Anonymous wrote:Seriously, this is just embarrassing for SFS. You guys need to stopped or at least move it to the private school section.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does Sidwell justify the lack of open access to Naviance? That’s so incredibly paternalistic. I’m surprised there hasn’t been a parent revolt.

VIP parents do not care - their kids are taken care of by the school. Other parents are sheep.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At least one kid applying to Brown was top 5 percent of the class and deferred. Friends were very surprised.

Maybe sabotaged by a different parent...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At least one kid applying to Brown was top 5 percent of the class and deferred. Friends were very surprised.

Maybe sabotaged by a different parent...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the elephant in the room is that a good chunk of the very top students are “stranded”. They are doing less well than the bottom 85% of the class. Yield protected at likelies/matches and not into any SCEA or ED. Sidwell needs an explicit strategy for these kids. It’s not to late to advocate for this group imo. No entitlement here at all. I don’t think CCO gets the macro picture here. These kids had safeties but safeties are not acting like safeties for this high performing group.

I know the kids you're talking about, because my kid is their peer and in most of their classes.

What you didn't include in your otherwise instructive post is that most of these kids picked a very tough Ivy or Stanford as their SCEA or ED -- with absolutely foreseeable results. I think that's the most relevant detail, actually. Also, most didn't ED2, so the 'stranded' characterization is premature at best and, it must be pointed out, it's a risk to forego ED2 and they chose to take that risk. Finally, a number of these kids have at least one EA in hand at a top 25 school. No one is "stranded" when they can go to Chicago or Michigan next fall.

I seem to have an outlier view of the purpose and capabilities of a college counselor at Sidwell, Dalton, Westlake, New Trier, Andover, etc. I don't view them as agents who earn their money by securing prime bookings for their top talent. Nor are they talented litigators who get paid more when they successfully persuade skeptical juries to come around. Not saying you do, but not a few parents in this class talk this way. It upsets my own senior because they talk as if the CC office is the help and it's gross.

Anonymous wrote:At least one kid applying to Brown was top 5 percent of the class and deferred. Friends were very surprised.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell Senior Parent. NP. On a related but slightly different note: I believe we are finally starting to see what the rather tough grading policies at Sidwell are starting to do to admissions outcomes. Rampant grade inflation elsewhere, the elimination of standardized tests and gradual disinclination towards "elite" private schools is making it harder each year for Sidwell students to stand out. With Covid, strong ECs have been hard to build for many students.

That and the fact that Sidwell won’t weight the GPA to reflect the rigor. The message is always—“colleges know how rigorous Sidwell curriculum is”—which is absurd. Maybe a handful of colleges know. It’s beyond arrogant to think all schools lnow or even care. By removing the SAT, colleges have seen applications rise and acceptance rates fall to the point where CCO is recommending a massive number of likely schools that do not have the time and resources to spot a Sidwell kid with <4.0. CCO and academic/curriculum team need to get together and talk. The outsize effect of GPA for college apps is making it really tough for kids at schools that do not grade inflate and do not weight the GPA.

I teach at a T15 and have attended admission committee meetings. You need to do some research on college enrollment algorithms. Approx. 85% of universities/colleges use machine learning to determine and manage acceptances, yield and tuition discounting. Colleges, especially T20s but also popular flagship/public universities have plenty of historical data from schools like Sidwell. And most competitive colleges recalculate GPA and apply their own weight to classes depending on internal criteria in determining rigor.

Anonymous wrote:How does Sidwell justify the lack of open access to Naviance? That’s so incredibly paternalistic. I’m surprised there hasn’t been a parent revolt.

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell Senior Parent. NP. On a related but slightly different note: I believe we are finally starting to see what the rather tough grading policies at Sidwell are starting to do to admissions outcomes. Rampant grade inflation elsewhere, the elimination of standardized tests and gradual disinclination towards "elite" private schools is making it harder each year for Sidwell students to stand out. With Covid, strong ECs have been hard to build for many students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell Senior Parent. NP. On a related but slightly different note: I believe we are finally starting to see what the rather tough grading policies at Sidwell are starting to do to admissions outcomes. Rampant grade inflation elsewhere, the elimination of standardized tests and gradual disinclination towards "elite" private schools is making it harder each year for Sidwell students to stand out. With Covid, strong ECs have been hard to build for many students.

That and the fact that Sidwell won’t weight the GPA to reflect the rigor. The message is always—“colleges know how rigorous Sidwell curriculum is”—which is absurd. Maybe a handful of colleges know. It’s beyond arrogant to think all schools lnow or even care. By removing the SAT, colleges have seen applications rise and acceptance rates fall to the point where CCO is recommending a massive number of likely schools that do not have the time and resources to spot a Sidwell kid with <4.0. CCO and academic/curriculum team need to get together and talk. The outsize effect of GPA for college apps is making it really tough for kids at schools that do not grade inflate and do not weight the GPA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Nope. The kind of people you're describing get outside counselors.

This isn't binary yep/nope. A family can hire private help and still act peeved and blame the original CCO help for "inadequacy" when the actual issue is entitlement. And make no mistake, the worst among these parents badmouth the independent Bethesda and NYC counselors, too.

The problem for them is never in their own home, you see.

Not the same PP. But it's also not the binary yep/nope that the CCO is running smoothly. We aren't in the big complaining group nor do we feel our DC is entitled to get into an Ivy (or top X), but the messaging from CCO doesn't align with the support they actually provide. So much gets complicated by their fear of crazy parents and the fear of sharing information that more typical families (and kids) who need real advice don't always get it. For example, I would absolutely want to be told that there are a huge number early application to Brown (or that it included athletes, legacies, etc), if my kid also had a SLAC at the top of their list that was less saturated with SFS applicants and could be a more likely ED hit. Yes, many families will ignore this, but others won't.