<p>She’s pushy because she asked about the price of heating oil?</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, some people do major in French and take time off before going to med school.</p>
<p>I’m really glad that this kind of speculation and gossiping is not part of our town culture - or at least part of my circle of friends.</p>
<p>My H majored in philosophy and worked before med school…just saying.</p>
<p>I agree with the general consensus that we can’t know why other kids get into the schools they do, and as curious as we all are, we really don’t have to know.</p>
<p>It sounds as if this mom’s gotten under your skin (and others, too) but I don’t see, based on your posts, that there’s a reason to make a connection from that to admission suspicion.</p>
<p>All of the volunteering in the world on the part of the parent (unless they are volunteering in the admission’s office at the college, and even then it would be a stretch) is not going to get their kid admitted into a college.</p>
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<p>Why does all of this matter to you and why are you letting a person who you said you don’t have much contact with live in your head rent free?</p>
<p>Newsflash… You can major in french and still go to med school. Some students do post bac programs where they take the science requirements for the MCAT.</p>
<p>Also, not all students go straight from college to med/law school, so the parent was correct that it is not uncommon.</p>
<p>It sounds like you have a lot of catty, people who like to do nothing but gossip about other people. Life is too short for that. If this woman gets on your last never with her boast about her kids, streching the truth and getting in your business, don’t deal with her. But by the same token, don’t feed into the gossip that you are hearing from your other friends about her. Be the person who asks straight up “get to the part that has something to do with me.” Since at the end of the day none of this affects how you are living, don’t worry about it. </p>
<p>Don’t drink and don’t let other people feed you the haterade and I promise that less things will get on your nerves.</p>
<p>The fact is, doing administrative work in the college center is not going to give her any kind of access to sabotage other kids (which is the implication here), and her short duration as a volunteer probably has to do with her own kids’ application cycles. She wanted to be close to the guidance center so she could understand what they needed to get where they wanted to go, and so that she could make sure they turned in thier things on time. Plus, this was probably the period where she was most interested in college admissions, because her own kids were going through it. It’s not a crime. </p>
<p>There isn’t always an apparent rhyme or reason to why certain kids get rejected or accepted. It could be because an otherwise good applicant left a typo on their application, it could be for hundreds of thousands of reasons that only an admissions counselor could tell you. Since you will never have access to those admissions files, you just have to accept it. And remember to cut your neighbor a little slack once in a while. She is a member of your community.</p>
<p>I have learned so much this year about the whole application process and, particularly, how difficult it can be for immigrant parents–I have been helping my hairdresser work on the financial aid form for her kid–I thought to myself that I should take all this knowledge and give back (especially as a spanish speaker) but I am a bit put off by all this suspicion about motives. I have a graduating senior (who may get into a top school, but may not) and a freshman who will benefit from what I learned this year and seeing what happens to her brother. I just offered to work with the minority counselor to help identify schools that heavily recruited my son to bring other gifted minority students to their attention in coming years and to work with parents to share my experience of the role of parents, etc. Is this designed to get D into a top U or awards from teh school? No…I am just saddened that kids without the support at home are missing opportunities for colleges and aid because their parents have no experience with the system and the counselors are overworked and overwhelmed at our large PHS.
No one here thought that this woman’s volunteer work saved the school (and county) bucks and lightened the burden so that counselors could help more students without pushy, knowledgeable parents. Perhaps instead of being suspicious you should just say “thanks”.</p>
<p>And really, if you want to know how her kids got into an Ivy - why not just ask her? If someone asked me what I think made the difference in my sons’ acceptances at various fine colleges, I’d be happy to share. I’d even include mentioning the extent to which being a legacy may have helped my older son. (He more than had the stats and ECs as well though.)</p>
<p>Maybe with a little more honesty about the process people wouldn’t think there were secrets involved.</p>
<p>The most ridiculous idea in this thread is that the volunteer got her kids into Ivy League schools by somehow undermining the other students’ applications. Even if a parent volunteer could somehow torpedo another kid’s application, which I doubt, how would that make her kid’s application look any better? The stats are the stats, the recs are the recs, and ECs are the ECs. Harvard gets 30,000 apps per year for 1650 slots in the freshman class. To move her bright-but-nothing-special kid substantially up in the applicant pool hierarchy she would have to somehow trash the apps of thousands of kids from hundreds of high schools all across the country.</p>
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<p>Lol…this is the best question of all and the answer is that I just had some minor surgery and have been home recovering. I normally work (more than) full time and am doing a bit of work from home but not very much, and thus have found much more space in my head this week than I’ve had in forever! (Plus, more opportunity to talk with others on the phone to boot and the stories are truly amazing.) I’m looking forward to getting back to the office!! :-)</p>
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<p>Along those lines, our h.s. sends many kids to top colleges and universities, and our GC is personally acquainted with many admissions reps/officers from all over the country. While every student who has made it to these top schools appeared to be qualified, some of them were a little surprising in the sense that they were either reaches, or the seemingly lower-qualified student was admitted over the higher-qualifed.</p>
<p>Based on nothing but my own hunches, I concluded that some of the students might have had an edge because they were members of a campus organization run by the GC, they volunteered in the GC’s office, or their parents were extremely active and had personal relationships with the GC. I pictured in my mind, the adcom asking our GC, “Which ones of these excellent students should I pick?” and getting recommendations that may have been a little biased. I have no idea if this occurred, but it makes sense to me that it might have.</p>
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<p>I think kids become better known to a GC when they take the time to personally schmooze with the GC, talk to her, ask her questions, keep her in the loop, etc. Our GCs are favorably inclined toward many kids in the high school, few of which have parents who volunteer at the school.</p>
<p>The thought that any GC at our school is personally acquainted with adcoms throughout the nation is laughable, but I can imagine such a situation existing with a known feeder expensive private and boarding school --where the scenario Bay posits may have some merit.</p>
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Eek. Might this ever happen? I have to say the possibility never crossed my mind that an adcom might ask the GC a question like this. It just seems so … unprofessional - but what do I know? (For some reason the scenario reminds me of those apocalyptic TV specials about natural disasters I never even heard of. Magnetic poles reversing - who knew?)</p>
<p>Her kids weren’t “unqualified” for the schools. Most ivy applicants are well-qualified, yet 90% of them are still rejected. So this lady’s kids “won the lottery.” Good for them. </p>
<p>Parents who are wondering should just say to her, “Wow, I hear that your kids got into X and Z schools! Congratulations–they must be super great students because I hear those schools accept only the very best! What do you think were the “deciding factors” on their applications/resumes?” (Gives bragging mom another opportunity to brag about her kids…) and “My kid (friend/relative’s kid) is applying to X and Z. Obviously YOU know a lot about the process–what advice can you give?”</p>
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<p>An adcom won’t ask the question “who should I pick?”, but could ask other questions such as “how do you rank the candidates from your school.” I remember reading an article a few years back about private school GCs who would take their kids on college interviewing trips. There’s a whole different world out there when it comes to private colleges and feeder private high schools.</p>
<p>At our public h.s., college reps from all over the country (including the top privates) annually make campus informational visits which are hosted by our GC. I know that some of these reps have been the actual regional admissions officers. This is the sense in which I mean that our GC is personally acquainted with them. I know that our GC also attends numerous professional networking events and visits college admissions offices (but these are the more local ones). Our school has a fairly large budget for college counseling.</p>
<p>Our current college soph did not have one of those standout EC records in h.s. She was top 10%, an IB diplomate and had been in charge of a few charitable events. Oustside of school after years of dedication and training she reached the second highest national level in an individual sport, one that I have seen top colleges mention when they talk about the characteristics of their incoming classes. I doubt if many of her h.s. classmates even knew of her participation. </p>
<p>Her essays were also very personal and individual. The schools that accepted her knew they were getting a genuine kid, one who worked hard at her sport and also worked extremely hard at her paid, time consuming job. Sometimes it’s not all about what the high school or community know.</p>
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<p>It is my impression that the exchange might go further than this. For example, if a student were to tell his/her GC that a particular college is his/her absolute top choice, and would attend if admitted, with the student’s permission the GC can convey this information to the admissions officer (as well as other possible helpful information, maybe like “full-pay” but I am just guessing about this one.)</p>
<p>“My first thought is that the advantage this mom received, if any, was that her kids would be better known by the GC and s/he would feel favorably inclined toward them when it came time to fill out the counselor recommendation.”</p>
<p>I agree. Also, information about who else is applying to the same schools, gives you a slight advantage, allowing you to highlight achievements that will make you stand up in the pool of other applicants from the same school.</p>
<p>Who remembers the school secretary/mom who was arrested for accessing a school computer and changing grades?</p>
<p>^I don’t understand how anyone thinks they could get away with this. The kids themselves and very likely the parents know what the grades were. When the see the transcript or report card with the wrong grade entered, they will ask questions. I certainly would notice if my kid had straight A grades but suddenly a bunch or Bs or Cs mysteriously appeared out of nowhere.</p>
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I agree. This is off-track, but when did the GC’s become so powerful? In my day, their only job was to sign off on the application or transcript and there was nothing for them to fill out, and no recommendations to write.</p>
<p>At our highly ranked public magnet high school, the GC most definitely knows the regional adcoms from all the top schools.</p>
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The schmoozers always did particularly well at our high school, where most kids had similar high stats.</p>
<p>As for OP – I wouldn’t dwell on it; you’ll never know, and really, who cares. The recommendations and essays can make a big difference, as well as legacy status, and those are the parts of the app others have no knowledge of. I will say that I can’t imagine having a parent involved in the school’s college app process – it’s just not done here. It would be inappropriate for a parent to have any access to student records, or individual college lists, etc.</p>