College List vs. GC

silversas
Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:44:53 +0000

I want to add that in truth “the List” is a suggestion and if all is well can and should serve as the basis of a continuing substantive dialogue with the GC (assuming the GC is not spread too thin).

I have learned an enormous amount from the public school and privately paid GC suggestions that I ultimately vetoed. I got lots of useful information about how the GC saw my kid, or saw the admissions process by asking, “What made you put this school on the list?” “I had ruled it out because of X, had you factored that in and am I wrong or looking at it differently?”

"I also asked, “I was considering school Y… What do you think? Any particular reason it’s not on your list?” I have gotten amazingly specific answers… “They have a junior year requirement S2 would HATE and they are absolutely inflexible about waiving it…” “S2 would be completely wigged out by their dorm assignment system…”

S1 went to a really, really large public school and while his final list did not look much like the list the GC originally proposed, it never felt adversarial and I felt that her suggestions made sense based on the papers she had in front of her… She wound up getting to know him much more in the process of refining the list and learning more about what he was looking for and what was important to him.