Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bates. Tulane. SMU. UC Santa Barbara. Ole Miss. Sewanne. Kenyon. Davidson. Wake. Washington and Lee. USC. U Vermont.

All taken from Big 3 matriculation lists this year.

Which ones would you consider "disappointments"?

I'll play. From a Big 3, disappointments all except maybe USC, UC SB, Kenyon. If it's family tradition to attend Ole Miss or Wake forest, maybe ok. Honestly, for the tuition at a Big 3 - I'll expect Ivy or equivalent like Stanford, Duke, etc.

Then don't send a child. Have you had your head in a bucket for the past decade? College admissions has changed drastically since the 1980s (when presumably you applied). Kids get a wonderful education at these area independents but it is not a 1950s style ticket into the Ivy League. The tuition is a ton of money so if college admissions is your sole or even primary goal you are likely to be disappointed and should save your money.

Shrug. I have nieces and nephews going through the spplication process now and during the past 6 yrs or so. From the West Coast, 2 to Stanford, 3 to various UC schools and 1 to CalTech (chose over Yale and MIT). All from public although they went private for elementary.

Perhaps your knowledge is West Coast centric. Davidson and Wake are great schools, more highly regarded in these latitudes than UCs. Which may be East Coast centric. But people will think you are ill-informed if you trot out your views that Davidson or Wake are disappointments.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bates. Tulane. SMU. UC Santa Barbara. Ole Miss. Sewanne. Kenyon. Davidson. Wake. Washington and Lee. USC. U Vermont.

All taken from Big 3 matriculation lists this year.

Which ones would you consider "disappointments"?

I'll play. From a Big 3, disappointments all except maybe USC, UC SB, Kenyon. If it's family tradition to attend Ole Miss or Wake forest, maybe ok. Honestly, for the tuition at a Big 3 - I'll expect Ivy or equivalent like Stanford, Duke, etc.

Then don't send a child. Have you had your head in a bucket for the past decade? College admissions has changed drastically since the 1980s (when presumably you applied). Kids get a wonderful education at these area independents but it is not a 1950s style ticket into the Ivy League. The tuition is a ton of money so if college admissions is your sole or even primary goal you are likely to be disappointed and should save your money.

Shrug. I have nieces and nephews going through the spplication process now and during the past 6 yrs or so. From the West Coast, 2 to Stanford, 3 to various UC schools and 1 to CalTech (chose over Yale and MIT). All from public although they went private for elementary.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bates. Tulane. SMU. UC Santa Barbara. Ole Miss. Sewanne. Kenyon. Davidson. Wake. Washington and Lee. USC. U Vermont.

All taken from Big 3 matriculation lists this year.

Which ones would you consider "disappointments"?

I'll play. From a Big 3, disappointments all except maybe USC, UC SB, Kenyon. If it's family tradition to attend Ole Miss or Wake forest, maybe ok. Honestly, for the tuition at a Big 3 - I'll expect Ivy or equivalent like Stanford, Duke, etc.

Then don't send a child. Have you had your head in a bucket for the past decade? College admissions has changed drastically since the 1980s (when presumably you applied). Kids get a wonderful education at these area independents but it is not a 1950s style ticket into the Ivy League. The tuition is a ton of money so if college admissions is your sole or even primary goal you are likely to be disappointed and should save your money.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bates. Tulane. SMU. UC Santa Barbara. Ole Miss. Sewanne. Kenyon. Davidson. Wake. Washington and Lee. USC. U Vermont.

All taken from Big 3 matriculation lists this year.

Which ones would you consider "disappointments"?

I'll play. From a Big 3, disappointments all except maybe USC, UC SB, Kenyon. If it's family tradition to attend Ole Miss or Wake forest, maybe ok. Honestly, for the tuition at a Big 3 - I'll expect Ivy or equivalent like Stanford, Duke, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bates. Tulane. SMU. UC Santa Barbara. Ole Miss. Sewanne. Kenyon. Davidson. Wake. Washington and Lee. USC. U Vermont.

All taken from Big 3 matriculation lists this year.

Which ones would you consider "disappointments"?

I'll play. From a Big 3, disappointments all except maybe USC, UC SB, Kenyon. If it's family tradition to attend Ole Miss or Wake forest, maybe ok. Honestly, for the tuition at a Big 3 - I'll expect Ivy or equivalent like Stanford, Duke, etc.

Anonymous wrote:Bates. Tulane. SMU. UC Santa Barbara. Ole Miss. Sewanne. Kenyon. Davidson. Wake. Washington and Lee. USC. U Vermont.

All taken from Big 3 matriculation lists this year.

Which ones would you consider "disappointments"?

Anonymous wrote:I always say the lowest 25% of the matriculation list is FAR more revealing than the top 25%. Indiana in NOT at the bottom of STA's list, but it is not even on Sidwell's list.

It is precisely because of the embarrassment to the school and parents that some schools don't publish these lists.

Anonymous wrote:If you want facts, you can look up FARMS rates at MoCo high schools here: http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04406.pdf. Here are stats for some of the "richest" MoCo high schools mentioned earlier:

BCC 11% FARMS, 9.3% special ed,
Walter Johnson 7.8% FARMS, 11.7% special ed
Churchill <5% FARMs, 11.2% special ed
Whitman <5% FARMs, 11.9% special ed
Richard Montgomery 20.6% FARMS, 7.7% special ed
Wootton 5.5% FARMs, 7.5 special ed
(You don't want to even ask about the downcounty schools, trust me)

Another important fact to keep in mind: the FARMS income cutoff is LOW. This source (http://febp.newamerica.net/background-analysis/federal-school-nutrition-programs) says the federal subsidized lunch program cutoff is 130% of the poverty line, or $21,000 for a family of four.

So between FARMS and special ed programs, maybe 13-20% of kids at the "richest" public high schools we've been discussing are either (a) very poor or (b) on special ed. And certainly many more kids in these 6 "richest" public high schools have family incomes just above $21,000 but below $50,000.

It's truly difficult to understand how you could expect identical percents of a Sidwell graduating class, and a graduating class at one of these "richest" MoCo high schools, to be applying to the same Ivy League Colleges. Given that 10-30% kids in even the "richest" MoCo high schools live in families with less than $21,000 income, or are in special ed, and many more will have incomes not much above $21,000.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The young man who is going to try to walk on to play Division I football at IU won a prestigious six-figure merit scholarship from the Washington Post. He, and the other young man, had good choices. It is almost too basic to say, but if one doesn't know the individual circumstances, it really does not make a lot of sense to critique any given student's college choice.

The Washington Post offers college scholarships worth over $100,000? Where can I sign up for that?!? Please tell me!

It has been around since the 80s, I think -- a memorial scholarship for a student in the DC area in honor of a beloved editor who died at a relatively young age. We know a young man at Yale who also won this scholarship.

Any other info? I am searching online and cannot find any mention of it. Could it have some other name unaffiliated with the WaPo?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The young man who is going to try to walk on to play Division I football at IU won a prestigious six-figure merit scholarship from the Washington Post. He, and the other young man, had good choices. It is almost too basic to say, but if one doesn't know the individual circumstances, it really does not make a lot of sense to critique any given student's college choice.

The Washington Post offers college scholarships worth over $100,000? Where can I sign up for that?!? Please tell me!

It has been around since the 80s, I think -- a memorial scholarship for a student in the DC area in honor of a beloved editor who died at a relatively young age. We know a young man at Yale who also won this scholarship.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The young man who is going to try to walk on to play Division I football at IU won a prestigious six-figure merit scholarship from the Washington Post. He, and the other young man, had good choices. It is almost too basic to say, but if one doesn't know the individual circumstances, it really does not make a lot of sense to critique any given student's college choice.

The Washington Post offers college scholarships worth over $100,000? Where can I sign up for that?!? Please tell me!

It has been around since the 80s, I think -- a memorial scholarship for a student in the DC area in honor of a beloved editor who died at a relatively young age. We know a young man at Yale who also won this scholarship.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The young man who is going to try to walk on to play Division I football at IU won a prestigious six-figure merit scholarship from the Washington Post. He, and the other young man, had good choices. It is almost too basic to say, but if one doesn't know the individual circumstances, it really does not make a lot of sense to critique any given student's college choice.

The Washington Post offers college scholarships worth over $100,000? Where can I sign up for that?!? Please tell me!