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Recently I had a meeting with moms in my area, and the first topic of conversation was how difficult it was for the top HS Seniors they knew to get into their first-choice schools. Today's Washington Post includes a front-page article about exactly this topic, which is apparently a problem for many students in the region.
The thrust of the article is that Northern Virginia graduates more than it's share of exceptional students, who compete against each other to be the regional representatives to Virginia's top public universities.
College applicants from Northern Virginia are facing unusually stiff competition -- increasingly from one another. The region, with an extraordinary concentration of high-performing schools and students, might have to adjust long-held assumptions about the power of scores and grades in college admissions.According to a former TJ guidance counselor:
"many Northern Virginia families overlook that large numbers of students in the region have high test scores and good grades. Many of them, she said, are in competition with each other. The top state undergraduate institutions, such as U-Va., the College of William & Mary, Virginia Tech and JMU, also "cannot take all of their students from Northern Virginia," Bloomquist said. "They have to leave room" for students from other parts of the state.
2 Comments:
You're right to highlight the increased competition for college places, the high school class of 2008 is facing an incredible challenge.
We're trying to help by offering concise tips to help students & parents figure out the process. It's too late for this year's seniors, but Juniors and Sophomores will find lots of valuable information here:
http://www.stepintocollege.com
We invite your students to bookmark the site and check back often for updates, especially in our college admissions blog postings.
Ian & Sandra Griffin
Step Into College
What the article fails to do is to discuss how that situation directly affects our students in terms of the stress it places upon them. Our kids are loading up on AP courses, playing multiple sports, joining every club under the sun, racking up the community service hours and doing everything they possibly can to distinguish themselves from the competition. Their workloads are absurd; they put themselves under incredible stress. And the result is an increase in the number of kids engaging in undesirable behaviors. Our high schools need to be looking at what they can do to help our kids cope and what they do to contribute to that stress. In fact, why don't we start by bringing back honors courses in history, instead of forcing our kids into college level work when they're only sophomores?
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