What's going on with the College Admission this year?

[DocT]

"If you want a fair, strict meritocracy you need to look elsewhere besides the Ivy League.

PS. I know two kids who just got into Harvard . While good students, they were not elite students. They got in because they had the right last names. "

How perceptive Katliamom! The fact that the ivys along with caltech and mit have the highest sat scores definitely show that they don't base their decision on any merit metrics.

[FirstWonder]

After lurking in CC for awhile, now our S has decided on a college today, I'd like to share our experience...

Our S was lucky to be accepted in most schools that he applied to. I would say that his stat is not stellar, compared to what I've seen posted on CC. He did not have any math, science, or music awards! I would say that he is very much a normal kid: love playing video games, going to movies, goofing off with friends...All the things that a teenager normally does...

I think what may set his application apart is how normal he came across. He talked about playing ice hockey since 7 in one of his essays. He did not have many EC but the ones he listed showed long term commitment. For EC, he mentioned being an Eagle scout and worked as a photograher for his school's paper. He took as many AP classes as his school allowed. Scored well on some and lousy on other (3 for Chem and Computer Science...). He was not ranked first in his class, in terms of GPA. By the way, our S is half Asian, half Caucasian.

He is truly humbled by the schools that he was accepted to. After agonizing over Stanford and Princeton, he decided on Princeton today. I honestly do not know what colleges are looking for when they review thousands of great applications; but I cannot imagine they would want all perfectly scored SAT kids, or all math genius or muscial prodigy of some sort... Somehow, in a sea of many applicants that have much more stellar qualification, his application shined thru. After seeing many kids with such great stat posted here, I did not dream that he would be accepted at places such as Princeton. In the end, I think it is important to come across as honest and authentic.

I'm relieved that the application process was over. Now, I have four more years before it is our D's turn!

[Alumother]

Congratulations!

[cgarrett101@aol.]

Congrats FirstWonder! Our D just accepted Stanford over Harvard- and I agree with you that she, too, was not perfect in any way, but apparently the Adcoms saw something in her.... she refused help with her application, so it was all her!!.....and she actually used the word "humbled" to respond to her acceptances. Like you, we were very surprised on both occasions.

[katliamom]

DocT, no need to be snarky. It's a well known fact that some people are more equal in the eyes of the Ivy League than others. Harvard and Princeton's endowement got as big as it is in part thanks to those more equal. As to Caltech -- can't tell you. It's not a school that attracts hoards of not-so-brilliant-rich-waspy types that traditionally fed the coffers of Harvard and Princeton and the likes. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

[FirstWonder]

cgarrett101: Congrat on Stanford. Our S visited Stanford last weekend. He liked both schools and the decision was really hard for him. We told him to go with his "guts!"

Yes, his application wasn't perfect in anyway. After submitting, he discoverd a mistake on his application. Instead of "student body", he typed in "study body" The horror...Any way, the admission officiers must have ignored it!

[DocT]

katliamom: What are your sources. What you're saying is just as true at any private school not just the ivies. For the ivies, you need to be Rockefeller rich (100million donation) to make an impact. I don't know about all the ivies, as far as waspy is concerned, you've clearly never been to Harvard's campus or you would never have made that statement.