Cherry Creek High: Six Seniors Blog About Their College Quest

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Meet the class of 2011 (Clockwise from top left): Michael Campbell, Uyanga Tamir, Avery DiUbaldo, Jessica Ray, Kori C. Hazel and Sophia Gimenez. Credit Matthew Staver for The New York Times
Cherry Creek High

Six seniors at Cherry Creek High, a public school in Denver, blog about their college searches.

Beginning today, The Choice takes flight from its perch here in New York City, arguably the epicenter of the college-admissions-pressure-cooker in the Northeast, and travels across the country to Denver for a much-needed change of scenery.

There, I have asked six seniors at Cherry Creek High, an idyllic-sounding public school in the small suburb of Greenwood Village, to write an occasional series of first-person essays for this blog about their college application process.

The series makes it debut today — with dispatches from Sophia Gimenez, who is applying to a constellation of women’s colleges and seeking substantial financial aid, and Jessica Ray, who dreams of a career as an engineer. Their writings, and those of their classmates, will continue to be featured on The Choice on a regular basis through spring.

Over the next few days, you’ll also meet Kori Hazel, a son of divorced parents who likens the college search to nothing less than a prison sentence; Avery DiUbaldo, who is applying to theater programs and has already submitted all of his applications ahead of the Jan. 1 deadline; Michael Campbell, who says he must have missed “the take-it-easy-senior-year-thing” and who describes himself as afraid of rejection; and Uyanga Tamir, a native of Mongolia who is desperately in need of scholarship assistance, but who knows that few schools are “need-blind” in their assessment of international students.

“If I cannot afford the tuition,” she writes in her first post, “I simply cannot go.”

Collectively, these six young people represent a broad range of the admissions process nationally, not just in their socio-economic backgrounds, but also in the institutions to which they aspire to attend.

Some are applying to state schools, including the University of Colorado at Boulder and Colorado State; others to the Colorado School of Mines; still others to smaller colleges like Knox, Mills and Scripps. Several also aspire to Yale, M.I.T., Stanford, U.S.C. and the University of Pennsylvania, among other highly selective colleges.

A majority of those from Cherry Creek whose writing we will showcase are seeking financial aid — an element of their applications to which many readers of The Choice should relate.

Over all, the counselors at Cherry Creek estimate that nearly two-thirds of the school’s more than 800 seniors will seek financial assistance. (Meanwhile, those same counselors estimate that nearly 90 percent of the graduating class will go on to four-year college.)

We hope you will enjoy visiting the living rooms, kitchen tables and guidance conferences of these applicants, at least virtually, as they travel a road whose final destination is far from certain. We thank them, in advance, for being willing to tell their stories.

If you’re a parent or an applicant, and would like to use this opening post an opportunity to take stock of where you are in your own college admissions process, please use the comment box below.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

“…Cherry Creek High, an idyllic-sounding public school in the small suburb of Greenwood Village…”

For anyone from Denver who recognizes Cherry Creek and Greenwood Village as arguably the wealthiest and most privileged place in the state, this description is rather amusing.

As I posted under Jessica Ray’s blog, thank you so much for getting us out of the east coast, Westchester County, and the NYC angst-ridden myopic view of college in general. May I suggest that you continue to travel this vast nation and feature the stories of college seniors and parents from the mountain west, west coast, southwest, prairie states, midwest, Alaska, Hawaii, deep south, middle south, mid-atlantic states, northern tier,…

well, you know, 95% of the country.

I agree with AS that it is good to get a prespective from another region. I would also suggest that you consider selecting a group from an inner city and a rural high school in the future to provide some additional perspective on the challenges these students face with college apllications.

Although I agree with “Guest” that Greenwood Village is an affluent suburb, I would point out that the geographic boundary for the students for whom Creek is the “neighborhood” high school includes parts of Denver, Aurora, Centennial, and Littleton. While Greenwood Village is idyllic, the Cherry Creek High School students come from some less affluent neighborhoods, and the Cherry Creek High School buildings are much older and more worn than other district high school buildings. It’s a great school with excellent teachers serving a huge student body in a nice setting.

Recovering Admissions Officer December 7, 2010 · 3:11 pm

Can you please (pretty please – with cherries on top) change the tables in each student’s blog post to read “Denied” rather than “Rejected”?

Trust me when I tell you I’m not of the vintage that wants to make the kids believe they are all the very best. I don’t think everyone is a winner all the time. I think students should learn how to deal with challenges and -yes- failures.

However, I’m also someone who thinks semantics are important. And the truth is that students are denied admission to an institution.

Please?

For the sake of clarity and in response to the comment from “Guest” above, Cherry Creek High School has a rather large population of students who are not from means. Their parents rent apartments and have found whatever affordable housing there is in order to take advantage of this gem of a school. You will find representation from all walks of life as is evidenced by the participants in this blog.

As a recent graduate from Cherry Creek High School, I feel I understand this process well. As an earlier comment pointed out, Cherry Creek High School (Creek for short) is located in a wealthy suburb of Denver, but that by no means indicates that all students are wealthy. What is far more notable about Creek is its size and status: with nearly 3,500 students in grades 9-12, Creek is the largest high school in Colorado and proud of it. Historically Creek does well at everything–we have an entire hallway devoted to state championship trophies and have the largest offering of AP classes of any surrounding school–but the most competitive aspect of Creek is the college process. At Creek, you are expected to go to college. It’s not “are you going to college?” it’s “WHERE are you going to college?” and if you are smart and high achieving, you are expected to make it to the ivy league (many do, more than a dozen in my graduating class alone). I applaud the New York Times for choosing Creek for this project because the college process at Creek is unlike any other. I loved my high school experience but I would never run that gauntlet again. Best of luck to all of you!

I have to “second” the other guest’s comment which questioned the description “…Cherry Creek High, an idyllic-sounding public school in the small suburb of Greenwood Village…” The writer didn’t happen to mention CCHS had a 100% college placement record in 2010 including over 800 graduating seniors and will probably match that again this year. CCHS has a college counseling and post-graduate center that I would guess is second to only a few high schools in the entire country. As much as I take pride in being a parent of two college bound girls from this prestigeous high school, I must admit this school is far from “typical”. The student’s college admissions struggles may be similar to others, but in this case they get a lot of high quality, professional assistance with the application. In addition, the academic program at CCHS is recognized by college admissions officers around the country as superior and that too doesn’t hurt in the process.

As a Creek graduate of two years ago, I can say that even though you will find people from all walks of life at Cherry Creek, that’s definitely not the norm. The norm is wealth and affluence. Ask any Creeker. Or for that matter, any Coloradan. When a Cherry Creek student goes to any other part of Colorado and tells somebody where they go to school, the most common question is generally: “Wow, you go to Cherry Creek? Do you drive a BMW?” Take it from somebody who has heard this line endlessly.

There’s a reason Greenwood Village is ranked #31 in THE ENTIRE U.S.A in median income with over $100,000 per capita. Cherry Hills Village, Creek’s other main neighborhood, has a median income over $200,000. Check Wikipedia. The average student at Creek has their own car, lives in a big house with a three or four car garage, and has parents that are either doctors/lawyers/run their own company/work in finance. The author has actually done an incredibly good job getting a cosmopolitan group of students from Creek, and I’m sure it is no accident. If he were to have just chosen six random students, they all probably would have fit the rich, white kid Creek stereotype. It’s not a good stereotype, but it’s mostly true. The average Creek household has a median income three to four times the national average, and 95% of the students at Creek are Caucasian.

My children attend CCHS. It has extraordinary affluence (per the school’s reputation) but the student body also contains a substantial base of those with average and bellow-average means. CCHS does have a great support programs to aid the college search process, but like most assistance, this help means nothing if you don’t choose to make use of these tools. What makes this story relevant is the students and the choices they’ll make during this process. The fact that they attend Cherry Creek High School is far less relevant.

In the end, the college search process is complex, dynamic, and replete with pressure. As with most things in life, if you apply yourself to the process, you will improve your chances to end up with a good result. It’s clear that the NYT has a diverse sample among these six bloggers. I look forward to reading about their concerted efforts to wade through the fog as they seek their next stop in their respective educational endeavors.

As the parent of two alumni, I can tell you that Creek is a huge school with a student body that is economically diverse. Yes, there is affluence. Yes, there are BMWs in the student parking lot. But there are also older pickups, beat up Subarus and plenty of kids who don’t own a car. What makes Creek different is its size and the attitude that kids need to take responsibility for their education. Like college, Creek offers a tremendous amount to students who seek out opportunity. For those that want to hide and coast by, you can certainly do that in a school of that size. In many ways Creek runs like a college and grads leave there well prepared for what lies ahead. The pressure to compete is there but no more than exists in “the real world” and the sooner students learn to deal with it, the better.
Creek’s reputation in CO is one of excellence. If some are jealous of the school’s accomplishments in all areas, so be it.

Current CCHS Senior December 7, 2010 · 6:40 pm

I’m a current Creek senior, and let me just clarify for anyone who isn’t aware of Creek’s range, excessive wealth is not the norm. Yes, Creek does encompass the Greenwood Village and Cherry Hills Village, but it also includes parts of Aurora, Centennial, Denver, and Glendale. The “wealthier” kids get all the notice, simply because of the types of homes that surround the school, not because it’s an accurate reflection of the school’s demographics.

Also, I am not sure why Cherry Creek is getting slack for having a 100% college acceptance rate and an excellent post grad center. Creek is simply fortunate to have these resources — it doesn’t make the college application process a breeze. We basically have the same resources that other schools have, and it’s a graduation requirement to apply to at least one probable school.

You think we have it easy because we have good test scores? That only ups the ante. While kids at most schools are only hoping to get into CU, it’s not unheard of that dozens of Creek seniors each year apply to the Ivy Leagues.

I ask that you attend the school and go through the college application process before you judge my school. We don’t have a trampoline beneath us to catch us if we fall, simply because of the neighborhood the school is in. Sure, we do have those rich kids who breeze through, but that’s a small handful that gain all the attention. I know most of these bloggers and are personal friends with a few, and I know that they’re not so unbelievably fortunate as the stereotype implies. These are real, honest to god kids who are working their butts off. It’s insulting to them, and to me, how judgmental some of these comments are.

Creek is by no means an “average” public school. With just under 4,000 students and the widest range of AP and honors courses in the state, it’s a tough place and an incredibly competitive atmosphere. It doesn’t matter which neighborhood you come from or what your parents make; if you want to do well at Creek, you have to work for it. Hard. I’m surrounded by people at my elite east coast school who went to posh boarding schools and big-name prep schools. Simply dropping the term “public school” makes them look at me differently. “Wow,” they think, “She got in HERE after going to ‘public’ school?!” I kid you not, they think it’s a feat.
Despite my new classmates snobby attitude, Creek will give any student a healthy dose of real world. Yes, they have a great counseling program, incredible resources and plenty of ritzy students, but if “rich” parents are choosing to send their kids to Creek it says a lot about the school’s reputation. Creek isn’t about hand holding (something my University insist on doing and it drives me crazy). There’s no spoon feeding. It’s about fostering a drive and determination in each student to do well. You can take all the AP classes, join all the clubs and play all sports you want but it’s up to you to make it work.
So maybe you’re right. Creek isn’t a typical public school. But if you can do well at Creek, you can do well anywhere. I’d love to see a private school snob or competitor school’s hater make it big at Creek. We win everything because we work for it. We’re “the best” at everything because we work for it. You hate us because we work for it. Bruins stick together. If you can’t beat us, join us.

I’ve been keeping my own blog for college admissions at academiadreams.tumblr.com, I’ve found that it’s one of the most helpful things I’ve done for myself throughout the process. Writing it really helps me sort through decisions, and even essay ideas and topics. Anyway, good luck to these seniors, and the rest of the class of 2011, especially next Wednesday for all you who did early action/decision!

Very sad that “highly selective” now serves as prestigious.

Thanks for all the comments by the folks at Creek, but I think the objective of the NYT in choosing Creek is that it might be representative of a different perspective than that oft an uptight northeast school. From your comments, I’m not sure that they met that objective….

I will say that there are lots of schools, the school my children attend included, that place so much emphasis on their success in getting kids placed at colleges that they inadvertently add to the pressure these kids put on themselves. Both my kids have high SAT scores and great GPAs and are well-rounded people — but at one point last year, my son said that he was no longer interested in applying to college because it was all he heard about in school and he was afraid that he wouldn’t stack up. We provided encouragement until he got over that hurdle, but I seriously question why the status of where one goes to college has become paramount to what one learns every day in school in the meantime…

Creekers,

While it is clearly important to the students, alumni, parents and faculty of Creek to defend their school, the other million or so people reading this thread consider the affluence of Greenwood Village a very minor point. Please move on to more thought provoking comments.

Bob
Danville, CA

I also am an alumni of Creek. I think it is great that the New York Times is featuring a story from Creek seniors. Creek has a huge number of students that they can choose from to do this blog. I think it is great that they chose a variety of students, and it will be interesting to hear the different stories. I would hope that people stop judging Creek for whatever reasons and just look at it as another great high school Colorado has, and the amazing students that the school creates.

Question for Creek families…

Several of you have mentioned in your comments that the college counseling program at Creek is excellent. It is certainly gratifying to hear that there are still some public high schools where such important programs have not been eviscerated. Why is the program so strong? How many full time college counselors do you have? How many sessions would you say a student will have, on average, with his/her college counselor?

A 100% college placement record–even if it is somewhat exaggerated–is a phenomenal achievement for a public high school and a testament to its in-school counseling program.

Regardless of where the students are coming from (either Greenwood Village or NYC), I applaud their willingness to allow people into their minds and hearts as they navigate the college application process. I imagine that it is scary and thrilling all at the same time …

I also want to thank these students for giving me faith in the future for you are the intelligent, hardworking, and thoughtful people will one day help run our country! Good luck to you all!

My son, a senior at a college-town high school in Alabama, is deep into the process. He (and we) are not overly stressed about it. It’s been a great time for family discussions and for trips to pleasant and interesting places off the beaten path.

My wife and I — and many of our friends — obtained undergraduate degrees from Southern “cow colleges” and went on to lead happy, successful lives. And don’t we all know some dull and dreary people who went to elite universities?

My son has a decent ACT and g.p.a., but he has had a wonderfully balanced social, spiritual, and intellectual life throughout high school. He has had fun and he will have fun. He knows that his undergraduate years will be just the next step in a longer journey.

My observation is that the application process has been a brilliant learning experience, more important than any of his classes. We have allowed him to be autonomous in organizing his materials and communicating with the half-dozen or so Southern liberal arts colleges that appeal to him. Even determining which colleges match his personality and our family needs led him to think about who he is and what he wants for his life.

The essays have been great experiences, unique opportunities for introspection and for clarifying his identity and values.

I have seen the games that universities play to climb in various “ratings” guides. The next thing I expect to see is a publication from Consumers Report or for university rankings to be posted on the sports page, next to BCS football ratings.

N-Highlands Ranch, CO December 8, 2010 · 10:48 am

Great idea. I have been in the field of high school to college transition for 19 years and I tell families this process is the same every year. These blogs tell the story of the college and financial game process and I am looking forward to following the process of these students.

Thanks for your vision

Good luck Creek Seniors!

Jeff,

I graduated from Creek in 2009 and during my senior year had the pleasure of working in the counseling department as one of the school’s peer ambassadors (PA), a group of 20 seniors whose role is to give tours and information to incoming and prospective students/families and also to give peer support. After my 4 years at Creek, and especially after my experience as a PA, I can tell you that the counseling department is very strong for a number of reasons.
To start, there are 10 full-time counselors on staff who are each responsible for approximately 350 students. Each student (to my knowledge) is required to have a counseling session with his/her counselor at least once a year from sophomore year through senior year. During sophomore year, this meeting is to check that the student is on track to meet graduation requirements. Junior and senior year, this meeting is more focused on looking at not only high school requirements, but also at college requirements and related material.
On top of 10 regular counselors, however, there is also a specially-designated post-graduate counselor whose job includes visiting and learning about a multitude of higher ed institutions, coordinating college fairs and visits, and many other related tasks. This person’s office is in the post-grad center, which is attached to the counseling office, but whose focus is obviously college related business i.e. a miniature library of college descriptions, reviews, etc. When it comes time for college applications, as long as a student is diligent in getting transcript and letters of recommendation requests to the secretaries in the post-grad center, they will mail the necessary high school documents for you to the schools that you designate, which is certainly an organizational life saver.
There is more, but I hope these examples give you a good enough of an idea as to why the counseling program at Creek is so good. Thanks for your time, and GO BRUINS!

I think that the moment you decided to pick all of the people from the same high school, you lost a big part of your chance to represent a wide swath of current applicants.

Not everyone has the security of going to a great high school with a fantastic college advisory program. What about the people who go to schools without a 100% college placement rate? What about the people who go to schools where the majority of people go to a community college, or- horror of horrors- fail to graduate on time? Or fail to graduate at all?

In last year’s series ‘The Envelope, Please,’ the seniors you chose were from all over the country: Ada, MI; Charlotte, NC; an Austin suburb. The city that had two wasn’t New York- it was Los Angeles. I wondered how you chose them when I read it, and now I wonder if you didn’t find the process too hard. Couldn’t you have at least put in a bit more effort than picking one high school out of an entire country and then picking only students at that school?

You do have 3 girls this year, instead of 1, and an international applicant to boot. Great job on that front; but choosing all of your people from the same privileged high school kind of makes me lose my interest in this series. So they had a fantastic school? Yeah, okay. Great. Congrats to them- they’d BETTER not have wasted the opportunity. Now how about somebody who doesn’t have the support of their school, or who has overworked and uncaring guidance counselors focused on just getting people out of the school, like me and the majority of the people that I know?

Just went through process December 8, 2010 · 7:33 pm

I’m the parent of 2 kids who are currently attending 2 different fine universities that both fit their individual personalities and goals. Yes, they went to Cherry Creek HS, both the school ultimately doesn’t matter. What I’d like to suggest is that parents consider being bystanders and supporters, but mindful of the fact that this is their child’s college search experience, not theirs, and help their children get ready for the independence and responsibility that comes with the college experience and real life.. I’d like to site 2 examples.

First, I am a H.S. drop-out who went to “idyllic” Cherry Creek, got my GED, worked a year, went to a local community college, transferred to a wonderful university, graduated with high honors and have built a very successful life. My parents were totally uninvolved with my college search experience. I own it, and I’m proud of it. My point is that kids take many different paths to find success, and some stumbling along the way isn’t necessarily bad..

Fast forward to my 2 children. I laid out their options during their junior year which were:
1. Don’t go to college, live at home and pay us rent.
2. Don’t go to college, live elsewhere and pay all expenses (which I then listed while they cringed)
3. Go to community college and we would cover expenses..
4. Apply to whatever college/university that they want with the knowledge that we have a budget, and they may have to apply for, look for, find under a rock any additional funding over our budget. We had great family times discussing the options. We offered our help if they asked for it, but otherwise, it was their responsibility to do what was needed and meet all deadlines. We ended up having a wonderful experience with a few glitches, but much less stress than most of my contemporaries. There was no complaining or prodding. Our kids are attending schools of their choice with the help of scholarships and small manageable loans, and they have gained valuable experience in managing their own lives. Good luck to all parents across the country facing this process….take a deep breath and enjoy it!