Is Westminster School the best school on Earth? STATESMOM returns

[statesmom]

I have a lot to say, don't know if anyone remembers the thread. Let me know if you want to hear from me.

Nope. You wouldn’t ask for ‘first hand information about Westminster school’ if indeed you’d had one go through it.

statesmom · 02/02/2014 21:57
Where does all of this cynicism come from? Why all this inferiority complex about justifying sending children to state schools? There is nothing wrong with that.
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I was just asking about one school, which seems to me to be an outstanding place. The personal vitriol is unnecessary.
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Can we return to topic?
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Any first hand knowledge of Westminster School? TIA

Why do we always see harsh judgments regarding people’s intentions in posts? I’ve noticed this happening frequently among parents in these types of schools.

I think Americans, more than Brits, see themselves as “brands” or “products.”

The POV is that you have yourself as source material, wet clay. You buy in whatever support you need to maximise this. Career coaches are much more common. We find it cringe here. Therethey just think it is smart.

All of that is stuff I would really expect you to do, as a parent. Don’t you talk to your child? Didn’t you already know what his interests were, and encourage them? Didn’t you or his school have any advice on GCSE options?

I wouldn’t pay $250k for somebody else to ask my child what he likes and what he is good at.

@DDberzatto I agree it’s confusing! Did a child go to Eton? Or do we just think it’s a hoax thread?

My DDs did Morrisby test for careers and some guidance on academics. You don’t need it but it gives another perspective. For DD1 it turned out to be very accurate! However dialogue with school and dc is also paramount and if you know all about USA know, I think you know what dc needs to do! No point being a superior American if you don’t!

Can you point out where the OP said " been through college, got a job at Citibank/wherever."?

This refers to the Citibank job

I think if you go back she describes her son as ‘having been through college’. I don’t have the time now to look. You can use the advanced search to look under the username. It may also have been within one of the deleted posts.

Hahaha - I totally hadn't spotted that timeline issue! Methinks Statesmom might be telling a few porkies here.

Perhaps OP meant her son was Y8 in the 2014 post? It would fit in with common entrance to Westminster at Y9 which means he’d be 22 now

Regardless, this has been an interesting thread. To be honest if I had unlimited funds I’d lob money at increasing the odds of my children having a better outcome in life (and I’d have a chef & driver 😃) DD is at a similar school where many are able to do this & are increasingly applying to American universities. I dug out that original Times article that alerted me the trend three years ago - in my complete nativity I forwarded it to another mother I’d just met at DD’s school who told me her son was at an IL only to realise a short while later that she’d taken the route outlined in the article 😬 If you have the money, why not!

www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/forget-oxbridge-for-todays-gilded-youth-ivy-league-is-the-goal-and-parents-will-spend-a-fortune-to-get-them-there-69gbq3tkx

I think you’re being quite generous, TBH. Notwithstanding that There would be no need for the OP to ask about lamps at Eton in 2017?

Regardless of whether or not the OP son went to either Eton or Westminster, the amount of information provided would make him highly identifiable if indeed any of it is true.

most Ivy students are academically top, not just top decile

Have you studied at an Ivy?

Is there a part of Westminster that gets described as “college”?

I didn't and I'm not ashamed of that.

But statistically, most Ivy students are academic high performers. The problem is that when you coach kids the way people do, it doesn't mean anything. I know some not spectacular people who went to Ivies, but they absolutely had academic credentials on paper. Of course there are also your Jared Kushner legacy/money admits. I can't say that every Oxbridge graduate I know (and I did not go to Oxbridge either) is a genius. As I've said, I know very clever American students who don't want to go to the Ivy League for a number of reasons.

If you have well off parents and get yourself appropriately hothoused and tutored to get yourself through exams, you can get quite far in life and university.

I think that, because Oxbridge interview, DC are not all at the highest possible level. If they were, all would get firsts. They don’t. Many are perfectly rounded dc whom Oxbridge tutors feel would benefit from their teaching system. Obviously they need to reach the necessary levels in tests and exams but after that, it’s now more of a level playing field.

We have seen very rich dc go to the USA. Parents just pay. Obviously some are being paid for as needs blind but these are often middle class dc. Who bothers from Rotherham or Oldham? USA is still mostly only open to those in the know. Reading all of this, I cannot believe how over invested people are. Assuming at least some of it is true!

One notable absentee on this thread is a poster who has said numerous times both her dc went to Westminster. One followed up lse degree in the USA (Harvard). I’m assuming no posts from a knowledgable and prolific poster, whom I tagged pages ago, is speaking volumes. Something isn’t quite right here.

And also follows me and comments on what I say even when I don’t tag her! Now bizarrely absent! Just when we need inside intel.

I have studied at an Ivy and I can tell you that most of my fellow students, and many more with whom I've worked since I left, are not very special academically. But more than my personal, anecdotal, evidence, this chart, from an NBER working paper, demonstrates my point.

At MIT (which is not an Ivy), the probability of admissions increased monotonically and steeply as SAT scores went up. At Harvard, the probability of admissions increased until the 92nd percentile, then plateaued until the 98th percentile before increasing again, although much less steeply than MIT. Princeton's was the most interesting. Like Harvard, the probability of admissions increased until the 92nd percentile. However, it decreased until the 98th percentile before increasing steeply. The interpretation in the paper was that Princeton, in those days, expecting to lose most common admitted students to Harvard, was "ducking" students whom Harvard was likely to admit, in order to protect their "yield". This interpretation was subsequently validated in an interview with a former Princeton admissions director.

At MIT, a student with 98th percentile SAT scores was 4 times as likely to gain admission as a student with 92nd percentile SAT scores. At HYP, a student with 98th percentile SAT scores was no more likely to gain admission than a student with 92nd percentile scores.

All these schools are more likely to admit the very academically exceptional students; they're all happy to produce some professors. At MIT, a student with the very highest SAT scores was 5 times as likely to gain admission as a student with 92nd percentile SAT scores. At HYP, a student with the very highest SAT scores was only twice as likely to gain admission.

SAT scores are not a perfect proxy for academic ability. But, if anything, their known biases towards well-resourced students who receive training will cause them to overestimate actual academic ability in this part of the population (top decile).

Btw, three of the co-authors of the paper were affiliated with Harvard and Penn, so they had no incentive to rubbish the Ivies.

This thread just keeps getting better and better!!! 😂😂😂

St Peters College is another name for Westminster school.

There’s talk of a GPA score though. That’s American- either college or high school.
Also you wouldn’t get accepted to Citibank direct from school as a high flier.
I’m sure I read something about them laying off 20000 workers worldwide in next 2 years?

There is. I referred to it in an earlier post. It is for the most academically able students in the School. And is FT boarding (no exceptions) - and thus rules out the OP with her 'we didn't consider boarding schools' post. Yet appears to have sent him to Eton. Claiming your child is in College would make both them and you instantly identifiable. I did post upthread that I thought the OP may well be upset her child was not selected to be a KS.

So far the OP has posted all of this information about her son in a bid to somehow prove her parenting prowess...
His GCSE results
His GPA score
His sporting prowess (GB National team member usually means a Rower)
No A levels results (obvs, he hasn't got the results yet)
An internship at Citibank (rather than a graduate job)
Lives in Mayfair
His age
Early decision applicant (narrows the field right down if indeed he was successful this year)
An Ivy League School prospect
Has at least one American parent, (possibly two)and both are US College Alumni
If I am being generous, may have transferred from Eton to Westminster for Y12/13 (also hugely identifiable as this is normally one or two boys)

The whole scenario is insane.

@DDberzatto So the OP never said her son graduated and got a job at Citibank. He might get ivy offer now.

Here you go. Make of all of it what you will. I know what I think.

statesmom · 30/06/2024 09:23
mupersum1 · 30/06/2024 09:12
OP what would you say to your son if he told you he wanted to be a teacher or nurse?
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Both professions are incredibly important but underpaid (considering their contribution to society as a whole).
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Would you tell him you were disappointed in him? Would you feel disappointed?
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Would you tell him he had wasted the money you invested in his education? Would you feel he had wasted it?
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Or would you support him and be proud of his decision to choose a job that helps people?
Despite all of the petty jealousy and sanctimony manifested on this thread by insecure mothers, I am just like anyone else. I would guess that 90%+ of mothers on Earth want one thing for their children and that is happiness.
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So, it's kind of a weird question you give me. Why would I care if he wants to be a school teacher?
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But, in any case, he wants to be an investment banker and has a job offer in the six figures. He'll be 22 and is a happy, intelligent and cultured young man with friends all over the world, a few I reckon will be lifelong.
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So was it all worth it? The tutors, the late nights, the clubs, the camps, the counsellors, the internships inter alia?
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Yes.

@DEI2025 or maybe this...

statesmom · 29/06/2024 19:30
Hmm, so sorry this thread is devolving into hysterical anti-Americanism.
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Let me tell you a fun fact:
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2 American companies, Nvidia and Apple, combined are worth more than every single publicly traded company in this nation.
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Does that mean that money is the most important thing in life? Does it mean that money means happiness? No and no.
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But it does mean that America is wildly more successful than the UK. What UK company actually matters, globally?
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I've lived here a long time and have come to accept, and to be amused, by this hatred of America. And it goes back to what I said earlier: people in Europe generally are jealous and they want to tear down success. This is pathetic and sad.
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The facts speak for themselves. There are many more UK nationals living in the US than US nationals living in the UK.
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Perhaps, people, there is a reason for that. You can talk guns, abortion, blah blah blah.
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Jealosy is the most base of all human emotions.
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In any case, my son did love Westminster and he's loved the Ivy League!!!!

Or the OP is just doing hypotheticao research for a book or article. Which is what I kind of suspected from the beginning.
The global elite class is a new phenomenon and makes for some good fiction.