Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can Sidwell's college admissions with their legacies, URMs and athletes have a worse outcome than a public high school like TJ?

TJ is still a crapshoot, trust me. Every year they have 150+ kids apply to each of Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, UPenn, Duke, Columbia. Each of those schools will send out at most 15 acceptances, many of which are for the same top kids getting into multiple of these schools. At least Sidwell has more structure and organization among their counseling that doesn’t lead to a free-for-all.

This is a great point and it mirrors my own HS experience. There were a few kids that got all of the awards and collected multiple Ivy acceptances and then a drop off with everyone else going to state schools.

Sidwell is trying to maximize chances for all students, which is very different than having fewer students with more exceptional outcomes.

ED helps with this a bit. Can only ED to one school

REA will not. A kid last year accepted into Yale REA, and then applied Harvard RD and accepted, thus wasted the Yale spot. If Harvard is your first choice, apply Harvard REA. The Yale REA spot could go to another student at the same school. A highly selective college only takes a limited number of students from the same high school. The student’s strategy is getting into relatively easier Yale first. Playing this kind of game is truly unethical!

How is that unethical? The student is good and has the right to apply wherever they want within the rules. Maybe they didn’t expect to get into Harvard and felt they had a better chance at Yale so they used REA for Yale. Then went out on a limb and applied to Harvard RD and got in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can Sidwell's college admissions with their legacies, URMs and athletes have a worse outcome than a public high school like TJ?

TJ is still a crapshoot, trust me. Every year they have 150+ kids apply to each of Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, UPenn, Duke, Columbia. Each of those schools will send out at most 15 acceptances, many of which are for the same top kids getting into multiple of these schools. At least Sidwell has more structure and organization among their counseling that doesn’t lead to a free-for-all.

This is a great point and it mirrors my own HS experience. There were a few kids that got all of the awards and collected multiple Ivy acceptances and then a drop off with everyone else going to state schools.

Sidwell is trying to maximize chances for all students, which is very different than having fewer students with more exceptional outcomes.

ED helps with this a bit. Can only ED to one school

REA will not. A kid last year accepted into Yale REA, and then applied Harvard RD and accepted, thus wasted the Yale spot. If Harvard is your first choice, apply Harvard REA. The Yale REA spot could go to another student at the same school. A highly selective college only takes a limited number of students from the same high school. The student’s strategy is getting into relatively easier Yale first. Playing this kind of game is truly unethical!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can Sidwell's college admissions with their legacies, URMs and athletes have a worse outcome than a public high school like TJ?

TJ is still a crapshoot, trust me. Every year they have 150+ kids apply to each of Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, UPenn, Duke, Columbia. Each of those schools will send out at most 15 acceptances, many of which are for the same top kids getting into multiple of these schools. At least Sidwell has more structure and organization among their counseling that doesn’t lead to a free-for-all.

This is a great point and it mirrors my own HS experience. There were a few kids that got all of the awards and collected multiple Ivy acceptances and then a drop off with everyone else going to state schools.

Sidwell is trying to maximize chances for all students, which is very different than having fewer students with more exceptional outcomes.

ED helps with this a bit. Can only ED to one school

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Glad Sidwell finally righted the ship. Give them a break.

I wouldn't say the ship is righted....or maybe it has gotten better (I wasn't privy to prior experiences). It still has a long list of shortcomings, none of which are likely to change because Sidwell doesn't really care much about what parents say/think to the point that most people don't bother giving feedback.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can Sidwell's college admissions with their legacies, URMs and athletes have a worse outcome than a public high school like TJ?

TJ is still a crapshoot, trust me. Every year they have 150+ kids apply to each of Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, UPenn, Duke, Columbia. Each of those schools will send out at most 15 acceptances, many of which are for the same top kids getting into multiple of these schools. At least Sidwell has more structure and organization among their counseling that doesn’t lead to a free-for-all.

This is a great point and it mirrors my own HS experience. There were a few kids that got all of the awards and collected multiple Ivy acceptances and then a drop off with everyone else going to state schools.

Sidwell is trying to maximize chances for all students, which is very different than having fewer students with more exceptional outcomes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Glad Sidwell finally righted the ship. Give them a break.

I wouldn't say the ship is righted....or maybe it has gotten better (I wasn't privy to prior experiences). It still has a long list of shortcomings, none of which are likely to change because Sidwell doesn't really care much about what parents say/think to the point that most people don't bother giving feedback.

As long as Sidwell is getting kids into the likes of top ivies, Stanford, Duke, etc. who cares? They're doing their job then, and if that changes then maybe parents can start raising concerns.

Ivies have been hooks, have seen no ED posts for Stanford, Duke, MIT. But we have to wait and see how RD goes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Glad Sidwell finally righted the ship. Give them a break.

I wouldn't say the ship is righted....or maybe it has gotten better (I wasn't privy to prior experiences). It still has a long list of shortcomings, none of which are likely to change because Sidwell doesn't really care much about what parents say/think to the point that most people don't bother giving feedback.

As long as Sidwell is getting kids into the likes of top ivies, Stanford, Duke, etc. who cares? They're doing their job then, and if that changes then maybe parents can start raising concerns.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The two kids I knew that went to Sidwell got into Boston College and Denison.

I always laugh about how much money their families wasted getting them into sub par schools.

Clearly your kids didn’t go to private school.
Both BC and Denison are very good colleges.
Most people who spend money on private school for the most important reasons aren’t doing it so their kids can go to Harvard.
Most sidwell kids will do well in college and beyond regardless of which colleges they attend. They are well prepared.

Anonymous wrote:My SFS senior doesn't feel it was amazing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Glad Sidwell finally righted the ship. Give them a break.

I wouldn't say the ship is righted....or maybe it has gotten better (I wasn't privy to prior experiences). It still has a long list of shortcomings, none of which are likely to change because Sidwell doesn't really care much about what parents say/think to the point that most people don't bother giving feedback.

As long as Sidwell is getting kids into the likes of top ivies, Stanford, Duke, etc. who cares? They're doing their job then, and if that changes then maybe parents can start raising concerns.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Glad Sidwell finally righted the ship. Give them a break.

I wouldn't say the ship is righted....or maybe it has gotten better (I wasn't privy to prior experiences). It still has a long list of shortcomings, none of which are likely to change because Sidwell doesn't really care much about what parents say/think to the point that most people don't bother giving feedback.