| I also notice that despite having perfect SAT/ACT scores, the student was not a presidential scholar finalist.
I'd also expect a student who is doing so much and has such extensive parental support to be valedictorian.
From the keyetv.com website:
"Navonil Ghosh and his family have prepared for an Ivy League college since he was 12 years old, and he hoped his two perfect standardized test scores would be the ticket."
I'm curious about what job his father had. In searching Google, there are indications he may have been a biochemist in Dallas, possibly at a university.
I also notice that Ghosh's high school, LBJ H.S. appears to have been one of the best in Texas, with 56 National Merit finalists. Very stiff competition there.
In addition, I didn't see indications that Ghosh had done any leadership or had accomplished anything on his own. His work at the UT lab could have been lined up by parents with connections. Similarly, the black belt can be achieved by being reasonably athletic and having parents who pay for and shuttle you to classes. Community service hours can be easily racked up. Far more impressive is when a young person creates a CS project and gets others to support it by working -- not by having family friends donate money.
Anyway, to me seems to be a situation that would be very obvious to savvy adcoms and interviewers for places like Harvard: Very, very, packaged student with smart, connected parents who'd devoted their life to getting their son to Harvard. That's definitely not the kind of student that Harvard wants to admit. Have heard this from the source: Dean of Admissions (who was talking about packaged applicants in general, not the student we're discussing here). |