Another applicant rejected from all Ivies.

[tokenadult]

My sense (after reading the article) is that what Northstarmom said is a possible "reason" for what would otherwise be a somewhat puzzling admission result. My elder care responsibilities changed substantially two weeks ago, and I'm looking everywhere and anywhere to INCREASE my outside-the-home employment. My son will have to largely be on his own for the last two years of high school.

[midmo]

NSM, why do you presume his family paid big bucks for test prep? Believe it or not, folks, some kids get perfect and near-perfect scores on those tests without prepping for them.

Perhaps his rejections were warranted, perhaps not. I wouldn't presume anything on the basis of a short newspaper article. I find the automatic "he is just another featureless clone" attitude a bit much, though.

[coolweather]

Did the colleges see the 400 hours volunteering a good indicator? Did he volunteer to help and learn or to accumulate the hours for the application?

[midmo]

^^^I suspect the kid would have been better off working than volunteering, now that everybody is volunteering (and keeping track of the number of hours, which seemed strange to me a year ago, but not after reading cc for a while).

Since dad quit working, the extra money could have come in handy. Think of it: all across America, dads and moms quit their jobs as lawyers and professors so they can drive their kid to a minimum wage job so it will look good on an application to Harvard.

This stuff is getting very strange.

[nngmm]

I don't think his rejections (except the bizarre one from UT Honors) are that surprising.

His scores are great, but I doubt that they are viewed any differently than 2350 and 34 by the schools. All the rest is probably also pretty good - after all he did get into some great schools.

They are shocked that perfect scores did not get him into HYPSM? Maybe they should have spent some time on CC...

[coolweather]

I think both him and his dad are victims of bad counseling.

[Consolation]

Poor kid. I feel for him. The public honors program really amazes me too, midmo. On the other hand, Cal Tech and Rice are nothing to sneeze at.

I know a couple of kids who got into more than one of the schools that rejected him, and frankly they just aren't that special. I mean yes, excellent students, good kids, well-rounded and all that, but nothing fabulous: no state or national awards, no research in high school labs much less university labs, no incredible achievements or adversity overcome. And lower SATs. It's a puzzlement, it really is.

As someone always says, it must be the essays!

[marite]

^^No, no, no. He got into Caltech, Duke and Rice. His life is not over! Lots of people who get into HYPSM do not get into Caltech. It's a feather in his cap, even though Pasadena is not Cambridge, MA.

[nngmm]

Poor kid? Deciding between Rice, Duke and CalTech? Honestly!

[midmo]

But of course, consolation, it is always the essays when we can't come up with anything else. BUT were the essays bad, or were they too good? Boring, or suspiciously professional?

I think we will never know.

[BunsenBurner]

Quit my job to shuttle my kid to her ECs? Ha! We had *carpools*. Since I was the one who could only drive after 6 pm, I was the designated "back home" driver. It was the best time of my life - the kids in the back seat thought I could not hear a word they were saying! I learned this stuff was calld "ECs" a year ago after reading a couple of college admission books!

[Northstarmom]

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).

[coolweather]

His life is not over. He could be a great scientist later, who knows. We are just trying to learn about the process.

[curmudgeon]

As we are all speculating without a shred of info not in the article, I'm wondering if the dad torpedoed it by calling adcoms or going to interviews. I'm not joking either. I saw it in person, at an interview at Texas Tech Med Schoool for a dual admissions program. The dad had to be asked twice to leave and the whole time he was coaching his son as they were leading dad out. I was stunned. I always wanted to be as far away as possible so they'd think she came on her own.

[Northstarmom]

"NSM, why do you presume his family paid big bucks for test prep? Believe it or not, folks, some kids get perfect and near-perfect scores on those tests without prepping for them."

Because there's every evidence that this kid's parents were pulling out all of the stops to get him into Harvard. Not only was that stated in a TV report, but parents do not quit their jobs to drive their kids to research opportunities.

Who'd need to do that anyway? One could use one's salary to pay for a driver if transportation were needed.

There also is a lot of emphasis in the stories about this kid on the fact that he scored perfectly twice. Clearly, the student and his family thought perfection (scores, EC, sports, community service, research) would be the ticket to Harvard.

Meanwhile, in real life, I know someone who did get a perfect SAT/ACT score and didn't do extraordinary prep. Wasn't trying to get into Harvard. Parents didn't quit jobs to devote their lives to polishing her resume. She didn't even apply to Harvard. Another Ivy, not HPY, was her first choice based on what she wanted in a college experience, and that is where she's going.