NY Prep Schools Ban Students from Announcing Acceptance Into Ivy League Schools... to Protect Other Students

NEW YORK (NewsCore)-- New York prep schools are instituting dress codes and Facebook guidelines barring excited seniors from broadcasting their acceptance to top-tier colleges because it may hurt the feelings of classmates who were unsuccessful.

At the hypercompetitive Horace Mann School, students are not permitted to wear college apparel, including status Ivy League sweatshirts, on campus until after May 1, when most students have settled on what school they will attend.

And at the Packer Collegiate Institute, students are instructed not to update Facebook with university news until after school lets out.

At the private Calhoun School, seniors have a weekly class with the college guidance counselor, in which they discuss "the appropriate way to share news of acceptance," said Sarah Tarrant, director of college counseling.

"The weekly conversation reins in kids who might run around yelling, 'I got in! I got in!'"

The city's selective public high schools are also implementing rules to save the egos of students forced to attend "safety schools."

"It can be bad and it can get weird," said Darby McHugh, college coordinator at Bronx High School of Science.

"We send a notice out to all faculty telling them, 'Please don't congratulate students in public, no high fives, no hugging, and please be sensitive so that if you see someone crying, you refer them to the college-adviser office immediately.'"

Not everyone agreed with the move, however, with Dean Skarlis, president of the College Advisor of New York, saying, "Kids need to experience disappointment. We coddle them a little too much.

"At some point, they won't get a job, or they'll get fired. If I were head of a school, I would shy away from that sort of policy."

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