<p>Thanks for your post, TheGFG. I agree strongly. Can’t say we totally swam against the tide, but QMP did accept the “coveted role of living scenery” more than once. Worse than 4th villager.</p>
<p>roflol
I sure hope you are writing a book.
Is there a blog?</p>
<p>What bothers me is that the structure of college applications can promote a certain superficiality and gamemanship that doesn’t benefit the student or society.</p>
<p>And, I think it outs superficiality.</p>
<p>sevmom - I have heard about the coach letters but from what I understood, they don’t get any real picks at Caltech (a rec from coach and a 5$ will get you a starbucks coffee?). They do want people applying if they are great academically but can play a sport? It is truly hard to get through classes at Caltech if you are not great academically. </p>
<p>LF - whether you pick 10, 230, or 2000, it is ultimately a better selection process.</p>
<p>
It seems to me that this represents a pretty relentless refusal to actually try to understand what holistic admissions is and how it works. If all of those tennis-playing violinists suddenly turn into soccer-playing percussionists, that’s not going to help them. It’s a form of herd behavior that’s unproductive.</p>
<p>Yes, I have no idea whether a coach has any sway or not. They are D3 and not known for sports. The letter was funny though and very real and honest -essentially we know we are terrible and rely on kids just showing up to play and want to find some kids who can actually play and have actually played before!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If there are kids who consciously shape themselves to resemble the kind of student they THINK adcoms want, I don’t see a call to blame the schools. Wouldn’t it be nice if these kids just did what they felt like doing in their leisure time, took the classes that interested them and engaged in activities that they enjoyed? It’s not that complicated to be oneself. In fact, I’d say it’s substantially easier than trying to be someone else.</p>
<p>Doing what comes easy won’t necessarily get you into the schools you’d like to attend and are academically qualified for. There are precious few kids whose brilliance and access to outside opportunities is such that they can flout the rules of high school success and still produce a convincing application.</p>
<p>Love that post, GFG.</p>
<p>Even HS admins condone it. In promoting a recent art competition, the delivered line by its advisors was, “winning an award for this will look great on your college apps!” barf.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, and around here there are more and more caucaisons in our local kumon. This is how the United States becomes the United States. We are always exchanging cultural lives and new ideas and this is the dialogue of how we grow.</p>
<p>It is a “norm” of American kids to play in some sports growing up, to try out for a play, to see if they can sing or play piano or act or whatnot. It is a new “norm” to go to Kumon and perfect our skills, as well. Not a thing wrong with it, not a thing wrong with the reason for it, either.</p>
<p>What I really think is that true genius, whether we like this or not, also has a component of communication in it, creativity, the ability to combine genres, or see something in a completely unapprehendable way, and this is not taught but nurtured, and sometimes, too, it is, by it’s nature, so misunderstood, that it cannot at times even be nurtured. True genius depends on the moment in time as much as the mind in question.</p>
<p>I’m just not concerned for our geniuses. For our above average impoverished students? Yes. Our major innovators, creatives and thinkers? Not so much.</p>
<p>And let’s not forget that the advisors of clubs have their own agendas related to ruling their domains, which promote conformity that may or may not make sense for the individual student. The successful kids learn what the “rules” are and sometimes have to suck it up. So a student will switch from trumpet to flugelhorn even though he much prefers the trumpet because doing so will get him in the weighted band class. Or maybe the student will suffer through marching band season which she despises in order to be allowed in the top concert band. This is not being oneself, but kids make these sorts of decisions all the time because of college applications.</p>
<p>I find it ironic that this thread has gone from “transparency? it’s not transparent enough! I must know the point structure for being newspaper editor /student council president / exactly how much perfect SATs are worth - this black box is unfair!” into a complaint that knowing those things will lead to students gaming the system and forcing themselves into activities they don’t naturally spark to (eg., athletics).</p>
<p>absweetmarie: #1667 agree</p>
<p>poetgrl:
</p>
<p>I absolutely agree with you that the main concern should be for the average, impoverished students.</p>
<p>I am not sure I agree with you that we don’t have to worry about the geniuses. I agree they will be okay. I tend to think genius probably needs to be nurtured. Maybe not though, maybe just left alone to develop? The average school environment is in such opposition to the nurturing necessary (in my opinion) that I think it is possible to destroy or dramatically limit the potential of genius. This is something I feel quite strongly about.</p>
<p>The worst is when they can’t take classes because they have a lower weight and will drop their rank considerably. What is the point of going to school and not studying something fun.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It’s a system. It’s not really designed for anyone at the margins. When I say “we don’t need to worry about our geniuses” what I mean is that I sometimes just think when you have millions in poverty and getting a truly substandard public education in our k-12 system, genius becomes a personal matter, a type of actualization I find no more or less important than Beckham’s ability to play in the midfield at the height of his ability.</p>
<p>There is only so much that can be done by our education “system” for those who are exceedingly beyond their peers, and just as the athletes find AAU or travel soccer, it might serve our nation for someone to start to found teams for the academically gifted.</p>
<p>poetgrl: At this point I don’t believe it is an appropriate use of public school resources to support genius, or even gifted. I agree there are more pressing concerns. However, the system can be so damaging I feel the need to point it out. I believe in acceleration (which can be individual and self-directed and not necessarily require spending time in classrooms with much older students) and access to resources. Other than that I support a pretty much hands off approach. A classroom is rarely hands-off in approach and so frequently problematic in my opinion.</p>
<p>Obviously I liked your post on this last night! :)</p>
<p>
But, you know, this is excellent advice–for somebody who is interested in art. It’s good advice to look for opportunities to demonstrate excellence in the areas that interest you. I don’t think that’s the same as being “packaged,” but it is strategic.</p>
<p>Speaking of genius, apparently it may all be in the head.</p>
<p>[Einstein’s</a> brain was unusual in several respects, rarely seen photos show - The Washington Post](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/einsteins-brain-was-unusual-in-several-respects-rarely-seen-photos-show/2012/11/26/19b0987a-332a-11e2-bb9b-288a310849ee_story.html?hpid=z6]Einstein’s”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/einsteins-brain-was-unusual-in-several-respects-rarely-seen-photos-show/2012/11/26/19b0987a-332a-11e2-bb9b-288a310849ee_story.html?hpid=z6)</p>
<p>"Among them are whether Einstein started off with a special brain that predisposed him to be a great physicist, or whether doing great physics caused certain parts of his brain to expand. </p>
<p>Einstein’s genius, Galaburda says, was probably due to “some combination of a special brain and the environment he lived in.”"</p>
<p>In life, we learn what the rules are. Do you go to work and do what you wish, only to your own standards, follow your passions, expect others to appreciate your personal timeline? Do you think you can get a job by ardently expressing that it’s your “dream company” and that you deserve it because you are measurably smart? Or, it’s your “dream work,” and though you haven’t done anything like it before, don’t have related skills, you really believe you should get the shot?</p>
<p>Do you expect to win a science award because you put in the hours, even though you couldn’t write an effective summary of what those hours were devoted to? Can it be the same experiment every other kid does? It goes on.</p>
<p>If you want a school that likes well-rounded, with breadth and depth, diversity of interests, ability to pursue challenges, get along with others, climb out of your box, etc, then you may choose to go along with that, get engaged, leave your self-focused comfort zone, do some good for others, be a team player. If you don’t, it was your choice.</p>
<p>In admissions, there’s no time to analyze *why *Bobby is on the tennis team or Jane does vol work. You look at the commitment, responsibility, impact. It is what it is. I advocate kids not rest on hs level assumptions. They are not applying for xfer to another hs; it is the leap to college.</p>
<p>texas- aren’t they now sayng rappers’ brains are different? I saw the headline only.</p>
<p>Well, at least if there were a point structure, the kid would know when he’d reached a sufficient number for admissions and could tell the band director where to go LOL.</p>
<p>The truly brilliant and truly talented are going to do just fine being themselves. Being themselves will naturally lead to accomplishment. The merely smart and competent kids are the ones who stress over whether they’ve done enough stuff to be deemed worthy, as evidenced by the chance me threads. And this isn’t just about getting into the Ivies. As we all know, the ante has been upped for the state flagships and other schools too. Our system is likely as good as it can be, but that doesn’t mean it’s healthy for many kids who feel they have to run ragged doing, rather than being.</p>
<p>Lastly, a very strong college application requires maturity and self-actualization which many kids simply don’t attain until later but are forced to manufacture or pretend because they’re supposed to have a passion, are supposed to have an idea about what their major would be, and are supposed to know why they’re right for X college and x college is right for them.</p>