The Bennett Difference in College Placement
Burnout shouldn’t be a prerequisite for college admission. At Bennett Day School, students receive unparalleled one-on-one support, personalized college counseling, and the freedom to pursue meaningful, purpose-driven academic paths—without the stress and anxiety. This blog breaks down the compelling benefits of our approach and why we need to rethink the selective enrollment “advantage.”
This blog was written by Martin Moran, Lead Designer of Middle and Upper School.
Rethinking the Selective Enrollment “Advantage”
Why families believe these schools lead to better college outcomes
When thinking about high school, some folks believe that attending a selective enrollment school might give a student a leg up in preparing them for advanced study at the college level. Furthermore, they may believe that attendance at a selective enrollment school puts their student in a better position vis-a-vis college admissions. Thus, they feel like the stress, anger, lack of sleep, and reduction in one-on-one support that comes with selective enrollment schools might be worth it to be better prepared for college admissions.
The reality is that not only does Bennett Day School provide students with a more challenging, curiosity-inspiring, and supportive environment for high school students, it also provides students with the type of college preparation support unseen in almost any school in the city of Chicago.
Take, for example, the college admissions process. The typical selective enrollment school has a ratio of somewhere between 75-120 students per counselor. What that means is that a counselor’s role is to meet with each student once or perhaps twice in a year, collect their materials, and make sure all paperwork is ready for the universities to review. This is no reflection on the quality of the people working at selective enrollment schools–these are wonderful, dedicated people. However, because each counselor has such a large caseload, there is simply no time for advanced one-on-one support and much is left to the student and family to maneuver the college process (which is why many families have chosen to pay upwards of $75,000 per year to hire independent college counselors for their students).
The Bennett Difference: A More Supportive Path to College
Real Advocacy, Real Relationships
On the other hand, Bennett has, at maximum, a 25:1 counselor to student ratio, meaning students not only have multiple meetings with their counselor each year, but also have an entire course on college admissions built into their schedules, so that they will be able to work on the important elements of their application with support from multiple adults who understand the system, including a teacher dedicated directly to supporting them as they write admissions essays. Additionally, both the college counselor and the lead designer of the Upper School speak directly and personally to college admissions officers on behalf of students, advocating for their acceptance and providing the type of detail colleges need to help differentiate Bennett students from everyone else.
But what about the rigor of the program? Doesn’t the existence of APs in bulk and notoriety of “college prep” allow students to stand out? The answer to this lies in the means by which students are evaluated in the college admissions process.
College admissions counselors often want to know two things:
- How does this student compare academically to their peers at your school, based on the school’s tools for evaluation?
- Did the student take the most challenging course load they could take while they were there?
At a selective enrollment school, the answer to the first question is rooted specifically, and usually solely, in the GPA. Because counselors (once again, due to their large caseloads) are not typically as familiar with individual students, the only means by which they have to compare students is through the GPA. This means that a student’s success at the school will be defined almost exclusively by how many A’s they receive with little space for nuance within a student’s profile.
Is More Always Better?
Rethinking AP-heavy course loads and how they shape student choice
For the second question, a “challenging course load” is typically defined by the ratio of how many AP courses a student has taken relative to how many APs the school offers, regardless of subject area. In other words, if a student is really interested in mathematics, not only will they have to take AP Calculus, they will also have to take as many other APs as they can to maximize the “challenge,”: AP Lit, AP Spanish, AP Bio and/or Chem, AP US History, AP World History, and perhaps even AP Final Seminar (The AP class about AP). The more AP classes a school offers, the more a student *must* take in order to be seen as taking a “challenging course load” when compared to their peers. Each of these AP courses also removes a choice from the student’s schedule–the math student who also likes art will likely have to choose between one and the other, as both may not fit into a schedule with all the other AP courses they are taking. In that way, schools offering more AP courses are actually making it harder for their students to stand out among their peers, because it becomes a game of quantity. A student’s schedule is essentially predetermined when they walk in the door as freshmen, and they often have to choose between pursuing their curiosities and building their resume.
(Note: This is aside from the fact that taking additional AP courses does not significantly increase the likelihood a student will be successful in college. The College Board recently did a study in which they looked at the number of AP tests taken and the likelihood of graduating from college in 4 years. The difference in likelihood of graduation in 4 years between a student who took zero AP tests and the student who took more than 9 AP tests was less than 7%. In other words, there was virtually no change in the correlation between the number of AP tests taken and college graduation.)
How Bennett Approaches College Admissions
Mastery Transcript = Mastery of Self
Showcasing students’ strengths and interests on their own terms
By using the Mastery Transcript, we are able to create a situation where the student chooses, along with an adult, how to highlight their work in high school, emphasizing the best of their high school career within the subject areas they want to pursue in college. A student who wants to be a mathematician is able to highlight their math success in high school through not only the courses they’ve taken, but also the competencies they’ve demonstrated (either in work assigned at Bennett or elsewhere).
Additionally, because we have a set of foundational competencies that act as the basis of our system, a student can spend time on the areas they want to pursue, highlighting those areas within their transcript. If they have an area of study that maybe isn’t working for them, it will simply not be highlighted on their transcript (provided they can complete the minimum foundational competencies, which are required for graduation regardless). So the student who is great in math but struggles analyzing novels won’t have a “C” in English on their transcript; they’ll simply have a transcript full of math advanced work. This way, students’ transcripts are stories of strengths, not weaknesses.
Ditching the AP Race
Why curiosity-led rigor outperforms obligation-based scheduling
By not offering AP classes, we do not hamstring a student’s schedule or force them to take classes in areas in which they’re not interested simply because they feel they have to take them. Students can choose to take on the same level of challenge, but also have the ability to pursue that challenge from a position of curiosity, not obligation. Additionally, having no AP classes allows us to avoid the inadequate quantifiers that come with “how many APs did they take?” A student is never put in the “no” pile of admissions just because they didn’t take the “most challenging course load.”
Results That Speak for Themselves
Early outcomes from Bennett graduates and what they signal
Thus it is no surprise that Bennett’s college enrollments in its first two years have seen a higher percentage of graduates attending what might be considered (by outsiders) “high end” colleges like Northwestern, University of Michigan, and USC than what is typically seen at virtually all the selective enrollment schools. Regardless of how we feel about the relative importance of “where you get in” (and trust me, we have a lot of thoughts on that), we are dedicated to providing every student with the type of one-on-one service and support that is unmatched by virtually any school, so that students have the types of options they and their family want at the conclusion of their PreK-12 experience.
When thinking about a high school, one may look at Bennett’s environment, its record of student happiness and sense of community, and its project-based environment and think, “this is great, but I have to give up all the college benefits that selective enrollments offer to get this environment for my student.” In reality, not only does Bennett provide an experience for students that is unrivaled by any school in the city (and based on recent student engagement surveys, possibly in the country), but it also provides an experience that puts students at a distinct advantage when considering college admissions and study at the next level.
Ultimately, the question families should grapple with should never be “what am I giving up to send my student to Bennett?” The true question is “what else am I giving up by not sending them to Bennett?”
