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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think the Sidwell CCO actually does a very good job.  The brutal reality is they have the absolutely daunting task of telling the PARENTS of the bottom 85 percent of the class that there is no way in hell their kid is getting into the Ivy League.  I believe they deliver that message but parents don’t “hear” it.  Sadly, I think parents don’t accept the reality that their kid just isn’t a top student in a Sidwell context no matter how otherwise fabulous the kid might be.  I am with you when it comes to undistinguished legacies who defy this reality.  My observation is that top students with the most rigorous coursework (top 10 percent of class — top 13 students) got into top schools.  This year.  The next 40 percent got into top 50 schools.  Sound and fury signifying nothing.  Every single kid in the grade has a bright future.  Sidwell parent of senior.  [/quote]

How do you define top students?  I[b] know one student who took most rigorous courses (both math and science) with almost 4.0 GPA didn’t get into any Ivy except for one WL[/b]. A lot of students think the student is top 4 although Sidwell neither ranks nor weights the difficulty of the courses.  But most students know who are truly top students.  High GPA with all easy courses are not comparable with the same high GPA but taking the most difficult math (III and IV) and science courses (Physics II)[/quote]

What I don't understand is why you are so shocked by that. Is this kid owed a slot at an Ivy, just because s/he did well at Sidwell?

What all Sidwell underclassman parents had better wake up to is this: Top schools, and ivies in particular, have changed the profile of the kind of kid(s) they are looking for. They are no longer (as) interested in east coast prep school kids who have perfect stats, like they were back in the day when you were in high school. The formula now is top kid at an urban or rural school, first gen (that is REALLY big - how many of those do you think there are at Sidwell?) and THEN the grades/ stats/ activities to back it up.

Seriously, there is still time to move to North Dakota.[/quote]

URM, recruited athlete and/or 7 figure donor.[/quote]

Athletes, $$$$, and legacy for some schools (like Harvard and more likely wealthy, long standing legacy) probably more than all the others. Most athletes at the schools you are talking about are white and come from affluent backgrounds. If your 1560, 1570 3.9 or 4.0 advanced math and advanced humanities kid is not getting in, it is more like the spot was filled by an affluent, white athlete.  Just go look at the bios on the team rosters and see the schools and towns they come from. Go look at how much higher the admissions rate is for athletes. Then go look at the sports teams at these schools. How many sports they have. Then think about who plays those sports and how much money and access to facilities, coaching, trainers, etc. it takes to play and excel at those sports. This is the “affirmative action” of affluent primarily white kids. These are the kids getting in instead of your kid.

https://scholarshipstats.com/ivies

Oh, and if your kid does get in and you are full pay, you get to pay to subsidize these teams that your kids will in all likelihood never be able to play on.  When you look at the economics of it, these teams cost more than they bring in. Also, once kids get in, a number of them stop playing their sport before graduation. They used it to get in but they aren’t required to continue (this is not necessarily true for athletes at non-Ivies who are on athletic scholarship which the Ivies don’t provide).

I was an athlete. One of my kids is an athlete. We are a sports loving family.  The fact that my athletic kid gets an advantage over their siblings who devote just as much time to their outside interests doesn’t seem right to me.  My kids that don’t play sports at the recruitment level know that they better do even better than their high stats sibling to get a chance at the same schools. [/quote]

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