Posted on 03/15/2005 7:38:37 AM PST by paltz
For Elizabeth Watson and hundreds of private school admissions officers across the country, the worst week of the year begins tomorrow.
By informal agreement, private schools mailed their acceptance notices on the same day -- March 10 -- and at many of New England's most select schools, four out of five of those letters begin with words like ''We regret to inform you that. . ."
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Okay, schadenfreude is a sin, I guess ... but I just can't feel any sympathy for people who set themselves up for this. What a sense of entitlement you must have, to believe that a 10% (or less) probability is guaranteed to fall your way.
But I have to say I admire the chutzpah of the father who, when the admissions office said, "We just don't have any more (boarding school) beds," answered, "Fine, I'll build you another dorm!"
The rich and different. More irritating.
Duh...the rich ARE different. Guess you can tell who didn't go to a posh private school...
Maybe he should have considered building a whole other school. Then he could guarantee admission for his child. :)
> For Andi O'Hearn, director of admissions at Lawrence Academy in Groton, the hardest calls begin: ''My child was up crying all night; do you know what you've done?"
Proper answer: "Confirmed that your child is too immature to withstand the rigors of the real world, and is thus not what we are looking for to admit to our fine institution."
No need to read the letter -- fat envelope means your in; thin envelope means back to your old day school you prole.
NE Prep School story ping, without comment.
Good thought ... but it's the name and snob appeal of these schools that the parents are after, not the educational value. These families could hire tutors in every subject with the money they're spending on tuition.
They don't seem to realize that the system has changed. The colleges they want to get into, out of these prep schools, aren't taking every rich New Englander with good grades any more ... they want "diversity."
Or, if a postcard comes, you know you're really screwed.
Huh? Unless I missed something I thought that the baby-boomers' kids would have gotten those rejections in the 80's and 90's.
The youngest "baby boomers" were born in 1962, by the most commonly-used dating. Kids born in these parents' 20's and 30's are teenagers now. (My husband was born in 1962. Our oldest daughter, born when he was 28, is 14.)
True, but who do you think they use to fill the "white" slots? They certainly don't want any of that red-state white trash about!
Hmm, all three of my sons went to Lawrence. The town where I live has one of the best public school systems in MA, but back when my kids were high school age, the local high school experimented with no discipline and open classrooms. The new principal was writing his PhD., using the town's experience as fodder. Needless to say, kids ran amok, flushed coats down toilets, did whatever came into their little heads except hit the books...bullying was rife.
So my kids went to Lawrence, and it was worth it. The eldest went to MIT at fifteen, and his years at Lawrence were, I think, typical of what they try to do. Small classes, and they offer learning at the pace of each student. So, within one classroom, you might have three groups: average kids, athletes/maybe not so motivated kids, and self starters. So many kids left the public school system during those years it was an exodus and eventuated in wholescale reform. When they started MCAS testing, (each kid now has to pass to get a high school diploma, my town topped the state.) (We were far from rich, by the way, and Lawrence offered great scholarship help.)
Why would you care enough to make such a comment about someone else's 18 yr. old?
I guess that would fit. All my peers are baby-boomer kids and we graduated in the 80's.
LOL! You're right ... but there just aren't enough "white-people" seats in the colleges for everyone who's "qualified," just as there aren't enough prep-school spaces for all the students whose parents think they should go there. It just seems so pointless to me. (I'm sure all the kids would say they're "noncomformists," too!)
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