At my kids school, in the email newsletter every week, the GC includes a list of “Congrats to X for getting accepted to Y” as the news comes in. It’s voluntary in a sense since the kids don’t have to tell the GC where they were accepted but the culture is that they don’t feel like they have to hide anything. The GC also announces a running tally of total scholarship offers received by the entire class, which is meaningless in a sense since each kid can only accept one scholarship. It’s just a generalized brag for the school and also meant to encourage underclassmen that college is achievable.
At my son’s school the $ amount of scholarship is not listed - just the name of the scholarship.
Our very large public high school prints a paper once a month. The final edition lists the colleges each senior will be attending or branch of military they are joining. The school has a large (40%) minority population and by far the most common colleges listed are our two big community colleges. I knew many of the seniors well from four years of involvement as a band parent and was incredibly proud of these students, many came from migrant families and the student was the first high school graduate in their family.
My son said it was voluntary, each senior received a form in home room and returned them to the front office.
My kids’ school only announced MERIT awards, never need-based awards. I can’t remember if they listed all acceptances, or just the chosen school.
This is kind of like listing the names of the honor roll…those NOT on the list are suddenly known not to have qualifying grades.
It’s opt-in at our high school and a special newspaper edition called senior destinations is printed. It lists the college for each graduate (or post-graduation plans like a gap year) and intended major, a map that illustrates geographic dispersion, senior superlatives, and aphorisms. It’s pretty cool to see where everyone is going and how far-flung the kids end up.
I think it’s a wonderful tradition, and really celebrates each kid’s achievements. I agree they should get permission, but I would hope that everyone would say yes. I don’t care whether the kid is going to a trade school, the military, or an ivy league college. They’ve finished high school and are about to take the first steps toward their adult careers. Congratulations to all!
Not okay. My Ds’ high school identified the colleges in a list but in no way would they identify which kid went where.
I’m not sure, but I don’t think my son was listed in the paper, which leads me to believe the students were given some thing to fill out and he just didn’t bother.
Since they name each school and then list which students are going there, it is easy for stufents to see if anyone is going to their college. It’s a pretty big school so students may not all know who is going where. There are always a few students going to top 20 type schools but far and away the mist popular choice is the state flagship. And then there are a number of schools that will have 3-5 or so students enrolling and I would imagine it’s nice to know that.
To answer the original question: I think it’s a great way to share the accomplishments…however, it should be done with their permission. (I’m also curious how they have access to that information)
My kids school has a scholarship night where any senior receiving a scholarship is recognize.
Near the end of the year, the seniors each get a paper “crown”. They are invited to decorate it with their college’s school colors, logo etc. and then they have a designated day when all the kids wear them to school. (Obviously, this is voluntary)
^ I’m also curious how they get the info. We had to let our GCs know what scholarship offers our Ds received. The school doesn’t know. I would assume they know the future college because they have to send a final transcript?
Sure the counseling office would need to know where to send the final transcript, but the kids on the school paper don’t need to know that and it would seem to be an invasion of privacy for the counseling office to just release that info to the school paper.
If the school paper simply requests it from the kids (or the kids have a way to opt out) I have no problem with it…I think it’s a great idea. But it does seem a little odd that the school would just release this information like that.
I’m fine having a school publish a “where our students are going this year.” I enjoy seeing the list actually and then my kid will share where their specific friends (kids I actually know) are going. Attaching students names crosses the line of appropriateness in my book. The college application process is difficult enough without creating a very public competition within the high school itself.
D’s high school was small and thought it was a great idea to have the kids list all their acceptances in the main office as they came in! That was pretty awkward and rife with misunderstanding.
I was in high school when the economy tanked. A lot of my friends’ parents lost their college savings and plans radically changed our senior year. I know a lot of them were all set to go to more “elite” schools and then suddenly they were going to the local directional university.
Many kept this information close to the chest because they didn’t want to talk about their family’s financial problems.
This is one of the many reasons why I feel it’s incredibly inappropriate to list colleges (with names attached) without permission.
I think people take things too offensively. I am the Editor-In-Chief of my school newspaper and we always do a senior edition. It honors the seniors. No one has a problem with it and we just get the list of seniors and where they are going right from guidance.
Good luck jdschooled5, watch out for a lawsuit. Where someone goes to college is up to them to advertise, and guidance is breaking FERPA rules by giving your newspaper that information.
http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html
“No big deal” is a big deal for some. For example, my brother didn’t know where he was going until mid-July. Do you list “not attending college” for those who don’t attend college?
Our school paper asks the seniors to submit info if they want to. No pressure.
I’m with @romanigypsyeyes – we live in the same state. The large urban school district here has the lowest HS grad rate of any large district in the nation (~22%) and happens to be my alma mater district. They have television crews at some high schools to celebrate the half dozen or so graduates who are going to college in that school’s grad class – any college.
I’m just thinking about the haves and the have-nots…
I think our HS requires kids to fill out a form with college acceptance info/post grad plans in order to be in the graduation, but the info is solely for guidance records and is not publicly released. It may be an empty threat, but I guess it manages to persuade most of the kinds to comply, and obviously it is info that guidance needs to have.
In the final edition of the school paper, our HS publishes the seniors’ names and college/program/military affiliation but nothing about scholarships. I’ve never heard anyone complain or have any problem with the list and it’s been done for many years. I’m sure students could opt out, but it appears everyone participates. The only complaints were when the information was wrong, ie. Cal Poly Pomona instead of Pomona College.
I agree that giving out the info without student permission (or parental permission if student is still a minor) is absolutely a FERPA violation.
High schools shouldn’t be identifying students who receive need-based aid. And how many high schools really understand which “scholarships” are merit-based and which are need-based aid? Our (large public) high schools sure don’t understand the difference!