Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Happy kid, happy parents.

Lessons learned:

1. Do not share where you are touring schools. There will always be a mom in your kid's class who will take it upon herself to decide whether your kid is qualified to be touring said school.

2. Advise your kid to hide his/her grades from nosey peers. These kids are often grilled by their parents to try to figure out if your kid might be competition for theirs.

3. Trust the college counselors as counselors. They can't get your kid in, they can only advise what may or may not be possible and direct your kid in ways to help him/her give each application its best shot.


My kid is very happy with results. I think his/her results surprised some, but only because he/she kept stats close to the vest -- wanted to stay off of other's radar.

Finally, my kid had decent rigor and grades, but so do a lot of kids. I think his/her standardized testing and faculty recommendations are what set them apart. There will always be exceptions, but we just recently learned that most of the kids in their class who got into the top schools did submit test scores.

Good luck!

Not all of the schools listed by OP have counselors that will advise......just sayin'. It's ridiculous, but true. Ours literally gave ZERO advice or feedback and clearly did not know the kids. Pure paper pushing and making sure each student has a true likely. (..which most of our DC's friends already had).

can you share which school so we can avoid?

Not the previous poster but Sidwell is notorious for having a totally dysfunctional college counseling office.

Did your kid go there?

I’m certain the answer is no. People love to talk sh!7 about Sidwell…based purely on rumor and speculation.

No, based on the pain of parents who have had to deal with the nothing burger CCO.

I have been through two cycles of CCO at Sidwell.

The parents expect way too much, and the CCO tells the parents what to expect early on, and the parents still expect way too much.

The CCO cannot chose your kids schools, they cannot "get a kid in" to a school. Their main function is to help make sure the admin side is handled in a timely and orderly manner. They are not going to tell you "hey, you have 12 classmates applying to school X ED, so you may want to think about a different one" and they are not going to tell you that big school Y is a better option than small school Z. The kid has to get a sense of belonging, which cannot be imposed by the CCO.

Just my two cents.

Other schools’ CCOs go beyond mere administration. Among the Big 3 STA and GDS have stronger CCOs. Sidwell kids do well despite them and because there’s a lot of legacy status.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Happy kid, happy parents.

Lessons learned:

1. Do not share where you are touring schools. There will always be a mom in your kid's class who will take it upon herself to decide whether your kid is qualified to be touring said school.

2. Advise your kid to hide his/her grades from nosey peers. These kids are often grilled by their parents to try to figure out if your kid might be competition for theirs.

3. Trust the college counselors as counselors. They can't get your kid in, they can only advise what may or may not be possible and direct your kid in ways to help him/her give each application its best shot.


My kid is very happy with results. I think his/her results surprised some, but only because he/she kept stats close to the vest -- wanted to stay off of other's radar.

Finally, my kid had decent rigor and grades, but so do a lot of kids. I think his/her standardized testing and faculty recommendations are what set them apart. There will always be exceptions, but we just recently learned that most of the kids in their class who got into the top schools did submit test scores.

Good luck!

Not all of the schools listed by OP have counselors that will advise......just sayin'. It's ridiculous, but true. Ours literally gave ZERO advice or feedback and clearly did not know the kids. Pure paper pushing and making sure each student has a true likely. (..which most of our DC's friends already had).

can you share which school so we can avoid?

Not the previous poster but Sidwell is notorious for having a totally dysfunctional college counseling office.

Are you a Sidwell parent of a senior (or recent graduate)? If yes, why was Sidwell’s CCO “totally dysfunctional,” based on your personal experience?

Yes. Sidwell parent (but not the one you replied to). Are mere paper pushing, no strategy or advice (even though it was asked), and not knowing the kids you are writing recommendations for not dysfunctional enough? How about not knowing the process of admissions for some schools? There was also a case (thankfully not ours) where the important "paper pushing job" did not get done....college didn't receive what was required from Sidwell for the student's application. For people pointing fingers at Sidwell parents...it is not asking too much. And, this was not just our experience, but others' as well (all unhooked). After making sure a "likely" school was on the students' lists (or a few) - they had nothing of substance to say.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Happy kid, happy parents.

Lessons learned:

1. Do not share where you are touring schools. There will always be a mom in your kid's class who will take it upon herself to decide whether your kid is qualified to be touring said school.

2. Advise your kid to hide his/her grades from nosey peers. These kids are often grilled by their parents to try to figure out if your kid might be competition for theirs.

3. Trust the college counselors as counselors. They can't get your kid in, they can only advise what may or may not be possible and direct your kid in ways to help him/her give each application its best shot.


My kid is very happy with results. I think his/her results surprised some, but only because he/she kept stats close to the vest -- wanted to stay off of other's radar.

Finally, my kid had decent rigor and grades, but so do a lot of kids. I think his/her standardized testing and faculty recommendations are what set them apart. There will always be exceptions, but we just recently learned that most of the kids in their class who got into the top schools did submit test scores.

Good luck!

Not all of the schools listed by OP have counselors that will advise......just sayin'. It's ridiculous, but true. Ours literally gave ZERO advice or feedback and clearly did not know the kids. Pure paper pushing and making sure each student has a true likely. (..which most of our DC's friends already had).

can you share which school so we can avoid?

Not the previous poster but Sidwell is notorious for having a totally dysfunctional college counseling office.

Are you a Sidwell parent of a senior (or recent graduate)? If yes, why was Sidwell’s CCO “totally dysfunctional,” based on your personal experience?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From what I have read on boards over the years and have observed as a parent at one of these schools.

StA/NCS seem to be the most granular and open about prior data and such.
Sidwell cco office seems to be unpopular but unclear how much of that is from parents expectations
GDS seems most opaque and hard to get scoir data and emphasizes student fit and feel. People complain about the limit on how many applications.

All and all, these are hard jobs esp in fluid era. From what it seems from instagram, students at places that post seem to have done quite well this years in that they are going to lots of wonderful schools.

Sidwell gives parents access to the 3 most recent years of SCOIR data, the summer after 10th grade.

My children don’t attend NCS/STA, but my understanding is that you can only access SCOIR data at those schools if you’re in person (at the CCO). If that’s true, that doesn’t seem very open. Correct me if I’m wrong.

the bolded is not true

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From what I have read on boards over the years and have observed as a parent at one of these schools.

StA/NCS seem to be the most granular and open about prior data and such.
Sidwell cco office seems to be unpopular but unclear how much of that is from parents expectations
GDS seems most opaque and hard to get scoir data and emphasizes student fit and feel. People complain about the limit on how many applications.

All and all, these are hard jobs esp in fluid era. From what it seems from instagram, students at places that post seem to have done quite well this years in that they are going to lots of wonderful schools.

Sidwell gives parents access to the 3 most recent years of SCOIR data, the summer after 10th grade.

My children don’t attend NCS/STA, but my understanding is that you can only access SCOIR data at those schools if you’re in person (at the CCO). If that’s true, that doesn’t seem very open. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Anonymous wrote:From what I have read on boards over the years and have observed as a parent at one of these schools.

StA/NCS seem to be the most granular and open about prior data and such.
Sidwell cco office seems to be unpopular but unclear how much of that is from parents expectations
GDS seems most opaque and hard to get scoir data and emphasizes student fit and feel. People complain about the limit on how many applications.

All and all, these are hard jobs esp in fluid era. From what it seems from instagram, students at places that post seem to have done quite well this years in that they are going to lots of wonderful schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We found college counseling at GDS to be hit-or-miss — its value very much depended on the counselor the kid was working with. Overall, though my kid is happy with the ultimate result, it was a bumpy process and I do think the office failed to provide consistently good guidance in a couple areas (namely, school selection and essay topic selection). Among other things, there was what I felt to be an undue focus on what they call “foundational” schools, and what the rest of us call safety schools. Even though our child was admitted early to a safety school that he would have been happy with, they insisted that he still apply to other safety schools rather than use those those slots for reaches or hard targets. GDS limits the number of applications a student can submit, so this had a real impact.

I'm sure this is because there are so many parents who have an inflated sense of where their kid could or should get in. My kids are (were) at another Big3 and we're on our second rising senior. With our first I knew so many kids who tried to ED to an Ivy with grades that were completely out of range. (Range frankly being a 3.8+ even with legacy, etc). But there are a gazillion legacies (or non-legacies) who think they're going to make it in with lesser grades. The reality is that they don't. Legacy may give you a 0.1 bump in GPA. t's not going to compensate for a 3.6 unless you are literally donating 6 figures. So college counseling exists to continually bring peoples' feet back down to earth. And they don't want the inevitable crisis when the kid doesn't get in anywhere or to only their 4th choice safety.

Yeah, I get it. It just makes less sense when your kid has already been accepted to a safety school they’d be satisfied with, and they are deciding what additional schools to apply to.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Happy kid, happy parents.

Lessons learned:

1. Do not share where you are touring schools. There will always be a mom in your kid's class who will take it upon herself to decide whether your kid is qualified to be touring said school.

2. Advise your kid to hide his/her grades from nosey peers. These kids are often grilled by their parents to try to figure out if your kid might be competition for theirs.

3. Trust the college counselors as counselors. They can't get your kid in, they can only advise what may or may not be possible and direct your kid in ways to help him/her give each application its best shot.


My kid is very happy with results. I think his/her results surprised some, but only because he/she kept stats close to the vest -- wanted to stay off of other's radar.

Finally, my kid had decent rigor and grades, but so do a lot of kids. I think his/her standardized testing and faculty recommendations are what set them apart. There will always be exceptions, but we just recently learned that most of the kids in their class who got into the top schools did submit test scores.

Good luck!

Not all of the schools listed by OP have counselors that will advise......just sayin'. It's ridiculous, but true. Ours literally gave ZERO advice or feedback and clearly did not know the kids. Pure paper pushing and making sure each student has a true likely. (..which most of our DC's friends already had).

can you share which school so we can avoid?

Not the previous poster but Sidwell is notorious for having a totally dysfunctional college counseling office.

Did your kid go there?

I’m certain the answer is no. People love to talk sh!7 about Sidwell…based purely on rumor and speculation.

No, based on the pain of parents who have had to deal with the nothing burger CCO.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We found college counseling at GDS to be hit-or-miss — its value very much depended on the counselor the kid was working with. Overall, though my kid is happy with the ultimate result, it was a bumpy process and I do think the office failed to provide consistently good guidance in a couple areas (namely, school selection and essay topic selection). Among other things, there was what I felt to be an undue focus on what they call “foundational” schools, and what the rest of us call safety schools. Even though our child was admitted early to a safety school that he would have been happy with, they insisted that he still apply to other safety schools rather than use those those slots for reaches or hard targets. GDS limits the number of applications a student can submit, so this had a real impact.

I'm sure this is because there are so many parents who have an inflated sense of where their kid could or should get in. My kids are (were) at another Big3 and we're on our second rising senior. With our first I knew so many kids who tried to ED to an Ivy with grades that were completely out of range. (Range frankly being a 3.8+ even with legacy, etc). But there are a gazillion legacies (or non-legacies) who think they're going to make it in with lesser grades. The reality is that they don't. Legacy may give you a 0.1 bump in GPA. t's not going to compensate for a 3.6 unless you are literally donating 6 figures. So college counseling exists to continually bring peoples' feet back down to earth. And they don't want the inevitable crisis when the kid doesn't get in anywhere or to only their 4th choice safety.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Happy kid, happy parents.

Lessons learned:

1. Do not share where you are touring schools. There will always be a mom in your kid's class who will take it upon herself to decide whether your kid is qualified to be touring said school.

2. Advise your kid to hide his/her grades from nosey peers. These kids are often grilled by their parents to try to figure out if your kid might be competition for theirs.

3. Trust the college counselors as counselors. They can't get your kid in, they can only advise what may or may not be possible and direct your kid in ways to help him/her give each application its best shot.


My kid is very happy with results. I think his/her results surprised some, but only because he/she kept stats close to the vest -- wanted to stay off of other's radar.

Finally, my kid had decent rigor and grades, but so do a lot of kids. I think his/her standardized testing and faculty recommendations are what set them apart. There will always be exceptions, but we just recently learned that most of the kids in their class who got into the top schools did submit test scores.

Good luck!

Not all of the schools listed by OP have counselors that will advise......just sayin'. It's ridiculous, but true. Ours literally gave ZERO advice or feedback and clearly did not know the kids. Pure paper pushing and making sure each student has a true likely. (..which most of our DC's friends already had).

can you share which school so we can avoid?

Not the previous poster but Sidwell is notorious for having a totally dysfunctional college counseling office.

Did your kid go there?

I’m certain the answer is no. People love to talk sh!7 about Sidwell…based purely on rumor and speculation.

No, based on the pain of parents who have had to deal with the nothing burger CCO.

I have been through two cycles of CCO at Sidwell.

The parents expect way too much, and the CCO tells the parents what to expect early on, and the parents still expect way too much.

The CCO cannot chose your kids schools, they cannot "get a kid in" to a school. Their main function is to help make sure the admin side is handled in a timely and orderly manner. They are not going to tell you "hey, you have 12 classmates applying to school X ED, so you may want to think about a different one" and they are not going to tell you that big school Y is a better option than small school Z. The kid has to get a sense of belonging, which cannot be imposed by the CCO.

Just my two cents.

Anonymous wrote:We found college counseling at GDS to be hit-or-miss — its value very much depended on the counselor the kid was working with. Overall, though my kid is happy with the ultimate result, it was a bumpy process and I do think the office failed to provide consistently good guidance in a couple areas (namely, school selection and essay topic selection). Among other things, there was what I felt to be an undue focus on what they call “foundational” schools, and what the rest of us call safety schools. Even though our child was admitted early to a safety school that he would have been happy with, they insisted that he still apply to other safety schools rather than use those those slots for reaches or hard targets. GDS limits the number of applications a student can submit, so this had a real impact.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Happy kid, happy parents.

Lessons learned:

1. Do not share where you are touring schools. There will always be a mom in your kid's class who will take it upon herself to decide whether your kid is qualified to be touring said school.

2. Advise your kid to hide his/her grades from nosey peers. These kids are often grilled by their parents to try to figure out if your kid might be competition for theirs.

3. Trust the college counselors as counselors. They can't get your kid in, they can only advise what may or may not be possible and direct your kid in ways to help him/her give each application its best shot.


My kid is very happy with results. I think his/her results surprised some, but only because he/she kept stats close to the vest -- wanted to stay off of other's radar.

Finally, my kid had decent rigor and grades, but so do a lot of kids. I think his/her standardized testing and faculty recommendations are what set them apart. There will always be exceptions, but we just recently learned that most of the kids in their class who got into the top schools did submit test scores.

Good luck!

Not all of the schools listed by OP have counselors that will advise......just sayin'. It's ridiculous, but true. Ours literally gave ZERO advice or feedback and clearly did not know the kids. Pure paper pushing and making sure each student has a true likely. (..which most of our DC's friends already had).

can you share which school so we can avoid?

Not the previous poster but Sidwell is notorious for having a totally dysfunctional college counseling office.

Did your kid go there?

I’m certain the answer is no. People love to talk sh!7 about Sidwell…based purely on rumor and speculation.

No, based on the pain of parents who have had to deal with the nothing burger CCO.

I have been through two cycles of CCO at Sidwell.

The parents expect way too much, and the CCO tells the parents what to expect early on, and the parents still expect way too much.

The CCO cannot chose your kids schools, they cannot "get a kid in" to a school. Their main function is to help make sure the admin side is handled in a timely and orderly manner. They are not going to tell you "hey, you have 12 classmates applying to school X ED, so you may want to think about a different one" and they are not going to tell you that big school Y is a better option than small school Z. The kid has to get a sense of belonging, which cannot be imposed by the CCO.

Just my two cents.

Other schools’ CCOs go beyond mere administration. Among the Big 3 STA and GDS have stronger CCOs. Sidwell kids do well despite them and because there’s a lot of legacy status.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Happy kid, happy parents.

Lessons learned:

1. Do not share where you are touring schools. There will always be a mom in your kid's class who will take it upon herself to decide whether your kid is qualified to be touring said school.

2. Advise your kid to hide his/her grades from nosey peers. These kids are often grilled by their parents to try to figure out if your kid might be competition for theirs.

3. Trust the college counselors as counselors. They can't get your kid in, they can only advise what may or may not be possible and direct your kid in ways to help him/her give each application its best shot.


My kid is very happy with results. I think his/her results surprised some, but only because he/she kept stats close to the vest -- wanted to stay off of other's radar.

Finally, my kid had decent rigor and grades, but so do a lot of kids. I think his/her standardized testing and faculty recommendations are what set them apart. There will always be exceptions, but we just recently learned that most of the kids in their class who got into the top schools did submit test scores.

Good luck!

Not all of the schools listed by OP have counselors that will advise......just sayin'. It's ridiculous, but true. Ours literally gave ZERO advice or feedback and clearly did not know the kids. Pure paper pushing and making sure each student has a true likely. (..which most of our DC's friends already had).

can you share which school so we can avoid?

Not the previous poster but Sidwell is notorious for having a totally dysfunctional college counseling office.

Did your kid go there?

I’m certain the answer is no. People love to talk sh!7 about Sidwell…based purely on rumor and speculation.

No, based on the pain of parents who have had to deal with the nothing burger CCO.

I have been through two cycles of CCO at Sidwell.

The parents expect way too much, and the CCO tells the parents what to expect early on, and the parents still expect way too much.

The CCO cannot chose your kids schools, they cannot "get a kid in" to a school. Their main function is to help make sure the admin side is handled in a timely and orderly manner. They are not going to tell you "hey, you have 12 classmates applying to school X ED, so you may want to think about a different one" and they are not going to tell you that big school Y is a better option than small school Z. The kid has to get a sense of belonging, which cannot be imposed by the CCO.

Just my two cents.

Other schools’ CCOs go beyond mere administration. Among the Big 3 STA and GDS have stronger CCOs. Sidwell kids do well despite them and because there’s a lot of legacy status.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Happy kid, happy parents.

Lessons learned:

1. Do not share where you are touring schools. There will always be a mom in your kid's class who will take it upon herself to decide whether your kid is qualified to be touring said school.

2. Advise your kid to hide his/her grades from nosey peers. These kids are often grilled by their parents to try to figure out if your kid might be competition for theirs.

3. Trust the college counselors as counselors. They can't get your kid in, they can only advise what may or may not be possible and direct your kid in ways to help him/her give each application its best shot.


My kid is very happy with results. I think his/her results surprised some, but only because he/she kept stats close to the vest -- wanted to stay off of other's radar.

Finally, my kid had decent rigor and grades, but so do a lot of kids. I think his/her standardized testing and faculty recommendations are what set them apart. There will always be exceptions, but we just recently learned that most of the kids in their class who got into the top schools did submit test scores.

Good luck!

Not all of the schools listed by OP have counselors that will advise......just sayin'. It's ridiculous, but true. Ours literally gave ZERO advice or feedback and clearly did not know the kids. Pure paper pushing and making sure each student has a true likely. (..which most of our DC's friends already had).

can you share which school so we can avoid?

Not the previous poster but Sidwell is notorious for having a totally dysfunctional college counseling office.

Did your kid go there?

I’m certain the answer is no. People love to talk sh!7 about Sidwell…based purely on rumor and speculation.

No, based on the pain of parents who have had to deal with the nothing burger CCO.