<p>oh please. The typical HS in the US is trying to take an accurate daily attendance so the district doesn’t lose out on state and federal funds due them. They give a %^&* about the tiny, tiny slice of the population who gets in a lather over Harvard vs. Hopkins or Wellesley vs. Williams and which is more prestigious. Your typical HS principal would fall over laughing reading about the endless rehashs on CC over “Does Swarthmore have a higher per capita PhD production than Reed” or “can my kid major in math at Bowdoin even though the department isn’t as highly rated as it is at Middlebury.”</p>
<p>You guys need to get out more.</p>
<p>It matters not a whit in the grand scheme of things if there is one more overwrought parent in Scarsdale or Belmont who sees a letter from Harvard and thinks that means little Suzy has a shot at getting in to Harvard. Harvard can do whatever it likes as long as it’s legal… and apparently it is still legal to conduct a mass mail campaign encouraging college seniors to apply, even if we, the collective elders of CC think it’s shameful that a senior would wait UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE to fill out their Harvard application. That kid should have spent the summer writing the supplemental essay for god’s sake so the HS English teacher could “lightly edit it” for grammar/syntax, and then the college adviser could “lightly edit it” for content, and then the 'copter parents could “lightly edit it” for structure. It is shameful. Everyone knows that in order to actually get in to Harvard you have to have sent off the application by October 1st even though those dopes in Cambridge claim you have until January. But what do they know, they only work in Harvard admissions, where the people are so stupid they waste good money encouraging kids to apply who have absolutely no chance of getting in. Those dopes.</p>
<p>Personally I liked the old days better when the headmaster at Groton and the headmaster at Exeter decided who could apply to Harvard and who to Yale and who would be the slugs ending up at Denison and Lehigh. That was much more democratic then encouraging any HS senior with a pen and a stamp-or a laptop and a modem- to apply. It’s Harvard, people. Those kids from schools which don’t even have a college advising department need to know their place and we’re only encouraging them to dream big when we suggest they apply to need blind universities who will make it possible for them to attend if admitted. Those kids should all be at University of Phoenix or hairdressing school anyway.</p>
<p>As long as our progeny don’t feel stressed by the extra competition to get into an ivy league school. That’s the most important thing.</p>