^^^Based on posts I’ve read over the past 12 years I’ve been on CC, you could say the same about a certain subset of CC parents.
Considering the absolute obsession that some posters have with The Superiority Of The Elite Colleges, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them aren’t (or weren’t) behaving in exactly the same manner as the parents in the article. Maybe some of the parents mentioned in the article actually post on CC…
Same with some of the student posters, who seem to be focused on reach colleges, as if anything that could be a safety is “beneath” them.
I agree that some of the posters on here are a little focused on how to get into those reach schools, but why would you need an anonymous forum to ask how to get into a safety school? Isn’t the whole point of having a safety category that you are pretty much going to get in?
Some student posters do not mention applying to safeties at all, or have “safeties” that are not anything close to safeties.
The other issue facing these schools is: will people continue to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars to send their children to private schools if an ivy is not “guaranteed” in that child’s future? That’s what many of these schools are selling even though they don’t say it explicitly: enroll here, pay hundreds of thousands of dollars and your kid will go to Harvard. If that’s not going to happen it may significantly impact enrollment at many private schools around the country because why else do you think a majority of parents she’ll out that kind of cash? They’re buying a product.
The better ones, including the one I attended, tell you from the get-go that if that’s the reason you want / want your child to attend, just don’t apply.
Whether the parents actually listen, well, that’s another story.
" why else do you think a majority of parents she’ll out that kind of cash? They’re buying a product."
Yes, a superior high school educational experience. Don’t assume most parents are sending their kids to these schools with an Ivy or bust expectation.
Please, you think these people would let their kids go to school with the common folk?
Sounds a bit bitter to me.
You do realize that many of these schools have a sizable chunk of their students on FA, just like the top colleges do, right?
As others have stated, you can find parents like the ones in the article, which are the exception not the rule - the bad apples in the bunch - at many, many schools, public as well as private.
Meaning a similar family income distribution as the most selective private colleges? I.e. typically something like:
50% top 3% (no financial aid)
35% upper half, excluding the top 3% (financial aid, no Pell grant)
15% lower half (Pell grant)
It’s not bitterness at all. The parents who pay to send their kids to such schools would not pull them out and send them to normal schools because an Ivy isn’t a sure thing. Ok, some kids get FA - at the school in this article it’s like 25%. It’s still a world apart from your neighborhood public.
The 77% of full pay parents with a 41k yearly tuition bill before college do tend to add a financially elite atmosphere to the school.
I feel sorry for the rising seniors. Mid May to June is a very busy time for them and the CCs. At our school the CCs hold a one on one extended meeting with each student and their families going over the college list, merit aid, and financial aid questions. It’s a bad time for a school to be without 2 of their 3 CCs.
No pell grants for private secondary schools but I’m sure you know that, @ucbalumnus.
These are private institutions using their endowments and annual funds and money gifted by generous alumni to fund financial aid. Nothing wrong with that.
“The parents who pay to send their kids to such schools would not pull them out and send them to normal schools because an Ivy isn’t a sure thing” You think a better quality education might have a lot to do with it?
And a financially elite atmosphere means what, exactly? I live in a town where our public schools have a financially elite atmosphere as well.
This forum can sure have a lot of reverse snobbery. Bitterness, sour grapes? Who knows.
Everyone has seen some badly-behaved people (yes, some of them are parents) in everyday life, outside of prestigious schools, or any schools. These badly-behaved parents at Sidwell likely behaved poorly elsewhere too. They probably also expected their kids to go to prestigious colleges, regardless of what the school may or may not have told them what its mission is or isn’t.
@Leigh22 - I don’t think you have a good understanding of how students are admitted to those private schools. The admission process could be as rigorous as college admission. My normal neighborhood public school was very white and very high SES. My kids’ private school had more racially diversed than my neighborhood public school. Most of students went to top tier college, and a lot of it is due to self-selection (high stats, legacies, athletes). If those students had gone to their local neighborhood schools they would most likely have gone to some of top tier schools.
From the article:
"The new policies stem from a handful of unfortunate and uninformed interactions, some of which have been unkind to students, others that have disrespected our counselors. The vast majority of our parents, of course, work to support and honor all of our students and staff. "
It’s a fallacy to conclude from this article that most parents at the school behave badly, that wealthy people = unpleasant parents with unreasonable expectations.
Not at all, @doschicos. I have plenty of friends still at Sidwell, and sent my own kids to a fairly similar school. It is just a fact of life that such schools do attract disproportionately wealthy and entitled parents and their offspring. That may be offset by many good things offered there, but is nevertheless an important trait about the school. Of course it is diverse. DC is the site of hundreds of embassies, and plenty of diplomatic kids there.