Do private school college counselors already know ED results

[Anonymous]

My kid is in a top 10 private hs (in the USA not dmv) and our counselors no longer do “counselor calls”. They do write letters and they’ll help strategize w deferrals. They know what each college wants.

They rarely know before kid knows, at least not immediately. To the extent that we get emails, “make sure you tell me the college result. I’m invested”

They’ve told us about the olden days when they’d have weekends - top feeders and top AOs. Our HS said they were yucky but effective - and on balance it’s better without them.

[Anonymous]

Name the school or this is not an out of DMV area parent.

[Anonymous]

It’s an nyc school. There are a few of us here. #ripUB #ripYBM

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a college counselor. The post above about the software is correct. However, many schools also have what are called counselor calls, in which they will give counselors a heads up about how things look in the pool for students from that school. The way these are handled are completely different from college to college. There is no rhyme or reason in terms of which colleges have which policies, either - selective, public, whatever.

Some colleges will give the counselor a chance to advocate on behalf of all the student, others will just provide a heads up about the decision, others will provide information that can be very useful in the case of a deferral (to help the student understand if they really have a chance or not and how to maximize it) and others will not do the calls at all.

Despite all of these differences, I can tell you two things that do not change at all. First of all, any college who takes counselor calls will take them from any high school counselor who initiates the call. You don’t have to go to Sidwell. Any random public school, parochial school, whatever. Yet SO MANY high school counselors do not realize that they have the ability to initiate these calls and a lot of kids miss out as a result. The second thing is that there would absolutely never be a situation in which a high school counselor would push certain students over others. I promise you, this is just not done. If a high school counselor even attempted to do that, the college admissions officer would not engage. But no high school counselor would even try, even if they truly hated the student, because it would make them look so bad and so unprofessional. I know so many parents think this happens, but I promise that you guys are just being a little conspiracy theory esque!

Also, for what it’s worth, I would be really surprised if counselors were calling certain kids into their offices, to have lengthy discussions about strategy based on these calls. That would be way too obvious, and no respectable counselor would risk the impact of doing something like that. Confidentiality is paramount with these calls. What’s probably happening is that the counselor is just making sure that the student has enough options going into winter break, after they have learned general information about the pools at all of the various schools about how selective things have been this year.

The bolded is rather ironic given the couple of recent CCO regimes at Sidwell specifically said they do not make these calls and that the AOs had too many applications and no time to dive in on applications from any one high school.

Sidwell went further than that. The HOS said CCO would advocate for URMs (only) to make sure they wouldn’t be impacted by Supreme Court affirmative action decision. That sounds legally questionable.

I agree. Sidwell Parent here. That email from CCO left me with many questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a college counselor. The post above about the software is correct. However, many schools also have what are called counselor calls, in which they will give counselors a heads up about how things look in the pool for students from that school. The way these are handled are completely different from college to college. There is no rhyme or reason in terms of which colleges have which policies, either - selective, public, whatever.

Some colleges will give the counselor a chance to advocate on behalf of all the student, others will just provide a heads up about the decision, others will provide information that can be very useful in the case of a deferral (to help the student understand if they really have a chance or not and how to maximize it) and others will not do the calls at all.

Despite all of these differences, I can tell you two things that do not change at all. First of all, any college who takes counselor calls will take them from any high school counselor who initiates the call. You don’t have to go to Sidwell. Any random public school, parochial school, whatever. Yet SO MANY high school counselors do not realize that they have the ability to initiate these calls and a lot of kids miss out as a result. The second thing is that there would absolutely never be a situation in which a high school counselor would push certain students over others. I promise you, this is just not done. If a high school counselor even attempted to do that, the college admissions officer would not engage. But no high school counselor would even try, even if they truly hated the student, because it would make them look so bad and so unprofessional. I know so many parents think this happens, but I promise that you guys are just being a little conspiracy theory esque!

Also, for what it’s worth, I would be really surprised if counselors were calling certain kids into their offices, to have lengthy discussions about strategy based on these calls. That would be way too obvious, and no respectable counselor would risk the impact of doing something like that. Confidentiality is paramount with these calls. What’s probably happening is that the counselor is just making sure that the student has enough options going into winter break, after they have learned general information about the pools at all of the various schools about how selective things have been this year.

The bolded is rather ironic given the couple of recent CCO regimes at Sidwell specifically said they do not make these calls and that the AOs had too many applications and no time to dive in on applications from any one high school.

Sidwell went further than that. The HOS said CCO would advocate for URMs (only) to make sure they wouldn’t be impacted by Supreme Court affirmative action decision. That sounds legally questionable.

I agree. Sidwell Parent here. That email from CCO left me with many questions.

Yet did anyone raise the issue with Bryan?

[Anonymous]

Sounds woke as all get out-isn’t that classic Sidwell?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in a top 10 private hs (in the USA not dmv) and our counselors no longer do “counselor calls”. They do write letters and they’ll help strategize w deferrals. They know what each college wants.

They rarely know before kid knows, at least not immediately. To the extent that we get emails, “make sure you tell me the college result. I’m invested”

They’ve told us about the olden days when they’d have weekends - top feeders and top AOs. Our HS said they were yucky but effective - and on balance it’s better without them.

Why don’t they do this anymore?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^^Test optional was adapted by colleges after Covid, which drove up applications to places that were largely out of reach pre-Covid. It basically gave colleges Carte Blanche to further shroud admissions processes and made the whole thing incredibly unpredictable.

Varsity Blues changed the landscape as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in a top 10 private hs (in the USA not dmv) and our counselors no longer do “counselor calls”. They do write letters and they’ll help strategize w deferrals. They know what each college wants.

They rarely know before kid knows, at least not immediately. To the extent that we get emails, “make sure you tell me the college result. I’m invested”

They’ve told us about the olden days when they’d have weekends - top feeders and top AOs. Our HS said they were yucky but effective - and on balance it’s better without them.

Why don’t they do this anymore?

DP. The college landscape has changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in a top 10 private hs (in the USA not dmv) and our counselors no longer do “counselor calls”. They do write letters and they’ll help strategize w deferrals. They know what each college wants.

They rarely know before kid knows, at least not immediately. To the extent that we get emails, “make sure you tell me the college result. I’m invested”

They’ve told us about the olden days when they’d have weekends - top feeders and top AOs. Our HS said they were yucky but effective - and on balance it’s better without them.

Alas, the hoi polloi annd their incessant claptrap.

I for one miss the days when the headmasters at Exeter and Andover would just meet for cocktails at Mory’s or the Faculty Club and separate the wheat from the chaff. Ordered and proper, like true gentlemen.

Now we’ve got a test-free, grade agnostic, family agnostic, free-for-all where it seems the finest attribute one might demonstrate is to be a bald lesbian of color. At a minimum, the entire process revolves around decorating yourself as a persistent victim of something or other. God forbid we leave leadership to men who were raised with confidence and an innate sense of noblesse oblige.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a college counselor. The post above about the software is correct. However, many schools also have what are called counselor calls, in which they will give counselors a heads up about how things look in the pool for students from that school. The way these are handled are completely different from college to college. There is no rhyme or reason in terms of which colleges have which policies, either - selective, public, whatever.

Some colleges will give the counselor a chance to advocate on behalf of all the student, others will just provide a heads up about the decision, others will provide information that can be very useful in the case of a deferral (to help the student understand if they really have a chance or not and how to maximize it) and others will not do the calls at all.

Despite all of these differences, I can tell you two things that do not change at all. First of all, any college who takes counselor calls will take them from any high school counselor who initiates the call. You don’t have to go to Sidwell. Any random public school, parochial school, whatever. Yet SO MANY high school counselors do not realize that they have the ability to initiate these calls and a lot of kids miss out as a result. The second thing is that there would absolutely never be a situation in which a high school counselor would push certain students over others. I promise you, this is just not done. If a high school counselor even attempted to do that, the college admissions officer would not engage. But no high school counselor would even try, even if they truly hated the student, because it would make them look so bad and so unprofessional. I know so many parents think this happens, but I promise that you guys are just being a little conspiracy theory esque!

Also, for what it’s worth, I would be really surprised if counselors were calling certain kids into their offices, to have lengthy discussions about strategy based on these calls. That would be way too obvious, and no respectable counselor would risk the impact of doing something like that. Confidentiality is paramount with these calls. What’s probably happening is that the counselor is just making sure that the student has enough options going into winter break, after they have learned general information about the pools at all of the various schools about how selective things have been this year.

The bolded is rather ironic given the couple of recent CCO regimes at Sidwell specifically said they do not make these calls and that the AOs had too many applications and no time to dive in on applications from any one high school.

Sidwell went further than that. The HOS said CCO would advocate for URMs (only) to make sure they wouldn’t be impacted by Supreme Court affirmative action decision. That sounds legally questionable.

I agree. Sidwell Parent here. That email from CCO left me with many questions.

What email? Can you copy it and post?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in a top 10 private hs (in the USA not dmv) and our counselors no longer do “counselor calls”. They do write letters and they’ll help strategize w deferrals. They know what each college wants.

They rarely know before kid knows, at least not immediately. To the extent that we get emails, “make sure you tell me the college result. I’m invested”

They’ve told us about the olden days when they’d have weekends - top feeders and top AOs. Our HS said they were yucky but effective - and on balance it’s better without them.

Why don’t they do this anymore?

DP. The college landscape has changed.

When did it change and why? Was it because of Covid or something else?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in a top 10 private hs (in the USA not dmv) and our counselors no longer do “counselor calls”. They do write letters and they’ll help strategize w deferrals. They know what each college wants.

They rarely know before kid knows, at least not immediately. To the extent that we get emails, “make sure you tell me the college result. I’m invested”

They’ve told us about the olden days when they’d have weekends - top feeders and top AOs. Our HS said they were yucky but effective - and on balance it’s better without them.

Alas, the hoi polloi annd their incessant claptrap.

I for one miss the days when the headmasters at Exeter and Andover would just meet for cocktails at Mory’s or the Faculty Club and separate the wheat from the chaff. Ordered and proper, like true gentlemen.

Now we’ve got a test-free, grade agnostic, family agnostic, free-for-all where it seems the finest attribute one might demonstrate is to be a bald lesbian of color. At a minimum, the entire process revolves around decorating yourself as a persistent victim of something or other. God forbid we leave leadership to men who were raised with confidence and an innate sense of noblesse oblige.

These were not cocktails. They were conferences. You can google this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in a top 10 private hs (in the USA not dmv) and our counselors no longer do “counselor calls”. They do write letters and they’ll help strategize w deferrals. They know what each college wants.

They rarely know before kid knows, at least not immediately. To the extent that we get emails, “make sure you tell me the college result. I’m invested”

They’ve told us about the olden days when they’d have weekends - top feeders and top AOs. Our HS said they were yucky but effective - and on balance it’s better without them.

Alas, the hoi polloi annd their incessant claptrap.

I for one miss the days when the headmasters at Exeter and Andover would just meet for cocktails at Mory’s or the Faculty Club and separate the wheat from the chaff. Ordered and proper, like true gentlemen.

Now we’ve got a test-free, grade agnostic, family agnostic, free-for-all where it seems the finest attribute one might demonstrate is to be a bald lesbian of color. At a minimum, the entire process revolves around decorating yourself as a persistent victim of something or other. God forbid we leave leadership to men who were raised with confidence and an innate sense of noblesse oblige.

These were not cocktails. They were conferences. You can google this.

^^^

Someone who thinks decisions are made in meetings. ::cringe::

[Anonymous]

College admissions have gone the way of the USA in general….a hot mess!