Working with current placement office

<p>I have a question regarding working with your current middle school secondary placement office. My DS started off with 12 high schools he liked, and has painstakingly narrowed it down to six. These are all highly selective schools. He interviews well, has a great academic record, scored 97% on SSAT, and has strong leadership roles in extracurriculars. He plays and enjoys sports, but has been cut from several teams. Our problem is he does not have a first choice. There are pros and cons to each of the six schools of course, but he feels he would be happy at each of them. We are applying to 3 day and 3 boarding schools. The boarding schools are within an hour drive and we have told them we would take a spot as a day student as well. Our current placement office is asking us which school he most wants to attend. I get the feeling that they will only push him if he will commit to going to the school they push if he is accepted. We have interviewed at four of the schools. One interview went close to perfect, one was very good, one was alright and one was awkward (the first). Should we pick the school where the interview went extremely well? He wants to see where he is accepted and then use the revisit day as the time to choose where he feels he fits best. He goes to a extremely well regarded middle school with a very helpful placement office. I understand that the placement office wants to continue its good relationships with the high schools. What do we tell our current placement office? We could just tell them the truth, but then we fear he will not be pushed by them. The school has many other fine middle schoolers who are decisive about their first choice. Should we really try to pick a first choice school? Maybe it will become apparent as we get further into the process. How important is it to have the middle school placement office advocating for you?</p>

<p>I’d suggest discussing this with your kids’s secondary school counselor; he or she should be willing to discuss the process with you and the advantages/disadvantages of giving them a first choice. At our kids’ school the placement office asked for a first choice only if we actually had one. Both kids wanted to keep their options open so we didn’t give one, and things worked out fine (the counselor did have a general idea of which schools were their top choices). In any case, I don’t think there’s that much pushing a middle school placement office can really do. </p>

<p>The placement officer at our son’s school, a well-regarded JBS (though he did not board), asked for a first choice school by late December-- but, as was true for photodad, he was told absolutely to only say a first choice if he was sure and he meant it. It seems hard to believe the school would choose not to push for a good student (although they may not push for everywhere equally)-- their placement record matters. They may, however, think their relationships with various BS may be improved if they can tell them which schools are NOT the first choice of various students, to help the BS keep up their yield (as in, “well, if you’re deciding between Johnny and Tommy, I can tell you Johnny is sure to accept an offer from you, but Tommy is likely to accept School X over you if he gets in”). But I don’t think they would ever undermine your son’s application if he says he genuinely does not have a first choice.</p>

<p>Daykidmom is spot on. In fact 4-5 years down the road, you may very well find the college placement officer doing the same.</p>

<p>My opinion: don’t say you have a first-choice school if you don’t. Push for the recommendation letters to be written before the Christmas/winter break (presenting them just before Thanksgiving, probably) and verify their receipt at the high schools. After the letters are in, I don’t think that the high schools will be factoring in the “push” or lack of it by the middle school placement office nearly as much as the other elements in the application folder. The “yield” element is too complex for applicants to bother with; it is likely you overestimate its importance. Your situation sounds fine, especially if the BS will consider your child for either the boarding or the day pools as suits their needs best. (Assumption is that you are not asking for full FA as this is not mentioned; the odds improve as you move closer to FP.)</p>

<p>Private middle schools often have their own secondary school application process, so you may not have any influence over when recommendation letters get submitted. For example, the middle school placement office may assemble the entire application package for each student for each high school (recommendations, school report, school profile, grades) and submit them to the high schools when the first term grades are ready. This saves the high schools time (they don’t have to file everything piecemeal as it arrives separately in the mail) and reduces the chance that things get lost (secondary school admissions offices get mountains of mail). At a private middle school, writing recommendations is part of the job description for 8th grade teachers, so you shouldn’t be concerned that they won’t get done. All that said, it’s still a good idea to check with the high school that everything arrived (keeping in mind that if the deadline is Jan 15, they may be filing material up until the start of February).</p>

<p>The placement office can be very helpful, if you have clear favorites. If you have the time, it wouldn’t hurt to attend games or events open to the public at different schools, to see if you like the vibe at any school(s) better than others. Many schools list events on their calendars. </p>

<p>Don’t declare you have a favorite if you don’t. On the other hand, you don’t want your son to get into 6 schools. That’s too many to visit, so you’d have to drop a “least favorite” at that time anyway (in the hypothetical situation of 6 acceptances.) I would even say that 6 schools present a huge workload for your 8th grader, in terms of doing a good job on the applications.</p>

<p>I think you should schedule a meeting with your advisor. Ask him/her for advice. For some schools it won’t make a difference if it’s your favorite or not. For some schools it might. </p>

<p>I am really glad not to have to worry about this, but aren’t most prep schools’ admissions processes mostly online these days? </p>

<p>Thanks for the helpful responses.
Charger78…we are full pay, not requesting aid.
Periwinkle, the schools are so selective, he would never get into all six. We are shooting for one, and don’t want to miss out on the extra push from the placement office if that would make the difference. Great idea to attend events, if we can just find the time w/ the application season pending.</p>

<p>IMO, my preference would be apply to all matches, no reaches, no safeties. Son get’s into that reach and the next four years could be miserable. Go to the so called safety, where he will still be challenged but not satisfied. Come March with all matches and you may just find your self with more than one choice. It is true that some boarding schools today are exercising the “Tuft’s Effect” but that really comes into play with the safety factor. He does not need to have a first choice and with the attitude that he’d be happy at any six schools is a plus. Good luck.</p>

<p>Do you HAVE to pick a first school? Why not just keep an open mind and pick once you have firm options? </p>

<p>No and you answered your own question.</p>

<p>Was not trying to be a wise guy. Most applicants do have a favorite. To be able to look at the whole picture and be receptive to all the opportunities is an excellent position. If rejected at the most preferred, one wants to be just as thrilled to get into the next alternative which is part of my reasoning for applying to all matches and hopefully fit.</p>

<p>My son interviewed at 8 schools& applied to 6 - 4 boarding, 2 day. The boarding schools all asked to choose boarding or day when applying. Our placement advisor at school asked to rank schools. We didn’t feel comfortable with that so we didn’t. DS didn’t have a clear first choice. Even with acceptances he still had 2 favorites - one day and one boarding. He revisited both and decided on boarding. </p>