<p>The placement office of my child's school comes up with a list of schools for each child that they feel the child should apply to. In your experience, how on-the-mark was this list for your family? Did it 'match' your child, or did you just use it as a starting point? Did you or your child give any parameters to the placement office in coming up with a list (your preferred region, school size, etc)?</p>
<p>My school “steered” me towards Exeter. It was the only one they knew well. But Exeter steered me away from MIT because they had a dismal placement record back then (I ignored them to their consternation and got in)</p>
<p>So use it as a starting point - suggesting the school has an existing relationship with the school or is familiar with their standards. In that case the existing school may have a degree of “advocacy” that might help an application move forward at the desired school. </p>
<p>But don’t let it be a substitute for your own research or judgment.</p>
<p>Some schools mean well, others mean well AND are “tainted” by the need to up their stats so they can do fundraising and/or recruit new students.</p>
<p>Either way - use it as one resource out of many.</p>
<p>My son’s school does the same thing. Actually - they survey parent and child and get our independent input, then they sit down with faculty and advisors and review the student’s performance and learning style. Then they come back with a list of 10 schools - with a balanced mix of stretch, no guarantee but good match, solid match, pretty sure thing (those are my category definitions.) </p>
<p>In our case - we have 11 schools scheduled for interview/tours over the next few months. Of those, 8 were on the list provided by the school. The two schools we left off were stretches that he/son did not feel comfortable about considering. Then we added 2 based on son’s request and another from mom’s request. </p>
<p>If your student’s school has a secondary placement office then they likely have some school fairs or school admission officers coming to speak to the student body. That, and the general discussion among students and recent grads, will lead to your child identifying schools she/he might feel are a good fit for her/him.</p>
<p>I will admit - our list of schools to tour/interview this fall are only about 30% of what I would have had on MY list a year ago. But as my son reminds me - I’m not going to BS - it is HIS high school experience. </p>
<p>As parents our goal was to be sure that every school on the list was one that we felt 100% comfortable about him attending - so that in the end we can truly leave it up to him.</p>
<p>Good responses. Yes, it does seem to be an evolving thing…the more that is learned about the schools, the better the list becomes. A meeting of the minds also needs to be established between parents & child…the perspectives can be so different! There is quite a lot of discussion among the student body at the current school about where they all are applying & the impressions the kids have of the schools…hard to know how accurate their perceptions/wishes/hopes are.</p>
<p>mamakiwi, this is exactly what we have done.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>…but I guess I am the “placement office” haha!</p>
<p>2kids-</p>
<p>I think it all depends on how well the school knows your individual child and how much of a relationship they have with the schools you might consider. At my child’s school the person who does placement work has the kids fill out a questionnaire then meets with parents in the spring to get a sense of what you’re thinking about-whether you’re looking a public, private day or boarding, what you see as your child’s strengths and weaknesses, and what kind of school environment you’d like to see them in.</p>
<p>Our placement office has a scattergram for each school so they can tell you things like “This school likes to see an A- average and SSAT’s in at least the 75th percentile” or “only the top quartile kids from our school tend to get in there”. But beyond that they know the schools well enough to know how your child’s particular talents will impact the admissions process. They can tell you which schools will stretch for athletes, while are focussed on standardized test scores, which like quirky kids. </p>
<p>I was pleasantly surprised that the school’s list was extremely similar to the one we’d come up with after a lot of research and discussion with parents of kids attending the schools. </p>
<p>If you disagree with your placement office don’t be afraid to apply to schools they did not recommend. After all, you know your child better than they do and some schools base their lists on where they think they can get your child in, not the most competitive school to which s/he might be able to gain admittance. </p>
<p>If you do decide to swim against the tide make your case to your placement office. They will be your advocates to the schools and the last thing you want is a lukewarm GC/Headmaster recommendation. Give them the ammunition they need to make a strong argument in favor of your child.</p>
<p>Ooohhh. A scattergram. That is so appealing to my brain. (That was not sarcastic.)
Sounds like your placement folk are very knowledgeable.</p>
<p>2 kids-
I’d caution you about letting your child get too caught up in peer opinions of the various schools. We had a situation where 1/3 of a class ended up at one GLADCHEMMS school at the expense of others. While many of the students belonged there some would probably have been happier elsewhere. What happened was that a couple of particularly popular students decided that this school was the place to be and in talking up their choice they unintentionally disparaged some other schools, which dampened some of the enthusiasm their friends were feeling toward their other choices.</p>
<p>I DO think conversations with parents of students in secondary school are invaluable, especially if their child attended your child’s school. They can tell you how well the new school’s culture matches the old and how the levels of academics compare. If you can find someone whose child did not do well at a school, all the better. Sometimes the reason a school didn’t work for someone else is the exact reason it would work for your child.</p>
<p>^^Great responses, Sue22. Like mamakiwi, I am seeing stars in my eyes over the thought of a scattergram…that would indeed be a big help!</p>
<p>I can see how easy it would be for kids to be swayed by what peers think of schools. This is an age where peer influence is strong, after all. Not sure yet how to deal with that.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the job of the placement office (ongoing school or college) is to place every kid somewhere decent. Sure they will try to help you come up with a list and they will try to tailor it somewhat, but ultimately they will be doing some heavy duty horse trading toward the end, and it is your job as a parent to distill the info and figure out whats best for your kid.</p>
<p>^^ WOW, mhmm, the horse-trading is something I had not considered. Would this ‘trading’ take place <em>before</em> admissions decisions are sent to the family, or after? If the placement office just tries to influence us after schools send out decisions, I think I can handle that. </p>
<p>But if the horse trading goes on as the schools decide whether or not to accept my child, that is really troublesome. It scares me to think that the placement officer might do the best for the class <em>overall</em>, not necessarily for each student. </p>
<p>Does it really happen that the placement officer might say to school X, “Ok, turn 2kids’ kid down, since I know he’s going to be accepted at school Y, but I need you to accept this other kid at our school instead.” We would never know the difference, and maybe it was school X that would have been best for my son!</p>
<p>The schools want a good outcome for each child in the class. Overall this may not be the optimal outcome for your particular child. IOW, if the school knows Exover will not accept more than 4 kids from your child’s school they may not put their full weight behind your child’s application if they think your child is the 6th strongest applicant. They may try to steer you toward a school where your child will be among the stronger candidates or where kids from your school have been particularly successful in admissions. This is as much to protect students from disappointment as it is to make the school’s placement look good.The worst outcome for everyone would be if your child got in nowhere.</p>
<p>Schools no longer have the pull to decide who will or not be admitted. That’s up to the admissions committee at the secondary school. That said, it doesn’t take much to send a school a message as to the relative strength of candidates from the same class. It’s the difference between “Strongest student in this year’s class” and “Extremely strong student”. This is the reason I recommended making a case to your placement person if you think they do not see your child as a good fit for a particular school.</p>
<p>My child’s school asks parents to indicate a first choice when they have one. This allows them to advocate strongly for a student at their first choice school. We chose not to do so because our child is split between 3 schools.</p>
<p>After the decisions come out a school may try to pull some weight for kids it thinks really should come off the waiting list. Sometimes it work, sometimes it doesn’t.</p>
<p>BTW, this really applies only to schools which traditionally have a relationship with prep schools-usually private K-8/9s or LPSs located in the same town as the prep.</p>
<p>yes, I do believe that mhmm is right on about that…
I don’t think it is necessarily to the detriment of the student.
SUE22 posted while I was typing and her comments are very good.</p>
<p>Here is my take on it as I go through the process -
The school has three main priorities (as I see it) -</p>
<p>1) Place all kids in a school.
2) Place all kids in a school where they will succeed and reflect well on the JBS.
3) Place as many kids in TOP schools as possible.</p>
<p>The placement office doesn’t want to let Johnny go to HADES if he is going to be a poor student or discipline problem. They have decades old relationships and it is in their best interest to see that the student and the school are well matched - for everyones benefit. </p>
<p>They also don’t wont push lower tier schools to a student who they think they can get in to a HADES. For example, if a kid has the resume for a HADES but the desire for a – hasn’t CC come up with an acronym for the other schools? I guess there are just too many great schools with great academics and communities to simplify with a five letter acronym :)…
Anyhow, if they can get a kid into a HADES but the kid is on the fence - say he thinks maybe he wants lower pressure environment so he can really be top of the class with less work and enjoy high school - the placement office isn’t going to really support that. They won’t derail the kids applications - I don’t mean that - but I do think they will push the HADES. </p>
<p>Remember, they want to LOOK GOOD to prospective students and looking good is partially about placement. Just think, how closely do YOU look at where these prep schools send their students to college? That is one of our #1 criteria - are kids from that school matriculating to schools where I would like to see my child attend college?</p>
<p>As far as horsetrading is concerned - I don’t really know if they get as callous as that sounds - like trading Johnny for Suzie. I do know that the placement officers and the admissions officers have a great deal of communication. And it isn’t at all of the schools. There will be some schools that have very close ties to a particular JBS and very open lines of communication. </p>
<p>Here is how I think it goes - Johnny applies to StJoes and StBobs (among others). StJoes and StBobs know that they share a significant part of their applicant pool. They like to keep their acceptance rates down - right? - another marketing technique … And they probably have some specific yield numbers they are looking to attain as well. So when StJoes calls JBS and says “Boy, we really like Johnny a lot. We know he also applied to StBobs. Where do you think he is leaning?” If JBS knows that Johnny REALLY REALLY wants to go to StBobs above all else and has a good shot at getting in - then JBS might say “Johnny really likes StJoes, but honestly if he gets in to StBobs that is where he will go.” So, St. Joes says “Okay, we will waitlist him. But if he doesn’t get into StBobs, call us back and we will find a place for him.”</p>
<p>This isn’t all bad for Johnny. I think a lot of the communcation between JBS and the prep schools really works to the positive for the JBS student. These JBS faculty know their kids extremely well. The prep schools know what kind of kid to expect from these JBS and they really want them - they assimilate easy and are well prepared for the academic and boarding life of a prep school.</p>
<p>A key point that SUE22 made was about the #6 kid that desperately wants HADES and that school only takes the top 4. If your child is pushing into that top tier it is worth it to ask some really pointed questions to the placement person. Yes, let them know - when applications are in - what is your #1 to die for choice. They can help. Also push them to let you know if it isn’t feasible so you can push for a different school.</p>
<p>Someone also made the point not to take the placement list as gospel. Good advice. Do a lot of research on your own and don’t be afraid to add something ‘out of the box.’ My son’s #1 to die for school wasn’t on anyones list until September. </p>
<p>I’d be interested to hear any other JBS parents input on this as well.</p>
<p>^^ Okay, this is becoming more clear to me. It makes sense. My son indeed is at a JBS right in the thick of things, with strong ties to the BS community, so doubtless they will want everything to end up looking good, well after the specific kids are long gone. I can understand that. </p>
<p>It makes it easier since we are not really pushing for just the top-ranked school or bust. We do get that it is about fit, for the best of all concerned. We don’t want to be flattered with a list that is too much ‘reach’ and not enough ‘match’. It does make me curious, though, why mamakiwi’s son’s #1 school was not on the list before Sept…why it was missed by the placement office the first go-round?</p>
<p>Good questions 2kids -</p>
<p>The reason it was not on the list from placement is twofold -
- it was not on our list or our son’s list
- it was over 500 students and we ruled out all schools that large</p>
<p>Just because he might be a good fit at a large school, in our JBS case, if a student and family says ‘we want a small boarding school’ - then they are going to steer us in that route. </p>
<p>Another factor that can come up is when schools make presentations on campus. My son had a few that he got interested in that way. Most were futher explored and ruled out, but one he did submit an application. I doubt that is where he will end up - but he liked it enough to ask me to make arrangements for the tour/interview over the Thanksgiving break and that visit was good enough to cause him to apply.</p>
<p>So you just never know… I personally believe that (for most students) there are many ‘matches’ per kid because there are a lot of really great schools out there offering a wonderful community and a great education.</p>
<p>2kids - Does it really happen that the placement officer might say to school X, “Ok, turn 2kids’ kid down, since I know he’s going to be accepted at school Y, but I need you to accept this other kid at our school instead.” We would never know the di…
yes it happens all the time if the “exmission” director is any good.</p>
<p>Mhmm, could you expand on the virtues of this approach?</p>
<p>I can’t answer for mhmm, but I’d say that the advantage is that if 2kids’ child already has a strong preference for school Y he won’t be disappointed to be waitlisted at school X. Otherkid, instead of being turned down by his first choice, school X, will be admitted. Both schools X and Y will have better yield numbers and everyone will be happy. Current school gets both kids into their first choices, both kids get to go where they want, and X and Y admit kids who will accept their offers.</p>
<p>True enough, Sue. If the kid doesn’t have a strong ranking of schools or is just waiting to see how the reaches/matches play out, then I begin to worry about choices being snatched from him before he has a chance to consider & decide. But maybe the pressure for yield has become very intense. I guess I am a newbie at this…didn’t realize that this ‘trading’ went on behind the scenes. We will have to do even more research so son is as clear as he can be on his preferences going into the ‘sorting’ process.</p>
<p>ok, i napped for 2 days, but Sue22 pretty much nailed it. Essentially the jr schools are concerned about placing the class as a whole, while helping the individual family. Generally speaking the class as a whole and how the school looks is more important than the individual family. A relationship with the ongoing school is also extremely important. The ongoing school wants to fill the class, and the yield is important. So of course a lot of time they will rely on the counsellor to let them know the level of interest by the particular kid. This does not apply to the one or two “superstar” which all schools will accept . The same thing then happens at the BS with colleges.</p>