I agree with you. I am the parent of a senior at wootton who is very competitive and the pressure is high. And it really doesn’t matter at the end of the day. I have a younger child who is not as competitive, and being in this type of environment is just demoralizing for him. Some of these comments are
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The world is full of pressure and competition. Maybe instead of calling it demoralizing we should be figuring out how to compete well. Or get left behind. And then have to go to UMD. (Just kidding on the last part! Calm down UMD boosters.) |
The overall acceptance rate at UMD is 44%. It must be higher at the schools profiled in Bethesda Magazine because they generally have well-prepared students. No one says that UMD is the elite of the elite, but it is harder to get into than it was a generation ago. Honors College selection can seem a bit random, but it's a good program. |
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Acceptance rates are a stupid way to compare colleges in the first place, but you guys are arguing about data from only seven (high achieving) high schools.
Example using this data to figure acceptance rates: Penn State - 76% Salisbury U - 60% UMD Eastern Shore - 46% Not knocking UMES, but c'mon now. |
This doesn't make sense. The stats are higher at the other schools, woottton is I'm the lower range yet they have the most accepted to Michigan. It means Michigan is yield protecting and taking lower stats woottton students. Come on 50% at supposedly a "good" school? Lol. I've never seen anyone choose a safety like Michigan over UMBC, which has a lower acceptance rate and higher stats |
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None of that follows. PP just seems to hate Michigan.
Cue personal attack response. |
How many drinks have you had tonight? |
Not nearly enough... |
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My biggest take away from the report is how good the College counselors are at Wootton. Many highly desirable colleges Wootton had stellar results including 100% acceptance. And while there rates at the very highest schools were no better and sometimes worse, the next levels down were fabulous. It seems the students use their guidance counselors and that the submissions are the best representation they can be. This is a positive comment by the way. Any Wootton parent care to comment?
Referring to amazing results at Boston College, NYU, Michigan, NC State, Northeastern, Lehigh, American, Ohio State (almost 100%), Syracuse (100%), GWU, Georgetown (over 50%), How are these possible? |
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Many posters seem to have no basic understanding when two sets of objects/data etc., can be compared and when thy can't be compared. For example, 5 individuals do a long jump on earth and you take their readings. 5 other individuals do a long jump on the moon and you take their readings. You can't say one set of people is better at long jump than the other. Because the gravitational pull on the earth is roughly four times that on the moon. The individuals in the two sets are different.
In the admissions comparison across high schools or across undergraduate institutions, there are too many variables that are different for each educational institute to make comparing admissions numbers totally meaningless. If you don't believe me, then ask a math or statistics teacher whose intelligence you trust. |
Exactly. This goes for most state schools. They're very diverse in terms of the range of students' abilities. Top students at state achools are really fantastic and get great opportunities. |
+1 My high-performing Blair magnet kid (1600 SAT, 4.8 WGPA, 12 APs/all 5s, national recognition for musical instrument) did not apply to HYP or MIT. If we stretched (a lot), we could pay for those schools, but are unwilling to do that for a lot of reasons. DC is in the Honors College at UMD and doing very well. There are a lot of Blair families like ours, whose kids do not even apply to elite schools. Therefore I don't pay any heed to these stats. |
Wootton parent here. My children have had a brief meeting with a counselor once about college admissions. The most help has come from English teachers in the form of feedback on their essay. My child has a private college counselor who handled everything. Wootton, like every other public school, doesn’t have near enough counselors for each student to get individual attention in college counseling. |
Not everyone can or should be at the top. Some kids should go to vocational school. For example math. I would 100% prefer my kids had a solid understanding of algebra rather than whiz through math levels in order to “compete” as they do at Wootton. We then have kids taking differential equations as seniors when they may not be going into a major that requires calculus. We also compete to see who can take the most AP classes which is also not a game I need my kids to play. It’s not like they’re gonna get college credit anyways. If you can’t see this, you are adding to the mental health problem. |
| I think it’s more likely that kids at Wootton are EDing then PHS of Blair. Parents have more money there generally speaking. |