Reply to Sidwell College Admissions This Year

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Sidwell College Admissions This Year"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is a hard message to deliver and I apologize in advance.  A 3.7 just isn’t all that compelling and neither is a 34 ACT relatively speaking for top 15 universities even coming from a great school like Sidwell.   If your kid isn’t a NMF and/or Presidential Scholar candidate and done some substantive internships or academic research outside of school, and hit &gt; 3.9 overall GPA having taken the Math I — Math IV sequence plus all the accelerated 1A sciences plus four years of language, plus a &gt;1560 SAT or 35/36 ACT, you really don’t get on the radar screen of the top 15 schools.  Exception is the hooked kids — namely athletes, legacies and URM, but a couple of those hooked kids have the former qualifications, too, making them spectacularly attractive applicants.  These schools really know Sidwell and for example understand that a solid A from Math III is a pretty powerful academic signal.  I just cannot sit by and continue to watch the Sidwell CCO get trashed the way it is by some folks on this forum. In the aggregate, they are doing a good job in a very challenging and competitive environment.  The reality is, putting aside the “branding” element, the top 30 - 50 schools offer a great education.  Sidwell parent of senior.[/quote]

Not just the top 30-50 schools...you can get a great education at hundreds of schools.  I am an academic.  I have taught at a top 20 university, a top 10 SLAC, and a public university in the 80-100 range.  Kids can get amazing educations at any of these schools.  The professors at all of these colleges are fantastic.  The honors programs at state flagships are excellent.  I'd argue that the research opportunities for undergraduates and the focus on teaching are better at the SLACs.  There is a reason the US post-secondary system is the envy of the world, and it's not just because of HYP (where, by the way, I received my undergraduate degree and PhD). People need to get over the bumper stickers.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics