Any Parents Privately Disappointed with College Placement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I take your points, especially about the "iffy" candidates for whom the counselor can go to bat.

But in this environment, isn't almost every candidate an "iffy" candidate? Including, for example, the kid you interviewed last year who seemed stellar in every respect but who still got locked out. So I still hang on to the theory that private counselors help, and perhaps not just with the truly marginal kids, but also by going to bat for some (not all maybe) of the stellar kids for whom nothing is sure in this new world.

I also wonder whether, if college advice is all that private counselors can offer, than this really isn't worth paying $30K+ for. Public HS have extensive databases that show where their kids got accepted in previous years, and this info is sorted by SATs, GPAs, and other factors. There are also online resources like College Confidential. So if "chancing" my kid at Harvard is all I want, the only different between public and private is whether the counselor does it, or we do it ourselves from the school databases on previous grads. For writing essays and the like, there are lots of books available, or consultants. So I'm hoping that private counselors have something to offer that isn't just available to public school families.

But you, as an interviewer, may have a closer perspective than me.

Be careful guessing about public high school college counseling. While a public high school might have extensive database about where kids have gone in the past, my experience is the counselors know almost nothing personal about the kids whom they are counseling. Other than arranging for meetings with schools to present their colleges at high schools, my high school counselor gave me almost no advice about applications (no essay advice, no advice on which schools were a reach, safety, etc. for me, no advice on asking for recs., no advice on how to highlight my rather extensive athletics, no advice about testing or test prep). My parents, although well-educated and Ivy League students themselves, gave me very little help or advice either; I don't think they knew how times had change for admission to university. As a result I probably went to a much lower ranked school than I could have otherwise. Professional college counseling would have made a world of difference.

My children will probably go to public school because that's all I imagine I'll be able to afford. But, I will scrape every last penny together to pay for test prep and high quality professional college application assistance. I would assume that the private school college counseling is much better, but I have to say I don't know....

[Anonymous]

Relax: for every blows-the-interviewer-away applicant who gets into Harvard, there are three or four who excel but didn't have a stellar interview. The interview is not the deciding factor, especially because the inrterviewer does not have or know the applicant's entire file.

[Anonymous]

Nah, for every blows-you-away candidate there are dozens who excel -- three or four of whom get admitted.

I agree that the alumn interviews are probably never the deciding factor and probably only rarely given any weight at all.

The bottom line is that a substantial majority of kids/parents who believe that if you do everything right, the end result is admission to your (DC's?) first-choice highly selective college are likely to be disappointed. That's just not how the numbers work or how the process works.

So encourage your DCs to do what they love and do it well and do it as its own reward. And reassure your DCs that there are lots of great colleges out there -- any one of which could be their next step toward a rich and rewarding life.

[Anonymous]

I had thought that Harvard had a pretty strict confidentiality restriction against interviewers discussing anything about anything remotely related to the interview process, even if no interviewees are identified. If that's the case, could Harvard interviewers please abide by that restriction? I just hate seeing posts that could be read to imply that interviewers have some form of inside information or insights. If your insights are not based on your interviewing experiences, perhaps you could just write about your views without bringing up your role as an interviewer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had thought that Harvard had a pretty strict confidentiality restriction against interviewers discussing anything about anything remotely related to the interview process, even if no interviewees are identified. If that's the case, could Harvard interviewers please abide by that restriction? I just hate seeing posts that could be read to imply that interviewers have some form of inside information or insights. If your insights are not based on your interviewing experiences, perhaps you could just write about your views without bringing up your role as an interviewer.

I completely agree.

A question for Harvard interviewers: Is it normal procedure to request that your interviewee submit to you via email gpa & board test scores, list of extracurriculars, parent occupations, education level, etc.? My DD was interviewed this past December and I was shocked to learn that she received this request.

[Anonymous]

I've had a variety of perspectives on this process -- both personal and professional -- over the years and suffice it to say that nothing I posted was information that I learned as a Harvard interviewer.

[Anonymous]

You can only be disappointed if your expectations do not align with placement reality. Get a grip, folks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nah, for every blows-you-away candidate there are dozens who excel -- three or four of whom get admitted.

That is actually what I meant: at Harvard, for every blows-you-away student, there are three or four just excellent students. I was talking about just the students at Harvard. The ratio of excellent students to stellar students would be much, MUCH higher if I were discussing the applicant pool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had thought that Harvard had a pretty strict confidentiality restriction against interviewers discussing anything about anything remotely related to the interview process, even if no interviewees are identified. If that's the case, could Harvard interviewers please abide by that restriction? I just hate seeing posts that could be read to imply that interviewers have some form of inside information or insights. If your insights are not based on your interviewing experiences, perhaps you could just write about your views without bringing up your role as an interviewer.

I completely agree.

A question for Harvard interviewers: Is it normal procedure to request that your interviewee submit to you via email gpa & board test scores, list of extracurriculars, parent occupations, education level, etc.? My DD was interviewed this past December and I was shocked to learn that she received this request.

That is indeed normal procedure.

I could say more (such as why this is standard procedure) and still be within the confidentiality rules for interviewers, but there is at least one DCUM poster, as evident in earlier threads, who gets upset whenever a Harvard interviewer posts something that the poster (mistakenly) thinks should be confidential. This poster never gets upset at other college's interviewers, even in the same thread in which she is upbraiding the Harvard interviewer. There was a thread in which a Dartmouth interviewer posted equally revealing/insightful comments that did not breach confidentiality rules, yet this poster confronted only the Harvard interviewer in the thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had thought that Harvard had a pretty strict confidentiality restriction against interviewers discussing anything about anything remotely related to the interview process, even if no interviewees are identified. If that's the case, could Harvard interviewers please abide by that restriction? I just hate seeing posts that could be read to imply that interviewers have some form of inside information or insights. If your insights are not based on your interviewing experiences, perhaps you could just write about your views without bringing up your role as an interviewer.

I completely agree.

A question for Harvard interviewers: Is it normal procedure to request that your interviewee submit to you via email gpa & board test scores, list of extracurriculars, parent occupations, education level, etc.? My DD was interviewed this past December and I was shocked to learn that she received this request.

That is indeed normal procedure.

I could say more (such as why this is standard procedure) and still be within the confidentiality rules for interviewers, but there is at least one DCUM poster, as evident in earlier threads, who gets upset whenever a Harvard interviewer posts something that the poster (mistakenly) thinks should be confidential. This poster never gets upset at other college's interviewers, even in the same thread in which she is upbraiding the Harvard interviewer. There was a thread in which a Dartmouth interviewer posted equally revealing/insightful comments that did not breach confidentiality rules, yet this poster confronted only the Harvard interviewer in the thread.

Sorry, meant "other colleges' interviewers" -- plural.

[Anonymous]

Ah, I see! In which case we both left out the rest of the class, LOL. Academic excellence certainly wasn't universal.

[Anonymous]

To answer OP's question: Yes, I'd be disappointed. But we've made our choice to pay $34,000 a year despite that BCC is a very good high school, and we are going to stick with it. Whatever happens with college placement, we are never going to know whether having DS and DD go to BCC would have gotten them placed in colleges as good or better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ah, I see! In which case we both left out the rest of the class, LOL. Academic excellence certainly wasn't universal.

I'm talking about excellence as demonstrated in the applicant's file at the time of admissions, which does not necessarily mean excellence after matrciulation at college!

[Anonymous]

Yup. And that's before we get to the whole "the happy bottom quarter" policy. Wonder if that still exists.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes, just sometimes, people only speak about what they are familiar with, such as the confidentiality restrictions included in a policy they've reviewed (and not that of some other school they know nothing about).