High School prep

Parents Forum
1

<p>My son is a sophomore in a co-ed Catholic high school. Solid education, but nothing extraordinary. They have sent some kids to Ivies and some to top tier colleges/LACs, but not many.</p>

<p>He has an opportunity to transfer into a prestigious all boys prep school for his junior year. He is a year round swimmer and hopes to swim in college. He's a great student (gpa is about a 4.5), is in a select chorus, is a hard worker, VP of his class, has a part time job in addition to endless hours in the pool, has decent list of ECs. He is well respected by the administration, etc.</p>

<p>Question for those who know better:</p>

<p>Is it better to leave well enough alone? In his present high school, he is on the honors/AP track, has an established reputation, has been there 2 years already, can probably get elected Pres. of his senior class and could hold some other leadership roles in his clubs. We know this devil.</p>

<p>OR</p>

<p>Does he take advantage of this unique opportunity for a much better education (undisputed), would be on a more competitive swim team with much better coaching, better opportunities in general.</p>

<p>The boys at the prep school have been there - some since 7th grade, some since 9th - will be in line for the leadership spots so those opportunities will probably disappear for my kid. </p>

<p>This devil is unknown in terms of everything except reputation for a great education, top college acceptances, more overall opportunities. My son knows of a few kids who go there, but he doesn't know them well - only by name.</p>

<p>He will not have an opportunity to shadow until next week and the school has one spot open with people banging on the door to get in (9th graders). He really has to decide whether to fish or cut bait with a short window of opportunity to make this decision.</p>

<p>His goal is to have choices when it comes to colleges. He doesn't know if he wants to try to get into an Ivy or not, but I would say he'd like to get into a top college/university to swim and, as well all know, it's so competitive out there!</p>

<p>My question is this: How do you think a college admissions department would view a change for his junior year, esp. when there would undoubtedly be fewer leadership roles available to him? There will be a change in the look of his application, but it would also be clear why.</p>

<p>Good idea or bad idea to make this change?</p>

<p>Any and all opinions are welcome and I hope they come quickly - time is of the essence here. If there's some better place to post this, please advise. I'm new to CC.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance for your input.</p>

2

<p>I'd leave well enough alone, but my kid went to public school and wasn't interested in Ivies, per se, though he did get admitted to what I consider "elite" schools. Sounds like your son is doing great where he is. Unless he wants a change, I don't see the point. Colleges will look at how well he did in his given setting. JMO</p>

3

<p>My daughter changed school in 11th grade, sort of in the other direction: ultraprestigious private to public magnet that was 6 times the size. It affected her college applications in several ways -- fewer leadership roles (although once she established her bona fides as a competitive, smart kid various classmates and administrators went out of their way to manufacture a few for her), a less rigorous 11th grade curriculum (because the school resisted putting her in all AP/honors courses, and we didn't press hard enough because we didn't understand the difference), and a guidance counselor who didn't understand just how challenging her 9th-10th grade curriculum had been. Also, her non-grade-inflated, non-AP-weighted record translated poorly into the new school's ranking system.</p>

<p>All those things probably weakened her application, although honestly her results were pretty much what we would have expected had she stayed at the private school. We discussed these issues with admissions people at various colleges, and they assured us that they understood the problems and knew how to read both schools' transcripts (both schools were known quantities almost everywhere she applied). I have no way to evaluate how true that really was.</p>

4

<p>I would consider only the next two years when making the decision. Your son will have great college choices whether he makes the change or not, and it's difficult to say which path would lead to better choices. You say that there is no question that the academics are better at the other school. And he is spending hours in the pool - shouldn't he have the advantage of better coaching? On the other hand, if he feels a strong connection to his present school and classmates, and does not want to disrupt his HS career, then he should stay. But I wouldn't make the decision based on how you think his application might look to some unknown admissions officers.</p>

5

<p>these are helpful responses. please keep them coming.</p>

<p>To clarify one point... </p>

<p>He swims for a club team and that would remain the same regardless of where he goes to high school. The coaching at the prep school is what would be much better than the school where he is currently attending, but he'd still have the club coaching which is decent.</p>

6

<p>What's missing from this discussion is how your son feels about the possibility. I wouldn't move him unless he is really excited about the opportunities at the new school, enough to outweigh the disadvantages.</p>

7

<p>I don't think I would switch my kid in junior year unless we were really unsatisfied with the school or my kid was chomping at the bit to go elsewhere. It sounds like he's doing fine where he is. Does he want to make the change?</p>

8

<p>JHS,
Can you share the reason your daughter changed high schools in 11th grade?</p>

9

<p>He is somewhat dissatisfied with the school he is in. There are a lot of kids who are there for disciplinary reasons so there are some rather unreasonable policies (new this year) and some of the kids are creepy. Having said that, I would not say he is "dissatisfied," per se. </p>

<p>I think he's intrigued by the better education (and swimming) he'd receive with a group of guys who are hard workers or they wouldn't be in this particular prep school, but I don't know if that's enough for him to decide to make the change.</p>

<p>He is weighing the pros and cons himself and will then ask for my input. I wanted to hear some opinions before I weighed in with my own so please keep posting!</p>

<p>NYMomof2 suggested that I not be concerned about the opinion of some unknown admissions officers. Since they are the ones who make the decisions about accepting or rejecting, I feel like I need to determine how a change like this would play out in the complex game of college admissions. </p>

<p>Would it be a pro because it's a very good prep school, I believe he'd do well, and his swimming would likely improve? </p>

<p>Is it a con because his leadership opportunities would be lesser? He'd essentially be starting at square one.</p>

<p>Or is it a non-issue from an admissions perspective?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

10

<p>If he is interested and money is not an issue, go for the change--not for college admission but for the better education, which will stand him in good stead wherever he goes to college.</p>

<p>If college placement IS central to your decisionmaking process, it seems to me that his swimming ability must be considered. How does he shape up against other potential DI/High DIII prospects. If he is good enough, it seems to me that any loss in leadership opportunities is likely to be irrelevant.</p>

11

<p>If he wants to make a move, one detail to think through is that of teacher recommendations for college. He would usually need two - typically one from a math/science teacher and one from an English/humanities teacher. How much more difficult might it be to get those from new school vs existing school? Certainly not impossible, but he would want to make it a point to get to know some faculty well enough that he wouldn't lose out on quality recommendations.</p>

12

<p>another thought -- does you son do better when he is in the top 10% of a group? Or does increased competition bring out the best in him?</p>

<p>It sounds like the new school will be more competitive in both academic terms and in swimming -- so he might not be as high up in the group as he currently is at his school. For some kids, this ends up being frustrating and discouraging and for other kids, it is the boost they need to really perform well.</p>

13

<p>I think potential "leadership" positions are not as important as showing consistant interest in his swimming, which he will be doing. IMHO, he should transfer to the more challenging school. In his college essays he can mention that the main reason for transfering was his interest in a better education, which will never be considered a negative to college admissions officers.</p>

14

<p>These continue to be great questions/comments.</p>

<p>Re: swimming, he is in the top 20 in the state in his best events. He is at the bottom of his age group and has not stopped growing so could be highly competitive. Time will tell on that one. He'll be good enough to swim somewhere, but it's still to early to tell at what level. He is not Olympic calibur.</p>

<p>Parents are also interviewed as part of the admissions process so I will ask about getting the recommendations from new teachers. I don't think that will be a problem though.</p>

<p>Great question about the competition and whether he'll find that inspiring or discouraging. I'll ask him because I don't know the answer.</p>

<p>Thanks for the input. There is a lot of food for thought here.</p>

15

<p>"Great question about the competition and whether he'll find that inspiring or discouraging. I'll ask him because I don't know the answer."</p>

<p>sometimes you can get hints of how he will react to competitiveness. In the past, when he participated in an activity, event or class where he was clearly on the lower end -- did he work hard to do his best, even if he couldn't be at the top, and really get something out of the situation? Or did he get discouraged and try to quit the situation, if possible? </p>

<p>sometimes how the student has reacted to similiar, challenging situations in the past can give us clues on how they will react to similiar situations. I have one son who thrives in any type of group -- simply because he tends to be oblivious to outside competition. He sets his own internal competition. My other son is the opposite -- he absolutely thrives on outside competition, but get discouraged if he can't ever be in the top 20%. knowing that information helps us makes choices for our kids.</p>

16

<p>
[quote]
Or is it a non-issue from an admissions perspective?

[/quote]
It is not an issue that you can predict with any certainty, because there are too many unknowns. I would say that the best thing to do would be to let your son make the choice -- truthfully, unless money is a major issue, I can't think of anything you could say to him regarding future college admissions would be more than speculation.</p>

<p>If my daughter had followed a tried-and-true path in her high school, she would never have gotten into the highly-selective schools that admitted her. The best thing she did was break a whole lot of "rules" about what looks best on a college application and instead focus on what she wanted to do for herself at age 16. (In her case, it was a foreign exchange that was very disruptive to course scheduling.) She had a much more rewarding and memorable experience during her high school years because of that, and in the long run it paid off with college apps as well simply because it allowed her to differentiate herself.</p>

<p>The one sure thing is that the quality of your son's experiences during 11th and 12th grade will be different if he switches to the prep school .... and if the prep offers things that he wants right now, then it is a good choice. </p>

<p>Think of it this way: two years down the line, if he does not get into elite colleges but finds himself going off to the state U. along with the majority of his college-bound classmates... how will he feel? The problem with passing on opportunities is that it can always leave a person wondering, "what if?"</p>

17

<p>Re: competition, I would say he rallies. He is a very competitive swimmer and that seems to carry over to the classroom. He's a smart enough kid, a hard worker. I think he'll do ok, but he will definitely be a smaller fish in a more sophisticated pond. That will be a new and interesting experience for him.</p>

<p>Calmom, If he doesn't get into an elite college in two years, he'll be fine. He really wants to swim in college and may or may not be at the "elite" level anyway. Time will tell on that because he is growing, still getting bigger and stronger and we hope that translates into faster times. He may not, however, end up being a D1 swimmer in which case he'll swim at a less competitive college and will know he took some chances and is where he belongs. </p>

<p>We have hashed through this since I first posted and he has decided to go for it because it is a unique (pretty much once in a lifetime) opportunity that is being afforded him. </p>

<p>The only real hesitation ended up being about his social life...going from a co-ed school where he has some friends to an all boys school where he knows a few names, but no personalities. We also talked about a moderate income vs. some really rich kids and what that might look and feel like.</p>

<p>There are pros and cons to every decision we make, right? I figure this is, at a minimum, a good life's lesson in how to analyze options, make a choice and move forward with it. If it goes well, there is considerable upside potential (a great education). If it's bad, it's only for 2 years.</p>

<p>Thank you all so much for weighing in. I used all of your points, + and -, in discussing this opportunity with my son and it was most helpful. I really appreciate the time you all took to respond.</p>