Parents of the HS Class of 2021 (Part 2)

Or force these schools to figure out how to be as open as possible.

1 Like

Our high school counselor told the parents today they will only send your final transcript to ONE college, so if you try to double deposit they will tell you immediately not to do it and to cancel one of them. The boys have to indicate in early May who they want the final transcript sent to. They said if you got caught schools can rescind your offers. They told parents this is duplicitous and unfair to other students and they will not send a transcript to either school until you pick one.

5 Likes

Here in the DC area there is huge controversy surrounding the return of public school students. DC is returning soon I believe, but surrounding districts are still handwringing and double speaking.

I was in a webinar last night with the author of Raising Cain and he said that the impact to kids who are special needs or of a more vulnerable population educationally is catastrophic. These larger school districts in urban areas truly can’t afford to keep them out of schools much longer.

4 Likes

Michigan doesn’t really care that much about legacy unless you’re a legacy that makes a donation > than 500K. Michigan is known for trying to protect yield in a big way, so they often accept 1 or 2 high stats kids from a school skip many other high stats and then go to the middle of the pack of the next level of great stats but not the highest stats students. Happens at our school every year and everyone knows to expect a deferral at UM. Happened this year exactly as expected.

Two years ago our double legacy valedictorian was deferred for Engineering and instead is at a better CS program than UM. Their risk of worrying about their yield often backfires because kids gets turned off by this and when they feel the love elsewhere they give their love to those other schools which is what happened with this kid.

4 Likes

I agree with this. My nephew (legacy) was flat out denied at UofM and admitted to T10/T20 schools and is now at an Ivy for law school.

3 Likes

Anti vaxxers all over, but that day is coming and schools will ultimately be requiring it. Miami is public so maybe they won’t for awhile, but private schools 100% many of them will be doing it. Ours required the flu shot this year, and you’d think that was a huge deal. My daughter at UT they require the meningitis vaccine and no one seems to scoff at that.

If people don’t want to send their kids to school because they don’t want to be vaccinated, fine, move over and give our kids those spots who do want to attend in person classes and have normal semesters and college experiences. But overall, without herd immunity and all the new variants, I can’t see how things will be normal next year, but there is hope as more vaccines are coming down the pipeline and kids can hopefully get vaccinated sooner than later. My husband is in the last group and I sure hope he can get it sometime in summer.

3 Likes

I agree. Something is not adding up for things being pretty normal by fall. I can’t tell if people are mistakenly counting on natural post-Covid immunity to hold with the variants, the variants not taking off, or the supply to ramp up like crazy this spring. The current supply rate with the gold standard vaccines takes it way out beyond fall and they know those will need to be updated. It’s my hope that the successful formulas are shared given the global emergency so innovation can continue and we can get ahead of this thing.

I’m prepared for some disappointment but hopefully watching things roll out. :crossed_fingers: Not too optimistic right now about the big April trip.

2 Likes

I’m not sure about legacy and Michigan. One of D’s friends with a pretty low GPA and not much rigor got in. No honors English or History or Math. Maybe two APs. Not all As. Just ok ECs. Really not much. Her mom is an alum. No way they give big money like that but they are full pay. On the other hand, the tippy top kids at our school got deferred.

Yep, case in point. High stats deferred. UM is need blind so the full pay thing is irrelevant. I didn’t realize that until recently. People can say not applying for aid and then now still apply for it also.

My mom went to UM and my son who is near top of his class was deferred. Only one person with better stats than him got in and maybe 20 from our school were accepted. We were not shocked, upset, or disappointed, because we expected it. It’s also not his top choice, but he also isn’t just ignoring the opportunity to do what he needs to do for his deferral. He wants to have choices as opposed to just blowing it off. We already know others who have done that because it was a reach for them all along. That’s why it would be nice if instead of basically deferring everyone in EA better if they just reject.

2 Likes

There are supposed to be 600M of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines available by summer. Don’t know when in the ‘summer’
which technically goes into late Sept. That is plenty to get all 16+ people vaccinated (of course not all will get vaccinated). It seems likely that JNJ will be approved within a month, and they promise 100M by June. So that’s all good news
we are literally in a race against getting vaccinated before the current and/or new variants take over.

Edited to add
that does support some ‘normalcy’ by the fall assuming we get those shots into arms. But I don’t really know at what point recommendations re: distancing and masking will be lifted.

3 Likes

Btw, our GC just asked the kids to inform accepted schools as soon as they have been ruled out. I’ve been thinking about this but I feel a little bit frozen too. I think there are two that he could cut loose already. Only one is pretty selective. We will discuss soon.

2 Likes

Not sure if need blind is irrelevant. Guessing most, if not all, families from our high school sending kids to Mich are full pay and the school knows. AOs can all see the “unchecked” applying for aid box.

2 Likes

We said we would wait until we got their financial offers in case something put it back in play, but we got two of them and he’s not that gung ho, so we have a family meeting to discuss declining them this weekend. Especially the ones he got merit aid from I feel like that’s money that could be given to another student, you know?

6 Likes

Yes - we have been struggling with whether we should cut one loose but everything still feels so uncertain. I feel lucky in that he would actually attend any of the schools where he was accepted. The one at the bottom is there due to cost so if they ever increased the merit, they might be a contender. At the same feels selfish to hold on too long when other kids are waiting. I imagine we may be down to a few at the end but I see us notifying some schools before May 1 if he has ruled them out.

2 Likes

And this from the usually pessimistic NYT.

On Tuesday, the federal government said it would allocate a minimum of 10.5 million doses of coronavirus vaccines to states for the next three weeks. At the same time, Moderna is talking to the Food and Drug Administration about filling its vials with 15 doses instead of the current 10, a change that could boost that company’s output by 50 percent.

5 Likes

And hopefully AstraZeneca’s vaccine will be here in March. So we’ll hopefully have J&J, AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna available in the Spring.

5 Likes

I think you’re totally entitled to keep that spot at least until after approaching for more merit. This year is nutty so you might get it.

5 Likes

Curious - what if there are kids who don’t know exactly where they are going in early May? With all the deferrals and predicted waitlist activity that may happen, I suspect there may be more than a few students who don’t know where they are going until after the May deadline (just like last year). My D20 last year was not certain until late May of last year where she was going because of last minute aid added to her package at one school, and had deadlines extended to June 1.

Disclaimer: I am not advocating double depositing.

With that said, telling the kids they have to tell the GC in May (which won’t work if schools extend their commitment dates) where to send their final transcript will not prevent double depositing. The student will still be able to double deposit and postpone the decision for awhile, because final transcripts aren’t due until well into the summer. By that point the student will have to decide, or they wouldn’t be able to register for orientation, fall courses, etc at the school that didn’t get the final transcript (assuming they choose the double deposited school). If the student does make that choice, they could easily say they got off the waitlist (or just changed their mind), then the HS has to send another final transcript which they commonly do every summer.

I would be shocked (really) if any school were to rescind a student this year for double depositing. A lot of kids did last year too, and I didn’t hear about anyone being rescinded. Interested in hearing if anyone did hear of that!

4 Likes

I have said this here and in person many times. I am being more cautious and respectful than 90% of the people I am surrounded by. I have not been perfect, but I am really trying to do my part to help.

After everyone has had access to the vaccine for a while, that will no longer be the case. If you are not protected by choice, then that is your problem not mine. Honestly I’m kind of hoping for a massive surge late summer. If the anti-vaxxers want to get herd immunity the old fashioned way let them do so. It helps protect those of us who are being careful, and more importantly the few who truly can’t get the vaccine. If a few anti-vaxxers die because of the choice they made, I don’t feel any worse about that than when someone not wearing a seatbelt crashes going 120 mph. You made your choices, live with them. Or not.

I totally get being extra cautious now, even for those of us who are probably not at great risk. Certainly our kids are mostly in that category, there are exceptions but none of the people I know IRL who died or had major problems were college age or younger. They are being asked to be cautious not to protect themselves, but to protect us. And I get that and agree with it. But I do not agree that they should be asked to continue to make massive sacrifices because some are unwilling to protect themselves. Once you have the opportunity to get vaccinated, if you pass that up you are on your own in my opinion.

14 Likes