Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Great schools, but none attended that "#1 ranked International Business School - South Carolina" or that fine institution Indiana. They settled for Top 25 schools and selective SLACs.

This is incorrect -- not every student from sidwell went to a top 25 school. that is a ridiculous claim and sidwell does not publish college results so there is no evidence. I however personally know 3 recent grads of sidwell that did not got to a top 25 college -- one was U Maryland, one was Connecticut college and the third was sewanne. That's a sample size of 3 but discredit your claim.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any more updates on this thread? Where do the kids at the lower end of the Sidwell class go to college?

Great schools, but none attended that "#1 ranked International Business School - South Carolina" or that fine institution Indiana. They settled for Top 25 schools and selective SLACs.

This is incorrect -- not every student from sidwell went to a top 25 school. that is a ridiculous claim and sidwell does not publish college results so there is no evidence. I however personally know 3 recent grads of sidwell that did not got to a top 25 college -- one was U Maryland, one was Connecticut college and the third was sewanne. That's a sample size of 3 but discredit your claim.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any more updates on this thread? Where do the kids at the lower end of the Sidwell class go to college?

Great schools, but none attended that "#1 ranked International Business School - South Carolina" or that fine institution Indiana. They settled for Top 25 schools and selective SLACs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only a small number of colleges can have a Sidwell or St. Albans or GDS graduate.

Every college can have a public school graduate.

Bottom half as an impediment? Just do the math.

I think most competitive colleges would rather have interesting high achievers from public schools than yet another prep school grad. The math has been done. Bottom half of class matters but coming from a "top" private school can actually hurt.

I'm not going to read the whole thread but you know this has been well publicized. Colleges like geographic diversity, especially the top ones. A straight A student from some podunk public school in North Dakota with good test scores is always going to beat out a middling student at a school like Sidwell. Just how it is.

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell kids do well on the SAT because the SAT is highly correlated with family income.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another Sidwell parent here -- can I ask what you're basing this on? I know the kids claim to know what everyone else scored, but do you really think those reports are credible beyond your child's circle of very close friends? I sure don't.''

Like I said, I read it somewhere here on a spreadsheet. That said, my recent grad had a score in that range that was average for the school. Sidwell kids tend to do extremely well in verbal and reading- writing sections of the SAT which brings up averages. As to your snarky tone about whether or not the reports are credible, the scores and grades were consistent with the colleges kids got in to. You get to know the families pretty well and I don't think there was any misinformation about grades and scores. That hasn't been my experience at the school.

Sidwell kids do well on the SAT because the SAT is highly correlated with family income.

Anonymous wrote:Another Sidwell parent here -- can I ask what you're basing this on? I know the kids claim to know what everyone else scored, but do you really think those reports are credible beyond your child's circle of very close friends? I sure don't.''

Like I said, I read it somewhere here on a spreadsheet. That said, my recent grad had a score in that range that was average for the school. Sidwell kids tend to do extremely well in verbal and reading- writing sections of the SAT which brings up averages. As to your snarky tone about whether or not the reports are credible, the scores and grades were consistent with the colleges kids got in to. You get to know the families pretty well and I don't think there was any misinformation about grades and scores. That hasn't been my experience at the school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only a small number of colleges can have a Sidwell or St. Albans or GDS graduate.

Every college can have a public school graduate.

Bottom half as an impediment? Just do the math.

I think most competitive colleges would rather have interesting high achievers from public schools than yet another prep school grad. The math has been done. Bottom half of class matters but coming from a "top" private school can actually hurt.

Anonymous wrote:Any more updates on this thread? Where do the kids at the lower end of the Sidwell class go to college?

Anonymous wrote:Most of the Sidwell grads I know, including my own kids, would say that the college counseling workshop was not all that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Woops, sorry, the midrange more like 70%, I am actually a science/math nerd, can't believe I can't add. So much for simple arithmetic. The midrange kids are going to really good schools-U Chicago, Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Georgetown, Cornell, McGill, USC, Michigan, Rice, NYU, Hopkins, Barnard, Wash U, Tulane, Emory, a few overseas at LSE, St Andrews, Edinburgh, and in some cases specialized places such as film schools or theater programs. I believe those kids perhaps are benefiting the most from being at a place like Sidwell, at a large public they might not be pushed or challenged as much, and might float long with less intensive advising/college counseling, and end up at less intellectually stimulating colleges and less prepared to excel when they get there.

I think I agree with this, on balance. I also think it's possible that some kids might find themselves trying harder at public school, and pushing themselves more to get attention and recognition. I think it would depend a lot on the kid. Certainly, the college advising and counseling is less helpful at public schools.

My kids graduated from Sidwell. I agree with much that the first poster above says -- except for the part about college counseling. Sidwell's strength in the US is a faculty and peer group which combine to create a robust intellectual experience. The college counseling program is fine, but not exceptional.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Woops, sorry, the midrange more like 70%, I am actually a science/math nerd, can't believe I can't add. So much for simple arithmetic. The midrange kids are going to really good schools-U Chicago, Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Georgetown, Cornell, McGill, USC, Michigan, Rice, NYU, Hopkins, Barnard, Wash U, Tulane, Emory, a few overseas at LSE, St Andrews, Edinburgh, and in some cases specialized places such as film schools or theater programs. I believe those kids perhaps are benefiting the most from being at a place like Sidwell, at a large public they might not be pushed or challenged as much, and might float long with less intensive advising/college counseling, and end up at less intellectually stimulating colleges and less prepared to excel when they get there.

I think I agree with this, on balance. I also think it's possible that some kids might find themselves trying harder at public school, and pushing themselves more to get attention and recognition. I think it would depend a lot on the kid. Certainly, the college advising and counseling is less helpful at public schools.