The 'pipeline' from private schools to top colleges

This school year, Blair senior Diana Alvarez has only once met with her guidance counselor, who juggles the files of over 300 other Blazers. Meanwhile, senior Amanda Good, who attends The Holton-Arms School, an all-girls private school in Bethesda with a 38:1 student-counselor ratio, has met many times with her college counselor, whom Good says is readily available.

At a time when application deadlines are creeping closer by the day, public schools set up counselor meetings and promote the Career Center as resources for students' college search. However, despite these efforts, public schools are at a disadvantage compared to private schools, where a "college feeder system is alive and well," according to a September Worth Magazine article titled "Getting Inside the Ivy Gates."

The pipeline

Worth reports a "pipeline" system in place between admissions officers and college counselors. Through this connection, private schools' college counselors call admissions officers to try to get "preliminary indications" of who can get into that college and who is borderline. Counselors then lobby for borderline students.

According to a Worth study of private school graduates from 1998 to 2001, Roxbury Latin School in Massachusetts ranked as the number one private school and had a 21.11 percent "success rate," which is the percentage of people accepted to Harvard, Yale or Princeton. The Holton-Arms School, ranked 42, had a 7.54 percent success rate. Walt Whitman High School, ranked 209, had a success rate of 2.25 percent.

According to Blair's guidance department, out of a 2002 senior class of 690 students, 1.23 percent of students were accepted into Harvard, Yale or Princeton.

Meeting what's-her-name

Guidance resource counselor Karen Hunt believes that the availability of counselors is a factor in public and private school resources. Whereas counselors at Blair have multiple tasks, including organizing schedules and helping students improve academically, private schools hire their own college advising counselors who focus on preparing students for college.

Blair's student-counselor ratio of 300:1 is well below the national 490:1 average. But in comparison, private schools have an average of 40 to 60 students per college counselor, according to Worth.

Alvarez views her unfamiliar relationship with her new counselor as a possible weakness in her college application. "I've met her once. I know who she is, and that's about it. I feel like her recommendation will not really be stating who I am because she doesn't know me," Alvarez explains.

At Holton-Arms, college counselors get to know each student personally, which Good views as helpful because it allows her counselor to write a stronger recommendation for her than she thinks a public school counselor could. "All the time, I'm in the office asking questions. She's definitely going to give a more detailed recommendation for college," Good says.

College Application 101

Brittany Greenfield, another senior at Holton-Arms, has already finished all her applications and says that her school has held college nights, meetings with parents and summer meetings to check up on students. "I do get the sense that I will be more prepared than other students. I feel comfortable in applying to very fast-paced colleges," she states.

Though private school students have the advantage of a college counselor's guidance, Hunt acknowledges socioeconomic differences that also split the public-versus-private-school playing field. While some students can afford hiring a private tutor, many students at Blair "have more intervening factors in their lives," Hunt says. "Their families are struggling with resources."

Tuitions at private schools sometimes average well above $20,000 a year. But, even with the high tuition, Good says she knows students in her school who seek independent college counselors to help with the admissions process.

Resources abound

Blair does offer many resources, including counselors who attend invitational admissions meetings at as many colleges as possible and bring back information for their students.

Also, the Career Center has information on most colleges in the country, and college admissions officers visit Blair and answer questions for students during the first semester.