Anonymous wrote:If I have to hear one more “at our SF area private“ or “our Bay Area private“ i’m going to jump out the friggin window. I can understand, sort of, getting on this website and asking questions about colleges but to be participating in this thread is weird AF.

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Anonymous wrote:6 from our SF-based private as well, maybe more! All are good students, nothing crazy, but all solid kids.

And you’re commenting on this thread, why?

It’s helpful to me to see what UChicago is doing nationally with private high schools.

And you’re refereeing this thread, why?

Anonymous wrote:For years, the number one predictor of whether a kid was admitted to Duke was their parents income. UoC is now following the same model.

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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??

yes especially seems true of harvard and the specific type of students who have been admitted from our school past 5 years. very smart, pointy and socially odd. intellectually gifted kids but not socially gifted. I wonder what the peer group feels like if you are a standard strong kid at harvard these days.

Agree. But I am also wondering what UChicago is like socially. I’ve never heard of a private sending so many to a single school, year after year. Our private has a healthy distribution amongst the ivies and T10. 15 matriculants makes no sense and would give me pause as a parent.

15 kids my high school graduating year went to Harvard. Out of a class of 175. It was fine. We all ended up branching out in college and did not stick to the high school social circle, though it was nice to have a base of friends from which to meet friends of friends. It was not high school 2.0 by any means, and in a way, it was actually really nice to already know a few upperclassmen at Harvard who had gone to the same high school and could ask them for advice.

15 out of 175 to Harvard? What school is this??

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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??

yes especially seems true of harvard and the specific type of students who have been admitted from our school past 5 years. very smart, pointy and socially odd. intellectually gifted kids but not socially gifted. I wonder what the peer group feels like if you are a standard strong kid at harvard these days.

Agree. But I am also wondering what UChicago is like socially. I’ve never heard of a private sending so many to a single school, year after year. Our private has a healthy distribution amongst the ivies and T10. 15 matriculants makes no sense and would give me pause as a parent.

15 kids my high school graduating year went to Harvard. Out of a class of 175. It was fine. We all ended up branching out in college and did not stick to the high school social circle, though it was nice to have a base of friends from which to meet friends of friends. It was not high school 2.0 by any means, and in a way, it was actually really nice to already know a few upperclassmen at Harvard who had gone to the same high school and could ask them for advice.

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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??

yes especially seems true of harvard and the specific type of students who have been admitted from our school past 5 years. very smart, pointy and socially odd. intellectually gifted kids but not socially gifted. I wonder what the peer group feels like if you are a standard strong kid at harvard these days.

Agree. But I am also wondering what UChicago is like socially. I’ve never heard of a private sending so many to a single school, year after year. Our private has a healthy distribution amongst the ivies and T10. 15 matriculants makes no sense and would give me pause as a parent.

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Anonymous wrote:Germantown Friends School has 12 (or more) going to Penn. The Quakers have their favorites.

Half of GFS parents work at Penn, though. It’s the biggest employer in the area and it’s financially beneficial for their kids to attend. And there are local publics who also send tons to Penn for the same reasons. It’s also pretty consistent year after year. It’s a little different I think.

Sure, justify it like that. It just seems outrageous to be taking 12 kids from 1 school simply because of faculty connections - and that’s only from ED!

Mostly staff, not faculty, but the point is colleges often take many from their immediate community. Princeton takes tons from Princeton High School. This is more of a “hot school” trend or one-off.

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Anonymous wrote:Germantown Friends School has 12 (or more) going to Penn. The Quakers have their favorites.

Half of GFS parents work at Penn, though. It’s the biggest employer in the area and it’s financially beneficial for their kids to attend. And there are local publics who also send tons to Penn for the same reasons. It’s also pretty consistent year after year. It’s a little different I think.

Sure, justify it like that. It just seems outrageous to be taking 12 kids from 1 school simply because of faculty connections - and that’s only from ED!

Anonymous wrote:I’ve spent the last two days at UChicago for admitted student day.

There were definitely a number of obviously quirky kids. It actually surprised me how quirky the kids were. I did see some rather rich looking preppy white boys, but overall I think UChicago had a very diverse group.

I no longer live in DC so I’m not a Sidwell parent.

Anonymous wrote:Germantown Friends School has 12 (or more) going to Penn. The Quakers have their favorites.

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Anonymous wrote:Germantown Friends School has 12 (or more) going to Penn. The Quakers have their favorites.

Half of GFS parents work at Penn, though. It’s the biggest employer in the area and it’s financially beneficial for their kids to attend. And there are local publics who also send tons to Penn for the same reasons. It’s also pretty consistent year after year. It’s a little different I think.

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if these kids are the children of academics, because honestly, most people on the east coast do not know that University of Chicago has an historical, elite reputation. Most kids know about the Ivies and are all clamoring to get into those, but most think Chicago is some random public school in the midwest.