College List vs. GC

ivyalum
Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:41:06 +0000

I want to chime in as someone who was the GC in a small, highly competitive college prep school for years. Someone previously said that the GC can’t know everything that the OP and his/her child know. On the other hand, the GC knows lots of information that the students and their parents can’t know. One possibility is that described by IJustDrive–maybe this student’s list overlaps significantly with that of the class superstar. Maybe the school has a very different picture of the student’s capabilities than the parent does (which will be reflected in the teachers’ letters of recommendation). There are many possibilities. Ultimately, the list is the student’s responsibility; I always felt it was my obligation to see that each student had a choice. It is one thing for a student to compile a reach-heavy list and quite another for that student to deal with the emotional fallout of multiple rejections in the spring. Since the student being discussed attends a small private school, I would simply ask the GC what is informing his/her suggestions. I was always very forthright in providing this sort of information. I am very glad I no longer have this sort of job because I think things are much more difficult than they were in my day.