private HS CCO and influence in admissions?

[Anonymous]

I posted this in another thread. But wanted to put it here, so others might see and comment.

Last week, our private's CCO had a meeting with us and senior DC to ask about ranking top remaining RD choices (kid had been deferred ED1 from private T20; no ED2; lots of acceptances in EA). Kid is already in at selective (t20/25) public OOS flagships.

But CCO asked for a "ranking" of top 3 remaining selective RD choices - now as of March 1. Why would that be? What will they do with that information? Do they "make calls" to these admissions offices for purposes of yield? What does this group think? Do other private HS do this now? Or is this information only for WL and to prepare to "make calls" later?

They took detailed notes.

[Anonymous]

They may be trying to manage acceptances for the high school as a whole and potentially plug for some students but not others.

The high school counselor is on Team High School, not on Team Student.

[Anonymous]

Our private's college office absolutely brokers RDs and especially WLs. If they have 10 kids applying RD to Cornell, for example, and know that only 2 of them would actually go, they would let the Cornell AO know those two would definitely go. If they know that a kid is in EA at UChicago, but waiting to hear RD from Yale, Penn and Emory - they want to know how the kid would rank them, and esp if they would stick with Chicago over Emory, because Emory is probably another RD kid's first choice, and they want that kid to get in. When it comes to WLs, they will basically tell each kid to pick the WL school they would 100% attend if they get in, because they don't want a kid getting in off the Yale WL who ends up choosing a different school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our private's college office absolutely brokers RDs and especially WLs. If they have 10 kids applying RD to Cornell, for example, and know that only 2 of them would actually go, they would let the Cornell AO know those two would definitely go. If they know that a kid is in EA at UChicago, but waiting to hear RD from Yale, Penn and Emory - they want to know how the kid would rank them, and esp if they would stick with Chicago over Emory, because Emory is probably another RD kid's first choice, and they want that kid to get in. When it comes to WLs, they will basically tell each kid to pick the WL school they would 100% attend if they get in, because they don't want a kid getting in off the Yale WL who ends up choosing a different school.

OP.
this makes total sense - and your UChicago vs. Emory ranking in particular.
CCO asked DC specifically about one EA admit and if it ranks 2, 3 or 4.
Then asked between 2 or 4, would you still take 2. Very few questions about 1. Maybe because they already know, 1 isn't happening? It's all a bit unclear.

[Anonymous]

They are going through the motions to appease you. AO’s don’t take calls anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They are going through the motions to appease you. AO’s don’t take calls anymore.

are you a private school parent?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They are going through the motions to appease you. AO’s don’t take calls anymore.

They shouldn’t but I wouldn’t be surprised if they still do. College admissions has always been corrupt in this way.

[Anonymous]

There's a bunch of info about how this works (and it does) for feeder HS - some high schools do have long term relationships with CERTAIN AOs. It's all relationship based.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/15bd091/aos_why_do_you_accept_counselor_calls_from

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/171403/glasener_1.pdf?sequence=1

[Anonymous]

IF there's a school that cares about interest, they might reach out say say "they will definitely come."

Now, if they use that chip too many times, the college might ignore them, so be honest.

[Anonymous]

Its called an "advocacy" call. Even Sara H on AN talks about it.

[Anonymous]

Almost all of the CCs at top privates were in admissions depts at selective colleges before moving to the other side. It's a relatively small world and of course there are all sorts of informal conversations happening between AOs and CCs at these schools.

It's also quite clear that at top privates the counseling office is trying to manage all sorts of expectations from parents while maximizing the best total outcome for a particular class.

Anecdotally, a friend whose daughter was on the WL at an Ivy but who was admitted to Chicago told me that the Ivy contacted the CC directly to ask if the student would definitely commit if admitted off the waitlist -- if a yes, they would be admitted, if not, they remain waitlisted. Kid went to Chicago.

Obviously this cannot happen with CCs at every suburban high school in the country. Only at a select group of privates where these relationships are already in place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Almost all of the CCs at top privates were in admissions depts at selective colleges before moving to the other side. It's a relatively small world and of course there are all sorts of informal conversations happening between AOs and CCs at these schools.

It's also quite clear that at top privates the counseling office is trying to manage all sorts of expectations from parents while maximizing the best total outcome for a particular class.

Anecdotally, a friend whose daughter was on the WL at an Ivy but who was admitted to Chicago told me that the Ivy contacted the CC directly to ask if the student would definitely commit if admitted off the waitlist -- if a yes, they would be admitted, if not, they remain waitlisted. Kid went to Chicago.

Obviously this cannot happen with CCs at every suburban high school in the country. Only at a select group of privates where these relationships are already in place.

Does anything happen before WLs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Almost all of the CCs at top privates were in admissions depts at selective colleges before moving to the other side. It's a relatively small world and of course there are all sorts of informal conversations happening between AOs and CCs at these schools.

It's also quite clear that at top privates the counseling office is trying to manage all sorts of expectations from parents while maximizing the best total outcome for a particular class.

Anecdotally, a friend whose daughter was on the WL at an Ivy but who was admitted to Chicago told me that the Ivy contacted the CC directly to ask if the student would definitely commit if admitted off the waitlist -- if a yes, they would be admitted, if not, they remain waitlisted. Kid went to Chicago.

Obviously this cannot happen with CCs at every suburban high school in the country. Only at a select group of privates where these relationships are already in place.

What’s stopping a public high school from calling? This isn’t rocket science lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Almost all of the CCs at top privates were in admissions depts at selective colleges before moving to the other side. It's a relatively small world and of course there are all sorts of informal conversations happening between AOs and CCs at these schools.

It's also quite clear that at top privates the counseling office is trying to manage all sorts of expectations from parents while maximizing the best total outcome for a particular class.

Anecdotally, a friend whose daughter was on the WL at an Ivy but who was admitted to Chicago told me that the Ivy contacted the CC directly to ask if the student would definitely commit if admitted off the waitlist -- if a yes, they would be admitted, if not, they remain waitlisted. Kid went to Chicago.

Obviously this cannot happen with CCs at every suburban high school in the country. Only at a select group of privates where these relationships are already in place.

What’s stopping a public high school from calling? This isn’t rocket science lol

Will the AO even take the call if they don't know the high school counselor? Or did the AO even visit the public high school? Someone elsewhere said the biggest sign of whether your school is a "feeder" is who visits your school during fall AO visits, followed by raw T25 college admissions # (not matriculations which is published in profile) each year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Almost all of the CCs at top privates were in admissions depts at selective colleges before moving to the other side. It's a relatively small world and of course there are all sorts of informal conversations happening between AOs and CCs at these schools.

It's also quite clear that at top privates the counseling office is trying to manage all sorts of expectations from parents while maximizing the best total outcome for a particular class.

Anecdotally, a friend whose daughter was on the WL at an Ivy but who was admitted to Chicago told me that the Ivy contacted the CC directly to ask if the student would definitely commit if admitted off the waitlist -- if a yes, they would be admitted, if not, they remain waitlisted. Kid went to Chicago.

Obviously this cannot happen with CCs at every suburban high school in the country. Only at a select group of privates where these relationships are already in place.

What’s stopping a public high school from calling? This isn’t rocket science lol

Generally, they wouldn't have relationships with the AOs.