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Admissions person's rant


flyingiguana
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My son is being recruited and will likely play his sport at some level.  His sport is not a full ride sport and he may or may not have athletic money.  I can envision a private celebration for our family for his hard work if he does get offered a roster spot on a college team.  I can also envision a more public party as a thank you to all the people that have supported him along the way.  There have been coaches, teachers, teammates,  and administrators at the school that allowed him access to play as a homeschooler that we will want to thank.   Lots of people will have played a role in making college athletics a reality for him and in our case a signing party would be for everyone that supported him, not just an excuse to brag.  I'd love to feed and hug these people and say "Thank you!!" It is good publicity for the schools, too, so I don't think these celebrations are always all about the kid that is signing.  That's just my take, though.

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Please remember I was not specifically  referring to my son but to the generic student in our area.

 

I will concede the athletic full ride as that is statistically improbable and poor wording on my part.  I'm not sure how to reword it at the moment.  There is a lot of tension in our area regarding this issue.  Every week the local newspaper, which covers the county not just our town, publishes articles with pictures of the signing parties.  Commitment signings are big deals here.  Table cloths, balloons, college coach, current coach,  a flourish of the pen, big smiles and hand shakes.   Is it like that anywhere else?

 

I have seen similar big deal ceremonies.

 

However, I've also seen the big spread in the paper when National Merit Semi-Finalists are announced.  In fact, in my football mad part of Texas (a descriptor which covers pretty much the whole state), all of the National Merit Semi-Finalists from all of the area high schools were invited to a city council meeting to be officially commended.  Our names were in the local paper.  In some cities I've lived in, there is a double page spread devoted to this.

 

Service academy reps frequently attend high school awards ceremonies to officially recognize students who were offered appointments to academies.  The typical remarks for this generally mention the estimated value of the appointment (around $350,000 last I checked), and the area I'm in now even makes up big mock checks to fill out with the value of the education. 

 

If this isn't happening in an area, then I would both press the local media to try to get it on their radar and solicit help from interested parties (parents, counselors, alumni associations, school reps, etc), and do their job for them (writing press releases, inviting media and politicians to events).  If the school doesn't recognize the students, then the parents association, Elks club, VFW, DAR, etc can.

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There is no reason not to have a college decision party for every student. Athletes just tend to decide months before everyone else.

 

I remember reading about a school that posted a pennant up in the guidance office hallway for every school that a senior chose to attend.  I thought that was a clever way of putting the names of schools in front of younger students for reasons beyond who was playing whom in what bowl game.

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I agree wholeheartedly with the advice in the article flyingiguana posted. A college that provides the appropriate classes and level of challenge and helps to continue fostering and developing students' interests is the best choice. It doesn't need to be an Ivy.

 

Besides, when it comes time to get a job, interviewers are unconsciously influenced by a candidate's likeability moreso than their academics according to the following study.

 

http://www.psychologylounge.com/2010/02/01/hacking-your-next-job-interview-the-real-secret-to-getting-hired/

http://www.timothy-judge.com/Higgins-Judge%20IB-Recruiters%20JAP.pdf

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I have never heard of signing parties or getting-into-certain-college parties. Maybe I'm just out of the loop, but here at our school, which has one of the top athletic programs in the US, I've never heard of signing parties. I don't have a competitive athlete, though.

 

Our local paper prints a lot about athletic achievements but very little about academic achievements. There was no mention of National Merit Semifinalists, for example, and our school had about 20 who made it. There's definitely no party!

 

About the time kids start getting into colleges, though, it's fun to watch the parents at Panera Bread. This is when you'll see the parents wearing their child's college sweatshirt. According to my son, the kids themselves don't talk much about where they've applied or whether they were accepted but some parents do.

 

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I don't know about families hosting signing parties, but high school kids signing to play collegiate level sports - particularly D1, though even for D2 and D3 - get a lot of press both in print and on local newscasts. They are always behind a table, pen in hand with the coach and parents standing behind them. The student is typically wearing a cap of the team with which he is signing. The newspaper does a good job of covering academic achievement as well. Ds's quiz bowl team won state the last three years - always in the paper. National Merit kids - always listed in the paper. They don't get on the local TV newscast though. ;)

 

We know a family from our old church (before we moved 30 miles down the road) whose son is a top ten kicker in the nation. He has already been extended an offer from Navy. Don't think that's where he wants to go, but I really don't know where all he is being recruited. Interesting twist on the money discussion since service academies are full rides anyway (sort of - you do come out "owing" the government your service). I don't know all his stats, but I do know his ACT score is a 29 as it's listed in his on-line bio. No idea if that is in range for a service academy or not.

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Unfortunately it is not that students are captive to level of interest...their requests are being ignored for political reasons.  We had a large math team the year it was cut...as many members as the football team.  Math club came to be viewed as elitist, so it won't be restored. Same for other academic clubs and the marching band (and the organizations that sponsor many of these culminating contests do not welcome nonschool sponsored teams).  The price of an advisor is $5k per activity if done thru the school...and the school doesn't have the budget for that. To do these type of activities as a community requires a transportation infrastructure that does not exist, or large fees from the parents to cover the bussing, the insurance, and the room rental. So, now individuals do find opportunities on their own, usually at universities...we have some that drive for 45 min to hop the train in to NYC for math circles or science saturday enrichment; others are heading for youth orchestra. These activities, like club soccer and swimming, are now truly elitist, as so many are priced out since there is no affordable local availability. 

 

I know that I'm preaching to the choir, but that is just silly.  And as you point out, to cut these activities from the school programming means that the only kids with access will be those whose families have the wherewithal to manage the labrynth of entry requirements, practice and transportation on their own.

 

DH often jokes that a school district would probably very quickly suggest that I homeschool, because the sort of conditions you describe (and other parents here with familiarity with their local schools describe) would leave me unable to stay in my shell.

 

 

ETA: Part of my earlier rant was actually against the organizations that preclude entry from non-school teams.  It's one thing for a sports league to limit competition to high school teams.  However, it's something different when Math Counts or the local science fair refuses entry to students who don't have support from their school. 

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Please remember I was not specifically  referring to my son but to the generic student in our area.

 

I will concede the athletic full ride as that is statistically improbable and poor wording on my part.  I'm not sure how to reword it at the moment.  There is a lot of tension in our area regarding this issue.  Every week the local newspaper, which covers the county not just our town, publishes articles with pictures of the signing parties.  Commitment signings are big deals here.  Table cloths, balloons, college coach, current coach,  a flourish of the pen, big smiles and hand shakes.   Is it like that anywhere else?

 

Yes, and they sometimes include money, but not always, and definitely not always full rides.

 

These kids have worked hard to be top in their sports.  I don't begrudge them their moment in the sun any more than I would for an artist or musician.

 

Our paper also prints kudos colleges send out about any of their students in small blurbs (Dean's list, participation in plays/music deals, special awards, etc).  Our congressman sent my middle son a nice printed kudo for getting his college grades too.

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  However, it's something different when Math Counts or the local science fair refuses entry to students who don't have support from their school. 

 

Just to be clear, MathCounts has been only welcoming to our homeschool team.  But there are other math organizations who do make me jump through hoops just because my kids are homeschooled, and after all these years it's starting to wear on me.  

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I didn't have time to look at this link until this morning. While I think Parchment's ranking system is rather strange and most definitely flawed (NC A&T ranked (184) signifcantly above NCSU (211) and VA Tech (240)??), I do think the article+list of schools does make you realize just how ridiculous the assertion is that only 20 schools in this country are great. There are literally 100s of great colleges/universities in this country.

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Just to be clear, MathCounts has been only welcoming to our homeschool team. But there are other math organizations who do make me jump through hoops just because my kids are homeschooled, and after all these years it's starting to wear on me.

That's awesome. Thanks for the clarification. I was remembering a change from a few years ago but hadn't followed up. I'm happy to be wrong.

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