So our kids got to a private day school and they have a placement office for High School. The woman who runs it starts working with kids in the summer before 7th grade to get them to identify a list of schools they want to research. Over the next year, the list gets whittled down. Then, after interviews are over and app.s are in, she has the kids rank order their schools on a spreadsheet. She then goes and visits the schools in person (or at least the ones within a few hours, ie the Gladchemms and other top tier boarding schools).
The school boasts that nearly all students get their first or second choice. And that does seem to be the case. I remember reading that years ago, and similar things on other competitive private school websites. Of course it starts with the schools making sure you create an appropriate list … so it is less meaningful then it sounds.
Some parents, even though the kids got top or second choice, are questioning whether the kids should rank. Because no one seems to get in to the school they rank lower than 1 or 2. And that means, in a way, they really are choosing schools before revisit day. Some parents want to rank 3 or 4 schools equally, until they can revisit.
Other people argue that no school wants to waste an acceptance, and that the way the school gets you in your top choices is to horse trade. They tell the school that “Sam” ranks them 4th, so just waitlist him, and instead take “Jane” who ranks you first. That helps with yield. I think I have seen a similar discussion in a book about prep schools.
We will be going through this again for another child and I am wondering, if you are using your school’s placement person, does your school make you rank? Does it end up that kids get in where they “want” but have few choices, or not? Would you rank schools again?
The placement process at my kids’ pK-8 school sounds a lot like yours. The placement coordinator does ask us to rank and to indicate a “1st choice”, and does like to tout that all kids got into their 1st choice school. She follows up with the schools to which the kids are applying, and uses the ranking information to guide the discussion with each school. She will definitely tell a school if they are the “1st choice” for a particular kid.
However, we’ve been through the process twice, last year with DD1 and this year with DD2, and chose not to do a 1st choice. In both cases, we did not indicate a “1st choice” school. We may have given her a ranking with DD1, but for DD2, we told her schools ABC&D are tied for first, schools E&F are tied for 5th. Both kids got into multiple schools. DD1 was accepted to 4 out of 7 applied to. DD2 was accepted to 5 out of 6 applied to.
Don’t really know how the kids did who did give a “1st choice”.
Tangentially, I thought some schools may not accept DD2 simply because DD1 was at a different school. That turned out not to be an issue at all. Also, I have to say, much more stress and energy went into DD1’s application, than went into DD2’s, but results were very similar.
Oh, one more thing…regarding your horse trading comments…I just don’t think our placement office has that much pull in the Admissions offices of most of the schools to which the students apply. One or two schools, maybe, but not for most schools. YMMV, of course.
Yeah, i know what you mean. I don’t think she has “pull”, I think she is a good information broker. It starts with gently guiding kids to “pick” the schools they are best matched to. And then her knowing a certain subset of the Gladchemms really well (like when we visited they would say “oh say, hi to Ms. So and so for me.” It seems that the same five Gladchemms crop up each year among the school’s graduates, now that I think of it.
I remember the book now, it was called “Privelege” by Shamus Kahn. Interesting book.
It is from “Privelege” and it is about BS getting kids into colleges, but I think it applies as well to some day schools that get a lot of their students into elite BS.
Here it is below … it goes on to talk about the “horse trading” aspect.
First, the college counselor calls Harvard. They talk about all the kids they have applying.
Harvard has already looked at the files, and is interested in some but not all of the students from
the elite boarding school. The school provides Harvard with valuable information about its
applicants. It affirms decisions that it thinks are correct, pushes Harvard in directions of students
it thinks they have passed over too quickly, and reveals the preferences of the students who
really want to go to Harvard (so Harvard knows they will attend if admitted). Harvard is getting
something valuable here: information about students. This information isn’t just about whether
they will attend; it’s about the students’ character – who they are, a sense of the kid that goes far
deeper than the file. This helps Harvard, but it also helps students from elite boarding schools, as
the additional information gives these students a richer presence in the minds of college
admissions officers. There is a give and take to these conversations, built upon a long
relationship between elite boarding schools and colleges. The relationships and conversations are
on-going. On both ends of the telephone there is an attempt to get the “right” students into the
“right” colleges (like matchmaking), while also solving some of the problems we’ve seen 14
confronting both the colleges and the elite boarding schools: getting kids in, and keeping yields
high.
We were told at a parents college admission weekend that this may have been true in the past but doesn’t happen now. 50 years ago this top boarding would call a college and say these are the boys you are taking. 30 years ago they would call and say look at these kids. Not anymore.
I largely agree. No doubt its apocryphal but the old story is that the headmaster would divide a piece of paper between Harvard and Yale, and ask each boy (they were boys then, only) to write their name on one side or the other. Those days are unequivocally gone. But placement counsellors still have relationships, and they still meet with AOs. So something is happening there. Just far less potent/direct. How that translates to what happens between day feeders and prep, IDK.
BTW Shamus Khan is a sociology prof at Columbia and an SPS alum. He went back to SPS to study it for a year and then wrote his book in 2010. He is a very interesting guy if you look at any of his Youtube videos. Really has great insight into our supposed meritocratic society. Food for thought.
I have a good friend in placement office of one of the top day schools in Boston. It regulars places 30+% in the Ivy+ category. There is some general consistency with what most people are posting to how she has explained her role in contacting and advocating with these schools.
In fact, one time she relayed that the school advocated for a student to go to Stanford. When the student turned down Stanford’s acceptance, the placement office was called and the conversation as relayed to me was strained. According to my friend, it hurt future applicants into Stanford.
Yeah, I can imagine that the day school was livid! Insight into the applicants, and assurances about their intent, is theri stock and trade to give them access to AOs. Our placement office person is very adamant about having clear and reliable communication with parents and kids about their intent, and brooks no nonsense or double dealing.