Anonymous wrote:I beg to disagree about the grit and Montgomery county public schools. It’s not an easy road and the kids do need grit there.

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:

Anonymous wrote:It seems bizarre the college AOs want to incentivize families to send their kids to bad public schools and/or ones in podunk nowhere.

Or maybe they are realizing a kid with some grit who earned their grades and other honors without help from the resources money buys would be excellent additions to their schools. Think about it, would you hire Carl and Brook’s daughter from the country club who has had every door automatically open for her and thousands of dollars invested in her to make her the perfect being or a person with just about equal accomplishments who did it all on her own?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems bizarre the college AOs want to incentivize families to send their kids to bad public schools and/or ones in podunk nowhere.

Or maybe they are realizing a kid with some grit who earned their grades and other honors without help from the resources money buys would be excellent additions to their schools. Think about it, would you hire Carl and Brook’s daughter from the country club who has had every door automatically open for her and thousands of dollars invested in her to make her the perfect being or a person with just about equal accomplishments who did it all on her own?

Anonymous wrote:We sent our kids to DCPS through 8th grade (Deal). My kid's friends who were decent but not fabulous students went on to JR and got high 4.0+ GPAs and are now got into better schools than my kid who went on to a Big3 and worked really, really hard for a 3.8.

The JR kids were missing teachers for semesters at a time. but it doesn't matter for GPAs as then the whole class is given an A when this happens. last year this was in physics C. meanwhile my kids killed himself for an A.


It is what it is.

but yes, it is happening. Please go into private with your eyes WIDE open. You are doing this as an investment in learning which is invaluable your kid will very, very likely get into an inferior college.

Anonymous wrote:Test optional has changed things dramatically. The DEI initiatives have also changed things. To suggest that all is how it used to be before these changes is inaccurate.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

That must be why selective schools are majority Black, Latino, and poor.

Oh. Wait.

Anonymous wrote:It seems bizarre the college AOs want to incentivize families to send their kids to bad public schools and/or ones in podunk nowhere.

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.