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"The log-roller may be a much more interesting person (I'm assuming) to bring to the campus instead of yet another violin/piano science/math Asian."
I find this statement racist and offensive.
"The engineer that had the 2400 and the 4.0 is not neccesarily the best engineer after 4/6 years of college. Only an indicator of how he/she did as a teenager."
The likelihood, though, is that those who are smart don't suddenly get dumb, and those who are hard-working as teens usually, though obviously not exclusively, continue to work hard and achieve great things. Thus, the 2400 4.0 has a far greater likelihood of becoming the better engineer.
Parents should encourage their children to work hard and achieve the most that they can -- to at least try for "perfect stats" if it is within their power to do so. To me, the opposite of this approach is to either "wish upon a star" or look for an "angle" (log-rolling). Because of the overload of smart, hard-working kids, there has become a randomness (names in a hat) to the process. I believe the only way to combat this is not to fall in love with only one top school, but to accept the randomness and unfairness of the process and apply to many.
BTW ... S is a 2009 QB kid who has "spotless stats", applied to 16 schools, received zero rejections, and will be attending Princeton in the fall, so what I am saying is not coming from a standpoint of bitterness or envy, just a different philosophy.
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