College Admission Reality Check

College Admission Reality Check February 15 Folks in the admissions community should be forthright with students and parents. Even if what youre saying isnt what they want to hear The Washington Post has a cute article entitled The greatest line I never said from college admissions counselors by Valerie Strauss that we figured wed share with our loyal readers. In the article, Strauss shares a fun email conversation from the NACAC listserv a listserv that many folks in the college admissions community are a part of (including us at Ivy Coach). Each and every year, college admissions counselors, school counselors, and private college counselors are confronted with situations in which they wish they could just tell a student or parent the truth rather than sugarcoat it for them. If youve ever read any of our blogs heck if you know anything about our company you know that we stand firmly against sugarcoating. We prefer instead to be unapologetically honest. So when a student writes an essay that could be mistaken for the essay of a fourth grader writing an essay with a crayon, well tell him as much. When a student with straight Cs thinks she can get into Duke, well tell her that unless shes the progeny of Melinda Gates herself, she is as likely to get into Duke as Coach K is to become an Olympic figure skater. With his hip, its just not happening. When a student tells us that hes the best swimmer at his school and that every college will want him, well look at his times and give him a reality check that his times while they might be good at his high school arent fast enough to pass a local lifeguarding test much less swim Division 1. Anyhow, heres what some folks on the listserv had to share with the college admissions community. These are lines they wish they could have said: I was reminded of an interaction with a student†¦She told me that she was interested in applying to Dartmouth. I looked at her challenging transcript and I was SO tempted to say: If an asteroid strikes the earth and kills every teenager but you, you MIGHT make the wait list. And theres this: To quote the great Judge Smails from Caddyshack, the line that always goes through my head is, Well, the world needs ditch-diggers, too.' And this: My favorite unsaid  line  to a student with low scores and low science grades who planned on being a neurosurgeon: I can guarantee you’ll never be  my  neurosurgeon.' Or this: The one thing I want to say to my in-a-hurry seniors who fill out transcript request forms quickly without attention to detail is, Aww honey if you can’t spell the name of college correctly, you probably shou ldn’t apply there.' If youre in the college admissions community, what line do you wish you could have said? Why not just say it? We do! Its a college admission reality check. And it cant hurt.