Update, most awkward rehearsal EVER… The conductor kind of revealed their true colors though, they discussed it with some of the students in the orchestra. I was VERY upset about this. Real professional…
We talked about it, me and her, she was upset but I turned it on her a little bit and asked how she would have felt if I told her that I had cheated on the SAT or some other part of the application and how that would make her feel. I think we’re good. She told me that she didn’t even really want to submit an arts supplement because she knew that it would hurt her but her parents were insistent. She doesn’t even want to go to a lot of these schools her parents want her to apply to and they are going to have her take the SAT for the fourth time these fall and she doesn’t really want to do that. I kind of wonder if this wasn’t a little self-sabotage because she didn’t want to go to these schools she would have submitted to. At any rate, I think me and her are fine…Her parents and I on the other hand… They were very upset and tried to defend the recording to me and act like I engineered the whole thing to get a better shot at University X.
- All I did was present the recording to her teacher, he was the one who told the conductor
2.I wasn’t the one doing the engineering, that would be whoever doctored that tape…
uggghh college admissions turns people crazy…
@cowtownbrown, interesting update. Hats off to you for coming back and posting after the fact. With the benefit of age (I’m in my 40s) I would have expected exactly what you described to occur once the other student’s tape was challenged.
The parents, and the other student, have so much at stake in the college process that of course they could not be expected to skulk off into the background and let this go. And this is (hopefully) so out of the realm of normal for the teacher and conductor that of course they would be speaking about it with their colleagues and not concerned about the blowback you would face. It’s human nature.
You may be right about the self-sabotage part. And you are definitely correct that the parents will never forget this.
I don’t mean to be dramatic, but watch your back.
I had wondered about the “self-sabotage” possibility, and also about tiger parents being the driving force. It seemed to me that the applicant showing you her tape was quite possibly a call for help, as there was no need to take the risk in the first place.
No one gets more crazy in the admissions process than the parents.
too true! I really don’t think the alma mater thing is going to define the rest of my life, unless of course I choose to go to a school based on prestige alone, hate it there and do very poorly or fail out…
The conductor didn’t really tell who had told but by the time next rehearsal showed up everyone knew what she had tried to do and given that we have a LOT of seniors in the group people were pretty hostile towards her about it. I thought that was kind of unfair. Was it a bad decision? Absolutely yes, but she’s a 17 year old, we’ve been known to make bad decisions from time to time 
I’m just hoping that she will be able to break away from her parents a little bit in college and kinda forge her own path. Parents can be downright smothering sometimes and even my parents, who are very supportive can be very pressuring about college. They are almost insisting that I apply to and go to Harvard…I’m like “mom …save my time and your money, even if I was so graced to get in, I wouldn’t want to go to school there”
On a side note, I have no worries at all about the parents getting even. Try messing with my parents, see how that goes. Try messing with my mom, I have and it never worked out so well for me My parents have lived through 3 wars and 2 regime changes, they aren’t the slightest bit worried about the soccer mom crew
Soccer moms and totalitarian regimes can sometimes have a lot in common.
@cowtownbrown, I commend you. My son’s college states their policy in stone:
http://www.usma.edu/scpme/siteassets/sitepages/honor/Cadet_Honor_Code.jpg
You did the right thing. Let the chips fall where they may.
@ChoatieMom I really do think that one of the biggest reason why academic/application dishonesty is so common is because kids know about it say nothing. I think that very few kids actually keep their dishonesty a total secret, the tendency is to sort of brag about it, or share it with someone else in order to ease the conscience or get someone to tell you it was OK to do that.
