Anonymous
Post 10/09/2015 16:26     Subject: Where does a 3.5 Sidwell kid end up going to college?
Anonymous wrote:Stanford and Princeton aren't taking 10 kids from Sidwell, STA or GDS or Thomas Jefferson. I think the posters here are not appreciating that there are also regional and international diversity favors in play here. A few prep schools won't dominate foreclose on a kid or two going to Princeton each year from Oakton HS or Walt Whitman each year either. If I drilled down to the second layer of which kids from Sidwell got into Ivies, I have little doubt that it would not mirror what is also the case at other expensive and well regarded preps. Well heeled legacies and the boosters given to recruited athletes. Landon used to send more kids to Princeton than Sidwell for a few years. They were all lacrosse players. I doubt anyone Sidwell would take it well that Landon is an equal or better academic school with equal or better students...and I'd agree with that as neither a Sidwell or a Landon cheerleader.


Isn't Landon lacrosse a pipeline to Duke?
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2015 16:12     Subject: Where does a 3.5 Sidwell kid end up going to college?
Stanford and Princeton aren't taking 10 kids from Sidwell, STA or GDS or Thomas Jefferson. I think the posters here are not appreciating that there are also regional and international diversity favors in play here. A few prep schools won't dominate foreclose on a kid or two going to Princeton each year from Oakton HS or Walt Whitman each year either. If I drilled down to the second layer of which kids from Sidwell got into Ivies, I have little doubt that it would not mirror what is also the case at other expensive and well regarded preps. Well heeled legacies and the boosters given to recruited athletes. Landon used to send more kids to Princeton than Sidwell for a few years. They were all lacrosse players. I doubt anyone Sidwell would take it well that Landon is an equal or better academic school with equal or better students...and I'd agree with that as neither a Sidwell or a Landon cheerleader.
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2015 16:04     Subject: Where does a 3.5 Sidwell kid end up going to college?
Anonymous wrote:The grades wratchet for the exclusive private schools is a factor, but so is the congestion of applicants. At a school like STA or Sidwell I would assume a number of the kids are also legacies at some Ivies. "If an Ivy is the pearl for a kid, consider that STA or Sidwell is only going to get 2-5 into those schools each year...""

Wrong. There are many more Ivy bound kids than that.


But last year was unusual with 10 to Yale and 9 to Penn. Aside from that, its only 1 to Harvard, 2 to Stanford, a couple to Dartmouth, one to Cornell, and one to Columbia, I think. A lot of the acceptances were that several kids got into all the top schools.
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2015 16:02     Subject: Where does a 3.5 Sidwell kid end up going to college?
Anonymous wrote:The grades wratchet for the exclusive private schools is a factor, but so is the congestion of applicants. At a school like STA or Sidwell I would assume a number of the kids are also legacies at some Ivies. If an Ivy is the pearl for a kid, consider that STA or Sidwell is only going to get 2-5 into those schools each year, and if the kid is classmates with a preferences field -- a couple of well heeled legacies plus a recruited lacrosse kid or two -- then just forget it. That's another great irony: some of the very brightest and very best students are prejudiced at these colleges in a lot of instances. The GPA algorithm is fine and all, but doesn't carry the day many times.


Agreed. Most of the Sidwell kids who got into Ivies last year were legacies, or both. All great kids, but it is quite difficult for an unhooked kid to break through when so many classmates have hooks.
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2015 16:01     Subject: Where does a 3.5 Sidwell kid end up going to college?
The grades wratchet for the exclusive private schools is a factor, but so is the congestion of applicants. At a school like STA or Sidwell I would assume a number of the kids are also legacies at some Ivies. "If an Ivy is the pearl for a kid, consider that STA or Sidwell is only going to get 2-5 into those schools each year...""

Wrong. There are many more Ivy bound kids than that.
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2015 15:57     Subject: Where does a 3.5 Sidwell kid end up going to college?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This whole URM business has become such a racket.


Become? It's 40 years in and going strong. Thankfully.


But no dispute that it's a racket.


Not so. The political and judicial systems have decreed that it is fair and appropriate. If an upper middle class white kid has to settle for tier two, so be it. Take one for team America and the greater good.


Take one for team America and the greater good?!
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2015 15:57     Subject: Where does a 3.5 Sidwell kid end up going to college?
The grades wratchet for the exclusive private schools is a factor, but so is the congestion of applicants. At a school like STA or Sidwell I would assume a number of the kids are also legacies at some Ivies. If an Ivy is the pearl for a kid, consider that STA or Sidwell is only going to get 2-5 into those schools each year, and if the kid is classmates with a preferences field -- a couple of well heeled legacies plus a recruited lacrosse kid or two -- then just forget it. That's another great irony: some of the very brightest and very best students are prejudiced at these colleges in a lot of instances. The GPA algorithm is fine and all, but doesn't carry the day many times.
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2015 15:56     Subject: Where does a 3.5 Sidwell kid end up going to college?
Anonymous wrote:Do all u people who are so critical of affirmative action imagine that. Black kids at Sidwell or St Albans. Are not subjected to racism. Let me tell you that a black student is at risk for being harassed by the police, discriminated against in the classroom and being flamed by a.. Holes on DCUM as any other black
Kid. Racism is alive and well and this forum demonstrates it daily


What this demonstrates is that standard written English is going downhill.
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2015 15:55     Subject: Where does a 3.5 Sidwell kid end up going to college?
Anonymous wrote:Do URM's that go to Hahvahd still say "Ax me a question?"


And preppy kids from Larchmont have a lockjaw accent and students from China have Chinese accents and white Southerners speak like Foghorn Leghorn. So?

Crawl back under your rock since you aren't a member of either the Sidwell or Harvard communities.
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2015 15:47     Subject: Where does a 3.5 Sidwell kid end up going to college?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Do all u people who are so critical of affirmative action imagine that. Black kids at Sidwell or St Albans. Are not subjected to racism. Let me tell you that a black student is at risk for being harassed by the police, discriminated against in the classroom and being flamed by a.. Holes on DCUM as any other black
Kid. Racism is alive and well and this forum demonstrates it daily
'

Schools like Sidwell and St. Albans are perfect for first generation wealthy (doctor/lawyer level) minorities - they will then have the total package and will have a good chance at attending an Ivy. An upper middle class white male from one of these schools needs to be totally connected to get into an Ivy league school, with a last name that is a hotel chain, a family that includes presidents, or the like. Otherwise, he'd do better at Wilson and play the odds that he will be looked favorably upon as attending an "inner city" school and has taken lots of AP courses and rowed track.


"rowed or ran track."
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2015 15:46     Subject: Where does a 3.5 Sidwell kid end up going to college?
Anonymous wrote:Do all u people who are so critical of affirmative action imagine that. Black kids at Sidwell or St Albans. Are not subjected to racism. Let me tell you that a black student is at risk for being harassed by the police, discriminated against in the classroom and being flamed by a.. Holes on DCUM as any other black
Kid. Racism is alive and well and this forum demonstrates it daily
'

Schools like Sidwell and St. Albans are perfect for first generation wealthy (doctor/lawyer level) minorities - they will then have the total package and will have a good chance at attending an Ivy. An upper middle class white male from one of these schools needs to be totally connected to get into an Ivy league school, with a last name that is a hotel chain, a family that includes presidents, or the like. Otherwise, he'd do better at Wilson and play the odds that he will be looked favorably upon as attending an "inner city" school and has taken lots of AP courses and rowed track.
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2015 15:45     Subject: Where does a 3.5 Sidwell kid end up going to college?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This whole URM business has become such a racket.


Become? It's 40 years in and going strong. Thankfully.


But no dispute that it's a racket.


Not so. The political and judicial systems have decreed that it is fair and appropriate. If an upper middle class white kid has to settle for tier two, so be it. Take one for team America and the greater good.


I am not the earlier poster, but the only thing that bugs me about the URM business is that URM kids whose parents went to great schools and have had every advantage, get yet another in this process. Some kids brag about it at my kids' school. I'm in because I'm _____. That preference is legal, but it does seem unfair.
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2015 15:41     Subject: Where does a 3.5 Sidwell kid end up going to college?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This whole URM business has become such a racket.


Become? It's 40 years in and going strong. Thankfully.


But no dispute that it's a racket.


Not so. The political and judicial systems have decreed that it is fair and appropriate. If an upper middle class white kid has to settle for tier two, so be it. Take one for team America and the greater good.
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2015 15:36     Subject: Where does a 3.5 Sidwell kid end up going to college?
They will go as far away form home to drink and smoke a lot to get away from their helicopter parents.
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2015 15:34     Subject: Where does a 3.5 Sidwell kid end up going to college?
Do all u people who are so critical of affirmative action imagine that. Black kids at Sidwell or St Albans. Are not subjected to racism. Let me tell you that a black student is at risk for being harassed by the police, discriminated against in the classroom and being flamed by a.. Holes on DCUM as any other black
Kid. Racism is alive and well and this forum demonstrates it daily