School advising kids to "try again next year" regarding college applications

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First of all "Big 3" does not guarantee admission anywhere.

Publics always do better in this area.

Parents need to do their jobs and have their kids target safeties as well.

OP here.
These are kids who applied only to schools 50-125 and are not getting in. They thought they had safeties.

The RD round of decisions hasn't even happened yet, so this is complete BS.

yes.
But the kids that the college advising office is talking about have been rejected from all (or all but one) of their EA options and applied to 20+ schools.
This is what is being talked about: kids who applied to places like Auburn, Wisconsin, Indiana, Clemson, Wake Forest, Penn State etc---all ED and EA and all outright rejections (not deferrals).

Why would those schools want someone in the bottom half of their class?

The dumbest, laziest kid at an elite school could be a top 10 student at quite a few crappy ones.

True. At our small school, kids may be at the bottom of the class because it took a year or two to rise up to the rigor, and then they may go on to be valedictorian of the lower ranked college. It has happened more than once.

[Anonymous]

Nonsense. Dumb is dumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from my kid that results are so bad this year at our (Big3) school that the college counseling office is now telling kids
to either take a gap year OR matriculate at a lower tier school and "try again next year".

Have you heard this? It is worrisome or typical advice?

I heard that you are making sh*t up. What schools have released RD decisions?

Someone keeps making this point, but a lot of kids apply almost entirely EA. There are many schools where is you look at the scattergrams at NCS, plenty of students apply EA and no one applies RD, and they tend to be lower ranked schools that have become more unpredictable. So while I think results will shake out in March to be better than they are now, many kids have heard from a slew of EA schools and may not be waiting on many if any RD schools.

This isn't true. My DC applied to many schools that only had ED and RD as options and the top school on DC's list only has RD.

It isn’t true for you. It is true for others.

Of course. PP said No one applies RD. That is what is not true.

I was the PP. I meant there were many schools, maybe I should have said certain schools, where no one seems to apply RD, and that’s because NCS (and a lot of schools) puts such an emphasis of getting your apps in in the EA round if you can. And you are right, its probably not literally no one, but if you look at certain big state schools or some less competitive private schools with EA like Fordham, for instance, most students who choose to apply there, apply EA. The overall point again is that there are people who might already be in the position where they have heard from most if not all of their schools already. I was just reacting to people saying the initial post was BS or a troll post simply because RD has not come out yet. It may not be. And if you got some surprising deferrals, you may be pretty stressed right now event though at the end of the day some of the deferrals are likely to turn into acceptances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from my kid that results are so bad this year at our (Big3) school that the college counseling office is now telling kids
to either take a gap year OR matriculate at a lower tier school and "try again next year".

Have you heard this? It is worrisome or typical advice?

If I spent 200k on a high school and that was the outcome, I'd want a refund

+1. This can’t be real!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from my kid that results are so bad this year at our (Big3) school that the college counseling office is now telling kids
to either take a gap year OR matriculate at a lower tier school and "try again next year".

Have you heard this? It is worrisome or typical advice?

If I spent 200k on a high school and that was the outcome, I'd want a refund

Yah, nope. Money is well spent regardless. To each their own.

One more time for the cheap seats: you do not send a kid to a private school, Big 3 or whatever, solely because you think it will increase their chances to get into an Ivy or the cream of the crop schools. If this is your attitude, you deserve to be disappointed.

One more time for the cheaper seats: we are not talking about "Ivy or cream of the crop schools". We are talking about kids getting rejected from all their picks ranked 75+.

Yelling back from the very cheap seats:

The level of privilege that leads to someone is shocked that their kid who isn't in the top 50% of their class, can't get into schools like Fordham and SMU (the bottom of the T75) which are well within the top 20% of National Universities (the most prestigious of the categories on USNWR), is what we are talking about.

For those whining about how public schools are better, you do realize that the kids in the bottom 50% at public are going to Montgomery College, or UDC or maybe if they're lucky someplace like Frostburg or Christopher Newport.

But keep whining. It's amusing to us in the cheap seats.

This. Bottom 50% at Big 3 only means that the kid's parents have enough money to pay for Big 3. Your child would still be bottom half at public. Stop with the delusions that your child is only bottom half because they are at a private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I heard from my kid that results are so bad this year at our (Big3) school that the college counseling office is now telling kids
to either take a gap year OR matriculate at a lower tier school and "try again next year".

Have you heard this? It is worrisome or typical advice?

I certainly doubt that any advisor is telling students to take a gap year. All of these big 15 schools or whatever you wanna call them like to say that they have 100% college matriculation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from my kid that results are so bad this year at our (Big3) school that the college counseling office is now telling kids
to either take a gap year OR matriculate at a lower tier school and "try again next year".

Have you heard this? It is worrisome or typical advice?

If I spent 200k on a high school and that was the outcome, I'd want a refund

Yah, nope. Money is well spent regardless. To each their own.

One more time for the cheap seats: you do not send a kid to a private school, Big 3 or whatever, solely because you think it will increase their chances to get into an Ivy or the cream of the crop schools. If this is your attitude, you deserve to be disappointed.

One more time for the cheaper seats: we are not talking about "Ivy or cream of the crop schools". We are talking about kids getting rejected from all their picks ranked 75+.

Yelling back from the very cheap seats:

The level of privilege that leads to someone is shocked that their kid who isn't in the top 50% of their class, can't get into schools like Fordham and SMU (the bottom of the T75) which are well within the top 20% of National Universities (the most prestigious of the categories on USNWR), is what we are talking about.

For those whining about how public schools are better, you do realize that the kids in the bottom 50% at public are going to Montgomery College, or UDC or maybe if they're lucky someplace like Frostburg or Christopher Newport.

But keep whining. It's amusing to us in the cheap seats.

This. Bottom 50% at Big 3 only means that the kid's parents have enough money to pay for Big 3. Your child would still be bottom half at public. Stop with the delusions that your child is only bottom half because they are at a private school.

You are truly ignorant. I've had (an have) high schoolers in both public and private. My kid came from public and was a very top kid (straight high As, Algebra in 6th grade, just took the PSAT and scored in the 99%) and is probably at the 60% of the private's class and works his/her A$$ off for these grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from my kid that results are so bad this year at our (Big3) school that the college counseling office is now telling kids
to either take a gap year OR matriculate at a lower tier school and "try again next year".

Have you heard this? It is worrisome or typical advice?

If I spent 200k on a high school and that was the outcome, I'd want a refund

Yah, nope. Money is well spent regardless. To each their own.

One more time for the cheap seats: you do not send a kid to a private school, Big 3 or whatever, solely because you think it will increase their chances to get into an Ivy or the cream of the crop schools. If this is your attitude, you deserve to be disappointed.

One more time for the cheaper seats: we are not talking about "Ivy or cream of the crop schools". We are talking about kids getting rejected from all their picks ranked 75+.

Yelling back from the very cheap seats:

The level of privilege that leads to someone is shocked that their kid who isn't in the top 50% of their class, can't get into schools like Fordham and SMU (the bottom of the T75) which are well within the top 20% of National Universities (the most prestigious of the categories on USNWR), is what we are talking about.

For those whining about how public schools are better, you do realize that the kids in the bottom 50% at public are going to Montgomery College, or UDC or maybe if they're lucky someplace like Frostburg or Christopher Newport.

But keep whining. It's amusing to us in the cheap seats.

This. Bottom 50% at Big 3 only means that the kid's parents have enough money to pay for Big 3. Your child would still be bottom half at public. Stop with the delusions that your child is only bottom half because they are at a private school.

Usually means they think their kid couldn’t handle a school with grade sizes bigger than 100-140 per grade.

We ran into this sentiment in several cities we lived in and here. Parents start gasping at 500-800 kids per grade and worried how their kid would rank or make a team or play and flee to overly small private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from my kid that results are so bad this year at our (Big3) school that the college counseling office is now telling kids
to either take a gap year OR matriculate at a lower tier school and "try again next year".

Have you heard this? It is worrisome or typical advice?

If I spent 200k on a high school and that was the outcome, I'd want a refund

Hmmm. So it is the school's job to place your child in their dream school for college, or the experience wasn't worth anything? I disagree completely. I have a child at NCS/STA and I know my child will be beyond well prepared for college. They will start to visit schools next year or this summer and we will look at many different sorts of schools, not just those everyone else will apply to. If they are applying to "lower tier" schools they will be schools that are great fits with excellent programs that fit my child's personal goals and interests. Then no matter which application leads to an acceptance letter things will be okay. Will the option to transfer if need be be open, of course. A gap year, yes if there is a solid plan to make it worthwhile. But to say that four years of solid curriculum, athletics, arts and hard studying which led to great amounts of learning are meaningless if they don't get into Yale,etc? Well that, madam, is ridiculous and beside to point.

I feel bad for kids who aren't counseled to only to apply to schools they are excited to go to (in a variety of acceptance ranges). They can be found.

This is all fine, but if your kid puts together a list of schools they are excited about, including "lower tier" schools with great fits for excellent programs for your child's goals and interests, and doesn't get in, will you still be very happy with the money you spent at NCS/STA?

That's what parents on this thread are saying. They aren't talking about kids who only applied to top tier schools where admission is a crap shoot even for excellent students. These are kids who applied to Auburn and Boulder, were actively excited about the prospect of going to these schools, and were rejected during the EA round. These kids are, in fact, very well prepared for college, but right now they are scared that they might get the same results from RD (or may have only applied EA/ED), and will be facing a gap year and applying all over again because they have no other options.

I guarantee you that you would be questioning the value of your child's expensive education if you were in that situation, and you are rationalizing now that these students/parents must have screwed it up somehow because that makes you feel secure that it won't happen to you or your kid. But it might, and you'll be back here complaining.

But let’s be honest - what Big 3 kid only applied to Ed/EA schools? Surely these kids have RD applications out there. And certainly there are schools that take applications later than traditional cycle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from my kid that results are so bad this year at our (Big3) school that the college counseling office is now telling kids
to either take a gap year OR matriculate at a lower tier school and "try again next year".

Have you heard this? It is worrisome or typical advice?

If I spent 200k on a high school and that was the outcome, I'd want a refund

Yah, nope. Money is well spent regardless. To each their own.

One more time for the cheap seats: you do not send a kid to a private school, Big 3 or whatever, solely because you think it will increase their chances to get into an Ivy or the cream of the crop schools. If this is your attitude, you deserve to be disappointed.

One more time for the cheaper seats: we are not talking about "Ivy or cream of the crop schools". We are talking about kids getting rejected from all their picks ranked 75+.

Yelling back from the very cheap seats:

The level of privilege that leads to someone is shocked that their kid who isn't in the top 50% of their class, can't get into schools like Fordham and SMU (the bottom of the T75) which are well within the top 20% of National Universities (the most prestigious of the categories on USNWR), is what we are talking about.

For those whining about how public schools are better, you do realize that the kids in the bottom 50% at public are going to Montgomery College, or UDC or maybe if they're lucky someplace like Frostburg or Christopher Newport.

But keep whining. It's amusing to us in the cheap seats.

This. Bottom 50% at Big 3 only means that the kid's parents have enough money to pay for Big 3. Your child would still be bottom half at public. Stop with the delusions that your child is only bottom half because they are at a private school.

Usually means they think their kid couldn’t handle a school with grade sizes bigger than 100-140 per grade.

We ran into this sentiment in several cities we lived in and here. Parents start gasping at 500-800 kids per grade and worried how their kid would rank or make a team or play and flee to overly small private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from my kid that results are so bad this year at our (Big3) school that the college counseling office is now telling kids
to either take a gap year OR matriculate at a lower tier school and "try again next year".

Have you heard this? It is worrisome or typical advice?

If I spent 200k on a high school and that was the outcome, I'd want a refund

Yah, nope. Money is well spent regardless. To each their own.

One more time for the cheap seats: you do not send a kid to a private school, Big 3 or whatever, solely because you think it will increase their chances to get into an Ivy or the cream of the crop schools. If this is your attitude, you deserve to be disappointed.

One more time for the cheaper seats: we are not talking about "Ivy or cream of the crop schools". We are talking about kids getting rejected from all their picks ranked 75+.

Yelling back from the very cheap seats:

The level of privilege that leads to someone is shocked that their kid who isn't in the top 50% of their class, can't get into schools like Fordham and SMU (the bottom of the T75) which are well within the top 20% of National Universities (the most prestigious of the categories on USNWR), is what we are talking about.

For those whining about how public schools are better, you do realize that the kids in the bottom 50% at public are going to Montgomery College, or UDC or maybe if they're lucky someplace like Frostburg or Christopher Newport.

But keep whining. It's amusing to us in the cheap seats.

This. Bottom 50% at Big 3 only means that the kid's parents have enough money to pay for Big 3. Your child would still be bottom half at public. Stop with the delusions that your child is only bottom half because they are at a private school.

Usually means they think their kid couldn’t handle a school with grade sizes bigger than 100-140 per grade.

We ran into this sentiment in several cities we lived in and here. Parents start gasping at 500-800 kids per grade and worried how their kid would rank or make a team or play and flee to overly small private schools.

Or more importantly worry about the quality of the education when the school is overcrowded.

[Anonymous]

For years the 9th grade admits of the Big 3 have included tons of siblings. Lots of people apply to elementary school when it’s easy to get in. I think colleges are just acknowledging the unimpressive skills of this bunch.

Get rid of legacy admissions to Big 3, make it sink or swim so that by senior year it’s a strong class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from my kid that results are so bad this year at our (Big3) school that the college counseling office is now telling kids
to either take a gap year OR matriculate at a lower tier school and "try again next year".

Have you heard this? It is worrisome or typical advice?

If I spent 200k on a high school and that was the outcome, I'd want a refund

Yah, nope. Money is well spent regardless. To each their own.

One more time for the cheap seats: you do not send a kid to a private school, Big 3 or whatever, solely because you think it will increase their chances to get into an Ivy or the cream of the crop schools. If this is your attitude, you deserve to be disappointed.

One more time for the cheaper seats: we are not talking about "Ivy or cream of the crop schools". We are talking about kids getting rejected from all their picks ranked 75+.

Yelling back from the very cheap seats:

The level of privilege that leads to someone is shocked that their kid who isn't in the top 50% of their class, can't get into schools like Fordham and SMU (the bottom of the T75) which are well within the top 20% of National Universities (the most prestigious of the categories on USNWR), is what we are talking about.

For those whining about how public schools are better, you do realize that the kids in the bottom 50% at public are going to Montgomery College, or UDC or maybe if they're lucky someplace like Frostburg or Christopher Newport.

But keep whining. It's amusing to us in the cheap seats.

This. Bottom 50% at Big 3 only means that the kid's parents have enough money to pay for Big 3. Your child would still be bottom half at public. Stop with the delusions that your child is only bottom half because they are at a private school.

Many of these kids came from public shcool, were they were at the top. Read the threads about A students switching to private and suddenly getting Cs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from my kid that results are so bad this year at our (Big3) school that the college counseling office is now telling kids
to either take a gap year OR matriculate at a lower tier school and "try again next year".

Have you heard this? It is worrisome or typical advice?

If I spent 200k on a high school and that was the outcome, I'd want a refund

Yah, nope. Money is well spent regardless. To each their own.

One more time for the cheap seats: you do not send a kid to a private school, Big 3 or whatever, solely because you think it will increase their chances to get into an Ivy or the cream of the crop schools. If this is your attitude, you deserve to be disappointed.

One more time for the cheaper seats: we are not talking about "Ivy or cream of the crop schools". We are talking about kids getting rejected from all their picks ranked 75+.

Yelling back from the very cheap seats:

The level of privilege that leads to someone is shocked that their kid who isn't in the top 50% of their class, can't get into schools like Fordham and SMU (the bottom of the T75) which are well within the top 20% of National Universities (the most prestigious of the categories on USNWR), is what we are talking about.

For those whining about how public schools are better, you do realize that the kids in the bottom 50% at public are going to Montgomery College, or UDC or maybe if they're lucky someplace like Frostburg or Christopher Newport.

But keep whining. It's amusing to us in the cheap seats.

This. Bottom 50% at Big 3 only means that the kid's parents have enough money to pay for Big 3. Your child would still be bottom half at public. Stop with the delusions that your child is only bottom half because they are at a private school.

Many of these kids came from public shcool, were they were at the top. Read the threads about A students switching to private and suddenly getting Cs.

Better yet, make every ninth grade seat available in open competition for admissions. No automatic promotion from eighth grade. Every kid has to earn their spot in the US. No lifer preference.

Now that would be interesting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For years the 9th grade admits of the Big 3 have included tons of siblings. Lots of people apply to elementary school when it’s easy to get in. I think colleges are just acknowledging the unimpressive skills of this bunch.

Get rid of legacy admissions to Big 3, make it sink or swim so that by senior year it’s a strong class.

I don’t get it. There’s tons of families that have one lifer and one that came in at 9th grade? Or the school prefers 9th grade admits and their subsequent siblings who also apply in 9th grade?