My counselor who helps with my application told me earlier in the year that he knows my decision a few days before I know. Today, he told me not to be sad if I didn’t get in, because the criteria changes so much. I’m wondering if this means he might already know my decision, and is just saying this to prep me for a rejection, or maybe he just said this for no reason. What do you all think? Does he know my decision already?
It won’t hurt to ask him. But I have never heard of anyone (even a teacher) knowing someone’s decisions before the notification date
Yeah, if you are really questioning it, just ask. But isn’t the point of a fixed decisions day that no one knows until that day? Just ask if you really want to know
He’s not allowed to tell me. I asked him in many ways. He’s not even allowed to tell me if he knows.
He goes to people’s first choices (if they’re applying to private) and he basically just vouches for us, telling them about our accomplishments and how we’re doing and that type of stuff. I’m not really sure if he’s telling the truth, but I’d see no reason for him to lie.
I highly highly doubt this, particularly if we are talking acronym schools. A school may find out slightly earlier (meaning hours, not days). A private counselor will not find out any earlier. Even if the school finds out first, they will not tell you, since it would damage their reputation and their relationship with the boarding school.
Find something else to fixate on.
My daughter is applying to both local day schools and a couple of boarding schools. Our counselor told me on Monday that she will be talking to every admissions office this week and that while she should have the results she is obviously not allowed to say anything.
I wouldn’t read in to his comments. He may not have the information yet or he may just be trying to manage your anxiety for the next 9 days. Hang in there!
Question for those of you whose counselors speak to the schools… are your kids at private schools? I don’t think our public school counselors have any contact with the BS unless they are contacted by them. Obviously the prep schools have a stake in the kids being accepted to good high schools. I wonder if this relationship with the counselors provides an advantage?
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Ours is a private educational consultant that we hired to help us find the right “fit” for our daughter. Our child is currently at a local private day school that goes through 12th grade, so the counselors there have no interest in helping you find a different school. (It’s an amazing school where our other child will remain, but the one applying out needs a different environment for high school.) Lots of the private consultants will help with applications, including essays, recommendations, parent statements, etc., but we mainly used ours to help us uncover schools that weren’t necessarily on our radar yet. They have had relationships with most schools for many many years and have a pretty good idea of the community, environment, faculty, unusual programs or opportunities, atypical learning supports, etc. that help them find a good match for each child. Ours spent a great deal of time getting to know our daughter, talking to me, looking over transcripts and test scores, and most importantly meeting with her in person for hours. Then she talked to all of the admission teams about my daughter and finally wrote a recommendation letter for her. Honestly have no idea if it provides an advantage for admission, but it helped our family to feel like we weren’t doing it alone.
From some comments by the placement advisor at my kids’ private K-8 school, he received some results prior to the official notification dates. This goes back a few years and wasn’t related to my kids. I got the idea that because he had long-standing relationships with some of the schools and AOs, as a courtesy they would let him know early (as in a couple of days maybe).
I’ve heard similar stories from private K-8 schools. Typically the counsellors at these well-heeled schools have connections to the big name boarding schools. Usually in the form of a personal relationship. In some cases, I’ve heard that the boarding schools will give a heads up to the private k-8 counselor on which students they will be taking. This is all expected to be held under strict confidence of course. I really doubt any of the counsellors will divulge the decision.
This similar game is played at the college admissions level. The stakes are higher because many of the college admissions officers are very interested in becoming counsellors at the big name boarding schools. Because of this, there is often a two-way channel of communication, and so none of this surprises me.
I know the school counselor at my kids private K-8 feeder school knew of our decisions a few days before we did. I don’t know exactly when she found out, but she made it clear ahead of time that those decisions could not and would not be shared with us. I think that some schools use these relationships to help their yield - if kid 1 is going to be accepted to his first choice school A, then second choice school B will either wait list or reject based on the kids preference and acceptance at first choice. Although I don’t think the very top, most elite schools utilized that method, or at least not with our school. But my kids’ private school has sent kids to a wide variety of boarding schools over the years, including highly chased acronym schools that are constantly mentioned on CC.
@sgopal2 that’s exactly my situation.
Ours was definitely not a “well-heeled” school, but the advisor definitely had relationships. He may have gotten a heads up also as to kids who were being waitlisted or not offered sufficient financial aid.
Colleges frequently share results slightly in advance with CCS they know, and given that this process works similarly, I would not be surprised if you counselor knows before you do. This is meant, I believe, to enable the counselor to be fully prepared to support theIR client. With that said, they don’t know that far in advance and they often don’t know at all.
@M0hammad , read nothing into it. I haven’t met you in person and I can feel how wound up you are about this decision, so I am sure that your counselor knows this as well and is trying to put this in context. Whatever the answer is.
It IS important to understand that your decisions do not reflect your worth as a person or even as a student. This is an enormous match-making exercise and schools assemble the learning community they are looking for kids they think will thrive there.
Getting into x school does not validate your superiority over someone who was rejected, just as being rejected doesn’t mean you are less. Acceptance is exciting and rejection is sad, but it isn’t who you are. The fastest runner in the country isn’t making the Olympic swim team just as Michael Phelps wasn’t on the track team.
It’s really tempting to try to read the tea leaves, but try now to put this all in context.
@M0hammad: I feel your anguish. Yes your counsellor probably knows. But there is only another week left. So what is the use? Prepare for the worst, and if you get in, then it will be a surprise.
As a young student, I know this is a turning point in your life. But believe me, in 30 years from now, you will be looking back at this point and realizing how insignificant it really was.