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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The early decision cycle was not great for Sidwell and several parents were aggressively rude to the college placement office. And then one parent made an anonymous phone call to a college dean of admissions to undermine a classmate competing against his DC.

No way Sidwell pays college counselors enough to deal with the crazy parents[/quote]

Early decision was not good for Holton either.

These private schools grade so hard, don’t offer AP’s, and just hope their name is enough to get kids in. But publics are offering dual enrollments, magnets, IB diplomas and tons of AP’s. Plus they inflate grades. It is really hard for private schools to keep up, especially now that many kids want big schools like Mich, Wisconsin, USC, UCLA, etc... over Williams and Amherst. I think social media has had a big influence on kids deciding SLAC’s are pretty boring. [/quote]

Yes, we’re not at Sidwell, but are seeing the same thing at our school. I have no doubt my son is at the right school, but college admissions will be a disappointment. [/quote]

Also not at Holton or Sidwell, but seeing the same at our private. I completely agree about private kids wanting public universities or urban schools over small liberal arts schools in tiny towns. I think it has a lot to do with price. Once you drop from from top 10 SLACs and Ivy, is the cost worth it? Save for the masters is the motto around our school. Even the rich families. The sad thing is not only is it affecting admissions for the private school kids, but these small colleges are struggling to keep up filled classes for admissions.

I also don’t think privates are doing enough in STEM and kids are having a tough time getting into MIT, GT, Cal Tech, now more than ever before. Small private high schools and private colleges have a tough time keeping up with publcs in advancement of stem classes, facilities, and research.

I loved my child going to private. That he had to work hard just to achieve a 90.  T[b]hat he learned how to write well, speak in class, and have a lot of personal growth and opportunity. But I am starting to realize that a 3.7 UW from his private doesn’t mean as much as it did 4 years ago.[/b] [/quote]

As someone whose kid was applying 5 years ago, we had the same issue because they wanted a big school and was trying to enter computer science programs. With these programs, you are competing with the TJ's and the Bronx High School of Science kids who have a much better transcript of classes for science/engineering programs. As other PP's have mentioned, privates are great for college if you want to go to a SLAC, but it is much more difficult to get into a top engineering/science program coming from a small private. They just don't have the depth and breadth of classes. There may be some grade inflation with some of the applicants but these kids are taking the classes, scoring high on Math SAT/ACT sections and  science achievements. Their extra curricular for science are also  stellar.[/quote]

Seems schools like Sidwell wants it both ways. They want to feed kids into competitive programs but limited by recruiting kids not necessarily geared or prepared for those programs. Recruiting kids are from certain privileged backgrounds definitely requires sacrificing kids who are better prepared academically...just my 2cents.[/quote]

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