Author Archives: Mike

Quote of the Day: At-Risk Kids

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I think a PG year is by far the best choice, no matter what D1 offers he gets. Every year athletes who graduate from my high school drop out of college during their freshman year. They are good kids and good students but they drop out because they aren’t equipped to handle the overall transition to college. This kid is not ready to survive in college.

 

This from a longtime Athletic Director at a very poor and low performing urban school district talking about a D1 scholarship talent football player.

 

 

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Quote of the Day: Learning Leadership

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It’s hard being a friend and a prefect. I can’t just make them do something and I can’t hit them if they don’t.

 

This from a senior at a top prep school who has obvious natural leadership skills and has just started his first year as a prefect. This is his second year at the school after transferring from one of the statistically worst urban areas in the country.

Prefects are the student leaders in the dorms. They are selected by the students and faculty after a competitive application and interview process.  (At other prep schools they go by different names, such as proctors.)

 

 

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Quote of the Day: Why a PG Year?

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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.

 

 

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Email of the Day: PG Year Goals and Perspective

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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.

  1. Those real classes are going to help him get a better test score.
  2. He can earn college credits, possibly a significant amount.
  3. It’ll hurt your chances of getting to that next level of admission with the top level colleges if he only takes SAT prep. They want to see him challenging himself and showing intellectual curiosity.
  4. One of his PG year courses can still be an SAT prep course

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

 

 

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Email of the Day: Poaching Prep School Players?

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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

 

 

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Quote of the Day: Schools Contact PSSC

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I’m calling to let you know I’m the new director of admission and financial aid at …. I started here three days ago. I liked working with you when I was the director at …. and I hope to keep working with you at my new school. You have a strong organization and we need some athletes.

 

This quote speaks for itself. It’s one good example why families should use Prep School Sports Connection. We have access to opportunities that families don’t. Schools are not calling you when they’re looking for athletes.

 

 

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Let’s Compare: Responsibility?

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Taylor is a post-grad who got full aid plus spending money and plane fare to one of the top 10 prep schools in the country. He was hoping to earn a college scholarship after his PG year, but wasn’t quite good enough. Still, he and his family got what almost every family hopes for – a very top academic D3 school with a list price of $70,000 for less than $5,000/yr. Instead, he’s chosen to go to junior college. This is a problem for his prep school coach, the prep school admissions office, the prep school college counseling office and the prep school itself. The school’s list of college matriculations is nothing short of incredible. That’s why families from around the world are willing to write the check for $65,000/yr. to attend. The school doesn’t hand out full financial aid so kids can go to junior college when they’ve got infinitely better options. The school knows not everyone’s a scholarship athlete. They’re fine with that. But picking a junior college over a top D3 for no good reason is not acceptable, especially when the family told the prep school twice before being accepted that they would take the right D3 offer if they didn’t get a scholarship. Now that the junior college decision has been made, this family has no qualms or guilt and apparently feels no responsibility to the school or others, especially the next kid who wants the same opportunity and now might not get it .

 

Haley is a freshman star three sport athlete who gets nearly full aid to attend a very good prep school. She’s already one of the most popular and respected students on campus, both with faculty and other students. When her school deal was originally finalized she said she felt a responsibility to live up to what was expected of her. At the end of her highly successful first year, she was very proud of her success. One of the reasons, she said, was the pressure she felt because she knew she wasn’t just trying to achieve her own goals. She also knew she was representing other people and any future girls who wanted the chance she got. She’d been given something great, something she loved, and wanted to live up to it.

 

 

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Today’s Quiz: Army, Navy and the PL Academic Index

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The Patriot League has an academic index (a minimum academic requirement) that athletes must meet to be admissible and eligible to compete. Army West Point and the Naval Academy have fairly unique admissions processes that are much more involved/stringent/difficult than the rest of the Patriot League. 

 

Question:  Do Army West Point and Naval Academy athletes still have to meet the Patriot League Academic Index, or is admission to the Academy enough?

 

 

 

Answer:  Yes. It’s possible to be admitted to the Academy and NOT be eligible to compete in Patriot League sports, although that would be a rare occurrence.

 

 

Bonus question:  Do athletes have to meet the AI even if they come through the Academy prep schools?

 

 

 

Answer:  Yes, there’s no difference between being admitted directly to the Academy vs entering through the prep school.

 

 

 

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Email of the Day: Thank You

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Hi Mike,
I just wanted to say there’s hardly a day around our house that we don’t thank you. We truly believe Hannah is at the right school. We went to visit for orientation day and the coach made sure that one of the hockey girls was Hannah’s guide for the day. He and all of the team came to meet her and have lunch with her. Hannah loved the girls that she met. The coach and his wife came to meet us before we started our seminars, then gave us a private tour. The school was beautiful! More than we could have imagined. Hannah said she loved the feel of the school and also found the teachers had a great sense of humor. So again, we thank you!!!

 

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