Anonymous wrote:Legacy status is way overrated.

Being a legacy is an enormous advantage. It gets kids admitted to schools that otherwise would not seriously consider them. You don't have to take my word for it. There's a big court case dealing with Harvard's admissions policies. You can read all about it, and get it straight from the horse's mouth.

Chicago accepted a bunch of STA kids yesterday......6 or 7, I believe.

Specifically what are the issues with Sidwell’s college counseling office? What needs to change? Is the caliber of the staff simply not high enough?

Anonymous wrote:Maybe this is a dumb question but what does the quality of the college counselors have to do with ED acceptances? Wouldn't the best students at these top 3 schools get into the Ivies/or whatever school they choose, regardless of how good or bad the counselor is? It's not like the counselor is telling them about HYPS and the students had never heard of the schools before.

Can the reason be because a poor counselor likely writes a poor recommendation. Maybe that's too tangential but I'm just trying to understand the connection between quality of counselors and acceptances at these schools where kids/parents already know where they want to apply.

There are literally thousands of kids with the same record as the best students from the top 3 schools. Counsellors can help shape the application to stand out (or to avoid standing out in the wrong way) and also make contact with the schools directly to highlight a particular attribute that might have been overlooked. It's not a lock even for teh best kids at these schools.

Sidwell Friends can’t guarantee success in getting into the college of one’s choice. But it should be able to offer a college counseling program that is at least of the same caliber and with similar resources as other Washington imdoendent schools,

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about Sidwell? Anyone know how things are shaping up there?

OK. But the school definitely has been in a slump for a couple of years, relatively speaking. The college counseling office is overdue for an overhaul.

There have been at least two new directors in that office in the last 5 years. People, do your kids and yourselves a favor. Don't buy into the nonsense that admission to SFS -- or any other "Big 3" -- is a golden ticket guaranteeing selective college admission. We've gone through this process twice -- once with a kid applying from SFS and once with our younger one applying from a non-"Big 3". The biggest difference: parents' expectations were saner at the non-Big 3. Breaking news, I know, but what's interesting is that the realistic view allows counselors to provide more honest and individualized guidance to students. The result: kids and parents seem more satisfied by the process.

I've been interviewing for an HYP in this area for many years.

1) Every year, some of our strongest applicants are legacies. Bright, type A parents tend to raise bright, type A kids, and they also know how to play the long game in positioning their kids (for example, by encouraging depth, not breadth, in extracurriculars, a processwhich starts in middle school).

Every year, though, the college for which I interview takes legacy kids that are not among the best in the applicant pool. There are ,indeed, often non legacy kids at the same high school who are stronger applicants by all objective measures. I find that discouraging.

2) I am not privy to all of the contact between admissions officers and private school college counselors. Most privates in this area have track records formed over the course of several decades, and those may be hard to budge. However, the college counselor shenanigans that I have seen all have involved getting kids in off the waitlist over the summer. These have been delicate negotiations involving offers to start a semester or a year late, or some sports team needing a replacement. I think they take place over the summer to be free of the prying eyes of other parents or counselors at less connected schools. When fall rolls around, the secondary school quietly adds one or two more to their list of Ivy matriculations, but they don't have to field awkward questions about why Baseball Bob or Richie Rich was shoehorned into HYP over th eir classmate Intel Imogene, who is already happily ensconced at Carnegie Mellon. I assumed this ability was why parents fork over 40k for private schools with indifferent STEM teaching, and that this is why schools want a good college counselor.

Are you considered a legacy if your grandparents went to a school but your parents did not?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1400 SAT scores that makes you qualified under the legacy system

Now I know you're full of BS. A 1400 SAT score, while impressive in general, puts you well under the 25th percentile for admits at any of the top 20 colleges. Legacy status isn't enough to resuscitate numbers that low if your sights are set on those schools.

True. You need a 1500 minimum.

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Anonymous wrote:Legacy status is way overrated.

No. Not everyone who's a legacy gets in, but everyone who gets in who's not an athlete/URM/National award winner is a legacy.

This is utter BS. Harvard legacy is about 30% of the class and that's pretty high (Yale is only 12% and Princeton is around 14.5%). Even in the extreme Harvard case, are you saying the other 70% are athletes/URM/national award winner? URMs comprise about 30%. Some of those kids are legacies, so it's double counting, too. Some are athletes and many are national award winners.

Reality is that about 40-50% of any given class (remembering that Harvard is probably on the extreme side for legacy) get no tips.

This incessant whining is embarrassing. Would you all prefer a straight national entrance exam? If not, then just stop.

I am sorry your feelings are hurt. Must have been a legacy yourself. All of you who claim legacy gives no bump. The admission to Ivy is purely by the merit of your DC, I challenge you to not mention legacy status for your younger DC. If you don't have the b*lls to do that then you just stop.

Actually if you read what I write I made pretty clear that 30% of Harvard’s class WAS legacy. I never said it wasn’t. Maybe your poor reading comprehension is what resulted in your attending a school your children clearly do not want to attend. Legacy gives a huge bump but to claim that it is the only way to get in is simply factually incorrect. The numbers do not support that claim. Maybe your math skills are as bad as your reading skills.

You are an embarrassment to not only your alma mater but to the human race.

Probably. But it doesn’t mean I’m wrong.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Legacy status is way overrated.

No. Not everyone who's a legacy gets in, but everyone who gets in who's not an athlete/URM/National award winner is a legacy.

This is utter BS. Harvard legacy is about 30% of the class and that's pretty high (Yale is only 12% and Princeton is around 14.5%). Even in the extreme Harvard case, are you saying the other 70% are athletes/URM/national award winner? URMs comprise about 30%. Some of those kids are legacies, so it's double counting, too. Some are athletes and many are national award winners.

Reality is that about 40-50% of any given class (remembering that Harvard is probably on the extreme side for legacy) get no tips.

This incessant whining is embarrassing. Would you all prefer a straight national entrance exam? If not, then just stop.

I am sorry your feelings are hurt. Must have been a legacy yourself. All of you who claim legacy gives no bump. The admission to Ivy is purely by the merit of your DC, I challenge you to not mention legacy status for your younger DC. If you don't have the b*lls to do that then you just stop.

Actually if you read what I write I made pretty clear that 30% of Harvard’s class WAS legacy. I never said it wasn’t. Maybe your poor reading comprehension is what resulted in your attending a school your children clearly do not want to attend. Legacy gives a huge bump but to claim that it is the only way to get in is simply factually incorrect. The numbers do not support that claim. Maybe your math skills are as bad as your reading skills.

You are an embarrassment to not only your alma mater but to the human race.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Legacy status is way overrated.

No. Not everyone who's a legacy gets in, but everyone who gets in who's not an athlete/URM/National award winner is a legacy.

This is utter BS. Harvard legacy is about 30% of the class and that's pretty high (Yale is only 12% and Princeton is around 14.5%). Even in the extreme Harvard case, are you saying the other 70% are athletes/URM/national award winner? URMs comprise about 30%. Some of those kids are legacies, so it's double counting, too. Some are athletes and many are national award winners.

Reality is that about 40-50% of any given class (remembering that Harvard is probably on the extreme side for legacy) get no tips.

This incessant whining is embarrassing. Would you all prefer a straight national entrance exam? If not, then just stop.

I am sorry your feelings are hurt. Must have been a legacy yourself. All of you who claim legacy gives no bump. The admission to Ivy is purely by the merit of your DC, I challenge you to not mention legacy status for your younger DC. If you don't have the b*lls to do that then you just stop.

Actually if you read what I write I made pretty clear that 30% of Harvard’s class WAS legacy. I never said it wasn’t. Maybe your poor reading comprehension is what resulted in your attending a school your children clearly do not want to attend. Legacy gives a huge bump but to claim that it is the only way to get in is simply factually incorrect. The numbers do not support that claim. Maybe your math skills are as bad as your reading skills.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about Sidwell? Anyone know how things are shaping up there?

OK. But the school definitely has been in a slump for a couple of years, relatively speaking. The college counseling office is overdue for an overhaul.

My general impression is that Sidwell parents tend to be a pretty supportive group, who don’t talk much “out of school.” But I have heard complaints about the college staff as not being strong, so it must be getting serious.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Legacy status is way overrated.

No. Not everyone who's a legacy gets in, but everyone who gets in who's not an athlete/URM/National award winner is a legacy.

This is utter BS. Harvard legacy is about 30% of the class and that's pretty high (Yale is only 12% and Princeton is around 14.5%). Even in the extreme Harvard case, are you saying the other 70% are athletes/URM/national award winner? URMs comprise about 30%. Some of those kids are legacies, so it's double counting, too. Some are athletes and many are national award winners.

Reality is that about 40-50% of any given class (remembering that Harvard is probably on the extreme side for legacy) get no tips.

This incessant whining is embarrassing. Would you all prefer a straight national entrance exam? If not, then just stop.

I am sorry your feelings are hurt. Must have been a legacy yourself. All of you who claim legacy gives no bump. The admission to Ivy is purely by the merit of your DC, I challenge you to not mention legacy status for your younger DC. If you don't have the b*lls to do that then you just stop.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The overabundance is relevant because a college is only going to take a limited number from each school. And out of the 20 Harvard legacies at Sidwell, the ones at the top of the class will get the limited number of acceptances, and the non-legacies with no hooks haven't got a chance, no matter how good their numbers are.

If you're comparing two sufficiently qualified Sidwell applicants who are largely indistinguishable on paper and one is a legacy while the other has no hooks, then yes, I agree that the legacy will get a bump. But if you have someone with no hooks who's even more qualified (not an athlete, but super-pointy in other ways), I have a hard time believing that they get passed over for a legacy who's qualified but not as strong on paper.

Believe it sister. I’m sorry but it’s true. You can’t have Bs or 1300 SATs but if you have mostly As and 1400 SAT scores that makes you qualified under the legacy system. On the flip side you can be Of Asian descent, have a 4.5 GPA and perfect SAT scores and get passed over.

NP - Definitely not... Mostly As and 1400 SAT scores are not going to get you into these top schools as a legacy unless you have other really interesting things on your application. Lots of other kids with perfect scores get passed over too, not just Asians (including legacy kids).