Anonymous wrote:If you’re at a top private, you need to be more strategic about what elite sport your kid can get recruited for and showing that they care a lot about the poor and less fortunate. They probably should be starting their nonprofit serving the poor by 8th grade at the latest. Obviously sports needs to start from toddlerhood.

Anonymous wrote:The kids who are in the top 10% group in public school are almost certainly less coddled than private school kids.
It takes a lot of grit and motivation to be successful at a school like Jackson Reed. You have large chaotic classes. There are fights in the hallway sometimes.
You may be self studying for APs because you are missing a teacher. There are some very impressive kids at public schools so it makes sense that colleges would want them. Sure, they may not have done multivariable calculus or written a 20 page paper because JR does not offer those opportunities but so what - they will learn and figure it out in college. It is all about showing the potential for growth

Anonymous wrote:It's not new; it just feels new every year to the people going through it for the first time [cue the annual "no, it's really different this time" posters].

Part of the reason is that the handful of people who choose a school believing it would change their child's college application outcomes look at the matriculations and only see the colleges on the list that they want to see, and knowing nothing about the students or why those chose the schools they chose or why they got into the schools they got into, naively assume this means their kid will get into the school of their choice. Also, they probably don't appreciate how great the other schools on the list actually are and how much fit matters to individual kids. It is completely naive to assume all students choose a college based on where it lands on the USNWR list. Once you dig in, if you are really doing your homework, that list goes out the window.

Anonymous wrote:To the woman who told us all to calm down… Funny that you’re on here reading these posts isn’t it? And to the one who said their kid got into a top 15 compared to the public… I don’t believe you.

Anonymous wrote:Here’s a little story for you. My son and his best friend went to Janney. They were like two peas in a pod- very similar in athletics and academics. Fun loving outgoing kids very charming. In sixth grade we pulled out and went to GDS. The other kid went through Deal and Jackson Reed. Parents did not “love” DCPS , whatever we talked schools they said “it’s fine. He’s doing OK he has nice friends he likes some of his teachers.” Jackson Reid kid just got accepted to Brown and UVA. My son got into a fine school which I can’t say now because our small class-size but you get the point. It was not a top school. And he had a high GPA and scores. And yes he learned a lot at GDS and yes he had a lot of homework also. And yes I am thinking about our decision and money spent. This friend cohort at JR also had great results. All unhooked and no athlete.

Anonymous wrote:Here’s a little story for you. My son and his best friend went to Janney. They were like two peas in a pod- very similar in athletics and academics. Fun loving outgoing kids very charming. In sixth grade we pulled out and went to GDS. The other kid went through Deal and Jackson Reed. Parents did not “love” DCPS , whatever we talked schools they said “it’s fine. He’s doing OK he has nice friends he likes some of his teachers.” Jackson Reid kid just got accepted to Brown and UVA. My son got into a fine school which I can’t say now because our small class-size but you get the point. It was not a top school. And he had a high GPA and scores. And yes he learned a lot at GDS and yes he had a lot of homework also. And yes I am thinking about our decision and money spent. This friend cohort at JR also had great results. All unhooked and no athlete.

Anonymous wrote:College matriculation at our private is still much better than our local public schools. This may not be the case if your local public is a “W” school but probably that parity has existed for a long time. Colleges are less interested in umc white or Asian kids generally, it is not specific to private schools.

Anonymous wrote:I've been watching this closely and matriculations are definitely better this year (and really last too) for kids from similar socio-economic demographics from DCPS vs kids from the Big3 DC privates (I.e. kids from upper middle class professional class families).

it's kind of nuts because the private kids work about 5 times harder and come out far better educated. I know as I currently have high school kids in both.

It is what it is in 2023. you do not send you kids to private school for better college matriculations and you need to be prepared for worse results than your kid's public school friends.