Probably. I actually think recommendations count for a lot. They are a window into how your kid actually is in the classroom and most middle school teachers are fairly sharp assessors of kids. The conundrum here is that most people report/believe that their recommendations were excellent. Having seen a lot of kids go through this process I can guarantee that not all the recommendations are excellent. In fact, most are probably just good. Along the lines of “pretty smart kid, sometimes contributes, sometimes doesn’t.” I don’t think teachers hand out the “best I’ve taught” check marks as often as people think they do. Those go to the kids who win the award for best student in every subject and the teacher cries when presenting it to them on awards night. That kid is getting the best rec. others are getting an ok rec.
Don’t discount the character aspects of a recommendation letter. It is more than grades and academics.
I’m not. But why would character trump academics when there are plenty of kids with both? It’s the kids who have all of that - character and academics who are the “best I’ve ever taught.” Again kids with character who aren’t academically tops will get solid recs but not outstanding ones.
It’s pretty clear that every little piece counts.
I didn’t say “trump”. You just mentioned academics only. I’m just chiming in to say character is important and references are one of the few parts of an application that addresses a character read on an applicant. Grades and test scores give a good reflection of aptitude and the majority of applicants are squished into the top tier academically, anyway.
Just to clarify when I said academic teacher endorsements, I meant from the Boarding school you are applying to (not your current school recommendation).
Is this something that happens with any regularity? Or at all?
I would think that being courted by a coach could be a game changer. Schools want to field competitive teams. And because good students who are excellent athletes are also most likely to get first crack at the most competitive colleges; these students are likely to make positive contributions to the college matriculation lists in a few years as well. This is a cohort, like it or not, that is privileged in both BS and college admissions.
Ahh but to me academics also encompasses the kids who love to learn vs the grade grubbers. Both of those kids might be “squished into the top tier” but it’s the teacher rec that can show the difference between those two. It’s things like that which are the difference maker in a recommendation IMO. It is, again, something that makes a kid “the best.”
The whole package matters. I believe the interview counts the most assuming all other things are equal to or better than the average accepted student. The thing is, it varies from year to year. A school might get three goalies or three first violin chairs or any combination. In that case, they are going to pick the one that fits best or can fill many buckets.
In terms of recommendations, they are looking for red flags. Private schools write much better recommendations than most public schools ( not all but most). Private schools have a paying clientele and have to be specific or the parents won’t be happy. I have heard from many and seen the difference and it’s vast. I have two similar kids and the private accolades are much stronger. Just like BS people who know what to say and how to coach their kids for interviews, private school teachers often know the buzzwords schools want to hear.
Athletics can also make a big impact. But so can a kid that is really outstanding in something.
SO you can’t really suss out where you stand because the AO doesn’t even know until all the applications are in. What they are telling you is how you/your kid compares to other candidates they have interviewed before.
I’m really sorry if this has already been mentioned before, but how much of an impact would you think the Character Skills Snapshot has on admission results?
Very little to none
^ Depends on the school. There are a handful that really do consider it, as part of the package.
Question for those who did off-campus interviews- did the timing of when the school sent an invite to your child (e.g. Sept/Oct vs. Dec/Jan) reflect the final result? I noticed a major difference in demographics between the kids interviewing early vs. late and it kind of makes me think that the late schools are trying to juice their application numbers to lower their admissions rate.
Feeling great about interviews is not a sign of getting accepted. Admissions is also a sales position. The goal in admissions interviews should be for everyone to feel better about the school than before. Every interview my children had felt very good. Older child was accepted everywhere and deserved to be. Next child may or may not be as she is different (though more impressive in some ways), and each year is different. I wish everyone well, but recognize that admissions is a complicated process. It is probably great that BS don’t get “measured” or “ranked” by admissions stats. In the college process that causes all sorts of weird distortions that are not good for applicants or schools.
@lovesmtns I think you hit the nail on your head when you wrote that Admissions is also a sales position. We had the counterintuitive experience that the more competitive/prestigious the school, the more the AOs seemed to be selling us, as opposed to vice versa.
My thinking was “you do your best then let the result takes care of itself, without any regret because you’ve done all you can”. My DD and I put a lot of effort before and in the two week break into applications, essays, , tests, etc… We applied to 12 schools: 3 LDS and 9 boarding schools. So far we had one early acceptance from a LDS with extremely generous FA package. We had 2 LDS rivalry here so we have that to our advantage.
The best line of read on this site rings so true in my mind. Love the school that wants you.
I was accepted at the 3 schools i was most confident about, and waitlisted at the 1 school i had slight doubts about
After a long time admission officer at Hotchkiss told me during the parent interview that my DD would have many options come M10, I somewhat felt that would be the case. It wasn’t in a gushing sort of way and I felt she was very genuine. She did in fact get six acceptances (including Hotchkiss) and one waitlist.
At one school, I had an AO tell me that I had an almost-definite acceptance based on my interview, and then the school WL’ed me. One school, I got rejected but the interview was sort of casually awful and really late, as well. My three accepted schools, I was told very encouraging things, two of them hinting in a sort of casual way that I had impressed them a lot and might be accepted and the third being a little more vague but still kind. Still very surprised in that I was accepted at my “reach” schools that were top three picks and WL’ed almost everywhere else.