So far only one of my six schools has called my Educational Consultant and asked how “big” I was on them. Should more be calling?
No. Usually schools are silent between Jan 15 And March 10.
Honestly, I would expect your Educational Consultant to be proactively calling the schools, not the other way around.
She called all the schools before I interviewed.
We don’t have an EC, but since our school is pK-8, we have a Secondary School Coordinator. She called all our schools before we interviewed AND again within the last couple of weeks.
So for students who do not have a Secondary School Coordinator or EC, like those coming from LPS or small elementary schools, are they at a distinct disadvantage? Or is this taken into consideration as to why no one is calling to “push” the student? The student, herself, has had contact with the school (sports events, emails with coaches, etc.), but no professional putting her name out there. Thoughts?
I say you get extra points for not being annoying.
Yes, there probably is a bit of a disadvantage. OTOH, I imagine the schools would reach out on the kids that don’t have an EC or SSC.
Anecdotal evidence…
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1745523-schools-reaching-out-to-principals-deans-teachers-p1.html
Just to calm some fears. No one in our family called any schools or got calls from schools except for two inquiries right before M10 asking if we could consider admission without FA. We did not use an EC as we had never heard of such a thing and we did not even know that our kiddo could take the SSAT more than once. We didn’t find CC until after decisions came out. So, it IS possible to get into boarding schools without knowing anything about this process other than what you find on a school’s website or having any contact with the schools besides the application and (offsite) interviews.
I know this is a stressful time for all applicants, but you’ve put your best foot forward. You’re done. Try to relax. Don’t worry yourselves trying to read the telephone tea leaves. Take a lesson from @stargirl and step away from this board for a while. There is nothing more you can do and that should actually bring you some peace.
Good luck to all of you on M10. We’ll be here to celebrate and soothe.
Nope, no one reaching out to school. However, they know the school and have taken the top students in prior years. Hopefully they will do the same this year!
Yeah, I think each candidate has their own set of advantages and disadvantages, and who’s to say what moves the dial. I mean, if a particular student doesn’t have the test scores, grades, ECs or other hooks, no amount of phone calls is likely to make a difference in the outcome.
As I mentioned on another thread, read absolutely nothing into the fact that a school is calling or not calling. At this point, everything you can do has been done. There is no sense in having any Monday morning quarterbacking, especially before Tuesday. Spend the weekend doing something to get your mind off of M10.
Wow, all I can say is that this post really highlights for me that we live in a very different world than some of you. No educational consultants, “secondary school consultants” or the like here, just a really smart kid in a public middle school with nearly 1000 students who wants “more”. No wonder it feels like the deck is stacked against us…
Actually, @jmtabb, if you’re from an underrepresented area, that in itself may be an advantage. Our school has 16 8th graders to place. With a few exceptions, most secondary schools will only take 1 or 2 from our school. Fortunately, there are dozens of good private day and/or boarding schools in our area. Unfortunately, there are also dozens of feeder schools from which the Secondary Schools draw, in addition to all the public schools. I was just happy at one school when I saw they had no current students from our town, hoping that would give us an edge.
Best of luck to you.
Another family here with no consultant or anything and my DS was admitted to a fabulous school. I truly believe that the AOs understand how the process works. I personally think that they probably found it refreshing to have people who weren’t completely polished, but genuine and passionate about the school. We may not have said everything perfectly according to a consultant, but I don’t think that they always are looking for that. This isn’t a cookie cutter situation. They will admit wealthier folks who use consultants and have all the right things to say. They will also, however, admit people from small town public schools who have no clue about BS or the process. We hadn’t even considered BS for our DS until fall of the application year. He was just so passionate about wanting these schools and it shone through.
We didn’t have a consultant, family ties or lots of money for the process. He wore a suit coat we purchased from a second hand store and he gawked at the facilities. We needed lots of FA and could only offer in return a teenager with a passion for the school and a great personality. On M10 he received one rejection, one wait list and one fabulous acceptance at Groton School. It has changed his life.
The schools aren’t just looking for the most perfectly manicured teenager. They want real and they want diverse. You all have wonderful children and I hope that they all get the good news they so much desire next week. Either way they are still wonderful people.
I agree with @jmtabb. Different worlds. But that adds to the diversity. I cannot imagine a top BS school would want most of their class coming from the same feeder schools. Too cookie cutter, not good for anybody. I wouldn’t want to see the SAME kids I went to elementary school with all throughout my HS years. Better to be exposed to new faces, new opinions and ideas. Good luck!
Well, we have distance in our favor, but I think there are just enough kids enrolled from our state to make us not exactly “underrepresented” for most of the New England schools. I just look at the lists of extra curriculars some kids list in the “chances” column, see that some of you either have paid for consultants to go to bat for your kids with each of the schools or go to private schools that do so as part of what your tuition pays for. We’ve got none of that. The list of after school activities my daughter’s school offers is so pitiful that we pay for and coach a math team so our daughter can compete in mathcounts, math olympiad etc.
We don’t live in a poor area (on the contrary, most people consider my town to be “snobbish and rich”), but the opportunities just don’t seem to match up at all. This whole process has really been an eye opener.
The call often happens if a school is on the fence about an applicant. If you’re an obvious admit or deny the school may not care as much about protecting their yield.
@jmtabb I don’t think the deck is stacked against you at all. The schools value diversity, everyone can not come from the same North East k-8 schools. There is talking that goes on between the consultants and the k-8 schools and the AOs but that does’t mean that the AOs do not know that kids coming from a different environment are in a different situation or even if it matters. We have a similar situation in NY with kids applying from “connected” preschools to private Kindergartens and I do not thin it really has an impact on the outcome, the AO’s like to gather more info and talk about applicants if they can as a virtue of relationships that are long established but they don’t hold it against the kids who don’t have someone advocating for them.
No EC or outside help here. In fact, one school we applied to was a last minute application…didn’t even decide to apply until after Christmas that year. We emailed the school, got a Skype interview, completed the app in about 5 days. My daughter was accepted. FYI the school was a well-respected hidden gem.
Stop worrying. It either will or won’t happen. And, you know what? It will be OK either way.
Relax. The first part is almost over.