<p>A young woman at a large public school in Brooklyn, N.Y., was told by her counselor earlier in the year that it was school policy that only the top five students each year could apply to the Ivy League. She was ranked 11th and told she could not apply to Harvard. Eventually the school relented, claiming there was no such policy, and she was allowed to apply to her colleges of choice.
Have you heard of or experienced this -- a counselor or school relying on numbers like GPA or SAT in this way. </p>
<p>yes, one of my friends in california said her counselor would not sign off or fill out forms for ivies because she was not in the top 10 ranks.</p>
<p>after going to the school board/school district and various other things she eventually got higher administration to force the counselor to allow her in applying. she ended up being accepted to all the schools she applied to</p>
<p>I can't believe something like that...thats ridculous</p>
<p>Its so ILLEGAL, how can a counselor do that. you don't have to be ranked in the top ten to get into Ivies and schools like MIT, CIT and Stanford</p>
<p>what happens if you're in an especially competitive school? although i doubt most schools have that because that kind of policy is completely unfair.</p>
<p>It probably helps keep kids within their range of schools. Someone who is ranked ~50 doesn't have a great chance of getting in to an Ivy. Some ranked ~5 doesn't either, but it's a better chance. I'll get crucified for saying it, but I don't think it's such a bad policy.</p>
<p>However, Patrick, it is the guidance counselor's job, in fact, to do just--guide, not dictate. I believe such a policy has good intentions; however, it is rather invasive.</p>
<p>I figured the policy came from higher up the chain of command than the guidance counselor. If it came from the state Board of Education or the school district then it is the GC's job to follow it. However, if no such higher rule is in place then it is the GC's job to fill out whatever the student wants within reason (by that I mean a reasonable number of apps). I don't envy GCs during application time but it isn't their place to decide where a student can apply (the District could, though). I hope I made my position clear.</p>
<p>I understand what you are saying. Many times administrators at high schools take the brunt of criticism for enforcing regulations imposed by the Board of Education. It's the quintessential "Dont Kill The Messenger" situation. I also feel sorry for guidance counselors during application season. Lord knows they are breathing a sigh of relief now.</p>
<p>I somewhat understand the policy since people have such unrealistic expectations about the college admission process. Unless one was a recruited athlete in my school, or had a completely disproportionate GPA, highly competitive schools were not in the cards. Students have such unrealistic expectations when applying to colleges. Although no one should forbid you from applying, guidance counselors should be maintaining expectations, something which they are notoriously poor at doing.</p>
<p>There have been a couple other posts where this has supposedly happened. I would NEVER let anyone tell my child where or where not to apply. Of course, the counselor should tell them or give them the statistics of admissions, etc. That being said, there are still students who get accepted to the Ivy's & other top schools w/o spectacular test scores etc.</p>
<p>It SHOULD be the top 5% of all standents can apply, and any URM in the top 25% can apply. That way, everyone stays within their range of schools.</p>
<p>I read about that situation. A shame. Glad the girl has a sister who is an attorney who challenged it and won. As far as I am concerned anyone should be applied to any school he wants. The GC should advise him of the suitability of choice and chances, but it should ultimately be the student's choice.</p>
<p>I'll take the cyncial view here.....the GC is in a tough spot at a competitive school, since s/he has to write a rec for every one of those apps to HYPS. Obviously, 10 glowing recs to the same school could dilute thier individual value.</p>
<p>In every single school my kids attended, public, parochial, independent, the GC wrote one generic rec for each kid whether the rec was going to a spread like Harvard-U of Hartford. For each app, the rec was just copied and stuck in the envelope with the transcript. When my son applied this year his spread was precisely that variant, and the GC did only do one rec. He had to choose several teachers to write recs and picked different ones to send to different colleges. When a school specified an academic rec, he had the history rec; for the performing arts schools, one of the pa teachers wrote the recs. But they were all generic recs, not for any particular school.</p>
<p>Exactly--it's the same amount of work no matter where they apply. Just write the appropriate rec for each student; let the college decide which they like.</p>
<p>FWIW, my S was ranked 7 and got into an Ivy. You bet I'd be there on my broomstick if someone said he wasn't "allowed" to apply!</p>
<p>Garland, the visual of you on a broomstick makes me smile. My son once posted a sign for the Mother's club at the school saying, "Park broomsticks, here." One mother was a bit miffed about the implecation that moms do the cleaning. We had to set her straight.</p>
<p>I have to confess that the phrase was handed down to me by my wonderful MIL, HS English teacher and mom-of-four, who never took **** from anyone when it came to her kids.</p>
<p>I'd be really upset if my school did anything like that. I barely make top 10%, and while I didn't get into ALL the competitive schools I got into, I did get into several, despite the fact that I rank about #30 (of ~370). </p>
<p>Then again, my school is intense. Exactly one half (12) of the students in my AP english class are going to Ivies. Obviously all 12 cannot be in the top 10.</p>
<p>Even if it wasn't though, I'd still be annoyed. I think the guidence counselor should of course advise you on what schools you have a shot at, but ultimiately, you should be able to apply to any school you want.</p>