highs and lows in college guidance

It is the season for college acceptance letters, and things are not as ideal as I would have hoped.  Coming into this year, I was fresh off of my great experience at SLU and the Jesuit education I received there.  There was nothing more that I wanted than helping to send a few of the Verb seniors to Jesuit schools as well.  After all, they have good scholarships, inclusive communities, and match the Jesuit mission of the high school. 

Because I loved my experience at SLU so much makes the fact that the students aren't getting into the private schools tough to hear.  I've had a few students come talk to me in college guidance about how disappointed they were when they got rejection letters from SLU, Marquette, and Creighton.  Frankly, their scores are just too low.  I feel like I almost oversold them on the school though and now it has become a let down.  I feel like I was too idealistic in the Cristo Rey model in that it can turn students who come in at a 5 or 6th grade level to be Jesuit college ready in 4 years.  This is not to say that some students haven't done this and gotten into top universities, but naively hoped that all the students would.  In fact, the acceptances that students have received to Jesuit universities are to Georgetown, Marquette, SLU, Loyola Marymount, and University of San Francisco.  For these students, I am ecstatic that they have these to choose from.  And for the students that don't have these schools to choose from, I have now learned to be ecstatic for them as well, because their own selection of state schools and community colleges may be just what they need to succeed.   

For me, I am trying to be more realistic about moving forward with the students who are average and below average on test scores and GPA's.  SLU was great for me, but maybe they need the community college route to have a smoother transition to a 4 year.  Maybe they just aren't ready to leave home yet, or are expected to remain close to help support the family with time or supplemental income. 

The thing that all the students have is the desire to succeed.  Whether they go to a state school, Jesuit school, or community college, they are all excited to jump right in.  I just feel that I have grown to be more realistic and learned that the perfect college experience for me is not and should not be pitched to everyone as their own perfect college experience.