<p>Blossom, THEY claim to care. I don’t know why they do, but they are singing the praises of their diversity commitment (of all types) loud & long & clear. Perhaps they are really convinced that without exposure to the ivy world, entire regions and socio-economic groups and ethnic sub-groups will be suffering.</p>
<p>from prouddad…
</p>
<p>finding cc (even a bit late in the process) was a big help. there are so many helpful posters here…curmudgeon, mowc,st2, marite, patient, and others. lots of information here on cc.</p>
<p>JHS - there was certainly a lot of paperwork, indeed.</p>
<p>Yes, the teachers are not only often better informed but they also know the kids a lot better. But they often can’t spend the time, either. We did get some great recommendations from some, but most were enlightened when my daughters asked them for recs for their odd-ball schools! </p>
<p>I tried to get our school interested in having grads come back to talk to college-bound kids about their experiences, but the school won’t contact the grads to organize such a group citing privacy reasons. Sigh.</p>
<p>I should also point out that [the</a> College Guides program](<a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/cue/guide.html]the”>http://www.virginia.edu/cue/guide.html) started here was so successful in reaching students in low income and/or rural areas of our state that the the program [has</a> gone national](<a href=“http://www.jackkentcookefoundation.org/jkcf_web/content.aspx?page=9971979&_redir=563]has”>http://www.jackkentcookefoundation.org/jkcf_web/content.aspx?page=9971979&_redir=563).</p>
<p>There’s a long way to go when it comes to serving these students, but efforts are being made.</p>
<p>Sticker, they care about economic and racial diversity- but that’s not the same as caring that in a lily white town in Ohio (and I lived there so I know…) the top kids from the local HS preferred a local college, marrying the kid next door and joining mom and dad’s country club vs. going East to get an Ivy League education.</p>
<p>These kids and parents had no interest in the type of education that HYP had to offer; they offer very little in terms of diversity to HYP (children of college educated professionals, middle to upper middle class) so why should the universities go on a massive outreach campaign for them??? To let them know that they might qualify for financial aid? Better to use the aid for a kid who otherwise wouldn’t get to college IMHO than to bang the doors down for kids who have attractive and alternative opportunities in state, which for many reasons, they and their families prefer.</p>
<p>Why is this a problem???</p>
<p>Dean J, </p>
<p>That’s a great program. Too bad some high-schools in the shadow of TJ’s university won’t even allow their own recent grads to do the same thing for those that are following them allowing them to reach out beyond UVA; even for free! Privacy issues!</p>
<p>Proud Dad, I haven’t heard about this. Do you mean that some high schools aren’t letting students come back while they are home for holiday breaks so they can talk to students about the college they are attending? This is common practice in so many places…</p>
<p>Our guidance office is primarily concerned about making sure as many students as possible graduate. Parent nights center around graduation requirements and what to do when your child is missing credits. College is an afterthought. Financial Aid night is in December of senior year. Yeah, I think it’s possible some kids are not aware of opportunities. This isn’t a dirt poor school district, just a very diverse, less sophisticated one. Lots of military recruiter visits; HYP, not so much (never).</p>
<p>"I really like that dude’s Bentley convertible in my office’s parking lot. I like his brother’s Ferrari, too. But I’ve never walked over to look inside either of them . I’ve certainly never called to see what special financing they may have that might just make it barely affordable. But I am well aware of the cars from car magazines and TV. I can cite chapter and verse about their performance (well, actually I can’t anymore but I could at one point, and it sounds better this way. Indulge me. ). "</p>
<p>I think Curm is exactly right about this. I’m middle class in NYC, but hubby and I are uneducated, ourselves, so top schools are not on our radar for D2 who might be a candidate. I’ve gotten very kind offers of assistance here on CC, but without that I can almost guarantee that we wouldn’t consider schools higher than SUNY Binghamton because anything else is completely out of the realm of experience. Yes we’ve heard of HYPS, but they might as well be Mars U as far as we’re concerned. I think visits are excellent for exactly Curm’s reason.</p>
<p>
I personally have no problems accessing info or college rep face time, as I live ten miles from Manhattan. Plenty of college fairs & h.s. visits & other families to chat with if I need info. If you read what other posters on this thread have stated, their remote location DOES present a problem. Reps just don’t come a calling. As most people don’t give a hoot about elite schools for their kids, HYP has no idea if they are missing the few who want to connect. And HYP really has no idea if their arrival in a remote area will makes a darn bit of difference in boosting the awareness/interest levels. </p>
<p>I also think that if the diversity bragging is correct, that middle class kids/college educated parents segment is actually losing ground at the elites. I DO think they are part of the diversity mix.</p>
<p>Frankly, I get tired of all the hype and emphasis on who-goes-where, who-went-where. I am sure it is an eastern thing, because I lived in the midwest for years, and this was not part of our vernacular.</p>
<p>Round this time of year, those of us with seniors (who are not going HYP) like to avoid the grocery store, Starbucks, all local haunts where well-meaning folk want to ask too many questions, and show little to no understanding of those kids who are not pursuing HYP, although they have the stats to do so. We endure the flipside of the parts of the country where kids only go to State U or local. Here, if you are a strong student and <em>not</em> applying to Ivy or top 10, there is no understanding at all.</p>
<p>So, it seems to go both ways.</p>
<p>I also think there’s too much hype re: college choices, but at the same time, when elite colleges ignore a big chunk of potential students they are reproducing the economic, social and political elite of this country. You can ask, “So what?” but I think it’s important to have people with very different experiences – including rural white kids – interacting with those who end up at the top levels of the country’s institutions. </p>
<p>And while there is no inherent to reason to think HYPS should care about this, they do profess to care. In my book, that means that their outreach efforts are currently inadequate. (And it’s certainly not just HYPS, but also the top LACs, perhaps even more so.)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I would agree that efforts up to the last admission cycle by most of the elite colleges have not been sufficient to encourage many high-ability, moderate-income students to apply. That is why I follow with interest this year’s experiment by Harvard, Princeton, and the U of Virginia </p>
<p>[University</a> of Virginia, Harvard, & Princeton Admission Presentations](<a href=“http://www.harvardprincetonuva.org/]University”>http://www.harvardprincetonuva.org/) </p>
<p>of eliminating an early round admission program. Evidently, each of those three colleges thought there was more to be done, and one thing to be done was to spend November traveling to meet more students rather than reading early applications. I think, and I think those colleges thought, putting all applications in a single pool will help admission officers adjust academic ratings of students to take into account low-income and other limiting circumstances better than the current admission system at most colleges of two admission cycles. The results will show how well the experiment worked.</p>
<p>Doubt it will work as well as they think. Everyone we know applied early to Yale this year LOL! Without doubt, some of those would have been Harvard kids.</p>
<p>Kids who are admitted to Harvard are often Harvard kids even if they were admitted to Yale too–that’s how yield works among cross-admits to those two fine colleges. And nothing about applying SCEA to Yale prevents a single-deadline application to Harvard, Princeton, or U of VA.</p>
<p>Does it matter if some end up going to Yale instead of Harvard or Princeton or UVA? If those three institutions succeed in making more students aware of what they can offer both academically, financially and socially, then they will have succeeded. To me, outreach is not only about getting more kids to apply to one particular institution but to give more kids more options. A student who suddenly becomes aware of the possibility of attending Harvard or Princeton or UVA instead of the local university will probably also become aware of the possibilityof attending Yale or Stanford, or other highly selective college and apply to several. And maybe get admitted to one. Allto the good.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I agree, and I think the outreach is laudable. And as far as increasing options, I think a another failure is the lack of merit scholarship understanding. By the time we were up to speed on the elite admissions stuff, we witnessed how the merit scholarship competition played out for Curmudgeon and his D and felt completely humbled. As he says, that’s a whole ‘nuther ballgame, and we didn’t have a notion. I thought merit scholarships were limited to the NMS types. Many could really benefit from greater knowledge in that area, and these boards have done a good job in introducing that option. Keep it coming everyone.</p>
<p>
This was another thing we heard on the road this year. Yale and Stanford were hot schools for the early round, possibly because Harvard and Princeton weren’t in the equation. Though I haven’t heard anything yet, I imagine Duke and William & Mary did pretty well, too.</p>
<p>We knew our numbers would go down…you can probably quote posts I made over a year ago saying that. I’m sure some people see that as disastrous, but we went into this knowing that would probably happen.</p>
<p>Hi, Dean J, I think you and your colleagues at the Brand X 
single-deadline colleges may be pleasantly surprised by your total application numbers for the whole admission season. And I do think–this is my considered prediction–that all three of your colleges will pick up more low-income enrollees without any diminution of the usual admission statistics for your enrolled classes. Which I think is what the single-deadline colleges are aiming for, right?</p>
<p>Apparently Georgetown is seeing the effect of H & P & VA’s elimination of their early programs.</p>
<p>[The</a> Hoya | MSB Early Pool Grows by 49 Percent](<a href=“http://www.thehoya.com/news/111307/news1.cfm]The”>http://www.thehoya.com/news/111307/news1.cfm)</p>