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dontno · 05-05-2008, 12:35 AM

My anecdote is just an example of a greater issue. But I'll defend it. In my state, you can choose to go to any high school. He chose to go to a horrible vo-tech school (despite many other better options within a mile or two of his vo-tech school) where I don't even think they offer AP courses. Basically, no one from the entire senior class even goes to four year colleges. He did graduate high in his class but he took vocational classes, basically car repair, construction, drafting, electronics, etc. He didn't take rigorous math, science, and english courses.

Furthermore, and I hate to break this to everyone, the SAT exam is a good indicator of college success. From my personal experience, the really smart kids in my class scored above 1500, the smarter kids scored from 1300-1500, and so forth. Is it exclusively an intelligence exam? No, it can be "cracked". Yet, it does provide a good, if vague, assessment of one's intellectual capabilities. That's why good schools have better scores than bad ones.

Also, I admit the kid described above is an extreme example of a grossly underqualified recruited athlete. Nonetheless, Princeton and other schools accept loads of similarly (if not as bad) underqualified recruits. I saw Cornell last year accepted someone with an SAT math score of below 400! They also accepted 47 people with Verbal scores below 500! Despite the shortcomings of the SAT, that's just outrageous. I scored better when I was in 7th grade without studying at all.

Also, I don't think the issue is whether someone can hack the curriculum or not. The issue is that he was admitted in the first place thus stealing admission and the subsequent oppurtunity away from a mroe qualified applicant.

Finally, I mentioned this because two of the first posters mentioned they were recruited athletes. They also mentioned they were accepted by multiple schools out of HYPS. How many "regular" applicants can boast of such an achievement and be given free reign to choose whatever amazing university they want to attend?

05-05-2008, 12:35 AM	#23
dontno Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Threads: 8 Posts: 166	My anecdote is just an example of a greater issue. But I'll defend it. In my state, you can choose to go to any high school. He chose to go to a horrible vo-tech school (despite many other better options within a mile or two of his vo-tech school) where I don't even think they offer AP courses. Basically, no one from the entire senior class even goes to four year colleges. He did graduate high in his class but he took vocational classes, basically car repair, construction, drafting, electronics, etc. He didn't take rigorous math, science, and english courses. Furthermore, and I hate to break this to everyone, the SAT exam is a good indicator of college success. From my personal experience, the really smart kids in my class scored above 1500, the smarter kids scored from 1300-1500, and so forth. Is it exclusively an intelligence exam? No, it can be "cracked". Yet, it does provide a good, if vague, assessment of one's intellectual capabilities. That's why good schools have better scores than bad ones. Also, I admit the kid described above is an extreme example of a grossly underqualified recruited athlete. Nonetheless, Princeton and other schools accept loads of similarly (if not as bad) underqualified recruits. I saw Cornell last year accepted someone with an SAT math score of below 400! They also accepted 47 people with Verbal scores below 500! Despite the shortcomings of the SAT, that's just outrageous. I scored better when I was in 7th grade without studying at all. Also, I don't think the issue is whether someone can hack the curriculum or not. The issue is that he was admitted in the first place thus stealing admission and the subsequent oppurtunity away from a mroe qualified applicant. Finally, I mentioned this because two of the first posters mentioned they were recruited athletes. They also mentioned they were accepted by multiple schools out of HYPS. How many "regular" applicants can boast of such an achievement and be given free reign to choose whatever amazing university they want to attend? Last edited by dontno : 05-05-2008 at 12:40 AM.