Are you suggesting that the school counselor at a private school can get a student admitted to a college? I’m not sure that’s true.
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should we have sent her to private school?
should we have hired an admissions advisor?
it galls me to think that some of the applications, including the essays themselves, of some of these students chosen over my kid had essays written or strongly guided by these ‘experts.’
i am suggesting they have more time and resources and will therefore put in more time for each individual student and they have better working relationships w admissions members
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Sorry, but this is much more myth than reality. A private school down the street has a college counselor who worked for 10+ years in an Ivy’s admissions office. While they do send a fair number of students to that Ivy, it’s not more than the other Ivys, and it’s also not more than equivalent private schools in the area. What can matter is if your school has a track record with that college and how well they know the school’s curriculum and how much they can count of the incoming students from that school to succeed. So while not as nefarious as you portray it, coming from a top school (public or private) does have advantages.
But it’s very rare for a college counselor to call and AO. And even then, it’s for information gathering, not influencing.
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yes that is one consolation if he continues working as hard as he has. the main is that he found a place which I think will be a good fit for him and he will be happy and get a good education
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Private school counsellors may be able to help in a very small number of low to mid level LACs. This is only at the margin, and is not guaranteed.
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Where will your son attend college?
For many of the most selective private colleges, that is likely true in an academic sense, but perhaps not in terms of their sports teams or how satisfied their donors and alumni are.
It is not rocket science to figure out whether you are a top student or not if you look at your school’s naviance for the prior year or two, and your class rank.
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I’m an independent college counselor and I don’t know a single colleague in my field who writes essays for the applicant! This is unethical and is NOT common practice by any college counselor worth their salt. We do help guide a student with their essays. We do not write them.
You mention private school. Just want to say that my own children went to an unknown rural public high school and landed at top colleges and programs. Not all who get into highly selective colleges come from private schools er even competitive high schools.
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true but many do. and now we have chatbots to assist w essays …
Then I’d say you guys had a successful college search, application and results experience. Good for him, and best of luck.
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but you do agree that the guidance itself could make a significant difference?
Being a top student at your high school doesn’t always translate to being a top applicant in the large pool gunning for specific schools.
Having a ‘top of the class’ mentality is probably actively hurting some students from being able to accurately assess their larger standing.
We saw this all the time when my daughter was competing in her sport. I would hear parents in the stands thinking that their child was doing amazing without realizing their child wasn’t even in the competitive flight of athletes.
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I do think the tendency of highly selective schools to favor Early Decision candidates works in favor of students who are at the “right” high schools or have the “right” advisors because they are in the know and many high stats excellent applicants without those connections lose out because of it.
I also think it is kind of silly that many schools seem to favor a student who began to demonstrate a passion for a specific major with singular intensity and focus beginning at age 12. Many amazing students are still figuring out who they are and what they like at age 18 and beyond.
But I digress.
Regarding feeling bad for your son for not getting rewarded for his hard work — I understand that feeling. But I have a new perspective as the parent of a student who chose to go to a safety school. For the first time, she feels able to balance her rigorous academics with an active social life without becoming too stressed out. She finally has enough bandwidth to devote to fun, friendship, and relaxation without it always amping up her anxiety about acing assignments and scoring well on exams.
And we have encouraged her. Partly, it is a “reward” for sacrifices made in high school. Partly it is an education in critical “soft skills” — she is making connections and developing interpersonal skills with people of varied backgrounds, all of which will serve her well in the future. So THAT is what she is getting for all her hard work.
I will add that we have been very impressed with the caliber of courses, teaching, and opportunities she has received so far. So no regrets that she didn’t choose to go somewhere that rejects most applicants. In fact, had she picked the most selective schools that admitted her (never mind those who rejected her), I think it would have been a mistake.
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And how much class rank matters depends a lot on your school. The #1 student in an underfunded public school is likely not going to be competitive with the #1 kid from the school in the CA Bay Area that sends on average 10 kids to Stanford every year. The point is that you need to see how the kids stacks up against every kid in the pool, not just at your school.
You need to look at your own school’s naviance history as I said above. Don’t read selectively.
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That’s YOUR school…not every school in the country that also has top students.
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i agree that I find it disturbing the need to ask students what their declared major will be. I would think most high schoolers are still very confused about who they are. I don’t remember that being a thing when I applied eons ago.
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Many schools have a counselling platform (software) that they make available to students – both public and private. One of these is naviance. There are others – they all perform the same function. They show prior history of your school’s applicants at colleges, their gpa, test scores etc, anonymizing other things. Then you can look at your application in context of where your school was able to place kids in the recent past