Exams after breaks & grade deflation

gluekster
Sat, 20 Apr 2013 12:50:52 +0000

Thx, all, for the feedback re grading and the calender - very helpful.

sahp2kids - You make a great point about authenticity. During a prior tour and at Preview, I heard a few parents dangling some (at-times almost obnoxious) comparison-type questions out there, invariably about H, Y, S or MIT, but the Princeton students we encountered were always relaxed, confident, and straightforward in their replies.

One Horshack-like father kept making the point that P often loses cross-admits to H because “it’s H,” with a chuckle, as if that’s – duh! – the obvious choice for any student to make based on the H name alone. All I could think was that he just wanted to hear himself speak or had already made up his son’s mind for him and live the dream – vs. trying to garner solid intell about which school would actually provide a better fit and more favorable educational experience given his son’s own unique interests/personality. Comparing that to what our daughter heard from other prefrosh weighing their choices, it sounds like many kids were being more savvy and thoughtful and may, in some cases, have a far better grip than their parents. Ha!

A few P students, when asked, did candidly share their own decisionmaking processes and laid out tangible reasons for ultimately deciding that P was the best-right choice for them – we found that very helpful and I highly recommend reaching out to current students if you’re on the fence. Anyhow, we found the vibe always respectful of other schools and, like sahp2kids, that made an impression on us, as well. Our child would NOT have appreciated gratuitous, cutesy trashing of other schools.

[sorry for slightly shifting thread focus!]