Senior Slump

With spring in the air, it's only natural for students to let down a bit in their studies. It's also decision time for my counter parts on the other side of the desk, admissions counselors. While admission committees are busy making decisions, they are also checking grades of the students admitted through early decision. At my former institution, we would check for drops in performance for our accepted class and there were three levels of response from us (or three levels of "nots"). There was the "Naughty letter," the "Naughty, Naughty letter" and the "Not coming letter," or the relinquishment of your acceptance letters. Many schools are infamous for doing this (probably the UC system in California is most known for this- quite ironic given what happened at UCSD this week). So why rescind admissions decisions? At the end of the day, the most important statistic that colleges and universities are trying protect and improve is retention and graduation rate, or simply the percentage of students returning the next year or graduating in 4 years. A student enrolling with a declining academic performance is (theoretically) not as well prepared to do well in college (at least not as well as someone who is performing well through graduation). The St. Luke's School College Counseling experience should not be about getting in to college, but more importantly, to prepare for college. So with decision letters out, please continue to excel in your classes and activities.