Anonymous wrote:Very simple. Chicago has huge budget defecits and always had a nerd no fun school reputation. They will feed on full pay social climbers at nerdy full pay city shools on the East Coast.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chicago has changed a lot in recent years. It used to be a liberal arts nerd school. It was a place for "intellectuals" for lack of a better word. And they took super smart students from all over, including public schools in big cities and small towns. You'd meet a Chicago grad in the faculty lounge or a think tank.

Nowadays Chicago is like Sidwell Friends goes to college. Standard smart kids with privilege and money. You're more likely to meet a Chicago grad at the country club today rather than a conference focused on history or economics. It's a change.

Not sure it's a good change. We need more nerd schools, not less.

The fly in the ointment is that the classic "nerd schools" are not flourishing. Life of the mind is a hard sell in today's economy.

Top 20 schools need more standard smart kids. They are currently filled with pointy, specialized kids that lack the social skills you see with standard smart kids. Have toured any of these schools in the last 3 years??

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chicago is taking a lot of unhooked kids from top private schools across the country. It’s not just a Sidwell phenomenon, it’s probably just that students there realized it was realistic and applied ED this year. It’s the most common school for Exeter & usually Andover graduating classes nowadays too.

But Chicago doesn’t seem to be taking a lot of unhooked kids from other DMV privates. Why is that?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This board is full of people who either never played in the big leagues or who went to elite universities before embarking on painfully mediocre careers. Anybody knocking Chicago on here is out of their mind. And anybody who thinks there is a material difference among top 20-30 schools for the vast majority of undergrads is also out of their mind. Chicago is a very risky and respectable choice for anybody. It is not for people who run with the herd intellectually, which, unfortunately, describes most of the talented but perfectly average parents who raise their kids in the DMV. Now go back to the NYT Books section to find out what you should be reading this week.

Fully agree.

So Chicago has this reputation for being intellectual and “not for people who run with the herd” but there is a whole herd of them at sidwell? The herd happens to be clustered at private schools?

Anonymous wrote:Chicago is taking a lot of unhooked kids from top private schools across the country. It’s not just a Sidwell phenomenon, it’s probably just that students there realized it was realistic and applied ED this year. It’s the most common school for Exeter & usually Andover graduating classes nowadays too.

Anonymous wrote:It's at least 13+. Probably more like 15.

As has been explained on here many times, Chicago likes kids from top private schools. If you are coming from Sidwell, NCS, STA you can almost count on admission if you have decently strong grades (say a 3.7 and up). Occasionally they will even admit a 3.5. This is not to say that every Chicago matriculant has a 3.7 because some of the matriculants are also towards the very top of the class with a 3.9+ and a shot at HYP but chose Chicago. But for others, Chicago it is the one top10 or even top20 university that is a pretty sure bet if you come from one of these high schools and are a reasonably strong student. Last year STA sent a full 10% of the graduating class to Chicago. They just really like private school kids, probably because they come full pay and they reliably know how to read, write and think very well as they've been trained for years to do so.

Anonymous wrote:Lemmings. My kid’s private has twice the number of seniors and has very, very few matriculating to the same university each year. The biggest # is 5. They really branch out. It seems weird to me such a small class would all want to continue on together. Over 4 years—there must be so many Sidwell kids there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see any bashing at all. Everyone is just stating the FACTS.

Agree. No one is bashing. They can’t take the truth.

Yes, frankly nobody has ever bashed Chicago on here and I've been following the conversation very closely. They have laid out the facts regarding Chicago's wonky private high school admissions and 4+ rounds of ED and the Chicago brigade has called it bashing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chicago has changed a lot in recent years. It used to be a liberal arts nerd school. It was a place for "intellectuals" for lack of a better word. And they took super smart students from all over, including public schools in big cities and small towns. You'd meet a Chicago grad in the faculty lounge or a think tank.

Nowadays Chicago is like Sidwell Friends goes to college. Standard smart kids with privilege and money. You're more likely to meet a Chicago grad at the country club today rather than a conference focused on history or economics. It's a change.

Not sure it's a good change. We need more nerd schools, not less.

The fly in the ointment is that the classic "nerd schools" are not flourishing. Life of the mind is a hard sell in today's economy.

Top 20 schools need more standard smart kids. They are currently filled with pointy, specialized kids that lack the social skills you see with standard smart kids. Have toured any of these schools in the last 3 years??

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chicago has changed a lot in recent years. It used to be a liberal arts nerd school. It was a place for "intellectuals" for lack of a better word. And they took super smart students from all over, including public schools in big cities and small towns. You'd meet a Chicago grad in the faculty lounge or a think tank.

Nowadays Chicago is like Sidwell Friends goes to college. Standard smart kids with privilege and money. You're more likely to meet a Chicago grad at the country club today rather than a conference focused on history or economics. It's a change.

Not sure it's a good change. We need more nerd schools, not less.

The fly in the ointment is that the classic "nerd schools" are not flourishing. Life of the mind is a hard sell in today's economy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see any bashing at all. Everyone is just stating the FACTS.

Agree. No one is bashing. They can’t take the truth.

Anonymous wrote:Chicago has changed a lot in recent years. It used to be a liberal arts nerd school. It was a place for "intellectuals" for lack of a better word. And they took super smart students from all over, including public schools in big cities and small towns. You'd meet a Chicago grad in the faculty lounge or a think tank.

Nowadays Chicago is like Sidwell Friends goes to college. Standard smart kids with privilege and money. You're more likely to meet a Chicago grad at the country club today rather than a conference focused on history or economics. It's a change.

Not sure it's a good change. We need more nerd schools, not less.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see any bashing at all. Everyone is just stating the FACTS.

Agree. No one is bashing. They can’t take the truth.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see any bashing at all. Everyone is just stating the FACTS.