Good post. I do feel as if this discussion has gone off the rails somewhat. Obviously top BS students have an advantage because of multiple factors. PS students can be at an advantage or disadvantage depending on where they live for instance. A good PS rural applicant far away from top New England LACS typically have a much better shot than the many, many local rural PS valedictorians that get rejected each year. Top BS valedictorians don’t have that problem of course. On the flip side there are many qualified but less stellar (in terms of grades) students at top BS’s that perhaps would be valedictorians in faraway PS’s that get rejected just because colleges are understandingly trying hard to break with old norms.
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“Somewhat” is an understatement. 
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I actually forgot what the question was while reading through the how much grade inflation and where is it worse argument for the millionth time.
I am sure that at prestigious and expensive day schools there is plenty of grade inflation because the parents are around ALL the time. I am also sure that at a school where a teacher has actually said to the class “your grades are too high I am curving down” there is almost no grade inflation and kids struggle to get above a 90. Yes, a C at that school is almost unheard of because the school was super selective - that isn’t an indication of inflation.
Anyway, the college list question. I don’t know. It feels a little random, if you get a good GC you are lucky but I suspect that many schools have less than great GC’s and if you get one of those you are going to get a somewhat random or off the mark list. My son met with a GC early on because I asked a question for a tournament application and GC gave my son a list that I thought was pretty random - mostly because it had like half the Ivies but not the other half. Half the NESCACs but not the other half. It was somewhat of a puzzle. Like is the difference between getting into Yale vs Harvard really that great that you are only encouraging kids to apply to Harvard? I was confused. My son has some pretty strict rules about colleges anyway so few of the random schools are ending up on his list anyway.
Also, I routinely believe and then despair that colleges know how hard my kid’s school is. I have just had too many people anecdotally tell me that an AO from x college or a coach from y college made a GPA “not high enough” comment clearly indicating they did not understand the BS rigor and grading scale. And I am not talking about midwest, never heard of, colleges. I am talking about well known, east coast schools who clearly have new inexperienced staff.
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I am way late to this thread, but also have a kid starting this process. It’s interesting to see everyone’s thoughts. I feel a little disconnected from the process bc parents have not met in person with their CC, but we’ve emailed. The Maia platform seems good so far and I liked that there was a way for all three parties to input info and you could see who was the author. This kid’s school switched to the block semester system for this year and he got a bad grade in one class in the Fall. I think there was just way too much info coming all at once and it’s not the strongest class for him. I hope colleges will understand this when he applies. I have no idea what the “list” is looking like right now as I think it’s still being formed. It is helpful that my kid knows what he wants to study, so is only looking at schools with a strong program in his area of interest. I have to say, I am less stressed about the college process than the BS one. I feel like my kid really matured (something badly needed) and he has a rock solid foundation with regards to thinking, problem solving, creativity and confidence that will serve him well, even if he doesn’t go to the reach schools that will be on the list eventually. Anyway…I did hear that Rice was going TO for the next cycle also; I’m guessing bc it boosted applications and I’m sure that’s across the board at BS and colleges.
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@one1ofeach - can totally relate. As I posted on another thread, we had one college coach who had NEVER heard of our BS - even though it is a powerhouse in that particular sport. Turns out the coach was new and from the Midwest, with no experience recruiting from BS’s.
Question about GC and colleges. If a student wants to go to Dartmouth (for example) and has good stats - Honor Roll, high GPA, lots of ECs, Varsity sports, decent ACT - will that GC say “No, because we already have students who are committed to that school”…or “Sorry, but we promised these other kids that they would apply”. Do BS refuse to support you applying to schools if they already have their “chosen” students?
I wonder if the refusal to support some students applying to certain schools is a practice at some large boarding schools as I have not heard of this practice at elite boarding schools with smaller enrollments.
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Even at a school with that practice (to the extent it’s a thing), it’s tough to believe that the kid you describe wouldn’t be among those supported, you know? I guess anything is possible…maybe a lot of legacies, mega donors, etc. might muddy the waters?
ETA: it’s possible too that if enough kids applied early and were accepted that by the time regular admissions came around they might advise you not to bother (e.g. 5 kids got into X college early and it’s the first time ever that X took more than 3 from our school)…maybe?
Absolutely not.
I have heard of that happening, even at the smaller elite schools; however, we haven’t experienced it (nor has anyone we know.) Perhaps it was more common in the past when the prep schools were feeders to specific colleges.
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I haven’t heard of any boarding school that chooses or pre-selects students for colleges. It’s among the pool of students who have indicated interest in applying to any given college that the GCs know who the best matches are and who has the best shot. The students indicate interest and initiate their choices, not the BS. In my MIT example, our son already knew the strength of the pool he was in and pretty much who was applying where. His GC just confirmed that there were several stronger candidates for MIT, and he was unlikely to make the cut for the number of offers MIT was likely to make to his class. OTOH, she told him for which colleges he was a top candidate. Her predictions proved uncanny. 
One other comment, maybe even more off topic, but interesting to me. I went into the application season thinking that I could predict which (smart and famous) kids would be hogging the Ivy acceptances and was pretty off the mark, especially in one case. GC told me, “Those kids can go anywhere they want. They don’t need a particular college to validate them, so they choose based on other things.”
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Interesting to me too. When all is said and done what we are left with is a plain old game of status… If you already have it why chase it?
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The upside is that several of those kids were not even applying to schools that a lot of their classmates were lusting for, so they were lessening the competition.
What I want to know is if Elite U ever calls a CC and says “so we are looking at these 5 students, what can you tell us? Nudge nudge wink wink”? And if they do call, what does the CC say?
That exact scenario happened in my oldest’s year. Not a BS, but a New England day school peer. Head of College Placement let it be known among the boys that “don’t apply to Ivy X because we already have four recruited athletes and two legacies lined up to go there and they won’t take more than that from us”.
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That is what happened to my nephew in NY&C
My son goes to a day/boarding school in TX. When he was toying the idea of applying ED to a popular T20 private college, I reached out to his GC(his school has 4) and asked if she could brief me on how many kids from his school were applying…anyhow, was told “per school policy I can’t provide that info, but if junior wants to apply, I’ll fully support his decision”.
No “nudging,” just plain conversation. There definitely are open phone calls between colleges and your student’s BS over the applicant pool the college is winnowing, especially for students they really want. Colleges want to know where they rank with those students (yield protection is a big deal), and they also may need clarifying information, or the BS may want to provide a college with an update on an applicant. If you haven’t, read The Gatekeepers by Jacques Steinberg, a very detailed behind-the-scenes look at an admissions round at Wesleyan. The book was written in '99, but the process described seems very aligned with what we saw and felt in 2015.
One example of communication I was aware of was with a college on our son’s list that did not do ED and had a love-hate relationship with Choate based on a history of being used as an Ivy backup; yield was never predictable, and they were tired of the uncertainty. So, they had an unofficial “first choice” list with Choate and worked with the GCs to nail down which applicants would definitely accept if offered admittance. Our son got a very explicit e-mail from his GC explaining that if he wanted that college, he would need to commit to the FC list. When he didn’t respond to her in a timely fashion, she sent an e-mail to me explaining that his window with that college was about to close if he didn’t contact her. It wasn’t a service academy, so he passed, but the point is that once BS applications hit college admissions offices, the lines of communication are open and active.
Another part of this communication is the policy of closing out open applications with colleges after students have submitted an acceptance. The CC office kept tight track of the app/decision status of every student. Once our son accepted his appointment, his GC ensured that all of his remaining open apps were closed. This meant that he did not get a decision from some schools, but it removed him from the competition as a courtesy to classmates who were still waiting on decisions in those pools, and it kept colleges informed of which Choate students were/weren’t still in play.
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Thank you @ChoatieMom for this answer.
This is the type of information I was searching for.
Thanks @ChoatieMom ! Your information is very helpful, as always.
This is the type of information I was looking for. Perhaps, I should have named this post “Inner workings of the Prep School College Advising Office”.
Can we ask @skieurope to rename this post?
Of course
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