Is Rejection Important to You?

Periwinkle
Thu, 19 Feb 2009 09:15:36 +0000

How important is it to you to be the one who got in? If a school opened its doors and said, “Our admissions process is not a set of hurdles to get over - as long as we know we can serve your needs (you don’t have LD or behavioral issues that we can’t handle), you will be admitted. The challenge is that this is a tough school with high academic standards and expectations that you will be a contributing member of the community. If rejection happens it will be because you don’t live up to these expectations once you are here.” Would you be interested? Or, is it important to you to go through the possible rejection process in order to feel that a school is worthy?



Rephrase 1: Would you be interested in a school which admits nearly all acceptably behaved applicants without significant LD, but then chooses to expel those who don’t live up to the school’s academic and social standards?

“Admit them all, and let experience sort them out.” No. I think such a setup for high school would be unfair. I’m assuming such an approach would lead to a very high rate of expulsions. I know that my child will make friends with all sorts of children. To place my child in an environment in which numerous peers and friends were being tossed out, because they didn’t live up to the adults’ standards, would be unacceptably stressful. Add to that the fear that you yourself wouldn’t live up to expectations, and I don’t think it would be a healthy place.

Such an approach would also be a disavowal of the responsibility of the admissions office to admit children who have a realistic chance of staying the course. It’s very unfair to admit a child you believe to be unsuited to the school. After two years of effort, and tuition, to kick out a child because they don’t meet your standards, when you knew they wouldn’t be able to meet them from the first, would be vicious. Admitting them to your school may have prevented them from finding a school which would have suited them. Yes, there are probably students whose academic records don’t seem promising, but that’s where judgement comes in.

It would also put all the onus on success or failure at school on the child. I think that having a free hand in expulsions could lead to a great degree of arrogance in the administration and teaching corps.

Rephrase 2: Do you feel that rejecting applicants makes a school worthy?

I’d like to say no. Theoretically, if all of a school’s applicants can meet academic and behavioral expectations, then no, I don’t need a school to reject applicants. However, the real world doesn’t work that way. Parents choose to change schools for many reasons. Sometimes their children have worn out their welcome at their current school.

Caveat Emptor. Acquaintances chose to send their son to a private school. Knowing the child, I took the school off our list of schools to investigate. If they accept that boy, who knows what they will tolerate in the classroom? In the school’s defense, he didn’t stay long. I suspect that his prior school may not have been entirely forthcoming about his issues, as well.

As long as there are therapeutic boarding schools, parents will be wary of a school which rejects very few students.

Rephrase 3: Do you believe, “The lower the acceptance rate, the better the school?”

Only to a certain degree. Some schools go to great lengths to increase the number of applications, so I take the acceptance rates with a grain of salt. A number of schools have very well funded, very well run admissions departments. I assume that “number of applicants” is one of the criteria used to judge the department’s performance. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I do wonder about the methods. Also, it’s not fair to compare the stats of the “meet any need” schools with other schools. A potential “full ride” is worth $40,000, or more. That’s an enormous incentive to apply to a school.