<p>Lki: From what I’ve read you seem like a very smart guy. I know that I would be unable to casually throw around some of the historical references that you and some of the other posters have been using.</p>
<p>However, I think that you made a mistake if you believed that your original post would not be met with immediate hostility. As a previous poster mentioned, CC is a website made up of members who–perhaps unreasonably for some–set their sights on top colleges. Given the low acceptance rates of most top colleges, relatively few end up getting into HYPS or even ASW.</p>
<p>You made a post that, in effect, said: </p>
<p>1)college admissions are not random or even remotely so</p>
<p>2)besides specific targeted admissions (URMS, athletes etc.), “special” people (i.e. people with an “intellectual spark”) are pretty much guarenteed admission to top schools like HYPS.</p>
<p>3)I am one of those “special” people.</p>
<p>If you had only discussed numbers 1 and 2, people might have disagreed with you but they wouldn’t have vehemently attacked your post. But, by adding 3, you turned your hypothesis into something of an intellectual love letter to yourself and your friends. At the same time, you alienated those of us who consider ourselves to possess the same “intellectual spark” you ascribe to yourself. Sure, you mentioned that “people who do possess this quality don’t necessarily get accepted to Harvard or Stanford” (which does seem to go against your main argument but whatever) but you still imply that most of those rejected lack the spark.</p>
<p>To be honest with you, I love the college that I chose to attend when I was rejected from Stanford and Harvard. I can’t imagine myself anywhere else and if I had the chance to attend Stanford or Harvard for the rest of my college years, I would turn it down. But even feeling that way, I felt kind of a twinge in my gut when I read your post. Imagine how a student who spent the last two years striving to get into HYPS or Ivy and just found out two or three months ago that they were denied admission felt when they read your post. Many have probably spent the last few months licking their wounds and reading your post probably didn’t help any. I’m sure that they felt that they had that “intellectual spark” as well.</p>
<p>Perhaps that’s why so many people attacked you as being pompous. You hurt them, they were trying to hurt you back. As I stated at the beginning of this overly long post, I think that you are probably a very intelligent individual. But by bringing in your personal story and the anecdotal evidence of your friends, you made the whole thing personal. </p>
<p>Live and learn. Just next time you go diving in the shark tank that is CC, try not to coat yourself in fish guts.</p>