On a positive note, I would share with the group that we have been very pleased and impressed with the college counseling office at St. Andrew's. In our experience, the team is incredibly hard working, knowledgeable, and responsive, and the counselors take the time to really get to know the kids. Never any guarantees, of course, but as stressful as the college application process can be I feel that the counselors there have really bent over backwards to be helpful in every way for our DC to find those schools where our DC would likely have a great college experience given DC's interests, talents, preferences, etc. and to guide DC (and us) through all phases of the application process -- senior year course selection, summer activities, testing/retesting, etc. I am sure there are other schools with great offices, but given the amount of stress and negativity sometimes surrounding the college app process I wanted to just share one positive story about college counselors.

I think the emphasis should be on the high school experience and not looking at a big 3 as a solely a means to an end. These schools have resources that allow middle class kids access to things that they might miss in public. Plus the teachers can and do have more time to meet with kids one on one, and are super responsive if kids (not parents) reach out for extra help. For the well connected parent with a top student who has the resources to provide extra support and experiences for their kid, they can go anywhere. But I believe these schools provide an enriched education for those of us who do not have a lot of financial resources.

Sidwell needs to step it up in this area.

Maybe so - hard to say. It varies so much year to year, considering who else applies from around the globe. How did other area schools do at Yale this year?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The cold, hard truth is that Sidwell as an institution does not pay much attention to college rankings either. It is not a priority for the administration to get kids into Ivys or comparable schools. Parents may disagree with that, but they should know what they are getting into. Tom Farquhar flat out says this to newly accepted students each year. For me, the jury is still out on whether the education at Sidwell is worth the college trade-off, but make no mistake, there is a trade-off.

This is one reason Tom is on his way out.

More fundamentally, though, of course "the school" -- the kids, parents, and teachers -- care; the administration has just been saying this to cover its collective butt. The cold, hard truth is that Sidwell college counseling sucks.

Multiple choice quiz:

The quoted poster is:
(a) nasty
(b) a know-it-all
(c) pressures their child about college
(d) still brags about where s/he went to college
(e) all of the above

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Update: All four SFS kids who applied to Yale got in.

This is flat out not true. I know three who did not and there are probably more.

Four were accepted from Sidwell. I don't know how many others applied and were either (most likely) deferred or rejected.

Lots applied. And lots applied to Brown and most of them were rejected/deferred as well. These are smart kids with top, top scores. Sidwell needs to step it up in this area.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The cold, hard truth is that Sidwell as an institution does not pay much attention to college rankings either. It is not a priority for the administration to get kids into Ivys or comparable schools. Parents may disagree with that, but they should know what they are getting into. Tom Farquhar flat out says this to newly accepted students each year. For me, the jury is still out on whether the education at Sidwell is worth the college trade-off, but make no mistake, there is a trade-off.

This is one reason Tom is on his way out.

More fundamentally, though, of course "the school" -- the kids, parents, and teachers -- care; the administration has just been saying this to cover its collective butt. The cold, hard truth is that Sidwell college counseling sucks.

It has, but I hope it will get better. There is a new counselor, another new one coming next year, and hopefully a new, more active approach to college admissions. In fairness to the new counselor, this is her first year and she came in halfway through.

Anonymous wrote:The cold, hard truth is that Sidwell as an institution does not pay much attention to college rankings either. It is not a priority for the administration to get kids into Ivys or comparable schools. Parents may disagree with that, but they should know what they are getting into. Tom Farquhar flat out says this to newly accepted students each year. For me, the jury is still out on whether the education at Sidwell is worth the college trade-off, but make no mistake, there is a trade-off.

This is one reason Tom is on his way out.

More fundamentally, though, of course "the school" -- the kids, parents, and teachers -- care; the administration has just been saying this to cover its collective butt. The cold, hard truth is that Sidwell college counseling sucks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Update: All four SFS kids who applied to Yale got in.

This is flat out not true. I know three who did not and there are probably more.

Four were accepted from Sidwell. I don't know how many others applied and were either (most likely) deferred or rejected.

The cold, hard truth is that Sidwell as an institution does not pay much attention to college rankings either. It is not a priority for the administration to get kids into Ivys or comparable schools. Parents may disagree with that, but they should know what they are getting into. Tom Farquhar flat out says this to newly accepted students each year. For me, the jury is still out on whether the education at Sidwell is worth the college trade-off, but make no mistake, there is a trade-off.

Anonymous wrote:Update: All four SFS kids who applied to Yale got in.

This is flat out not true. I know three who did not and there are probably more.

Anonymous wrote:You people are nuts if you are sending kids to private to get into a top school. My kids both graduated public schools and are in Princeton & Yale. School is just part of the equation. Doing your job as parents, genetics and grit will get your kid into an Ivy. And believe me and ivy is not the end all.

There is just no way all the people on these forums who claim to have ivy leaguers are telling the truth. So few kids get into these schools and I doubt the parents if all of them are hanging out here. Plus, why in the heck would you hang out here if your kids have already graduated? Move along people !!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I totally agree that learning to write well is a top benefit of privates. My kids have been amazed by how poorly their college classmates write.

My DC and DC's friends, who all went public, were just saying last night that they're amazed by how poorly many of their new college classmates write. I think this may be a high school-specific thing rather than a purely public-private thing.

Why are they reading other students papers?

Why are you asking the public school parent and not the private school parent who said the same thing? (And why didn't you make "students' " possessive?)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I totally agree that learning to write well is a top benefit of privates. My kids have been amazed by how poorly their college classmates write.

My DC and DC's friends, who all went public, were just saying last night that they're amazed by how poorly many of their new college classmates write. I think this may be a high school-specific thing rather than a purely public-private thing.

Why are they reading other students papers?

Update: All four SFS kids who applied to Yale got in.

Anonymous wrote:I totally agree that learning to write well is a top benefit of privates. My kids have been amazed by how poorly their college classmates write.

My DC and DC's friends, who all went public, were just saying last night that they're amazed by how poorly many of their new college classmates write. I think this may be a high school-specific thing rather than a purely public-private thing.