Anonymous wrote:Someone asked earlier what the ratio of seniors to college counselors is at STA and GDS. Is Sidwell in line with those schools or not?

What are the ratios? It is over 40 to 1 at Holton. Ridiculous. Plus one of them coaches varsity field hockey and never had availability in the Fall when the seniors truly needed her.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are trying to say it obliquely yet others continue to suggest the problem is just parents with unrealistic demands. So to be direct: One of the college counseling staff turned out to be incompetent at his job, and the director insisted on keeping him on long after the problem was obvious to students, parents and other school staff.

That brings up more questions. Why was he keeping him in the job? Given the salary, did he think it will be hard to attract anyone else to replace him? Also, are the parents expectation aligned with the reality? If a kid is not fit/prepared for certain school then no matter how hard the counselors push he/she won't be accepted, I can understand after spending so much why some parents will be unwilling to hear that.

I don't think that is the issue. According to what some wrote earlier in the thread, the counselor in question sent recommendations that had grammatical errors etc. which obviously provides little confidence to the admissions staff reading it. I think most people understand that colleges are more selective today than 15 or 30 years ago and not everyone is groomed for Harvard.

A counselor can only do so much. But laziness and passivity are never acceptable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are the top 25% of your class you will get decent counseling from the school Jr and Sr year, as well the top athletes with OK grades.
Everyone else will get the small SLAC (esp boys), U of Vermont, and Elon pitch.

As a Sidwell parent with a not-top-of-the-class kid this gives me chills

This should not give you chills. If so, you’re delusional. If your child is not near the top of the class, the Sidwell name alone is not going to get your child into a TOP school. Sidwell will get your child into a mid level school that he/she is probably still not qualified for. So that’s what you’re paying for. The chance to get into a mid level SLAC or U Vermont etc. because your average kid coming from your local public might be lucky to get into Towson.

Anonymous wrote:If you are the top 25% of your class you will get decent counseling from the school Jr and Sr year, as well the top athletes with OK grades.
Everyone else will get the small SLAC (esp boys), U of Vermont, and Elon pitch.

As a Sidwell parent with a not-top-of-the-class kid this gives me chills

If you are the top 25% of your class you will get decent counseling from the school Jr and Sr year, as well the top athletes with OK grades.
Everyone else will get the small SLAC (esp boys), U of Vermont, and Elon pitch.

Anonymous wrote:Well public school parents are saving $500k a kid and getting the professional college counselors for $15-25k a pop so that will set the market if private school kids want that too. Or just DIY, it takes time but then again so does job searches, etc.

Life. Get used to it.

Missing the point. I suspect you are used to it.

Someone asked earlier what the ratio of seniors to college counselors is at STA and GDS. Is Sidwell in line with those schools or not?

Well public school parents are saving $500k a kid and getting the professional college counselors for $15-25k a pop so that will set the market if private school kids want that too. Or just DIY, it takes time but then again so does job searches, etc.

Life. Get used to it.

I’m more curious about the majors the kids graduate with.
Not everyone can major in Community Activist Blogger from the WDC area and get in!

This is precisely why Garman needs to meet with parents, both in order to articulate his vision and understand parent concerns. Instead he keeps sending emails about "the light".

facepalm emoji.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are trying to say it obliquely yet others continue to suggest the problem is just parents with unrealistic demands. So to be direct: One of the college counseling staff turned out to be incompetent at his job, and the director insisted on keeping him on long after the problem was obvious to students, parents and other school staff.

That brings up more questions. Why was he keeping him in the job? Given the salary, did he think it will be hard to attract anyone else to replace him? Also, are the parents expectation aligned with the reality? If a kid is not fit/prepared for certain school then no matter how hard the counselors push he/she won't be accepted, I can understand after spending so much why some parents will be unwilling to hear that.

I don't think that is the issue. According to what some wrote earlier in the thread, the counselor in question sent recommendations that had grammatical errors etc. which obviously provides little confidence to the admissions staff reading it. I think most people understand that colleges are more selective today than 15 or 30 years ago and not everyone is groomed for Harvard.

And to be fair to the departing director, increased college selectivity across the board means that Sidwell just plain needs more (and more experienced/more expensive) college counseling staff to advise seniors and work increasingly on outreach to the junior class (because the process starts so early). Having 42 advisees per counselor (one of whom is also director) is just not an acceptable level of support at SFS. Does the school expect that parents should just go out and hire expensive private counselors as well?v Many do that already, but others can't afford that on top of Sidwell tuition, and a private counselor can't supplant the school counselor for recommendations, etc. SFS has to commit more resources to the college counseling office, period.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are trying to say it obliquely yet others continue to suggest the problem is just parents with unrealistic demands. So to be direct: One of the college counseling staff turned out to be incompetent at his job, and the director insisted on keeping him on long after the problem was obvious to students, parents and other school staff.

That brings up more questions. Why was he keeping him in the job? Given the salary, did he think it will be hard to attract anyone else to replace him? Also, are the parents expectation aligned with the reality? If a kid is not fit/prepared for certain school then no matter how hard the counselors push he/she won't be accepted, I can understand after spending so much why some parents will be unwilling to hear that.

I don't think that is the issue. According to what some wrote earlier in the thread, the counselor in question sent recommendations that had grammatical errors etc. which obviously provides little confidence to the admissions staff reading it. I think most people understand that colleges are more selective today than 15 or 30 years ago and not everyone is groomed for Harvard.

Anonymous wrote:People are trying to say it obliquely yet others continue to suggest the problem is just parents with unrealistic demands. So to be direct: One of the college counseling staff turned out to be incompetent at his job, and the director insisted on keeping him on long after the problem was obvious to students, parents and other school staff.

That brings up more questions. Why was he keeping him in the job? Given the salary, did he think it will be hard to attract anyone else to replace him? Also, are the parents expectation aligned with the reality? If a kid is not fit/prepared for certain school then no matter how hard the counselors push he/she won't be accepted, I can understand after spending so much why some parents will be unwilling to hear that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are trying to say it obliquely yet others continue to suggest the problem is just parents with unrealistic demands. So to be direct: One of the college counseling staff turned out to be incompetent at his job, and the director insisted on keeping him on long after the problem was obvious to students, parents and other school staff.

And that's why he left? Makes no sense. The demanding-parents-wore-him-down makes more sense.

It is just as likely that the demanding parents were the ones stuck with the suggested incompetent advisor that the Director wasn't willing to fire. I don't know and it doesn't excuse some of the actions by parents suggested on this thread, but it could be a little from column A and a little from column B.

Life is too short to be unhappy at your job