Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The modesty on this thread is astounding .

Tells you a lot about the school and the people in it.

Not all of us run to post on social media when our kid gets into an Ivy. Christ

Umm others years when Sidwell had good college admits those "modest" kids were happy to crow about it on social media asap. Sooo. maybe this year Sidwell has nothing to report? Live by the sword die by the sword, people. Interesting that the parents who love to denigrate GDS on this forum simply cannot just say- "Wow good job." Seven (that we know of) Harvard admits in one class. Why is it so hard to just say the kids did great?

Relax, GDS Mom. Sidwell has 10 Ivy admits posted on Instagram so far, compared to GDS’ 14. You and I both know that no matter what the numbers end up being this year, Sidwell was/is/will always be superior to GDS. But please enjoy those extra 4 admits for now…
Everyone deserves their time in the sun (especially after the results GDS’ c/o ‘23 endured).

NP and not affiliated with GDS or Sidwell, but in what way is Sidwell superior to GDS?
Academically speaking, I don't think so, in fact the inverse might be true. If you take math competitions for example, GDS has done lot better than Sidwell.

Sidwell also consistently does better than GDS when it come NMSFs.

Here are the 2024 numbers:

DC
St. Alban’s 5
NCS 2
GDS 1
Sidwell 8
Gonzaga 1
St. Anselm’s Abbey 1
Maret 1
WIS 1

How do they determine the semi-finalist ? My son beat the score of his classmate at DC private who is on the list but somehow he’s not selected

It's just a math cutoff of the PSAT, plain and simple.

Each state has a different cutoff. DC and International schools have their cutoff set to equal the highest state cutoff, which is usually NJ or MD. Here is a breakdown of cutoffs:

https://www.compassprep.com/national-merit-semifinalist-cutoffs/

He’s 36 out of 36 on math section as well as 2 others so not sure why he’s not semi-finalist. I emailed the school

Good. The school is in a better position to explain what happened to you than DCUM.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The modesty on this thread is astounding .

Tells you a lot about the school and the people in it.

Not all of us run to post on social media when our kid gets into an Ivy. Christ

Umm others years when Sidwell had good college admits those "modest" kids were happy to crow about it on social media asap. Sooo. maybe this year Sidwell has nothing to report? Live by the sword die by the sword, people. Interesting that the parents who love to denigrate GDS on this forum simply cannot just say- "Wow good job." Seven (that we know of) Harvard admits in one class. Why is it so hard to just say the kids did great?

Relax, GDS Mom. Sidwell has 10 Ivy admits posted on Instagram so far, compared to GDS’ 14. You and I both know that no matter what the numbers end up being this year, Sidwell was/is/will always be superior to GDS. But please enjoy those extra 4 admits for now…
Everyone deserves their time in the sun (especially after the results GDS’ c/o ‘23 endured).

NP and not affiliated with GDS or Sidwell, but in what way is Sidwell superior to GDS?
Academically speaking, I don't think so, in fact the inverse might be true. If you take math competitions for example, GDS has done lot better than Sidwell.

Sidwell also consistently does better than GDS when it come NMSFs.

Here are the 2024 numbers:

DC
St. Alban’s 5
NCS 2
GDS 1
Sidwell 8
Gonzaga 1
St. Anselm’s Abbey 1
Maret 1
WIS 1

How do they determine the semi-finalist ? My son beat the score of his classmate at DC private who is on the list but somehow he’s not selected

It's just a math cutoff of the PSAT, plain and simple.

Each state has a different cutoff. DC and International schools have their cutoff set to equal the highest state cutoff, which is usually NJ or MD. Here is a breakdown of cutoffs:

https://www.compassprep.com/national-merit-semifinalist-cutoffs/

He’s 36 out of 36 on math section as well as 2 others so not sure why he’s not semi-finalist. I emailed the school

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The modesty on this thread is astounding .

Tells you a lot about the school and the people in it.

Not all of us run to post on social media when our kid gets into an Ivy. Christ

Umm others years when Sidwell had good college admits those "modest" kids were happy to crow about it on social media asap. Sooo. maybe this year Sidwell has nothing to report? Live by the sword die by the sword, people. Interesting that the parents who love to denigrate GDS on this forum simply cannot just say- "Wow good job." Seven (that we know of) Harvard admits in one class. Why is it so hard to just say the kids did great?

Relax, GDS Mom. Sidwell has 10 Ivy admits posted on Instagram so far, compared to GDS’ 14. You and I both know that no matter what the numbers end up being this year, Sidwell was/is/will always be superior to GDS. But please enjoy those extra 4 admits for now…
Everyone deserves their time in the sun (especially after the results GDS’ c/o ‘23 endured).

13 Ivy and 6 Ivy+ posted and at least 3 others still deciding between Ivys yet to post.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The modesty on this thread is astounding .

Tells you a lot about the school and the people in it.

Not all of us run to post on social media when our kid gets into an Ivy. Christ

Umm others years when Sidwell had good college admits those "modest" kids were happy to crow about it on social media asap. Sooo. maybe this year Sidwell has nothing to report? Live by the sword die by the sword, people. Interesting that the parents who love to denigrate GDS on this forum simply cannot just say- "Wow good job." Seven (that we know of) Harvard admits in one class. Why is it so hard to just say the kids did great?

Relax, GDS Mom. Sidwell has 10 Ivy admits posted on Instagram so far, compared to GDS’ 14. You and I both know that no matter what the numbers end up being this year, Sidwell was/is/will always be superior to GDS. But please enjoy those extra 4 admits for now…
Everyone deserves their time in the sun (especially after the results GDS’ c/o ‘23 endured).

NP and not affiliated with GDS or Sidwell, but in what way is Sidwell superior to GDS?
Academically speaking, I don't think so, in fact the inverse might be true. If you take math competitions for example, GDS has done lot better than Sidwell.

A lot better than Sidwell in math competitions? Really?

The most recent MathCounts results show that 6/11 of the top finishers are Sidwell students. Is that your definition of much better?

On March 9, DC MATHCOUNTS held its State competition at Saint Anselm's Abbey School. Forty-four students from DC middle schools competed for the right to represent the District at MATHCOUNTS’ National Competition in May. The top 25% Mathletes were:

Rank Name School
1 Georgetown Day School
2 Sidwell Friends School
3 Georgetown Day School
4 Sidwell Friends School
5 Maret School
6 Sidwell Friends School
7 Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School
8 Sidwell Friends School
9 Maret School
10 Sidwell Friends School
11 Sidwell Friends School

Congratulations to the top four Mathletes who will form DC’s State team!

GDS almost always win the DC chapter in this competition and other math competitions like the Universal of Maryland.

https://mathcomp.math.umd.edu/past-winners/

Yay! You found a math competition that GDS actually wins—whew! They only seem to win the DC competition because a Maryland public school appears to win the entire competition every year. I bet you were up googling all night.
Congratulations to GDS, though!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The modesty on this thread is astounding .

Tells you a lot about the school and the people in it.

Not all of us run to post on social media when our kid gets into an Ivy. Christ

Umm others years when Sidwell had good college admits those "modest" kids were happy to crow about it on social media asap. Sooo. maybe this year Sidwell has nothing to report? Live by the sword die by the sword, people. Interesting that the parents who love to denigrate GDS on this forum simply cannot just say- "Wow good job." Seven (that we know of) Harvard admits in one class. Why is it so hard to just say the kids did great?

Relax, GDS Mom. Sidwell has 10 Ivy admits posted on Instagram so far, compared to GDS’ 14. You and I both know that no matter what the numbers end up being this year, Sidwell was/is/will always be superior to GDS. But please enjoy those extra 4 admits for now…
Everyone deserves their time in the sun (especially after the results GDS’ c/o ‘23 endured).

NP and not affiliated with GDS or Sidwell, but in what way is Sidwell superior to GDS?
Academically speaking, I don't think so, in fact the inverse might be true. If you take math competitions for example, GDS has done lot better than Sidwell.

Sidwell also consistently does better than GDS when it come NMSFs.

Here are the 2024 numbers:

DC
St. Alban’s 5
NCS 2
GDS 1
Sidwell 8
Gonzaga 1
St. Anselm’s Abbey 1
Maret 1
WIS 1

How do they determine the semi-finalist ? My son beat the score of his classmate at DC private who is on the list but somehow he’s not selected

It's just a math cutoff of the PSAT, plain and simple.

Each state has a different cutoff. DC and International schools have their cutoff set to equal the highest state cutoff, which is usually NJ or MD. Here is a breakdown of cutoffs:

https://www.compassprep.com/national-merit-semifinalist-cutoffs/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard st Albans is not having a great year, compare to previous years.
The class is much smaller in size.

Landon seems to be doing well. Go bears

Doesn't look like it compared to the neighboring public school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is at WIS, also many Ivy’s: Yale, Stanford, UPenn etc. Don’t see major differences with other privates

WIS has posted two (2) Ivy-bound students on Instagram, so far. Those numbers are worse that Maret’s. Please come back when the posts actually support your statement—WIS isn’t ready to enter this chat yet.

P.S. Stanford is not an Ivy.

Gagged.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is at WIS, also many Ivy’s: Yale, Stanford, UPenn etc. Don’t see major differences with other privates

All the privates do well. Sidwell/Maret have multiple Harvards. Much smaller than GDS. GDS did great too. Such a silly conversation. My bigger question is the percent of kids from privates at these elite schools; way more than publics. I know the kids are well prepared and great but does raise bigger questions about the whole system and the perpetuation of our privilege-based system.

Privilege begets privilege. It always has, and it always will.

Anonymous wrote:My son is at WIS, also many Ivy’s: Yale, Stanford, UPenn etc. Don’t see major differences with other privates

WIS has posted two (2) Ivy-bound students on Instagram, so far. Those numbers are worse that Maret’s. Please come back when the posts actually support your statement—WIS isn’t ready to enter this chat yet.

P.S. Stanford is not an Ivy.

Yes, privilege is a huge boost for admittance to the top 25 schools. It does seem like universities help maintain the elite class. But it is a difficult problem to solve. The US needs to do a better job combating child poverty. That would be a start at least. I wish 30% of top college students did not all go into finance and investment banking. Wish it was possible to spread talent out more

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The modesty on this thread is astounding .

Tells you a lot about the school and the people in it.

Not all of us run to post on social media when our kid gets into an Ivy. Christ

Umm others years when Sidwell had good college admits those "modest" kids were happy to crow about it on social media asap. Sooo. maybe this year Sidwell has nothing to report? Live by the sword die by the sword, people. Interesting that the parents who love to denigrate GDS on this forum simply cannot just say- "Wow good job." Seven (that we know of) Harvard admits in one class. Why is it so hard to just say the kids did great?

Relax, GDS Mom. Sidwell has 10 Ivy admits posted on Instagram so far, compared to GDS’ 14. You and I both know that no matter what the numbers end up being this year, Sidwell was/is/will always be superior to GDS. But please enjoy those extra 4 admits for now…
Everyone deserves their time in the sun (especially after the results GDS’ c/o ‘23 endured).

NP and not affiliated with GDS or Sidwell, but in what way is Sidwell superior to GDS?
Academically speaking, I don't think so, in fact the inverse might be true. If you take math competitions for example, GDS has done lot better than Sidwell.

A lot better than Sidwell in math competitions? Really?

The most recent MathCounts results show that 6/11 of the top finishers are Sidwell students. Is that your definition of much better?

On March 9, DC MATHCOUNTS held its State competition at Saint Anselm's Abbey School. Forty-four students from DC middle schools competed for the right to represent the District at MATHCOUNTS’ National Competition in May. The top 25% Mathletes were:

Rank Name School
1 Georgetown Day School
2 Sidwell Friends School
3 Georgetown Day School
4 Sidwell Friends School
5 Maret School
6 Sidwell Friends School
7 Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School
8 Sidwell Friends School
9 Maret School
10 Sidwell Friends School
11 Sidwell Friends School

Congratulations to the top four Mathletes who will form DC’s State team!

GDS almost always win the DC chapter in this competition and other math competitions like the Universal of Maryland.

https://mathcomp.math.umd.edu/past-winners/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is at WIS, also many Ivy’s: Yale, Stanford, UPenn etc. Don’t see major differences with other privates

All the privates do well. Sidwell/Maret have multiple Harvards. Much smaller than GDS. GDS did great too. Such a silly conversation. My bigger question is the percent of kids from privates at these elite schools; way more than publics. I know the kids are well prepared and great but does raise bigger questions about the whole system and the perpetuation of our privilege-based system.

Not sure where to find the stats for other schools, but MIT has theirs posted from last year's incoming class: https://mitadmissions.org/apply/process/profile/

66% were from public school, 14% from independents, 8% from religious (the rest were international or home schooled).

Sure, a larger percentage of graduating students from these prep schools are
getting in, which makes sense when you have small class sizes with high achieving kids (and parents), but I don't think the overall student body of top universities tends to be mainly prep school kids.

That said, a lot of those public school kids at MIT are likely from the selective TJ/Blair/RM/Walls type schools around the country, or from wealthier districts. I think parent education level, income, and involvement is likely the biggest factor, regardless of public or private high school.

A Harvard admit from Sidwell with the same set of parents could likely get the same (or higher) GPA at a public, play a club sport, do the same ECs, take the same AP exams, get some private tutoring and test prep, and still get into Harvard. Which is exactly what's happening with a lot of the public school admits (said as someone who went to Yale from a selective public magnet in an already-wealthy district). I have no stats to back this up, but I'd say outside of programs like Questbridge (which I think is a great step in finding a solution to the privilege gap) most T10 students come from well-educated families.

The privilege issue is definitely real, but I think a large percentage of public school admits to these colleges are coming from the same relative degree of privilege. Prep school is a piece of the puzzle, but certainly not the main issue.

Anonymous wrote:My son is at WIS, also many Ivy’s: Yale, Stanford, UPenn etc. Don’t see major differences with other privates

All the privates do well. Sidwell/Maret have multiple Harvards. Much smaller than GDS. GDS did great too. Such a silly conversation. My bigger question is the percent of kids from privates at these elite schools; way more than publics. I know the kids are well prepared and great but does raise bigger questions about the whole system and the perpetuation of our privilege-based system.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The modesty on this thread is astounding .

Tells you a lot about the school and the people in it.

Not all of us run to post on social media when our kid gets into an Ivy. Christ

Umm others years when Sidwell had good college admits those "modest" kids were happy to crow about it on social media asap. Sooo. maybe this year Sidwell has nothing to report? Live by the sword die by the sword, people. Interesting that the parents who love to denigrate GDS on this forum simply cannot just say- "Wow good job." Seven (that we know of) Harvard admits in one class. Why is it so hard to just say the kids did great?

Relax, GDS Mom. Sidwell has 10 Ivy admits posted on Instagram so far, compared to GDS’ 14. You and I both know that no matter what the numbers end up being this year, Sidwell was/is/will always be superior to GDS. But please enjoy those extra 4 admits for now…
Everyone deserves their time in the sun (especially after the results GDS’ c/o ‘23 endured).

NP and not affiliated with GDS or Sidwell, but in what way is Sidwell superior to GDS?
Academically speaking, I don't think so, in fact the inverse might be true. If you take math competitions for example, GDS has done lot better than Sidwell.

Sidwell also consistently does better than GDS when it come NMSFs.

Here are the 2024 numbers:

DC
St. Alban’s 5
NCS 2
GDS 1
Sidwell 8
Gonzaga 1
St. Anselm’s Abbey 1
Maret 1
WIS 1

How do they determine the semi-finalist ? My son beat the score of his classmate at DC private who is on the list but somehow he’s not selected

My son is at WIS, also many Ivy’s: Yale, Stanford, UPenn etc. Don’t see major differences with other privates