The BS Class of 2015 Thread

Prep School Admissions Prep School Parents
61

<p>My reply disappeared but I was saying the same thing as Periwinkle and Sudsie anyway. There’s no real harm to the visits if she’s the one who is interested but there’s no real value to them either. She will have changed by the time she is a junior and her visits at that point will be more targeted to who she is and what she wants at that time.</p>

<p>In addition, I’ve seen some of those college tours in our travels over the years. They’re too scripted for me personally and I think my daughters have had a better time being able to play things by ear: sitting in on classes if they chose, wandering around the campus and college town or city near the school, eating on campus or nearby, talking to students, not on any particular schedule and not in any formal, pre-planned way.</p>

62

<p>I’m still waiting for the first parent contact with ds’s college counselor. I asked ds, and he says that his school uses Naviance, but the school has not given me any access info. </p>

<p>I have played around with cappex and college board college search tools for ds. He hasn’t had much time to do any research on his own, as his schedule is jammed with academics and extracurriculars. I have printed out lists for him to look at, and I hope that he will find a way to read up on the schools before too long.</p>

63

<p>Thanks for the input. Much appreciated. I am reminded of a recent conversation with D. We were lightly discussing the excitement on campus with the seniors receiving early decisions and the conversation ended with us agreeing to her not thinking about the process at all until summer before junior year and really enjoying bs for now.</p>

<p>She needs no extra motivation, she is working hard and earning excellent grades.</p>

<p>She must have received the email as well and if she doesnt bring it up, I wont either.</p>

<p>Plus, 15 schools in a week sounds like a whirlwind!</p>

64

<p>7D1 is home for a long weekend post exams at SAS. Had some very good discussions re: HER college list/interests/dealbreakers, etc. Last night I suggested she leaf through the Fiske for more detail on the few schools that were on her radar. Was rewarded with FB messages from her room (is this what parent-child communications has come to circa 2014?!?) like “So many required courses for liberal arts students!”</p>

<p>Oh, the joys of parenthood. ;-P</p>

65

<p>@SevenDad It’s a 7! I’m so happy. Now to finish that social studies homework…</p>

66

<p>Hi everyone, as a parents of a current senior BS, I would like to share some of our experience here.
Junior spring and Senior fall are the most stressful time for a high schooler. Many kids experienced grade drop and some might even had emotional break down. My suggestion to Junior parents is that understand your kid’s workload and give them as much support as possible. Son spent two weeks of his spring break on standardized test preparation which help reduced his workload in May. I heard many kids at his school can only have two to three hours sleep time per day due to term papers, finals and standardized tests. If you not happy about your kid’s test score, sign him/her for preparation class. I found my son had endurance problem for a long test. Most of his high school tests are one to two hours, and Sat is 4-5 hour long. After a few mock test, he got better on his later half of the test.</p>

67

<p>We did our college visit before school start. Son is very good networking with seniors. He got a lots of college information and help from his dorm brothers. Kids graduated from his school like to visit back during their college break. He has a list of contracts for each school for his college list. The support he got from those college kids is extremely valuable, and finally helped him to reach his dream school.</p>

<p>Regarding the college list, most college counselor like to see well balanced reach, possible and likely school list. It’s easy to make the reach list. Tricky part is the likely list. Son decided to apply three EA school, and he got in his reach and possible but deferred on his likely. Luckily he applied an UK rolling school and got in early. There are a lots of pressure at senior fall since the early sports recruits and ED, EA results. It’s good to apply at least one likely rolling school so your kid won’t panic.</p>

68

<p>S1’s prep school has excellent college counseling, so we are astounded by the number of his friends who have private college counselors. It’s an arms race that we can’t play.</p>

69

<p>Senior winter break is a most difficult break. Keep communication and continue support is very important to your kid. From very beginning of college process, I decided to put son on the driver’s seat, and I will ride along with him. Many times my suggestion wont take by him so as counselor’s. without my critics, he will explain why and how. I learned a lot from our conversation.</p>

<p>According to son, it’s important to carefully select junior summer activies and senior courses to support his passion in social science. During junior spring he spent many hours researching his summer intern. The process might feels like waste time, but did help him to build strong communication skill which lead to strong interview skill later. </p>

<p>It’s good to be well rounded student. It’s not ok if student shows no interest on the subject he or she applied. if a student applied college of engineering but never attend the engineering class the high school offered, it raises red flag. Some suggestion on passion can show through summer class or research, national competition, summer intern, special EC at school, an EC course or independent study at school, etc.</p>

70

<p>@GMTplus, BS college counselor normally is very knowledgeable. The point is your son knows himself the best. If the kid willing to do his leg work, he will benefit more from school counselor. Also, if your kid manage his schedule well, he will have many one on one time. Many kids only go for the min required meeting w. their counselor. FYI, My son don’t have outside counselor beside the school one. He gets many support from those college kids from his dorm or sports team.</p>

71

<p>

</p>

<p>What the…!!! Can someone possibly explain this absurdity? How prevalent is this? My brain is about to explode! Just when you think you’ve heard it all.</p>

72

<p>OK, so DH just explained that private counselors probably aren’t duplicating the normal school counseling, but are hired more to get a student into a particular school?</p>

73

<p>It’s pretty typical at D’s prep school too. Some parents hire these counselors so that they don’t have to be the ones nagging their kids/reading their essays. They find it works better to have an outside neutral person deal with the conflict and that it goes smoother that way. Others are fixed on tippy top moon reach schools and have some notion that these people will have contacts to get their kids in to school X. </p>

<p>To be honest, I have no idea how these counselors work or what value they provide. This is just what I’ve heard from other parents.</p>

74

<p>We don’t plan to use an outside counselor…as CM has noted, isn’t that part of what we are all paying for?</p>

<p>But 3girls3cats brings up a good point regarding a neutral third party — I certainly plan to use one when it comes to 7D1 learning how to drive!</p>

75

<p>I’m planning to enlist the help of older sisters in both areas! </p>

76

<p>It’s pretty typical at our prep school, too. I think it’s because some people don’t like what the CCs tell them (about their reach schools and how hard it is to get in), and also because they just want someone to micro-manage their kids so they don’t have to worry whether or not everything is done on time. We will be sticking with the supposedly excellent CCs that our tuition is paying for – there is no way I’m paying thousands of dollars for another CC. </p>

77

<p>We will also be sticking with the excellent college counselling available at D2’s BS. I’m paying enough in tuition already! They seem very thorough and knowledgeable. The driving is another story!</p>

78

<p>You might read this book already for the prep school application. It’s good for your kid to read it at Junior year.
“What You Don’t Know Can Keep You Out of College: A Top Consultant Explains the 13 Fatal Application Mistakesand Why Character Isthe Key to College Admissions” by Don Dunbar</p>

79

<p>We too are embarking on the college counseling experience, and I also have heard from parent’s of prior graduates at our school recommending private consultants. We’re sticking to the BS college counselors.</p>

<p>Glad to hear abut other kids interested in STEM/RSI and I don’t mind mentioning some schools because with my usual compulsiveness we visited many last summer. From a STEM (biochemistry) perspective, though (and I think that perspective really affects what we say)-</p>

<p>U Chicago was beautiful, has a good med school, loved their sense of humor (visit was run by OA in black suits and sun glasses), but COMMON CORE demands about 2 years, and mild grade deflation. Still an amazing place, very impressed.</p>

<p>WUSTL seems exactly what Disney studios would conjure up as a perfect university, and the students are rightfully thrilled to be there. Beautiful condo dorms with individual gyms in each building, amazing food, beautiful campus across from a huge park, nice kids, great med school. Wow, just Wow. Visit if you have not already.</p>

<p>Caltech. Authentic, friendly, welcoming, we all loved it. </p>

<p>U Michigan and U Wisconsin are on the list.</p>

<p>D did not like LACs, not even Pomona :frowning: That cuts out a lot of great choices like Grinell, Macalester, Carleton too. She wants a BIG research Uni. </p>

<p>Happy to discuss others via PM……Anybody else found some interesting safeties?</p>

<p>And our BS has a unique policy - if you are admitted EA/ED/SCEA to a highly selective school, no further applications are allowed. None. They won’t send them out. Changes decision making on which school to choose for early application - go for the big dream. </p>

80

<p>Should I be sheepish to admit that we may use a local consultant? Here’s the deal. We believe fully that LC & DC should be the leaders in the process. But DC came to the BS world from a fabulous local little-Quaker-school-that-could, where we still have children attending. The college counselor there is AWESOME, and the school has the results to prove it. And she knows DC because of his years there in middle school. So this is not some big NYC or Boston-based conglomerate telling us how to crack the code for HYPSM. Instead it’s like a true consultation with someone who already knows DC and can give us a different perspective from what the school might. Anyway, nothing’s formalized yet, but that’s what we’re thinking, so I’ll let people know how it goes and works out.</p>