<p>Can someone explain to us public school parents how this works? Are admissions officers at private universities so underpaid and private school counselors so overpaid that there is some implicit understanding that cooperative admissions officers can move into these private school jobs if they admit enough kids from that school? I understand why the private school counselors make these phone calls (they are paid to make them)-but why do admissions officers take them? Its a blatant conflict of interest. Theres already a system in place for the very wealthy and powerful to bypass the standard admissions process, so this isn't the explanation. Or is this article (which I know is very old), just completely out of date?</p>
<p>And Now The Pitch...
A High-School Counselor Works The Phones For His Kids
By Martha Brant | NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated Apr 5, 1999</p>
<p>The phones are still being worked, and worked extra hard during wait-list season. I don’t think this is a matter of trading admissions for career advancement- senior admissions officers and private school counselors tend to stay in their jobs a very long time, and over that time build relations of trust. Counselors do want happy alumni, but they also want to preserve the schools’ reputation by steering students to places they’ll succeed. And subtley steering ad officers away from applicants that may not quite have the best prospects. I think most of these phone calls take the form of “I’m taking four out of your 14 applicants, 6 of whom look identical on paper. You know them and you know our univ. - help me choose the best fit.”</p>
<p>Believe me, speculation on who is getting preferential counselor treatment at specific colleges is a matter of continuous and lively discussion among private school parents.</p>
<p>At the end of my son’s junior year, the teacher who knew the most about his biggest school-related EC (he helped run a unique district-wide program) was called up from reserve status and shipped off to Kuwait and Iraq. Son took over running the program his senior year since the teacher was absent. No letter from the teacher, and no one in his school guidance office knew a whole lot about the program, although they were aware of it. I asked his counselor if she was familiar enough with the program to answer any questions if a college called to ask (yes, I was polite and my inquiry was a casual one) and she told me our public district does not allow counselors to talk to colleges, period: they cannot call and they cannot answer questions about individual students if they are called. </p>
<p>Amazingly enough, a fair number of students still manage to get into top schools, but they do it entirely on their own. It helps (a lot!) that this is a college town and many of the parents have multiple college degrees.</p>
<p>Of course the situation is unfair to the majority of high school students, and the top colleges surely know that. This is one of the reasons I have become pretty jaded about the elite admissions game. (FWIW, my son did just fine.)</p>
<p>I’ve often wondered if some of the cooperation is about the next job as I’ve seen NYC private school college counselors increasingly become former ivy admissions officers. That wasn’t the case years ago when I did a two year stint in admissions. Back then young grads did it while they prepared for grad schools or because they just didn’t want to leave college.</p>
<p>But the adcom job has always relied on the relationships with high school counselors for many reasons. In the days when huge numbers came from the same few private schools those conversations established the matches and protected yields. </p>
<p>In the dark ages heads of feeder schools called Director’s of Admissions and ‘told’ them which boys they would be sending that year. As colleges became more diverse and started accepting kids from a wide range of schools, understanding curriculum, grades and where a kid really was became a way bigger job. So they don’t know what a 4.3 means at a non ranking new school on the block, or whether a kid will enroll if accepted, and they need to find out. The calls go both ways.</p>
<p>At a lot of public schools, the calls do not go both ways. That was the point of my post immediately preceding yours. Public districts fear being accused of being unfair, of violating some obscure rule regarding what kind of private information can be released, and many counselors do not believe they should be spending their time getting Kid A into a fancy school when the next kid on the docket is in danger of attending County Jail after graduation.</p>
<p>I would guess that the policy is in place because they simply do not have the time in public school. Counselors are not just college counselors but counselors for, as you point out, the kid in danger of attending County Jail.</p>
<p>Went to visit a school with S and I think there are a lot of conversations between our GCs and their ADComs mostly because the head of admissions was sure to tell me to give his best to our head of college counseling. However, over the years (and there have been decades), the picks between the two have proven good matures AND gone on to increase their numbers not only to grad schools etc, but also to their donor lists. </p>
<p>The point would be that if a school has a rule to NEVER talk to college adcoms or vice versa, this isn’t an unknown to either side. And while I am sure the GC wrote our S a wonderful recommendation, I would be fairly insulted to think that anyone believed he hadn’t done it on his own. I would think this kind of pull or influence is more evident in waitlists.</p>
<p>I agree with this approach. Through my Ds’ application processes, one of my concerns was that an adcom would call our public school counselor, and she would either not know enough about my Ds or give incorrect information, thereby harming their admissions chances. Obviously, I lack confidence in the GCs, and I believe rightly so, as they have given out incorrect information on a number of issues in the past.</p>
<p>There is a lot of networking between GC and top colleges, and such connections are very significant. At my school GCs have good contact with HYP etc. and a call from the Head Master can get one off of a waitlist, especially for H, granted that the student truly deserves it. I do not go to a private school.</p>
<p>There is a lot of networking between GCs at top schools and top college adcoms, and this connection can be very significant. At my school, which has a lot of HYP admits, a call from the Head Master and GC head can get one off of the waitlist, granted they truly deserve it.</p>
<p>yeah it’s probably unfair, however that’s why parents pay for their kids to go to private school and that’s what the gcs are paid to do
i don’t think this is all too common, however- admission officers don’t have time to call on every applicant</p>
<p>My mother was a college counselor at my private HS. Over the years, she got to know many of the admissions officers at schools where our students frequently applied/attended. She spent a lot of time writing letters of recommendation for students, and the adcom folks trusted my mother’s opinion/assessment of her students.</p>
<p>She did occasionally get into hot water when a parent wanted his kid to go to a certain school and insisted my mom use “her influence” to make it happen. But she never did. She never prevented kids from applying anywhere they wanted, but if she felt it was not a good fit (academically or for another legitimate reason), she would tell the parent that her letter of recommendation to the school would be very general. She refused to exaggerate talents/skills of gloss over obvious weaknesses.</p>