Anonymous wrote:OP, I don’t know if you are a real Sidwell parent. If you are, I can 100% assure you that your kid is a pretty straight shot into one of the top 10 schools. Assuming the essays are interesting and ACT is 35/36 or the SAT equivalent. Your child should choose ED1 and ED2 wisely and take all nuances of the application into consideration. There is also a real difference between top 5 and ranks 5-10.

There's no way you should be telling this kid they are a straight shot for a school.

Take your chance at ED1, have a smart ED2...and find TRUE safeties that you will be happy to attend. And be warned - true safeties are probably not what you think they are.

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, not taking Math III and Math IV is going to knock this student down a tier in the rigor assessment, even if the kid is not going to major in STEM. T10 schools know the Sidwell math curriculum well. There will be kids who did do Math III and Math IV and got As and have overall GPAs above 3.95, usually 3 - 5 kids in a grade of 125. Remember you are competing directly against kids from your own school (Sidwell). T10 ED or EA will be challenging with this profile, IMO.

No it isn't. There are many T10 admits from Sidwell who did not take Math III/IV. Because what matters is having a hook. There were exactly 2 non-hooked Ivy from my DCs class....so I guess if you want to put this kid up against them....I know at least one took Math IV. But they both had outstanding ECs and I suspect if they had taken Calc I/Calc 2 instead of Math III/IV - they'd still be the two who got into an Ivy. Everyone else got in for hooks and many never took a single Math I-IV course.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With that profile I would focus more on Northeastern, Cornell, Tulane, USC, BC level - which is probably 2 steps down from T10. Can definitely take a shot or two with ED, but need a realistic approach. Cornell boosters will point to low acceptance rate, but most of the rejects that drive this number down are lower quality applicants thinking they have a shot at a lower quality ivy - they don’t

No way. The 3.93 kid at Sidwell is not going to Tulane or BC--even in 2024.
This kid has a great chance at a top 20 school and very good chance at a top 10. It's a quite a rare GPA at Sidwell. You don't have to do the theoretical math track either.

I find it funny that Cornell has been thrown in with Tulane and Northeastern. DCUM is too much sometimes

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does the school college counselor say?

The counselor is not going to be useful.....they will only make sure you have reasonable safety schools and will say the obvious that there could be a chance at T10 but it's unpredictable. (This is assuming this person has no hooks.)

But DCUM will be useful?

Seriously, what are you paying for?

Honestly, I learned infinitely more about college landscape from DCUM than I ever learned from Sidwell CCO - We learned zero from them. So - I definitely didn't pay Sidwell for college counseling advice. I paid them for a great education. That's about it. Not much more.

Anonymous wrote:OP, I don’t know if you are a real Sidwell parent. If you are, I can 100% assure you that your kid is a pretty straight shot into one of the top 10 schools. Assuming the essays are interesting and ACT is 35/36 or the SAT equivalent. Your child should choose ED1 and ED2 wisely and take all nuances of the application into consideration. There is also a real difference between top 5 and ranks 5-10.

Just re-read and saw that your child has the test scores too. This will not be a problem.

OP, I don’t know if you are a real Sidwell parent. If you are, I can 100% assure you that your kid is a pretty straight shot into one of the top 10 schools. Assuming the essays are interesting and ACT is 35/36 or the SAT equivalent. Your child should choose ED1 and ED2 wisely and take all nuances of the application into consideration. There is also a real difference between top 5 and ranks 5-10.

Anonymous wrote:High rigor, but not Math III. Solid ECs but not national/state recognition. Non-STEM. Is T10 at all possible? Or out of the question?

Niche major? Pointy interests?

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, not taking Math III and Math IV is going to knock this student down a tier in the rigor assessment, even if the kid is not going to major in STEM. T10 schools know the Sidwell math curriculum well. There will be kids who did do Math III and Math IV and got As and have overall GPAs above 3.95, usually 3 - 5 kids in a grade of 125. Remember you are competing directly against kids from your own school (Sidwell). T10 ED or EA will be challenging with this profile, IMO.

This student has the 1570 plus the great GPA though. Especially if the rest of the application is strong, I don't think you're necessarily right here.

Honestly, not taking Math III and Math IV is going to knock this student down a tier in the rigor assessment, even if the kid is not going to major in STEM. T10 schools know the Sidwell math curriculum well. There will be kids who did do Math III and Math IV and got As and have overall GPAs above 3.95, usually 3 - 5 kids in a grade of 125. Remember you are competing directly against kids from your own school (Sidwell). T10 ED or EA will be challenging with this profile, IMO.

You be paying $60k a year, $240k for the upper 4 years. Need to make counselor do their job.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does the school college counselor say?

Too early for counselor discussions. Probably pointless anyway.

Sidwell doesn't do counselor discussions with juniors by spring of junior year? How are they supposed to plan their spring break college visits? Even in my day I think there were meetings with the college counselors junior year.

Yes, that comment makes no sense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kid is non-stem. Why are people so fixated on stem?

The thought is that AOs look for the most rigorous courseload period, including STEM, not the most rigorous only in your intended major.

Humanities electives?

What about them?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does the school college counselor say?

Too early for counselor discussions. Probably pointless anyway.

Sidwell doesn't do counselor discussions with juniors by spring of junior year? How are they supposed to plan their spring break college visits? Even in my day I think there were meetings with the college counselors junior year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kid is non-stem. Why are people so fixated on stem?

The thought is that AOs look for the most rigorous courseload period, including STEM, not the most rigorous only in your intended major.

Humanities electives?

Anonymous wrote:Kid is non-stem. Why are people so fixated on stem?

The thought is that AOs look for the most rigorous courseload period, including STEM, not the most rigorous only in your intended major.