For-Profit High School Recruits Students With Guarantee on Admission to Top College

[OHMomof2]

…And scholarship offers are also a sure thing, this high school says, at “top 100” colleges.

“Fairmont Private Schools, Orange County’s largest and oldest nonsectarian private school, is boosting the return on investment in education with the Fairmont College Promise, which guarantees that Fairmont Preparatory Academy graduates will be accepted to and receive scholarships for tuition at the Top 100 U.S. colleges or universities. The school also says it will convert up to 100 percent of tuition paid to attend its high school into a scholarship to the college of choice if the promise is not met,” says a press release issued last week.

https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2018/05/29/profit-high-school-recruits-students-guarantee-admission-top-colleges

[ucbalumnus]

The details:

http://www.fairmontschools.com/wp-content/uploads/bsk-pdf-manager/2017/07/College-Promise-Program-Description-Sheet-7-13-2017-v2.pdf

Note that the guarantees are contingent on class rank quartiles and GPA. For example, third quartile students are only assured of admission to a top 150 college (some of which are not hard to get into like #145 University of Mississippi). Also, the students must have been enrolled there since 7th grade.

[VickiSoCal]

Understand that the school is competing with some of the best high schools in California for students. Local Schools like University High School, Troy High School and my kids’ high school have excellent college admissions stats for free.

[allyphoe]

Also,
• When submitting college applications, student must apply to the colleges recommended and agreed upon by their
college counselor ensuring an appropriate balance of schools based upon the student’s academic profile, acceptance
rates and historical Fairmont data.
• Student will apply to a minimum of ten Top 100 colleges or universities agreed upon by their college counselor.
• Scholarship offers do not have to be for the school the student will ultimately attend.

[shortnuke]

Also

When submitting college applications, student must apply to the colleges recommended and agreed upon by their college counselor…

and

Top 100, Top 150 and Top 200 national universities, national liberal arts colleges, regional universities and regional colleges as defined by US News and World Report for the Fairmont Prep graduation year.

Including regional universities and colleges as “Top 100” and requiring students to apply to colleges recommended by their counselors seems to make this a sucker’s bet for Fairmont.

[OHMomof2]

I kind of hate the power this policy delivers to USNews.

[sylvan8798]

Buried in the rules and regs, if your GPA falls below 2.0 and you don’t get it back up, they can boot you out.

[bouders]

Any private school can boot out a student for a subpar GPA.