Another applicant rejected from all Ivies.

[collegealum314]

^^someone put a link to Ghosh's profile pages back--his dad put his profile on cc.

[Narcissa]

then im really surprised that he got rejected...perhaps his dad bragged A LOT about his helicoptering...
also caltech is a great school that i think he will fit most into among his other choices

[thumper1]

>>Interesting that although the dad quit his job 3 years ago to help the student get into Harvard, the student was applying for financial aid.>>

Not surprising at all. I figured this was the case. My guess is that by not working, the family income was at least half of what it would have been if Dad had been working.

This whole scenerio is very odd to me.

[xiggi]

Adcoms are not gods; they sometimes (often) make mistakes. They're not diviners; they can't always figure out who's packaged, who's not or who has passion and who doesn't. Harvard may look for certain things above and beyond GPAs and scores, but it's far from certain that its adcoms always know where to look or to interpret correctly what they do see.

ETA: 10,000 posts

Let's focus on what is important: the milestone of 10,000 posts. Does that make it 16,093 in kilometerstones?

Regarding the adcoms errors, it is obvious that they do mistake. Who doesn't. However, Harvard's adcoms do have the benefit of having their pulse and eyes on what is happening in many high schools in 2008 and have the benefit of being able to compare 27,000. They also have the benefit in KNOWING what THEY want from a certain pool of applicants. We all know the theory: need soccer players and oboists (what so special about an oboe and college admissions, by the way?) as much as potential Nobel winners.

We, in contrast, are left to speculate idly about what makes those famous adcoms tick. We really can't tell why someone was chosen or why he or she was rejected (with another 25,000 unlucky ones.) None of us has the complete file (except for the few adcoms who haunt these sacred grounds of wisdom) as we just rely on newspapers' articles or sanitized/embellished stories.

This story, however, is not a story of a Yale student who was rejected by Princeton, or a student accepted everywhere by left out at his first choice. This story gives hints of clear patterns that seem to contradict what we see as the vagaries of admissions. The story probably tells a lot more about the different value of a perfect score at a school such as Duke than at an Ivy League school.

Again, from my vantage point, the system worked well. A great kid will attend a wonderful school and an utterly misguided individual will have to find another pet project to fulfill his vicarious ambitions. Unless, his new job is to shadow the kid in college and work on those graduate school applications. After all, he must have gained a lot of experience by filling all those forms and signing his kid's name.

[owlice]

what so special about an oboe and college admissions, by the way?

There aren't a lot of oboe players. Clarinetists and violinists are a dime a dozen, but double-reed players (oboe, bassoon, contrabassoon) aren't.

Double-reed players cut their own reeds, which is difficult and exacting work and makes them a little neurotic. (Yeah, yeah, find me an oboe player who disagrees with me, then snap one of his/her reeds and see what happens!) Clarinetists generally buy their reeds, as they are relatively inexpensive, whereas purchased double-reeds aren't.

Violinists do okay, even though there are a lot of them, because an orchestra needs a lot of violins. Even not-very-good violinists can stay busy. Clarinetists, not so much. Orchestras need two or three, and that's it. Maybe for a huge work, they will use four, and even so, one is likely doubling on the Eb, leaving one free to play bass clarinet.

Oboe players are always in demand. There's many a woodwind group that could form if only they could find an oboe player.

[Dad II]

note to self - 1) do not call newspaper about DD or DS; 2) make DS start Oboe lesson asap.

[condor30]

taking psat 10th and 11th grade year is helpful. the 10th grade year one does not count in the nm competition but it's good practice.......only the one taken in 11th grade does.

be sure to check into the ACT PLUS (w/writing) too. The ACT has score choice.

[cottonwood513]

lol, Dad II

[pipmom]

I have read this thread all the way through and I just have to say that I think there have been way too many assumptions made about the student and the dad. I also think that the point of the article was simply to show just how difficult college admissions have become and how devastating rejection can be to both student and parent.

We do not know how the student conducted himself in interviews. We do not know whether the father made a pest of himself or helicoptered. We do not know whether the essays were good, bad or ugly. There has been so much speculation here that is at its root, just plain wrong.

Could we assume for one minute that the father has always had his son's best interest at heart and that the son truly wanted to go to Harvard, regardless of his father's desires? Could we have a bit of compassion for the student and the father, both of whom may have made mistakes in the college app process (of course, we didn't make any)? And could we all agree that the original article didn't tell us anything we didn't already know about the admissions process, which is that it can be unpredictable?

To me, the student sounds impressive and the father is to be commended for doing what he could to further his son's future. They did the best they could at the time with the information at hand. That is all anyone can do. Now, they are disappointed and/or devastated. But, my guess is that this kid and his father will overcome the disappointment and excel.

[thumper1]

>>There aren't a lot of oboe players.>>

I hate to be the bearer of bad news...but being an oboe player isn't going to get you accepted into a competitive school. DD left high school as one of the top ranked oboe players in our state. It didn't help her a LICK in college admissions....not one bit. She does receive a very small scholarship each term for playing in her college orchestra (they do appreciate her playing...), but beyond that...playing the oboe was something she did because she liked it.

Now...if you kid owns their own TUBA...that may be another story!!

[Dad II]

No assumption or speculation = No CC, I assume.

[cottonwood513]

Well stated, Pipmom.

[Columbia_Student]

I think this student's dad must be on the verge of being laid off and then decide to quit so he can say he quit to support his son. The decision does not make sense unless his mom is very succesful as the CEO from Pepsi.

[owlice]

pipmom, I think quitting a job to shuttle a kid around is .... a bit over the top; I know that made me raise my eyebrows!

thumper, I was just answering Xiggi's question about why oboists are so special. Surely you're not going to disagree with me about oboists being special, are you, regardless of whether being an oboist helps or doesn't in college admissions?

My kid wants to learn to play the bagpipes, more because so many people in our neighborhood like to share their music with us and he wants to retalia... er, share back than for any other reason. I told him to learn some tunes on one of the resident recorders and then I'd get him a practice chanter and see how he does.

I'd love it if he took up oboe, however. Or tuba!

[xiggi]

what so special about an oboe and college admissions, by the way?

Oh, owlice, that was mostly my musing going astray! It is just one of those things that comes up with great regularity on CC, especially when posters are trying to decipher the secrets of college admissions.

This said, playing the tuba under the bright lights of Friday Night Football in central Texas, that is sumthing! Ask Cur!