Anonymous wrote:Your poor children. Making them do AP tests on top of IB exams? That’s insane.

No it isn't. In fact, it's standard practice in IB programs around the country where kids are aiming for competitive colleges.

My nieces and nephews in Falls Church have earned IB Diploma at Marshall HS (full IB school, not test-in) where college counselors advise students to apply to competitive colleges with at least a few AP scores, preferably more.

IB Diploma is geared toward admission to universities in Europe, where kids get "conditional offers" in the spring contingent on getting certain exam results in June. In the US, it's risky business apply to competitive colleges without any subject standardized test scores.

Any recommendations for specific private college counselors?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not at DCI but heard they have 2 ED to Ivy and few other top schools this year.

They had Ivy admits last year too.

They only have had 3 graduating classes so not a lot of past info to follow. But above is impressive for a school only in their 4th graduating class this year I believe.


Frankly I don’t care about Ivy admits and not shooting for that although DC is high performing and we are in a feeder. I care more that they have the IB diploma which will prepare my kid for college.

I went to a state school on a full scholarship and turned our way more than fine.

You heard? Feel free to post the schools.

DCI will post the list of colleges for the class of 2023 in 2026 when they update the website, so we can then see if what you “heard” is correct.

They have posted currently the Class of 2020 college list, which has zero Ivies.

Your poor children. Making them do AP tests on top of IB exams? That’s insane.

Anonymous wrote:Not at DCI but heard they have 2 ED to Ivy and few other top schools this year.

They had Ivy admits last year too.

They only have had 3 graduating classes so not a lot of past info to follow. But above is impressive for a school only in their 4th graduating class this year I believe.


Frankly I don’t care about Ivy admits and not shooting for that although DC is high performing and we are in a feeder. I care more that they have the IB diploma which will prepare my kid for college.

I went to a state school on a full scholarship and turned our way more than fine.

You heard? Feel free to post the schools.

DCI will post the list of colleges for the class of 2023 in 2026 when they update the website, so we can then see if what you “heard” is correct.

+1

If you stick with DCI for HS, you want to look up IB rules about testing yourself on the IB Geneva web site. The rules say that kids can only take 2 SL exams early, in June of junior year. You want to have your kid do this, although it's not required by DCI or by IB Geneva. Make sure your kid prepares for the test by taking a couple SL subjects that are offered as 1-year classes, geography, environmental systems, a few other options, so they're well prepared for early exams.

AP language exams are easier than IB (hardly any speaking or listening on AP) so have your kid take AP language in May of junior year. A few enterprising DCI parents have kids take Cambridge AS-Level Exams in Nov of senior year at the British Intl School of DC (look that up) to add standardized test scores for college applications. I'm not sure how seriously colleges take "predicted IB exam scores" on the remaining IB exams taken in June of senior year on applications.
The counselors claim that predicted scores are as good as real IBD test scores, which I highly doubt.

You get the message, you want to make sure that your kid has some standardized test scores before applying to colleges in Jan of senior year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone with experience give an honest (not emotional) review of the college counseling at DCI?

The college counselors are OK, they give your kid some time. From my perspective, the main problem is that they don't have much experience marketing IBD background. The 2 counselors don't encourage DCI students to double up on registering for AP exams that correspond to IBD subjects. They're also not good about encouraging students to stretch themselves by competing in academic competitions to round out their CVs, essay competitions and the like.

We took matters into our own hands, had our kid take 3 APs in the spring at a different school (look on College Board web site for how to register for AP). Our kid scored all 5s on AP. Kid also scored high on the 2 IB exams she was allowed to take jr year. Geneva IB doesn't allow IB students to take more than 2 IB exams before June of senior year. We hired our own college counselor, have applied mostly to top 10 SLACs.

I appreciate this thoughtful post. Thank you.

Anonymous wrote:Can someone with experience give an honest (not emotional) review of the college counseling at DCI?

The college counselors are OK, they give your kid some time. From my perspective, the main problem is that they don't have much experience marketing IBD background. The 2 counselors don't encourage DCI students to double up on registering for AP exams that correspond to IBD subjects. They're also not good about encouraging students to stretch themselves by competing in academic competitions to round out their CVs, essay competitions and the like.

We took matters into our own hands, had our kid take 3 APs in the spring at a different school (look on College Board web site for how to register for AP). Our kid scored all 5s on AP. Kid also scored high on the 2 IB exams she was allowed to take jr year. Geneva IB doesn't allow IB students to take more than 2 IB exams before June of senior year. We hired our own college counselor, have applied mostly to top 10 SLACs.

Anonymous wrote:...T15 schools ... Some high schools are good at making sure those kids get into good schools....

I admit that I agree to some extent; it's a positive sign if a school has some students who are admitted to the most selective colleges. But lets not conflate "T15" with "good." There are hundreds of colleges that provide a good education.

Can someone with experience give an honest (not emotional) review of the college counseling at DCI?

Not at DCI but heard they have 2 ED to Ivy and few other top schools this year.

They had Ivy admits last year too.

They only have had 3 graduating classes so not a lot of past info to follow. But above is impressive for a school only in their 4th graduating class this year I believe.


Frankly I don’t care about Ivy admits and not shooting for that although DC is high performing and we are in a feeder. I care more that they have the IB diploma which will prepare my kid for college.

I went to a state school on a full scholarship and turned our way more than fine.

Offering AP classes tells you nothing about rigor- many schools offer those classes in name only. Most kids just apply to lots of colleges, I don’t see how a college counselor helps if you have your heart set on an Ivy or top 20.

Anonymous wrote:I actually disagree. If a school has *no* or *almost no* admissions to T15 schools in the average year, that's an issue for me. My kids don't have any hooks, but are quite smart. Some high schools are good at making sure those kids get into good schools; some aren't. It matters.

I don't think my kids need to go to T15 colleges to be happy and successful in life, though, and I also recognize that any given high school is unlikely to be sending multiple kids to multiple top 15 colleges in any given year (just based on the numbers), so I don't find this argument particularly persuasive.

The high schools have absolutely nothing to do with it

Of course they do!

Some high school counselors are better than others. They do a better job of recommending colleges to their students. They take into account fit, any special attributes the student has which may be of more interest to that college than most, the need for financial aid and the bearing it will have on admittance, etc. They also write better LORs and teach the faculty how to wite such letters. To the extent it is possible to cultivate a good rapport with college admissions officers, they do so. They can do it by inviting them to visit the high school, making sure that there are students there for an information session if they do come, maybe going so far as to discuss the special strenghs and circumstances of a student who attends the info session.

They may also encourage students to apply for local scholarships, to enter contests such as Scholastic where a good showing can help boost admission odds, arrange for students interested in certain fields to do some shadowing or enage in volunteer work.

They make sure that students are on track not only to graduate but to meet admissions requirements.