Reply to "Not a Meritocracy"

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to ""Not a Meritocracy""

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Last week, the Head of School for our Big3 DC private reminded parents that college admissions is "not a meritocracy."  He was not glib about this but seemed to be acknowledging it.  He also said that the "college admissions system is broken.'

In the senior class this year, the kids of families with considerable money, privelege, and notoriety (as in nationally-known companies and public figures as well as 'old money') are  doing really well in admissions. Really well.  It's eye-opening and rather disgusting, considering what I know about the relative achievements of the kids (admittedly, I don't know all). But the overall results for the school is not good -- but for these kids, it's starkly good.

Are many schools seeing similar results -- along Wisconsin Avenue?[/quote]

Any idea what HOS specifically meant when he said the "college admissions system is broken"?[/quote]

College admissions has been shifting a lot over the last 3 years - and the shift continued this year - so you can't look back and expect to put yourself in another person's shoes even if it seemed like "they wore the same sized shoe". This is happening at all schools in DMV among well off, high achievers.

But it is also typical of this school to never truly reflect on how they might be failing. There are so many ways in which it could improve and CCO is a big one. So is the lack of emphasis by the school to be a community and have teachers be active mentors for the kids (this does not have to be either/or proposition of expecting kids to self advocate).

Instead, the school likes to put most blame on unrealistic expectations of parents.  The school doesn't even realize that the kids don't trust anything the admin has to say when it comes to being concerned with their well being. The message we hear from the kids is the school doesn't walk the walk and the teachers don't follow through with what admin describes.

I personally think the HOS statement is using "broken" to describe "changes in college admissions". But that deflects from the genuine gaps at the school. Because even though other schools are facing the same changes in college admissions, the way in which those schools' CCOs relate/work with the students has been very different than the "hands off" approach at this school.  They are using a "throw our hands in the air, we can we possibly do" approach without admitting they haven't spent much time actually doing anything (including reaching out to students one-on-one at certain key touch points for each given student). [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics