Another applicant rejected from all Ivies.

[midmo]

post 29. That is amazing, curm. I would have had a lot of trouble keeping a straight face at that scene.

Who knows, maybe you're right.

[midmo]

NSM, the fact that his folks were obviously obsessed with the idea of him going to Harvard (why else does this story exist?) doesn't mean he had to do anything special to score high on the SAT/ACT. The Harvard goal may have arisen as a result of son's natural ability to do well on all standardized tests and related sorts of activities.

As for his rank, if he is at a magnet school and he is taking the hardest possible schedule, there is no reason to assume he would be val or sal. Depending on how rank is determined, taking one or two fewer AP courses could be the difference between ranking 1st and 4th.

I do wonder why he isn't a Presidential finalist, but maybe he really can't write essays.

[nngmm]

I do wonder why he isn't a Presidential finalist, but maybe he really can't write essays.

That really is not an issue IMHO. I personally know at least one girl who was nominated, but did not pursue it, since there is no scholarship associated with it, and, as she put it, "shaking hands with George Bush was not high on [her] priorities list"...

[Consolation]

On the SAT prep thing, the kids I mentioned earlier both took a prep course, and nevertheless got lower SATs than several other kids in their class who did not take a prep course (and who didn't get into Harvard).

Neither of them ever did anything other than minor community service. One had a summer job, but his father got it for him at his workplace. Neither of them ever took an independent study, or pursued a course of study outside that offered by the local high school. What they *did* was get straight As. (The kids who didn't get in also had A averages, but a few B plusses.)

This pretty much flies in the face of most of the reasons usually put forth why some kids get in and others don't. Must have been the essays.

BTW, it did occur to me to worry that colleges assumed that my kid achieved his SAT score as a result of taking a prep course (he didn't), and assumed that we could afford to send him to CTY for four years and so he was "privileged" (he got a scholarship, and the rest came out of our home equity). My kid had violin lessons, but I didn't go to the dentist for 10 years. (Luckily I have strong teeth and don't build up tartar.) But "I didn't take a prep course" and "I got a scholarship to CTY" aren't things that can be worked into an application. Or can they? Must have been the essays!

[cbreeze]

There is something nothing special about his credentials except that he can test well. Black belts are a dime a dozen; all of my friends' kids who take martial arts have black belts. There is no mention of any State or National awards or leadership roles.
We don't know about his recommendations either, perhaps the aggressive nature of his parents' involvements turn off some people.

[Northstarmom]

Yes, but there's every evidence that this young man did everything possible to make his college apps shine. So why wasn't he a Presidential Scholar semifinalist (The semifinalists, not finalists have been selected and released. This corrects how I previously referred to finalists)?

[Northstarmom]

"NSM, the fact that his folks were obviously obsessed with the idea of him going to Harvard (why else does this story exist?) doesn't mean he had to do anything special to score high on the SAT/ACT. The Harvard goal may have arisen as a result of son's natural ability to do well on all standardized tests and related sorts of activities. "

The odds of this, however, are low.

Any parent who quits their job to drive their kid to a research internship is going to pull out all of the stops on standardized testing.

His achievements and his father's behavior reflect the hallmarks of a smart kid who was packaged for years to go to Harvard, not a student who was running with his natural talents and pushing his parents along. The latter is what places like Harvard are looking for.

[Consolation]

NSM--I've looked through the 2008 candidate list and didn't see his name. That would indicate that he achieved his 2400 through superscoring. May the answer to the riddle is that he took the SATs a ridiculous number of times. Not twice, or even three times, but 6 or 7. (Is that even possible?)

[curmudgeon]

(Is that even possible?)

Yep.

[curmudgeon]

midmo, it was literally stunning. Jaw on the table stuff. The rest of us parents were huddled in a holding pen with the door open and there he was - going in to sit down.

[Northstarmom]

"May the answer to the riddle is that he took the SATs a ridiculous number of times. Not twice, or even three times, but 6 or 7. (Is that even possible?)"

Yes. As I have said, parents who are intent on getting their kids into Harvard will pull out all of the stops.

In addition to not seeing this student's name on the 2008 presidential scholar candidacy list, I don't see indications that he has achieved any kind of major leadership. There are some things that parents can't orchestrate.

[sac]

Teachers and counselors can also use all sorts of code words in their rec letters to distinguish between a student who's shown a real love of learning vs one who has been primarily concerned with grades.

[collegealum314]

"His achievements and his father's behavior reflect the hallmarks of a smart kid who was packaged for years to go to Harvard, not a student who was running with his natural talents and pushing his parents along. The latter is what places like Harvard are looking for."

Uh, well first of all Caltech took the guy so I'd have to disagree that this kid is not brilliant or self-driven. Caltech cares about intellectual curiosity more than Harvard. It is more likely that the kid was born intellectually curious and driven and later Harvard came to embody intellectual achievement for the kid. So he ended up pushing toward that goal. Also, if the kid took a test prep class, does that cancel out the achievement or mean that he wasn't self-motivated or truly brilliant? If a college football player attends a summer camp to work on their 40 yard time for the NFL scouting combine and ends up running a 4.3, would you conclude that he was not a top-end athlete because he "paid" for it?

Another point is that a lot of kids have one parent that doesn't work so that they can take care of family things (cook dinner, take care of the house, drive kids places, etc.) I don't think it is that huge of a deal for one parent to not be working.

As for why he was not a Presidential Scholar, why do you think he even applied to this? I was pretty savvy about college in high school and never even heard about this. Neither did my friends who had plenty of other well-known awards (Intel, MOSP, etc.).

[Consolation]

It is true that "leadership" is one of those things that some schools really want to see, and others don't care about as much. (Leaving aside the fact that demonstrations of "leadership" can be manufactured by calculating resume-crafters or bestowed by the school.) I would venture to guess that Cal Tech really wants smart kids. Period. Which is why he got in there, and not at H.

Cross-posting with #43, I tend to agree. Re the PS thing, you don't apply, you are nominated automatically. Top 20 SATs in one sitting per gender per state, with some kind of translation for ACTs. Also arts nominees, for whom the process is different. Once you are on the candidate list (he wasn't, and with a 2400 in one sitting he likely would have been), you have to fill out an application to be considered for semifinalist/finalist. Some kids don't bother--I don't have any idea how many.

[amb3r]

But that doesn't explain the University of Texas rejection. Seriously.. how often does a kid with perfect ACT/SAT scores (even if the SAT was superscored a bunch of times.. the ACT isn't superscored) get rejected from UTexas? The number of kids in the nation with this accomplishment is under 200 a year. There has to be a catch. Sure, the kid sounds like a drone, not the leader type, bright but possibly not very self motivated.. but that shouldn't be a concern for UTexas. So I suspect there was a big problem with his application that we don't know about.