Reply to Bottom Half at Sidwell - How is college placement?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

I can see the reason for the confusion R/T my post. DS does not go to Sidwell, but another NW DC Independant school, where I said the average kid is an "A" student. There is no grade inflation at my DS's school. What I am saying is that, if you took 70% of the kids at DS's school and put them at any other school they would be in the top 10% of the class in terms of academic achievement. As an adult who went to public school where there was a broad range, its kind of obvious that DS's class is not an "average" group of kids. All you have to do is host a play date, its obvious .  In short, its a fast crowd. Its like if you took the top kids from every local school around and sent them all to one school, then re-adjusted the curriculum so that you teach to that top 10% because that is the new "middle". Everyone is an A student. Its like giving the teachers all honors kids to work with and nothing else.

There are also kids there who are above average, but maybe not the CTY type. I imagine an average or just above average kid would have to work their ass off just to keep up ( this is based on my perpective as an adult who is asked to sign graded tests, essays, and , field "mom did you learn this in school " type questions. The answer is, no, not in 4th grade.

Maybe the "bottom half" of class still get s an A or two, but they work their ass off to get. Think Med school, think law school kind of working ass off, only they are 10, 11 years old. My point is, kids who get B's in such an environment are not unmotivated or as PP said, they are just in with a fast crowd and working as had as they can, and probably getting B's , once and a while an A, and the occasional C.
After a decade of that kind of applied study, any university would be lucky to have them.[/quote]

But the point is, Sidwell and your own school are NOT the only schools where the kids work their asses off. You say your school is not Sidwell, but the kids are still working their asses off. In most of the top independent schools in the DMV area, it's fair to say that most kids are working their asses off. Public magnet and IB kids are working their asses off. Public school kids with long slates of APs are working their asses off.

Having just gone through the college admissions process, it seems pretty clear that working your ass off, for good grades and SATs, is just the *threshold* for admission to the most selective colleges. Harvard gets 33,000 applications from kids, most of whom have great grades and SATs and took the most challenging courses at their mostly competitive public and private schools. Colleges are looking for something even more - lopsided passions, national-level achievement, starting a business, sending thousands of dollars to a volunteer group. DC, who got into a top ivy, not only worked working her ass off, she had one of these additional accomplishments. Or there are hooks, like legacy or athletic.

So colleges are not going to give Sidwell, or any of the area independents for that matter, extra points for harder-than-usual work. If there's something going on, it would have to be because of the Sidwell name. That, I have no data on, except for the list above which I sort of wonder about, given what I've heard about recent Sidwell results and ED results from December.  I wish Sidwell actually posted exmissions, like all the other independent schools in the area.

[/quote]

PP, could you use the word " ass" a little more often ?[/quote]

Sorry. It was a rhetorical strategy, because the 1st PP mentioned it several times. Maybe I overdid it a bit....[/quote]

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