When I graduated high school, my high school distributed to all the graduates a map showing the location of the colleges that all the students are going to. Some students go to better colleges than others. I think my high school should have been legally prohibited from doing this. In my opinion, the information about what college the students go to should be kept confidential (from other students) unless the student provides consent. What do you think? Ironically, I was excluded from the map I'm assuming accidentally.
It's public information. Who is enrolled at which university isn't a secret... I don't really see an issue with schools publishing public info that's of interest to their readers.
Caesar, how would you feel if the high school told every student every other students' GPA? Telling every student what college every other student is going to isn't as bad as that, but you found ranking of colleges academically that you thought was reasonable, it would have a positive correlation with GPA. You're in Australia, and I don't know how the laws compare. I've been out of college four years and if I wanted to find out what college some of the students who graduated high school with me went to I don't know what I could do other than asking my high school (even if they still had the information they wouldn't know if some of the students transferred) or doing an Internet search (any student on Facebook is volunteering the information of what college they are going to). Quentinc, All college applications are done through the high school. The high school knows what college, if any, all of its students will go to.
Its not private information, there's no reason why the school shouldn't publish it. Stop complaining. In Australia, all university admission offers are printed in the national newspapers.
The entire college application and admissions process on the east coast is such an insane status contest. That someone could perceive their admission to college as so personally embarrassing that they think it should be private is crazy.
did said map list each students name next to the college/university or did it just list the college/university with the number of students from you HS that were going there?
My school paper published the school and declared major (if one was declared) of every graduating senior. We were allowed to simply have "decision pending" in place if we felt the need, but not many did. Personally, I don't see a huge issue with this. At the end of four years I had a pretty damn good idea who was smart and who wasn't, I don't think I learned anything all that interesting after perusing that issue. Besides, it is high school, you won't see two-thirds of those people till the first reunion, and by then the college you went too is a moot point...it will be about how much money you make and how hot your significant other is.
How big is your school? It seems very strange to run the entire college admissions process through the school, unless it was a very small school (in which case I doubt this information would be very private). And it's not uncommon for the graduation program to list the college the student is attending, and it might even be announced when they're walking the stage. This isn't exactly "private" information in the same way medical records are.
All college applications are not done through the high school. Maybe at your school they were, but at mine they certainly weren't. If you were so set on keeping the information secret, you should have contacted your university of choice privately, requested an application, and filled it out, without going through your high school. My high school also published a newsletter announcing where all the graduating seniors were going to college. This is not private information, not by a longshot. I do believe the high school requested the information from the students, so if someone didn't want to furnish their information they didn't have to. If your peers correlate your college of choice's academic ranking with your GPA, and if they correlate those with your worth as a person... well, then I don't really know why you care what a bunch of numbnuts like them think anyway.
My high school had a big map in one of the hallways where college choices were posted every year. I don't know anyone who complained.
It had names. Without high school oversight, what's to stop every student from lying to the colleges they are applying to about their high school grades?
In practice for a solid private 4-yr. college,it's almost impossible to not have the high school know.Most schools require/strongly prefer a recommendation from a guidance counselor,principal or faculty member,and there's no HIPAA rule preventing school staff from talking about which recommendations they wrote. This is very true.
That's true, the high school is almost always involved in the college application process, in so far as it has to furnish transcripts and recommendations. However, IIRC (and it has been a while), the college mails the letter of acceptance or rejection directly to the student. I can't see any reason that the high school would be made aware of the student's admission status, much less of his response to an offer of admission. I suppose the high school could find out by contacting the college, but do colleges routinely inform the high schools without a specific request for information?
I know that the college I'm going to next year sent a letter notifying the people who gave me recommendations (my counselor and two teachers) that I'd been accepted, but it didn't say if I was attending, and I was informed this was an extremely rare practice.
Very true. I'm attending Saint Mary's College of California next year and they were very much in contact with my high school.For example, I also applied to a couple of UC's and CSU's and those didnt require a letter of reccomendation,only a transcript which i then had to ask my counselor to fax to the schools and that was it. However Saint Mary's called my counselor to basically ask him about my qualifications and they also wished to speak with some of my teachers to see what they had to say. They also spoke with my principal(shes a graduate of Sanit Mary's). I remeber going to sign up to have my transcript faxed to Saint Mary's and to my suprise my name was already on the sign up sheet and it said "fax to saint mart's c of c"(they called the school to ask for it) So yeah basically the whole counseling office+teachers knew about my app to SM.
It all depends on the school. My small high school had such an awful counselor that as I was already receiving my acceptance to U of Chicago she was telling me that Cleveland State was a good opportunity for someone with my credentials. (True story.) I don't think my counselor would have had a clue where I ended up had it not been for me telling her.
Wait, when did my high school counselor move to Cleveland? Same deal, acceptance letter to Northwestern in hand, she informed me that UW-Oshkosh was still taking applications.
Pretty much the same, though my undergrad wasn't as prestigious as those you guys mention, my counselor was recommending a JuCo in Indiana when I had honors, humanities, and cross country scholarships to my school.
The only real way to get this information is from the students. College admission letters, financial aid and acceptance letters/checks are always between the student and the college. The only way the high school would really have a right to know is if they have to forward scholarship money. They do forward transcripts etc, but they don't know anything after that.
Actually, my school just gave me my transcript in a sealed envelope and I sent it along with everything else. The only real influence the counselors had was in my recommendation (which actually turned out really well).
That'd have been awesome! They were redoing the stadium that year so ours was on the oval. Three ********ing hours of sitting around a sweltering June day in black robes with no water to be found anywhere. Brilliant.