Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been following this (as a public school parent). I have so many thoughts but will limit them to a few that will be (hopefully) viewed as constructive:

1) I have full access to Naviance and it is not very helpful--if anything, it is quite misleading as the scattergrams combine 10 years of data (we all know how the admissions world has changed over 10 years) and it does not indicate hooks. As a result, it is incredibly easy for students (and parents) to think the odds are much greater to get into specific colleges than it actually is.

2) The basic patterns play out in schools all over this area as they do in "the Big 3" (side note, barf) with regards to college admissions--it is an incredibly unpredictable and stressful process for these kids. However, there is a HUGE difference between kids at schools like Sidwell and those at large public schools: expectations. For all of the short-comings of our large public--and there are a lot--I think my (high stats, NMSF) DC really benefits from being at a public school because they see other high stats students who can't apply ED because they need merit money or because public universities are the only viable option. This REALLY helps contextualize the whole process and give the much-needed perspective that there are outstanding students so many colleges, not just the "top 50".

I would say that some information is better than none, which is effectively what parents at Sidwell get. And while of course the scattergrams don't indicate hooks, the rejection dots alone can give you a sense of the landscape when you see how many high grade/high test kids with dots up in the top right corner get rejected at a particular school that you might have thought was a target or even a sure thing. And in looking at Sidwell's scattergrams in the CCO office you would see that they cover 4 years and not 10.

Parents and students have access to the scattergrams under the supervision of the CCO. A student can look at any school at any time, that is not "none" - similarly, there is a whole host of alumni who are current students at great colleges all over the country who are more than happy to talk to your kid about their college and what they hear from friends and classmates about other colleges. Let's not make the false assertion that SFS students and families have nothing at their disposal to help inform the creation of a college application list or a matriculation choice down the road.

That was not our experience this year, at all. The counselor rejected our/DC's requests to look at them until the process was very far along.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been following this (as a public school parent). I have so many thoughts but will limit them to a few that will be (hopefully) viewed as constructive:

1) I have full access to Naviance and it is not very helpful--if anything, it is quite misleading as the scattergrams combine 10 years of data (we all know how the admissions world has changed over 10 years) and it does not indicate hooks. As a result, it is incredibly easy for students (and parents) to think the odds are much greater to get into specific colleges than it actually is.

2) The basic patterns play out in schools all over this area as they do in "the Big 3" (side note, barf) with regards to college admissions--it is an incredibly unpredictable and stressful process for these kids. However, there is a HUGE difference between kids at schools like Sidwell and those at large public schools: expectations. For all of the short-comings of our large public--and there are a lot--I think my (high stats, NMSF) DC really benefits from being at a public school because they see other high stats students who can't apply ED because they need merit money or because public universities are the only viable option. This REALLY helps contextualize the whole process and give the much-needed perspective that there are outstanding students so many colleges, not just the "top 50".

1) Suggestion: Only look at the last two, pandemic-influenced years. I would think Naviance for public high schools would be more helpful because there are more data points.
2) No parent who sends their kid to Sidwell or a similar private school is okay with their DC going to a college outside the top 50 -- especially parents who start their kid in upper school.

I'm always perplexed by trolls or interested bystanders who enter these chats. You act so surprised by Sidwell and private school parents. I am always surprised that you are surprised.

As a parent who joined at 9th (from public) I would argue that the opposite is true. We switched our kid because he/she was learning very little in DCPS and (for example) could barely write an essay. I know about 5 other kids who joined other Big3 schools in 9th and they moved for the same reason. College admissions are fantastic from Wilson--there is a massive "diverse urban school" bump. If I wanted the best college placement I would have have sent him there. We are very aware that my kid's peers who stayed at Wilson will probably attend better colleges than he/she will coming from a Big3.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been following this (as a public school parent). I have so many thoughts but will limit them to a few that will be (hopefully) viewed as constructive:

1) I have full access to Naviance and it is not very helpful--if anything, it is quite misleading as the scattergrams combine 10 years of data (we all know how the admissions world has changed over 10 years) and it does not indicate hooks. As a result, it is incredibly easy for students (and parents) to think the odds are much greater to get into specific colleges than it actually is.

2) The basic patterns play out in schools all over this area as they do in "the Big 3" (side note, barf) with regards to college admissions--it is an incredibly unpredictable and stressful process for these kids. However, there is a HUGE difference between kids at schools like Sidwell and those at large public schools: expectations. For all of the short-comings of our large public--and there are a lot--I think my (high stats, NMSF) DC really benefits from being at a public school because they see other high stats students who can't apply ED because they need merit money or because public universities are the only viable option. This REALLY helps contextualize the whole process and give the much-needed perspective that there are outstanding students so many colleges, not just the "top 50".

I would say that some information is better than none, which is effectively what parents at Sidwell get. And while of course the scattergrams don't indicate hooks, the rejection dots alone can give you a sense of the landscape when you see how many high grade/high test kids with dots up in the top right corner get rejected at a particular school that you might have thought was a target or even a sure thing. And in looking at Sidwell's scattergrams in the CCO office you would see that they cover 4 years and not 10.

Parents and students have access to the scattergrams under the supervision of the CCO. A student can look at any school at any time, that is not "none" - similarly, there is a whole host of alumni who are current students at great colleges all over the country who are more than happy to talk to your kid about their college and what they hear from friends and classmates about other colleges. Let's not make the false assertion that SFS students and families have nothing at their disposal to help inform the creation of a college application list or a matriculation choice down the road.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been following this (as a public school parent). I have so many thoughts but will limit them to a few that will be (hopefully) viewed as constructive:

1) I have full access to Naviance and it is not very helpful--if anything, it is quite misleading as the scattergrams combine 10 years of data (we all know how the admissions world has changed over 10 years) and it does not indicate hooks. As a result, it is incredibly easy for students (and parents) to think the odds are much greater to get into specific colleges than it actually is.

2) The basic patterns play out in schools all over this area as they do in "the Big 3" (side note, barf) with regards to college admissions--it is an incredibly unpredictable and stressful process for these kids. However, there is a HUGE difference between kids at schools like Sidwell and those at large public schools: expectations. For all of the short-comings of our large public--and there are a lot--I think my (high stats, NMSF) DC really benefits from being at a public school because they see other high stats students who can't apply ED because they need merit money or because public universities are the only viable option. This REALLY helps contextualize the whole process and give the much-needed perspective that there are outstanding students so many colleges, not just the "top 50".

1) Suggestion: Only look at the last two, pandemic-influenced years. I would think Naviance for public high schools would be more helpful because there are more data points.
2) No parent who sends their kid to Sidwell or a similar private school is okay with their DC going to a college outside the top 50 -- especially parents who start their kid in upper school.

I'm always perplexed by trolls or interested bystanders who enter these chats. You act so surprised by Sidwell and private school parents. I am always surprised that you are surprised.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

1) Suggestion: Only look at the last two, pandemic-influenced years. I would think Naviance for public high schools would be more helpful because there are more data points.
2) No parent who sends their kid to Sidwell or a similar private school is okay with their DC going to a college outside the top 50 -- especially parents who start their kid in upper school.

I'm always perplexed by trolls or interested bystanders who enter these chats. You act so surprised by Sidwell and private school parents. I am always surprised that you are surprised.

Counterpoint: No parent should send their kid to any high school with an expectation of any sort of "college results" - absolutely no one says that going to a "big 3" entitles a kid to a certain college.

Let's stop with the nonsense.

I doubt PP is affiliated in any way with Sidwell, as a quick look at the matriculation list maintained by CCO makes clear that admissions outside the Top 50 is routine.

Let me repeat: No family spends upwards of $200K over four years of high school so their DC can go to a college ranked 90th or whatever. Sure, families can overestimate their chances. But when you see how unhelpful CCO is and you see Virginia kids getting waitlisted at VT you tend to get a bit frustrated.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been following this (as a public school parent). I have so many thoughts but will limit them to a few that will be (hopefully) viewed as constructive:

1) I have full access to Naviance and it is not very helpful--if anything, it is quite misleading as the scattergrams combine 10 years of data (we all know how the admissions world has changed over 10 years) and it does not indicate hooks. As a result, it is incredibly easy for students (and parents) to think the odds are much greater to get into specific colleges than it actually is.

2) The basic patterns play out in schools all over this area as they do in "the Big 3" (side note, barf) with regards to college admissions--it is an incredibly unpredictable and stressful process for these kids. However, there is a HUGE difference between kids at schools like Sidwell and those at large public schools: expectations. For all of the short-comings of our large public--and there are a lot--I think my (high stats, NMSF) DC really benefits from being at a public school because they see other high stats students who can't apply ED because they need merit money or because public universities are the only viable option. This REALLY helps contextualize the whole process and give the much-needed perspective that there are outstanding students so many colleges, not just the "top 50".

1) Suggestion: Only look at the last two, pandemic-influenced years. I would think Naviance for public high schools would be more helpful because there are more data points.
2) No parent who sends their kid to Sidwell or a similar private school is okay with their DC going to a college outside the top 50 -- especially parents who start their kid in upper school.

I'm always perplexed by trolls or interested bystanders who enter these chats. You act so surprised by Sidwell and private school parents. I am always surprised that you are surprised.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

1) Suggestion: Only look at the last two, pandemic-influenced years. I would think Naviance for public high schools would be more helpful because there are more data points.
2) No parent who sends their kid to Sidwell or a similar private school is okay with their DC going to a college outside the top 50 -- especially parents who start their kid in upper school.

I'm always perplexed by trolls or interested bystanders who enter these chats. You act so surprised by Sidwell and private school parents. I am always surprised that you are surprised.

Counterpoint: No parent should send their kid to any high school with an expectation of any sort of "college results" - absolutely no one says that going to a "big 3" entitles a kid to a certain college.

Let's stop with the nonsense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been following this (as a public school parent). I have so many thoughts but will limit them to a few that will be (hopefully) viewed as constructive:

1) I have full access to Naviance and it is not very helpful--if anything, it is quite misleading as the scattergrams combine 10 years of data (we all know how the admissions world has changed over 10 years) and it does not indicate hooks. As a result, it is incredibly easy for students (and parents) to think the odds are much greater to get into specific colleges than it actually is.

2) The basic patterns play out in schools all over this area as they do in "the Big 3" (side note, barf) with regards to college admissions--it is an incredibly unpredictable and stressful process for these kids. However, there is a HUGE difference between kids at schools like Sidwell and those at large public schools: expectations. For all of the short-comings of our large public--and there are a lot--I think my (high stats, NMSF) DC really benefits from being at a public school because they see other high stats students who can't apply ED because they need merit money or because public universities are the only viable option. This REALLY helps contextualize the whole process and give the much-needed perspective that there are outstanding students so many colleges, not just the "top 50".

Sidwell senior parent here, and I can so appreciate this. Some of the conversation that DC and DC's friends have on this topic is nothing short of ridiculous. They spin themselves into this web about T-10 or T-20 or T-whatever schools. The appeal of a school like Sidwell or any Big 3 is supposed to be that you are surrounded by an ambitious peer group. But when that peer group becomes an echo chamber for wrong and misleading information, and there is no reality to counter-balance it, that becomes a problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been following this (as a public school parent). I have so many thoughts but will limit them to a few that will be (hopefully) viewed as constructive:

1) I have full access to Naviance and it is not very helpful--if anything, it is quite misleading as the scattergrams combine 10 years of data (we all know how the admissions world has changed over 10 years) and it does not indicate hooks. As a result, it is incredibly easy for students (and parents) to think the odds are much greater to get into specific colleges than it actually is.

2) The basic patterns play out in schools all over this area as they do in "the Big 3" (side note, barf) with regards to college admissions--it is an incredibly unpredictable and stressful process for these kids. However, there is a HUGE difference between kids at schools like Sidwell and those at large public schools: expectations. For all of the short-comings of our large public--and there are a lot--I think my (high stats, NMSF) DC really benefits from being at a public school because they see other high stats students who can't apply ED because they need merit money or because public universities are the only viable option. This REALLY helps contextualize the whole process and give the much-needed perspective that there are outstanding students so many colleges, not just the "top 50".

I would say that some information is better than none, which is effectively what parents at Sidwell get. And while of course the scattergrams don't indicate hooks, the rejection dots alone can give you a sense of the landscape when you see how many high grade/high test kids with dots up in the top right corner get rejected at a particular school that you might have thought was a target or even a sure thing. And in looking at Sidwell's scattergrams in the CCO office you would see that they cover 4 years and not 10.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been following this (as a public school parent). I have so many thoughts but will limit them to a few that will be (hopefully) viewed as constructive:

1) I have full access to Naviance and it is not very helpful--if anything, it is quite misleading as the scattergrams combine 10 years of data (we all know how the admissions world has changed over 10 years) and it does not indicate hooks. As a result, it is incredibly easy for students (and parents) to think the odds are much greater to get into specific colleges than it actually is.

2) The basic patterns play out in schools all over this area as they do in "the Big 3" (side note, barf) with regards to college admissions--it is an incredibly unpredictable and stressful process for these kids. However, there is a HUGE difference between kids at schools like Sidwell and those at large public schools: expectations. For all of the short-comings of our large public--and there are a lot--I think my (high stats, NMSF) DC really benefits from being at a public school because they see other high stats students who can't apply ED because they need merit money or because public universities are the only viable option. This REALLY helps contextualize the whole process and give the much-needed perspective that there are outstanding students so many colleges, not just the "top 50".

I would say that some information is better than none, which is effectively what parents at Sidwell get. And while of course the scattergrams don't indicate hooks, the rejection dots alone can give you a sense of the landscape when you see how many high grade/high test kids with dots up in the top right corner get rejected at a particular school that you might have thought was a target or even a sure thing. And in looking at Sidwell's scattergrams in the CCO office you would see that they cover 4 years and not 10.

Anonymous wrote:

1) Suggestion: Only look at the last two, pandemic-influenced years. I would think Naviance for public high schools would be more helpful because there are more data points.
2) No parent who sends their kid to Sidwell or a similar private school is okay with their DC going to a college outside the top 50 -- especially parents who start their kid in upper school.

I'm always perplexed by trolls or interested bystanders who enter these chats. You act so surprised by Sidwell and private school parents. I am always surprised that you are surprised.

Anonymous wrote:I've been following this (as a public school parent). I have so many thoughts but will limit them to a few that will be (hopefully) viewed as constructive:

1) I have full access to Naviance and it is not very helpful--if anything, it is quite misleading as the scattergrams combine 10 years of data (we all know how the admissions world has changed over 10 years) and it does not indicate hooks. As a result, it is incredibly easy for students (and parents) to think the odds are much greater to get into specific colleges than it actually is.

2) The basic patterns play out in schools all over this area as they do in "the Big 3" (side note, barf) with regards to college admissions--it is an incredibly unpredictable and stressful process for these kids. However, there is a HUGE difference between kids at schools like Sidwell and those at large public schools: expectations. For all of the short-comings of our large public--and there are a lot--I think my (high stats, NMSF) DC really benefits from being at a public school because they see other high stats students who can't apply ED because they need merit money or because public universities are the only viable option. This REALLY helps contextualize the whole process and give the much-needed perspective that there are outstanding students so many colleges, not just the "top 50".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been following this (as a public school parent). I have so many thoughts but will limit them to a few that will be (hopefully) viewed as constructive:

1) I have full access to Naviance and it is not very helpful--if anything, it is quite misleading as the scattergrams combine 10 years of data (we all know how the admissions world has changed over 10 years) and it does not indicate hooks. As a result, it is incredibly easy for students (and parents) to think the odds are much greater to get into specific colleges than it actually is.

2) The basic patterns play out in schools all over this area as they do in "the Big 3" (side note, barf) with regards to college admissions--it is an incredibly unpredictable and stressful process for these kids. However, there is a HUGE difference between kids at schools like Sidwell and those at large public schools: expectations. For all of the short-comings of our large public--and there are a lot--I think my (high stats, NMSF) DC really benefits from being at a public school because they see other high stats students who can't apply ED because they need merit money or because public universities are the only viable option. This REALLY helps contextualize the whole process and give the much-needed perspective that there are outstanding students so many colleges, not just the "top 50".

1) Suggestion: Only look at the last two, pandemic-influenced years. I would think Naviance for public high schools would be more helpful because there are more data points.
2) No parent who sends their kid to Sidwell or a similar private school is okay with their DC going to a college outside the top 50 -- especially parents who start their kid in upper school.

I'm always perplexed by trolls or interested bystanders who enter these chats. You act so surprised by Sidwell and private school parents. I am always surprised that you are surprised.