Reply to Sidwell connection to crooked college fixer Rick Singer

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As a current Sidwell high school parent, I am appalled that the college counselors would change a kids recommendation from one college application to another. No wonder the college counseling office has such a poor reputation year after year. [/quote]

I was surprised by this too. Do all the DC private high schools do this or is this just at Sidwell? [/quote]

I think those forms are meant to relate the applicant to the cohort of other applicants, and as such, they have to change from one school to another. Unless the applicant is the tippy-top of students.

In other words, for this student, she was a strong candidate for Spellman but maybe a middle applicant, as compared to her cohort, for Harvard. If the schools college guidance office isn't honest with the universities, they won't have credibility.

I am hard pressed to understand your complaint here.[/quote]

Because that’s not really how the question is worded, and because it allows the counselors to boost or torpedo particular applications. [/quote]

That is always the case. They have to rate the applicants to the cohort applying. Its like the line from "The Incredibles" - when everyone is special, no one is - if the college counselors tell the colleges that every one of the applicants is a 10 out of 10 across the board without distinguishing among applicants, who who is lying? They will have no credibility with the colleges if everyone is a 10. It just isn't realistic that 15 people applying to Yale are going to get top A1 recs from the school.[/quote]

If you read the case, you will see that, in fact, the applicant is supposed to be evaluated against the entire class, not just those applying. So it was wrong of them to change the rating based on the application. The rating was the same for all the Ivies and improved for Spellman. It does change my whole view of college counseling. The next time the school says we have to trust them, it will be very hard not to ask why.[/quote]

It is misleading to say "if you read the case" because what you are reading is only her petition. You aren't yet seeing Sidwell's arguments, and you certainly aren't seeing the court's opinion. So what you say is a "fact" is actually a statement of the petitioners' view of what was supposed to happen. No doubt Sidwell's version will be different, and if it ever proceeds as a case (which I don't think it will), someone will likely call a witness from the universities to state how they view the question and what they were expecting in the answer from the school.[/quote]

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