Just want to wish these things to all the families the over these last few days:
That you are grateful you had a chance to reflect on what you want your high school experience to be.
That you appreciate that you have parents who support your vision and are invested in your education.
That you recognize what a gift it is to have had your kids included you in their journey of crafting their future
That you treasure the time you spent (and hopefully will spend post M10) as a family bonding over the work of choosing a path! We did this over a decade ago and still share laughs about some of the funnier moments along the way.
That you celebrate the work you did to get to the point of anxiously awaiting decisions.
And that you remember that decisions don’t validate or invalidate your worth as a student or person! On M11, you’re still you!
And lastly, as @cinnamon1212 noted, that you are sensitive to others here who may not feel as happy as you do with how things worked out.
Every year, I share that DS was rejected from a school I probably would have loved for myself and might have pushed for had it been an option. Over the years, as we played them in sports and I talked to more families who were there, I realized what a disastrous fit this would have been for my kid. The school he chose turned out to be a great place for him in every regard, and we still think that much of what we love and admire in who he came to be was a result of having been swimming in those waters at that point in his life. Which is all to say, the universe has a funny way of making the right things happen.
Thank you @gardenstategal for those lovely remarks. I can’t help but take pause this week to consider how on the one hand as a parent how thrilling it would be to see our kid embark on a BS journey that so many have described as positively life changing… and yet on the other to recognize the pain of having to let go of the day-to-day connection that will be gone regardless once they’re out of high school and off to their next stage. Thrilled and Sad whichever way the dice throws. Embrace these moments I suppose?
Me too! I’ve been lurking/quelling my anxiety by reading everyone’s posts. But I am a planner and it so stresses me out that I could either be needing to plan a last minute trip from west coast to east coast for revisit days (which would be exciting stress) OR not going anywhere at all. It’s the not knowing that is killing me. I’m hoping for at least 1 acceptance to reward my DD for all the work she put into this process. Even though I know it was good practice for college applications, it think she will be pretty disheartened if she gets rejected all around. Ugh the waiting!!
Someone asked the other day if decisions have all been made. Seems like there are still some application decisions that are up in the air. We were notified today that a school contacted our counselor and has set up a meeting tomorrow to talk about our daughter and whether or not she is likely to attend if offered acceptance (maybe worried about yield protection??). So that’s at least one school where they haven’t finished!
Thank you for sharing that. Is your child at boarding school or public school? Is this a Boarding School perk or the public school counselors get the same contacts and inquiries?
She is at a private school right now, but as we are overseas, we hired a US-based counselor to help us with our search and help identify good-fit schools for our daughter. We listed her on the application and she has had contact with the schools throughout the process. So they know she has worked closely with our family and can give some insight into what our daughter is thinking.
It could also be that she is being considered for a scholarship of some sort. But if she’s not going to come, the school will be in that weird place of not having a recipient for it in the coming year. So they may be checking to see if she is likely to seriously consider it.
Sure, it could also be about enrollment management but there is probably little risk in offering her admission if they like her.
Wouldn’t that be nice? I keep thinking that maybe they are just on the fence about her in general or they are trying to decide between her and another student and they are gauging interest. I think, at the very least, it means she will have a waitlist offer from them. Doesn’t sound like she is going between an admit and deny.
Thank you for your honesty. As newbies to this type of thing we had no clue (now we know) about hiring counselors, people to help write/edit applications etc. Uggghhh
@Momtofourkids , most people do this on their own. A colleague’s sister had a very well-established and well-regarded consulting practice, and he’d offered an introduction, and I was shocked such a thing even existed! No, didn’t take him up on it as we were looking in a very narrow geography. In retrospect, my kid’s application - except SSAT and grades – was really rough!!
I think most of us learn after the fact how much we didn’t know and even what we might have done differently. Personally, I felt that way less in the application process than throughout the 4 years, which is why I became active here as DS was leaving BS!
We are completely new as well, but the middle school counselor at my daughter’s school recommended we hire someone to help us figure out where to apply and help us through the process. She said that she felt it would be really hard for us to identify good fits and get to know the schools really well from so far away. Honestly, I don’t think we would have even found most of the schools my daughter ended up applying to if not for the hired counselor. She was great in really listening to what my daughter wanted and helping her refine that list. She also helped my daughter put together a resume, which she then sent to each school ahead of our visits this past summer and then she called before and after our visits to let them know why she thought our daughter was a great fit for their program and what our daughter could offer.
Also want to say that our daughter wrote all of her essays and did applications herself (you mentioned about counselors writing essays/applications). The counselor helped mostly through the exploration/discovery phase of things for us.
I can only wonder how much more stressed parents of HS kids applying to college would be if college applications also required parent essays and interviews! We will never know hopefully.
I keep thinking that maybe they are just on the fence about her in general or they are trying to decide between her and another student and they are gauging interest. I think, at the very least, it means she will have a waitlist offer from them. Doesn’t sound like she is going between an admit and deny.