’m posting a thread with Sidwell in the title. Nothing else comes close for clickbait!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Where did the other Cum Laude kids go?

Stanford, Texas, Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Maryland, UCLA, Michigan

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Where did the other Cum Laude kids go?

Stanford, Texas, Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Maryland, UCLA, Michigan

Thanks. That’s a good list for the top kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As you get older, no one really cares what elementary or high school you went to.
They care about what college you went to.

LOL, what college you attended often doesn't matter to most people either.

It definitely matters. It matters a lot more than where you went to high school.
And as long as you do reasonably well in college, no one cares about your gpa in college - unless you are going straight to grad school or planning to work at an investment bank or do management consulting.

[Anonymous]

I do believe my kids get a lot of value from private school: no teaching to the test, small classes, etc. Strong emphasis on writing, but as tuition creeps up and up, yeah, I'm going to be pissed at spending more than a half million per kid and only ending up with no-name state schools and SLACs as options. I don't know if the small classes, etc. will have been that much measurably better than public school to justify such a steep difference in cost. Maybe it's just better for the kid to travel the world each summer and learn about culture and history that way. Or better yet, just live abroad for a few years. That's irreplaceable enrichment.

[Anonymous]

Also, Michigan has a huge alumni network. How many of these GDS/Sidwell admits are legacies?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GDS had at least one unhooked grad to an Ivy last year (in ED..not an athlete, URM or legacy)...semi-famous parent though (in a weird, DC kind of way).

Does enrolled older sibling count as a hook?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Where did the other Cum Laude kids go?

Stanford, Texas, Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Maryland, UCLA, Michigan

I think there was at least one UChicago in Cum Laude, and several more outside Cum Laude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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

If the only reason to send a kid to a private school is the perception around college admissions, then save your money.

We appreciated the independent school experience for our kids and the college outcomes would have been similar regardless of high school.

It is not the only reason but it is still an important reason.
As you get older, no one really cares what elementary or high school you went to.
They care about what college you went to.
It is disingenuous to act like you care so much about K-12 and then stop caring about post-secondary.

This is not true; for me at least. As I get older, the people I know from high school become more important and the people I met in college are less important. The only place people care that I went is grad/professional school, not undergrad. It is much more important for your life to go to Harvard Law than Harvard College.