<p>I know that colleges often call high school guidance counselors to ask questions about kids that the college is on the fence about. Have been wondering what the GCs say. Do you think they tell colleges where else the kid has been accepted, for example, if the college asks? Do you think they tell the college where they think the college stands on the kid's list of preferences? Both things that could really impact whether a kid is accepted, I suspect. (Could this explain some of the "Why Didn't I Get In?" questioning that goes on out here every spring?)</p>
<p>There’s no one answer. GCs in most public schools wouldn’t know the kids if thy tripped over them. (Asking my kids’ GC what schools they preferred would have been silly. How on earth would she know? She was someone who dispensed transcripts and little more.) otoh, at a private school the GC might know quite a lot.</p>
<p>Yes, I am thinking more of the private school GC who does know the answer to these questions… just wondering how much they spill.</p>
<p>A college did call S’s college counselor. They did want to know if they were S’s top choice. She told them the truth… :rolleyes: S was wait listed. We’ll never know what might have happened, but S is VERY happy where he is.</p>
<p>My kids’ high school counselor wanted a list -in order of preference- when it got on toward acceptance time. I think it’s very likely that the colleges ask private HS counselors, especially those who have cultivated relationships, what the chances are of the student attending if admitted, among other things.
It worried me a little bit at the time, as I think high school counselors are trying to make the HS look good, and may put the interest of the school ahead of individual students.
If they know that Susie is already accepted at Stanford, why would they help her get into Harvard too when Johnny really wants to go to Harvard, but has no other top choice acceptance.<br>
The school wants to get as many kids into the best schools they can. At least, private high schools think this way. I agree that the public schools may be too big and the students not well-known enough to play this game, although some of the wealthier ones do.</p>
<p>You must be kidding me - does this really happen? I mean schools calling GC with questions?
I feel that our GC would do anything for the kid to get into the school she/he wants to get in. But how would she know if the kid does not know him/herself?</p>
<p>My kids are in a large public HS with a magnet program that does have a designated GC specifically for this program (IB). She has about 450-500 students that she looks after and honest to God, she knows them all quite well 
And she cares deeply about all of them! I know there are parents at the school trying to play games, but I think she is above it…</p>
<p>Wow! I encouraged my son not to form preferences until he had all of his results in hand. I can’t think of a good reason for a GC to ask a student to rank his/her college list, not a reason that’s good for the student anyway.</p>
<p>^^ same here bethievt - I repeatedly asked DS not to fall in love with the school until he has all decision in…</p>
<p>Moonchild,
I completely agree with you regarding GCs at small, competitive, private schools. Here are my hunches only for our own private school, not generalizable to other schools, and likely to be denied by any and all GCs.
- GCs want to get every kid placed in the relatively best places that they can, and the GCs have a non-disclosed class rank in their head. Thus the kids lower on the scale get “harshly” discouraged from applying to lottery schools, the kids on the top of the scale get advised to reduce their number of safety schools.
- GC have relationships with adcoms, so they also don’t want to oversell a kid who may not put the HS in the best light when they get to the college (i.e. placed the kid in too deep academic waters).
- Our HS feeds into USC. Sometimes, the kids who get accepted SCEA into HYPS get rejected from USC RD. Maybe it’s the unpredictability of college admissions. Maybe it’s GC trying to get the “not yet placed” HS students into USC and at same time USC protecting it’s yield. Quid pro quo. But we on the outside will never know.</p>
<p>I believe the guidance counselors have to be careful to not promote one kid over another who have applied to the same college. They have a code of ethics. So there are times when they are bound to not say much to the admissions counselors, but just ask general questions about the college’s expected yield.</p>
<p>I agree that there is no good reason why a GC would ask a student to submit a list ranking his/her college preferences. I guess one of the benefits of attending a public school, is that the GC doesn’t know my child well enough to answer any possible questions from a college. ;)</p>
<p>LBowie, if you think such a code exists, I’m thinking you are probably not familiar with private school counselors and how they handle college admissions. The counselors don’t see it as “preference” for one student over another, but as “doing their best to successfully place the entire class, and preserving relationships with the colleges.”
Sometimes kids do suffer ill effects, as this leads to discouraging applications from some kids to certain schools, pushing some applicants but not others behind the scenes to some schools, revealing perceived student preferences to the adcoms, etc.
Many private schools use the Naviance system, where students are asked to rank their interest in each school they apply to.</p>
<p>Public school. We had Naviance. Neither kid was asked to rank interest. Maybe that’s a recent “improvement”. I don’t know if a counselor would know which other kids are applying since there are a least a dozen counselors handling seniors. The only story I have heard about was when a GC told us she’d called a college to find out why a student was waitlisted, and she told the college it was the student’s first choice. The college had assumed it wasn’t since the student hadn’t visited. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Yes, I totally understand about private schools my sister-in-law really feels strongly that the GC at her son’s school shunted him into the second rank of applicants. (He was rejected from MIT and other top choices. He ended up at Rice - no thanks to the guidance department, her dentist suggested it - and it was a phenomenal fit - so the story has a happy ending - he’s a grad student at MIT now as it happens.)</p>
<p>Live by the sword, die by the sword. People fall all over themselves and pay big money to have their kids attend elite private schools with great college placement track records. How do you think they got those great college placement track records? </p>
<p>Sure, part of it is only accepting (or keeping) top students in the first place, and part of it is providing those kids an absolutely first-rate secondary education. So they all have a high, high probability of success wherever they go.</p>
<p>But the other big part of the elite private schools’ college placement success is active management of college placement. And sometimes that means slotting kids, and always that means that the interest of the class as a whole, and the school as a whole (i.e., future classes), may outweigh the interests of a particular student. I think they try to avoid those situations, but they occur. And sometimes the school’s sense of what is in a student’s best interest differs from what the student’s parents think. (I have yet to hear about an elite private school whose faculty and administration do not think they know better than their students’ parents.)</p>
<p>Again, if you want the benefit of the school, that’s what you sign up for. With the schools I know, overall it works really well. The kids get into great colleges, and are happy and successful there. It’s not always the precise great colleges their parents hoped for, but it’s usually a great result. And for kids who for whatever reason have problematic applications, I have seen heaven and earth moved to get a really good, really appropriate outcome.</p>
<p>Very small private school. My child has spent ALOT of time with GC over the past year. Confident that she would never comment on where any particular school falls in the “rank”. These days, where FA plays an enormous role in so many kids’ eventual college choice…I don’t think it’s even a relevant question any more.</p>
<p>My kid is in public HS and I am sure the GCs are well aware of preferences of atleast top 25% kids in the class. I heard GCs will answer any questions of admissions officers related to kid’s resume or club activities. But I am not sure if they can influence the admission outcome.</p>
<p>My DD went to a small, public (but excellent) HS. Her GC met with her repeatedly and met with me one on one. The GCs give out forms to parents to help “explain” the kids. I always thought she had my DDs best interest at heart. DD was waitlisted and given January admit at a state school. GC said she could call in a favor and probably get DD into Sept admit, but needed to know what DD wanted. I said we would take a pass, but appreciated it.</p>
<p>ETA – My DD was not in top 25% of class.</p>
<p>This is so obnoxious! How can any GC possibly know what a kid’s TRUE preferences are without offers in hand–and parents’ support/consent? Anyway, my guess would be that most kids (at least those of the sort that post regularly on this site) would simply state their reachiest reach school, on the assumption that EVERYONE would understand why he/she would choose Harvard, given the chance, over Tufts or whatever.</p>
<p>Maybe I should be glad my kids are at a huge public school where they are basically ignored by the GCs.</p>
<p>My kids went to a large public high school. It seemed like the the counselors wanted to keep track -would informally ask the kids -where they had gotten in so far -just a casual question in the hall. I suggested to my kids that they not reveal too much. I didn’t want the counselor thinking - Yes, good! He’s taken care of - case closed.</p>
<p>The colleges have reps with personal relationships with GC’s. this is particularly true for private schools. Our GC slipped and told me the other day that an admissions counselor really liked my son’s file. Obviously they called for some info. GCs hold a lot more power than you think. I have to believe most of them want as many acceptances as possible, but if they want to be in the good graces of this admissions rep, then maybe it becomes a game. Don’t underestimate the power of any GC.</p>