<p>The school just won’t give the profile to the parents or the students. I’m not happy about this, but don’t know how to make headway here. The school is trying hard to reduce the competitive atmosphere within the school. I guess by keeping the students in the dark, the school believes it can achieve this goal 
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<p>I was allowed to see the school profile in the counselor’s office, but not take home a copy. I still can’t figure out why. I’ve been looking at profiles of other schools, and will be making a pitch soon to offer to help revamp the profile to include more info. PaperChaserPop, maybe you could make a similar offer. Improving the profile helps the entire student body, after all.</p>
<p>Are we talking about public schools here?</p>
<p>In my case, yes.</p>
<p>Yes here too.</p>
<p>Can you google the profile? Mine is available as a PDF online simply by googling the name of the school followed by the word profile.</p>
<p>Slitheytove, I am doing the same – posters here have been very helpful in helping me identify what parts of the profile should use work. For example, ours doesn’t describe the socioeconomics of the community – just that XYZ High School covers suburbs X, Y and Z. Well, like THAT’s meaningful to a school a thousand miles away @@. It also didn’t provide a breakout of the ACT scores (just the average) nor a breakout of what GPA levels are achieved by what % (though our school does rank).</p>
<p>Our school’s profile is posted online, which I won’t post. Ours is a little bit more detailed with distribution of grades for each class (but I guess Millburn H ranks and we don’t), distribution of AP scores, and we also show number of students accepted and going to each college.</p>
<p>Here is Millburn High School’s profile:
<a href=“http://web.millburn.org/mhs_guidance/PDF%20Documents/Profile%202008-09.pdf[/url]”>http://web.millburn.org/mhs_guidance/PDF%20Documents/Profile%202008-09.pdf</a></p>
<p>The most recent profile I could find online was from 2007. I can’t get this year’s from the HS (public) either. The school does not rank.</p>
<p>Trying to keep PROFILE information from parents seems wrong-headed to me and might violate state laws.</p>
<p>You can probably get the PROFILEs by FOILing them, but then youd have to weight how much ill will that would generate at this point in the process. IIRC, there was at least one case where this was done successfully in a NYS public school. Or maybe you could get someone else to do it. I confess Im a real chicken in dealing with the school sometimes because I know the possible retribution that could be suffered by my children and I know many parents feel the same way.</p>
<p>Some public schools attempt to keep this type of information from parents, sometimes because they view the parents as inconvenient meddlers and they wish to maintain the upper hand in the situation.</p>
<p>There is no way a public school can keep you from seeing a profile. That’s a public document. Talk to the principal who should see the light, and if not, go to the next school board meeting.</p>
<p>I like ST’s suggestion of making a request to see it in the GC’s office. I think I’ll give it a try. If this doesn’t work, I’ll take on hmom5’s suggestion of talking to the principal. If this chicken of a plan triggers ill will then damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!</p>
<p>Pizzagirl - my googling effort turned up nothing :(.</p>
<p>You folks are very patient with public servants.</p>
<p>Only with those public servants who will write D’s recommendations to college, LOL.</p>
<p>I hear you, but an inadequate profile will probably do more harm than a counselor rec will do good. They may not get to the rec if they write the kid off based on the profile. </p>
<p>This should not be any one individuals battle, the school needs to be told at the top what their responsibility to their constituents is.</p>
<p>I agree with hmom. If the nice and helpful approach doesn’t work, you should point out that the only thing you have waived is the right to read recommendation letters, and that you have a right to see any other documentation the school sends out on your child’s behalf. I wouldn’t be surprised if this were covered by FERPA.</p>
<p>Here is an excerpt from today’s NYT Guidance Office column. Bill McClintick, the director of college counseling at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania, wrote on the importance of high-school transcript.</p>
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<p>I don’t think most of what he wrote is news to us, but still my heart grew heavier and heavier as I read through his words until I saw the boldface part. What does he mean by this? Is there hope after all? Folks, time to chime in.</p>
<p>[Guidance Office: Answers From the President of Nacac, Part 4]( <a href=“Guidance Office: Answers From the President of Nacac, Part 4 - The New York Times”>Guidance Office: Answers From the President of Nacac, Part 4 - The New York Times)</p>
<p>Pizzagirl (and those who are looking for good LAC’s for their young scholars), Bill also recommended a list of small LAC’s as well as a few unis that you might find interesting.</p>
<p>Not sure there’s anything surprising or new here. Pretty much what these 62 pages have said over and over.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting that NYT link, PaperChaserPop.</p>
<p>I honestly have no sense of whether my son’s transcript is going to impress or not.</p>
<p>On the one hand, his grades are mixed: mostly A’s, but also plenty of B’s, plus a C and a D, for an unweighted GPA of somewhere around 3.6 (hence my presence in this thread).</p>
<p>On the other hand, he has always challenged himself. By the time he graduates, he will have taken six AP classes as well as several “beyond AP” classes such as multivariable calculus, organic chemistry, microbiology, and biochemistry. His grades in the classes that matter, if you will, have never been below a B.</p>
<p>So, okay, I understand that it’s the transcript, the transcript, the transcript. But when his is placed side-by-side with that of another student with all A’s in less challenging classes—even if those were the most challenging classes offered in that student’s school—who is going to be considered the stronger candidate?</p>
<p>I really have no sense of this at all, even after all the discussion on CC and elsewhere. I think I know the answer for HYPSM, which is that my son won’t make the cut. But what about the Browns, Cornells, Rices, and WashUs farther down the list?</p>
<p>On a related but different note, please see my next post…</p>
<p>PCP, I don’t take it to mean the transcript is less valuable at the most selective schools. I think he means there are so many qualified applicants with the transcript that other factors then become increasingly important as the committee decides which ones to admit.</p>