High school posts college acceptances/scholarships

<p>After April 1 the GC's office of S's HS has a display showing, for each student:
[ul]
[<em>] a photo
[</em>] list of college acceptances
[<em>] college decision
[</em>] scholarships
[/ul]</p>

<p>Of course this is fun to see and finally figure out who's going where. It relieves me of running around asking the same question many times.</p>

<p>BUT, does this cause problems? I've already had a discussion with one mom who is worried. Her son applied ED to a very selective school (that people around here don't know is selective), got accepted with no aid/scholarships, and applied to no other school. She's afraid that next to all the people with other acceptances and scholarships that her son's list will look "paltry." And what about the students themselves? Does this cause any problems because all the information is there for comparison?</p>

<p>Of course the students could opt out, but then it might look like they're not even going to college!</p>

<p>Opinions?</p>

<p>Digmedia--I wouldn't worry about what other think. That said...
can the student put "college name" accepted early decision.</p>

<p>Do people at the school understand that early decision is binding. My daughter was accepted ED and I still have people asking me is she still wants to go to that school or if she "changed her mind."</p>

<p>We have had problems at our school.....mean comments etc. Starting this year, our H.S. only posts the name of the school that the student has decided to go to. So all the ED kids get posted in Dec./Jan, and then most others have to let the office know which school they will attend, before it gets posted.
This was done to avoid trophy-hunting, and other games. Still, some kids told the office one school name, and then 2 weeks later went in to change it, and they were told off. Now they will not be posted until May.</p>

<p>My D, for example, got 3 early acceptances, but since she is still waiting until April, is not up on the board. She really does not care. Within their own circles, everyone knows everything, and no-one really cares with image.</p>

<p>I'm glad our hs doesn't do this. There's too much competition already, why just set kids up for more? Our school newspaper lists the student's name and the college he/she will attend, with the parent's and student's permission only, at the end of the year. Most of the kids want it listed, and are happy with their choice by that time. Scholarships and extras aren't listed.</p>

<p>While understand why the school wants to show the kids who got into several schools, they do not seem to care if they are hurting feelings, dealing with kids who are still deciding, or overreached and are dealing with the rejection. Lets say a kid deserved to go to a great school, but doesn't apply because of money, or family circumstances. I think the practice is kind of obnoxious myself. Chocoholic's H.S. has the right idea. If the school wants to show off how many colleges their students got into, just list the schools. The trophy hunting thing is getting out of hand and is creating all kinds of fallout with application growth etc. That kind of practice in some cases jsut perpetuates it/</p>

<p>I agree with Chocoholic. If parents and kids can look past this temporary phase of about 4-5 months until college, once your kids are in college, no one really cares how selective it was or what your SAT score was or whatever...I'd advise parents to look past this.</p>

<p>At my D's middle school, small Catholic one, at the graduation ceremony, all these awards are given out. At least half are for programs and events that the teachers have hand picked the kids for. And our school is know for having teachers pets- so most of those awards go to the same for kids...its get fairly tedious watching the same kids go up (and seeing other deserving kids not get called)...the first time I sat through I was annoyed. Now, with my last kid, I just think, well, this is the highpoint for some of these kids lives. My D is so used to the favoratism, she is kind of numb to it and doesn't care anymore. Afterwards, she knows in her heart what she did and accomplished and those 20 minutes of ceremony mean little in her life. i sound a bit petty,but after dealing with this for 9 years, I am glad to be leaving. Off to high school, where everyone comes in fresh- no status, no teacher's favorites and those kids who weren't always picked but shined nonetheless have a leg up on those that were handed everything. Okay, I feel better know.. Thank you/</p>

<p>I think you should talk with the GCs and Principal. This is inexusable and can only hurt kids feelings. IMO the board should just have one school listed: the school the kid has decided to attend - and there should be no $ amount. If kids want to opt out, they should be allowed to, and there should be the option of listing other post-high school choices. (Marine corps, gap year, employment, etc.)</p>

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<p>I have no patience with this attitude. If her kid had applied to more schools, he'd probably jeopardized his ED acceptance. What does the mom think the application process is about? Trophy hunting?</p>

<p>Our high school has, for the last couple of years, published a list of colleges which graduates will be attending. I think the list could be made more useful by including the number of students applying and attending (for example, I found it interesting to learn that 6 out 19 EA applicants to one elite school got in). Another useful document would be the scattergram that some schools publish. But I would dislike having a list such as Digmedia posted, with students' names and scholarship amounts posted.</p>

<p>Our large, diverse public high school publishes a list of schools which have accepted seniors without connecting those acceptances to individual students. I would love to see a scattergram, but I doubt that will ever happen. I do enjoy looking at the ones other high schools publish.</p>

<p>My S's school refuses to publish any type of list for distribution. Last year, a senior collected names/colleges from as many kids as he could. It was about 85% complete. </p>

<p>The guidance office does compile a list of schools applied to though. It will include weighted GPA, SAT scores, accept/deny, but no names. </p>

<p>I found the guidance list very helpful in making a realistic list of schools for my S to apply to. And I found the names/colleges list very reassuring. It was nice to know that hardly anyone actually ends up at MIT or an Ivy and that most kids go to nice or very nice schools within 4 hours of home.</p>

<p>I can't imagine why A--any school would think it was okay to do this without express written permission of students AND their parents (and even then, why bother?) and B--why anyone cares about the "prestige" of whatever school anyone else's kid got into.</p>

<p>It is completely inappropriate for a school to make public such private information for its own amusement or that of others. As others have said, a scattergram would be informative and adequate for any "sharing" that might do anyone any good. My son's scholarship money is no one else's business but his, ours and those with whom we choose to share this happy information.</p>

<p>What happened at our H.S. in the newsletter they published a list of all the schools that students were admitted to (no names and # of students if more than one got admitted.) In the graduation program, there was a list of schools that the kids decided to attend. This list was published in the fall edition of the newsletter after they had graduated. For Scholarships, if the students wished, they could submit their names and any scholarships they recieved (merit, needbased, outside )then the scholarship was listed under their names. What the students did was in June they designated a day where students would wear apparel from the school that they were ultimately attending.</p>

<p>They used to provide a list of the schools which students applied t but stopped the practice a few years ago.</p>

<p>I worry that it could create hard feelings in a small class. There is enough pressure and comparison in High School. I worry that the "advertising" process diminishes students with few admission offers and little or no merit money and causes few to be happy for the ones with great offers.</p>

<p>That sounds really nice, Sybbie! I especially like the students' choice about listing their scholarshps and wearing their "colors"! A real celebration--and all by private choice.</p>

<p>Our GCs announce the schools and scholarships at the senior banquet, and then only if the student has filled out a sheet ahead of time. There is a list for A & M, UT and TT outside of the career center. I think that's more for kids that are looking for roommates. (Yes, we have many that insist on rooming with a classmate)</p>

<p>I think that it is stuff like this that "encourages" the attitude that I've seen too often on CC--"so-n-so got into College A but I know it was because he/she was black because my friend had higher stats and was rejected." It would be so easy for kids to accuse other students of "stealing" their spot when they feel bitterly disappointed about a rejection.</p>

<p>Aside from printing the names of seniors and which school each has chosen to go to in the last school newspaper of the year, we have something that was started by the students themselves called "THE WALL OF REJECTION."
A few years back some kids tacked up their rejection letters on the bulletin board next to the cafeteria. There were all kinds of rejection letters posted by all varieties of students from all varieties of colleges. In my opinion it helps to give a sense of humor to the situation and alleviates feelings of 'shame' that some kids may feel needlessly. They realize that basically they're all in the same boat. Our public high school is a very competitive one so this helps ease the competition.</p>

<p>Andi, I think that's great, esp. since student-generated and voluntary.</p>