Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No time is spent on the bottom 80% other than the college counsellors disuading them from applying to any good schools.

Sorry, must disagree; that is not my experience and is simply not rational as a description of the college counseling at the many good independent schools in this area.

Then you must be admin.

This is a very accurate and honest description of the college counseling experience at the school my DD attended.

Stow the sour grapes, people--it is about grades and scores, or a hook such as legacy status or varsity athletic potential at the collegiate level. It is just ludicrous to assume there are lots of students dissuaded from applying to Harvard who otherwise would have gotten in. We don't know what we think we "know" about college admissions as parents, because the landscape has changed so much since our time.

Anonymous wrote:No time is spent on the bottom 80% other than the college counsellors disuading them from applying to any good schools.

Sorry, must disagree; that is not my experience and is simply not rational as a description of the college counseling at the many good independent schools in this area.

It sucks when you pay $300k to put your kid through a school k-12 and at the end of the whole thing you get stuck with the lame college counselor.

Anonymous wrote:Not only is the above post true, it is also true that students in the top 10 to 15 percent of the class may be discouraged from applying to certain schools in cases where the school is reserving its best recommendations for the students that they deem to have the best chance of admission.

A couple of years ago I would have said you were a conspiracy theorist but having seen the process this year at a couple of big 3 schools through family members/friends I have to agree with you. So much for a level playing field.

Not only is the above post true, it is also true that students in the top 10 to 15 percent of the class may be discouraged from applying to certain schools in cases where the school is reserving its best recommendations for the students that they deem to have the best chance of admission.

Anonymous wrote:No time is spent on the bottom 80% other than the college counsellors disuading them from applying to any good schools.

Just went through the process and this is absolutely true from our experience and several parents at the school who I've talked to, glad we didn't depend on our counselor for much else beyond transmitting transcripts & recs.

Anonymous wrote:A real teacher would know what it was.

Or she would at least look it up.

I really appreciate the post from the teacher who was providing a teacher's perspective on gifts from students. I think most parents at the Cathedral schools do see why such gifts are inappropriate and therefore follow the schools' request not to give gifts. There are always some parents who think they can buy a teacher's favor, and I was gratified to read that teachers can see right through the practice. I always suspected that it wasn't the best students whose parents were doing that.

No time is spent on the bottom 80% other than the college counsellors disuading them from applying to any good schools.

Anonymous wrote:The problem with the school counselors are they are out to help the top ten kids ensure they get into the top name schools and then won't work as hard for the others. We didn't rely on them and had our own strategy. Our kid got into a top Ivy. We sent the counselor a nice gift so she wouldn't screw it up.

I don't agree at all that most of the work goes into the top 10-15 kids; they tend to be easy. Lots of time is spent on the other 80%. I would also agree that kids and families should take ownership of the process and contribute your own ideas of schools to put on the list--you know best in many ways what will excite your kid (rural/pastoral v. urban; big v. small).

There are people on this website who call anyone they disagree with a "troll"--it is tedious and the DCUM equivalent of kids on a playground who say everything is " stupid."

A real teacher would know what it was.

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry I tried to share my honest perspective. I'm not sure what a "troll" is (I am a teacher, as I mentioned above), but I thought readers might be interested in hearing about this from a teacher's point of view.

I believe you, FWIW. A "troll" is sometimes a person who's just out to provoke. But other times it's anybody who doesn't agree with you.

NP hear. I am always amazed when people pull out the "troll" accusation regarding posts that look genuine to me. I guess it takes a devious/deceitful peson to suspect deviousness/deceitfulness in others. You could sell me a used refrigerator, I'm afaid.

I am sorry not to be able to give gifts to teachers who don't make much money and do so much for my kids. But I understand why it is discouraged.