What’s better than four years at the University of Chicago? Four years at Chicago plus a year at Hotchkiss.
My response to a dad whose kid is visiting the University of Chicago next week and whose wife is wondering why they should do a PG year at a top 10 prep school like Hotchkiss if they get an offer from Chicago.
This email is from a parent interested in a post-graduate year for his child:
Mike,
Two more questions/comments for you about a PG year.
First, a question. In a post-grad year, how do schools tailor the education plan? Is it based on each student or is it just as if he were taking HS/College type classes? To say it another way, in Oscar’s case, his biggest focus is test scores, so would they simply shove him in a closet and give him a test review course? For the record, I am fine with and endorse shoving him in a closet with a SAT review book and laptop.
Now, a comment. While we would most certainly welcome a D1 offer if that was the result of us choosing prep school (I mean who wouldn’t), that would just be a bonus. To us, a D3 offer at a high academic school is more than a win. I think Oscar is a bubble recruit right now at D3 schools like Case, Rochester, Franklin and Marshall, Dickinson, Washington and Lee and Union. If a post grad year could flip a couple of these from the their “nice to have list” to their “must have” list, then that would certainly be a successful PG year for us. Williams College is on it’s own list. They really seem sincere in wanting him, but just cannot get him in with an 1150 SAT. They have really made it clear that a 1350 SAT and he’s getting in, and at 1300 they can probably use a token. I’ve used too many words to make my point here……. which is we would have reasonable expectations going into this.
Thanks.
Matt
My Response:
Matt,
Your overall goals for a PG year are perfect. (You’d be amazed at how few times I get to say that to parents.) I love your honesty (if not your priorities 🙂 ) and sense of humor regarding PG classes vs test prep. That kind of straight feedback is worth more than you know – to me, to prep schools and to the colleges recruiting your child.
Here’s the answer to your question. If you send him to a basketball factory, he has the option of just studying for the SAT. If you send him to any kind of a real prep school, he’s going to take a full schedule that includes the next level of classes from what he’s taking now. If he’s taking pre-calculus now, he’s going to take calculus as a PG. If he’s taking Spanish 4 now, he’ll take Spanish 5. That doesn’t mean all his classes are completely by the book. One of the best things about a PG year is the one-time opportunity to explore electives or classes the student wouldn’t normally try. There is flexibility in class choice based on the individual student.
A real prep school is what you should want, for several reasons.
Remember, the best prep schools have tremendous clout with the top level colleges. Why not take advantage of that? In other words, if you understand the facts, there’s no reason to think you have to sacrifice. You can get everything.
Your comment about PG year outcomes shows me your awareness as a parent is right on the money and ahead of the curve. Normally, when a parent tells me how reasonable they are, I can be pretty sure they’re not. In this case, your expectations and goals are very reasonable. I would add that if using a PG year to get him to the top level academic D3 schools is a successful outcome for you, then prep school is probably what you should do next year, regardless of what happens the rest of his senior year. I think it’s just about that simple. While we’re discussing awareness, let’s remember almost every family would give an awful lot to know their child was going to be admitted the schools with the academic rating of those on your list. You’re in a very good position.
Thanks.
Mike
This email exchange involves a marketing email sent out by Prep School Sports Connection to all the attendees at a large sports camp. One of the recipients was an athlete whose dad is the Director of Admission at a prep school. The dad is concerned that PSSC is trying to lure students away from his school.
Mike,
We too have a relationship with similar organizations. However, we scrub our list each time to be sure we aren’t creating the perception of poaching players already at peer independent schools. Your email will do more than ruffle a few feathers if it lands in the inbox of players already at boarding schools. Do with this information what you will, but I see no good coming of this approach. I can see more than a few coaches being upset and marching into the offices of admission and compromising the work you do with so many kids.
Elliott
Elliott,
Here are my complete thoughts in response to your email.
When I first started sending these emails out, I knew some of the kids receiving them attended prep schools. Sending to them seemed ridiculous to me. A waste, if nothing else, or counterproductive, as you suggest. I’ve learned that it’s not. Like most mass marketing, 90% of the time I get no response at all to my emails. When I do get a response, it’s usually that they’re already at a prep school and to take them off the list (which I do right away). Sometimes I get something else. Here are some of the ways I’ve discovered emailing prep school families can be beneficial.
• The most common of the beneficial responses are families who tell me their kids are at prep school and want to share their experiences (mostly good) with me. They believe in prep school and what I’m doing and want to contribute information. That’s tremendously helpful to me.
• Sometimes there are prep school seniors who want a PG year and need to take it at a different school. A very small percentage for sure. Still, I get those responses.
• Every so often, I’ll also get a call from a coach asking how we can work together so he can get some of my players. He recognizes what I’m doing and wants to benefit.
• Some parents contact me because they have a younger child considering prep school. The child almost always plays a different sport and is usually a different gender. Despite the success of the older child’s prep school choice, the parents are not as comfortable finding the right spot for the younger child and want to talk about getting help
• A couple months ago I got a call from the mom of a kid at Oak Hill. She said the timing of my email was great because the coach had just sat the kid down two days ago, told him he was unlikely to play much next year and suggested he transfer. The parents, having already picked the wrong school once didn’t need to be sold on getting help the second time around. This was an underclass kid already getting legit high major recruitment. I don’t want to miss those.
• On pretty rare occasions I will get a kid, not a senior, who is unhappy and wants to switch prep schools. When it does happen, if I know the coach, calling him is often my first step. I like to think I can help the process and the more I know, the more I can help. Plus, coaches generally aren’t naïve and want to know what’s going on. Again, it helps if I know the coach. It happened once last year. I called the coach. He wasn’t surprised and said the kid and family were a huge pain in the ass. He was happy to talk, explained the situation and told me I’d be doing him a favor if I found the kid a different school. When I spoke to the parents again I was able to give them some pretty blunt direction about where I thought they might be going wrong with their thought process, and I did it without giving away that I’d talked to the coach.
Again, none of these is very common, but together they happen fairly regularly, and they add up.
You could say I’m playing for the exception rather than the rule and technically you’d be right. Why take the risk at all? It’s a fair question. The answer is, in the handful of years I’ve been sending these out, the email I received from you is the only one of that type that I can remember (and there are a lot of the usual schools on the list). Maybe I’m not paying a price after all. Perhaps I’m paying a price and just don’t know it (or don’t want to know it). Maybe schools are mad and holding it against me and just not telling me. It’s certainly possible, but I spend an awful lot of time at many of these schools, as you know, and have a lot of relationships. My sense is that they’re not holding it against me. I think most coaches recognize my emails for what they are, mass marketing that all the kids get these days, not something specifically targeting their kids, so they brush it off and move on.
Thanks again for your feedback. I do appreciate it. If you have any more, please share it.
Talk to you soon.
Mike