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Sudbury Schools and College Admissions
By Anthony Burik, Staff Member
From the Winter 2002 Newsletter

This fall, DVS hosted two hour-long presentations by the Deans of Admissions from Antioch College in Ohio and College of the Atlantic in Maine. The discussions were wide-ranging, but each spent some time on the subject of the changing face of college admissions.

Colleges and universities face a much broader spectrum of potential four-year students than they have in some time. More and more children across the U.S. receive their education in an alternative setting. There are a number of schools, including Sudbury schools, that have moved or are moving away from the traditional model of schooling that most students follow. In addition, there has been a renewed interest in homeschooling in the last five to ten years that challenges the basic existence of the school itself. Many colleges and universities have had to revise their admissions policies to accommodate alternatively-educated students who are not taking four years of math, science, English, and social studies in high school, and yet are attractive candidates for admission because of what they are able to potentially bring to the schools.

What we heard from the Deans of Admissions is that Sudbury and other alternatively-educated students are looked at quite favorably from an admissions point of view. The 4.0-student body president-football team captain-head of the debate team is becoming a kind of cookie-cutter applicant that colleges face en masse, a faceless young person who could come from anywhere in America. Colleges and universities in the 21st century want and are seeking out variety and diversity in their student bodies that matches the American landscape. Alternatively-educated students are able to bring different perspectives and experiences to college that others from traditional public and private schools simply cannot.

A look at DVS' own student body bears this out. There are students here who have only attended DVS, never subjected to the literal and figurative bells and whistles of traditional schools. That alone makes them different from the over 90% of students that come from conventional public and private schools. In addition, students at DVS have a freedom that is unavailable to students in traditional schools. For example, we have young students here who, after getting certified to show that they have proficiency with kitchen equipment, have full run of the kitchen and work on cooking projects with little to no adult input. Imagine a public school student walking into the school kitchen or kitchen classroom whenever she or he felt like it and baking a cake unsupervised! Impossible, one would say, and yet we have seen this going on all fall at our school.

On the subject of post-secondary admissions and Sudbury schools, the results from Sudbury Valley School, which has been up and running for close to 35 years, are unequivocal. Based on the most recent survey done by the school of its alumni, about 80% of all former students decided to continue their education after leaving SVS at all kinds of post-secondary institutions, from four-year colleges to community colleges to specialized training programs. What is truly remarkable about this number is that almost 100% of these students went to the school of their first choice. Stated differently, the fact that Sudbury students continue to receive a non-traditional education does not in any way deter them from going on to other learning institutions.

The question, "Will my child be able to go to college from your school?" comes up in a majority of admissions calls to and interviews at DVS. So long as the child wants to go to college and is willing to do the things necessary to get there, the answer is clear. Sudbury students can and do attend college, even if they are not the student body president of their local public high school or are not paying thousands of dollars at a private college prep school with a tradition of academic excellence.

"Alternatively-educated students are able to bring different perspectives and experiences to college that others from traditional public and private schools simply cannot."

Diablo Valley School admits students of any race, color, sex, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin to all rights and privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students and staff at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan program, and athletic and other school administered programs.

Our school has enrolled students from: Antioch, Berkeley, Clayton, Concord, Danville, El Cerrito, Lafayette, Livermore, Martinez, Oakland, Oakley, Pittsburg, Pleasant Hill, San Francisco, San Leandro, Vallejo, Walnut Creek and other communities in the Bay Area.