Sidwell - why don't many families in nw dc apply to sidwell, even though it is one of the top 2?

[Anonymous]

I think going to Wilson even had better placement than some of the privates!

[Anonymous]

PP, note 2 things about the Wilson results (which are good, no question). Their list is generally of colleges which "accepted" their students -- not where the students went/matriculated. So if one kid gets into 5 Ivies and Stanford, 5 Ivies and Stanford show up the list. Unless a given private school is also listing all colleges that accepted their graduating seniors (and most of the private schools go with the 'matriculation' list), then the lists aren't comparable. Secondly, factor in the size of Wilson vs. the independent schools.

Notwithstanding the above, given college admissions today I still believe it is all about either the child's academic index (grades plus scores), or whether they have another factor helping them (athletics, legacy, and diversity being the three that come up the most). The argument for independent schools (not Sidwell versus Wilson, but generally) is now much less about college admissions and much more about whether you think they will give your child a level of academic preparation that will help them do well in the collegiate or postcollegiate level. One place where I see an advantage to the private schools is that with the smaller class size, the teachers in English/history tend to be able to assign more major writing assignments (because they can meaningfully grade/assess the written work).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't view Sidwell as in the top 2 for elementary school. There are much stronger programs available at schools that focus on early childhood education. On the back end, I don't view Sidwell as in the top 2 in terms of exmissions (not that that's the only factor). According to prepreview, Sidwell is not nationally ranked in terms of placement at the ivy league schools, Stanford and MIT. There are other high schools in the area that are ranked.

Interesting. I'm curious, which area schools are ranked?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Notwithstanding the above, given college admissions today I still believe it is all about either the child's academic index (grades plus scores), or whether they have another factor helping them (athletics, legacy, and diversity being the three that come up the most). The argument for independent schools (not Sidwell versus Wilson, but generally) is now much less about college admissions and much more about whether you think they will give your child a level of academic preparation that will help them do well in the collegiate or postcollegiate level.

Well put.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't view Sidwell as in the top 2 for elementary school. There are much stronger programs available at schools that focus on early childhood education. On the back end, I don't view Sidwell as in the top 2 in terms of exmissions (not that that's the only factor). According to prepreview, Sidwell is not nationally ranked in terms of placement at the ivy league schools, Stanford and MIT. There are other high schools in the area that are ranked.

Interesting. I'm curious, which area schools are ranked?

For 2010 rankings (I'm guessing based on 2009 data), it looks like Georgetown Prep, St. Albans and National Cathedral are ranked.

Maret, GDS, Sidwell, Landon, Holton, Gonzaga, St. Stephens & St. Agnes and Potomac are all unranked.

[Anonymous]

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure PrepReview is quite accurate much of the time. I just looked at the 2009 college matriculation pages for both Georgetown Prep (https://www.gprep.org/contentPage.aspx?pageId=51997§ionId=1256) and Holton (http://www.holton-arms.edu/uploaded/documents/college_counseling/HoltonMatriculation2009.pdf). For Holton, I count 13 of 88 students (15%) at Ivies+MIT+Stanford. For Georgetown Prep, the exact numbers are not listed, so it's hard to be sure. But for the class of 2009, I see only 3 Ivies (Yale, Penn, Cornell) + MIT + Stanford on the list. Since G'Prep has about 115 students per class, that would mean that at least 17 seniors would need to be packing into those five schools in 2009, just to match Holton's percentage. That seems unlikely, so I start to question the accuracy of the PrepReview stats.

Let me be clear that I am not criticizing Georgetown Prep -- it seems like a great school. And so does Holton. All I'm questioning is whether the PrepReview statistic are accurate or not. They seem suspect to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure PrepReview is quite accurate much of the time. I just looked at the 2009 college matriculation pages for both Georgetown Prep (https://www.gprep.org/contentPage.aspx?pageId=51997§ionId=1256) and Holton (http://www.holton-arms.edu/uploaded/documents/college_counseling/HoltonMatriculation2009.pdf). For Holton, I count 13 of 88 students (15%) at Ivies+MIT+Stanford. For Georgetown Prep, the exact numbers are not listed, so it's hard to be sure. But for the class of 2009, I see only 3 Ivies (Yale, Penn, Cornell) + MIT + Stanford on the list. Since G'Prep has about 115 students per class, that would mean that at least 17 seniors would need to be packing into those five schools in 2009, just to match Holton's percentage. That seems unlikely, so I start to question the accuracy of the PrepReview stats.

Let me be clear that I am not criticizing Georgetown Prep -- it seems like a great school. And so does Holton. All I'm questioning is whether the PrepReview statistic are accurate or not. They seem suspect to me.

Actually, I don't think you can look at just 2009. The PrepReview method of rankings is based on 5-year matriculation. So I think the information is probably accurate.

Ranking Methodology: Only private day schools with grade(s) 12/PG without residential/boarding program with a minimum average graduating class of 50 is included in the ranking. Ranking of top 30 college preparatory private day schools in the US is based on the percentage (estimate) of graduating class entering Ivy League Universities + Stanford & MIT during the past 5 year period, if unavailable, a time period of 1 to 4 years is used.

[Anonymous]

So what percentage does PrepReview claim for each of those schools?

[Anonymous]

By unranked, do they mean didn't make the top 30 or not enough information available?

[Anonymous]

I think the consensus from other DCUM threads has been that, if one of your goals (not the only one, of course) is an Ivy, then going to a place like Sidwell could help if your kid can compete with classmates in terms of legacy status, athletic talent, urm, or power and connections. If not, then your kid may have a better chance at the Ivies coming from Wilson and competing against classmates from more "regular" backgrounds. There was even an academic study about this a few years ago, but it beats me how to find it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the consensus from other DCUM threads has been that, if one of your goals (not the only one, of course) is an Ivy, then going to a place like Sidwell could help if your kid can compete with classmates in terms of legacy status, athletic talent, urm, or power and connections. If not, then your kid may have a better chance at the Ivies coming from Wilson and competing against classmates from more "regular" backgrounds. There was even an academic study about this a few years ago, but it beats me how to find it.

Not the consensus in my book. In terms of top DC Schools I put NCS, STA, Sidwell, Potomac, and Holton Arms on equal footing. There could be a few other schools which are just as strong and belong in this group (apparently a lot of DCUMs feel GDS is worthy too - so let's include it - and possibly Maret). This top group of privates are helpful not placing top students in ivies, but also in placing their "upper middle of the pack" students at strong schools... ie. Duke, Vanderbilt, Michigan, UVA... These competitive universities "weight" (give preference) to applicants from these top tier schools because historically the kids who have gone on to them have historically performed well there and were exceptionally prepared. There are also strong relationships between the college counselors at the top tier privates and many universities where admission is extremely competitive.

[Anonymous]

Who would make your top 2 for elementary education?

Anonymous wrote:I don't view Sidwell as in the top 2 for elementary school. There are much stronger programs available at schools that focus on early childhood education. On the back end, I don't view Sidwell as in the top 2 in terms of exmissions (not that that's the only factor). According to prepreview, Sidwell is not nationally ranked in terms of placement at the ivy league schools, Stanford and MIT. There are other high schools in the area that are ranked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure PrepReview is quite accurate much of the time. I just looked at the 2009 college matriculation pages for both Georgetown Prep (https://www.gprep.org/contentPage.aspx?pageId=51997§ionId=1256) and Holton (http://www.holton-arms.edu/uploaded/documents/college_counseling/HoltonMatriculation2009.pdf). For Holton, I count 13 of 88 students (15%) at Ivies+MIT+Stanford. For Georgetown Prep, the exact numbers are not listed, so it's hard to be sure. But for the class of 2009, I see only 3 Ivies (Yale, Penn, Cornell) + MIT + Stanford on the list. Since G'Prep has about 115 students per class, that would mean that at least 17 seniors would need to be packing into those five schools in 2009, just to match Holton's percentage. That seems unlikely, so I start to question the accuracy of the PrepReview stats.

Let me be clear that I am not criticizing Georgetown Prep -- it seems like a great school. And so does Holton. All I'm questioning is whether the PrepReview statistic are accurate or not. They seem suspect to me.

There are only 90-100 graduating seniors at g'town prep..

[Anonymous]

Here is GP's own website, which indicates 106 seniors in the class of 2009: https://www.gprep.org/contentPage.aspx?pageId=52278§ionId=1259

And here is the Dept of Education's page on GP, which lists the size of the 2008 Fr/Soph/Jr/Sr classes as 113/121/106/117:http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pss/privateschoolsearch/school_detail.asp?Search=1&SchoolName=georgetown+prep&NumOfStudentsRange=more&IncGrade=-1&LoGrade=-1&HiGrade=-1&ID=01604464

The average for the 2008/2009/2010 classes (117/106/121) is 115 per class.