Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:In some schools, counselors control as they are the ones who upload the school recommendations and transcripts. For example, at my kids' private school, they discourage applications to HYPS unless there is a hook or the #1 candidate from school where school will throw 100% of support behind candidate
I understand a private school doing this, though I don't think it's a great practice. Private schools justify their prices and existence in part by offering families a better chance of getting their child into a top school for their stats. But I think it's crazy that a public school would do this, or that parents would put up with it. I absolutely think a counselor should be honest if a kid's stats fall below the likely level for UVA, but they should still fully support the kid's application. There are a lot of kids whose grades or scores might be slightly below the top 10% who are both extremely talented and more likely to make a positive impact on a campus or in the world than some of those in the top group. Also, how can a school with 400 or 500 kids in a class only have a single counselor?
I'm a laid back parent, but I'd be making waves if I had a kid at McLean and they actually do what the PP has stated.