<p>mommusic-
I was agreeing with you!!</p>
<p>Sorry, jym. Some people are against the people you mentioned for the reason I mentioned!</p>
<p>DontGiveUp, thanks for your post and your service. My husband joined the AF during Viet Nam and went back to college using his benefits, and his maturity really stood out on his return to school - and we started out life together without debt.</p>
<p>Side note: Soldiers volunteer for service knowing they may be harmed. Kids voluntarily apply to top colleges knowing they may not get in.</p>
<p>Well, it seems that this post has somewhat deteriorated into some complex battleground of ideology/politics and semi-personal online attacks.</p>
<p>Take a chill pill peoples! Calm down! It’s not good for y’alls blood pressure. </p>
<p>Side note: I wish the op great success in college.</p>
<p>The OP has a good, basic message: keep your disappointments in perspective because most of the people in the world have it worse than you do. However, as a parent, I suspect that the message is falling on deaf ears because the target audience is teenagers.
Teenagers feel what they feel and they feel it INTENSELY! Furthermore, this time of year is particularly stressful for many high school seniors. They are making important decisions about their future. They are saying goodbye to their childhood and all that is familiar to them. So it is an act of unkindness to dismiss their feelings of disappointment about a rejection as trite. Eventually, these 17-18 year olds will mature into 23 year olds and be better able to handle disappointments whether they join the military, join the workforce or go to college. In the meantime, I think kids who are unhappy about a college rejection have a right to be upset and deserve a sympathetic ear.</p>
<p>Part of applying to college is about growing up. If a student wants to post his/her pretentious views on something as complex as a war, and expects his opinion to be regarded with sincerity, I would like to think such an individual has developed the maturity to cope with a college rejection without falling into a pre-adolescent pit of despair.</p>
<p>Yes, high school kids, especially a majority of the ones who read and post on CC, place a tremendous effort in gaining acceptance to their choice school, and it?s understandable to be disappointed when one?s best efforts are not enough to accomplish a long term goal. However, as we all find out, rejection and failure happens even when we do everything possible to prevent it. Kids aspiring to the top colleges in America should have the cognitive ability to realize this, and they should posses the understanding that the school where one attends undergraduate studies is relatively low in importance. Just because one student is accepted to Harvard and the other is accepted to XYZ state doesn?t predict the future success of these two individuals. Snowyx?s Social Darwinist approach that one needs an education from a prestigious school to be most competitive in life is ridiculously ignorant.</p>
<p>If posters here would like to whine, sulk, and bemoan over rejection letters for days on end, then by all means, it is your right as a teenager to do so. However, when a veteran speaks of his experience at war, please do everyone a favor and stay at the kiddie table while the grown-ups talk. It?s amazing how many imprudent high school kids purport to have the world figured out at the age of 18, and associate their acceptance to a renowned college as an indicator of their vast knowledge concerning world affairs. To those few who taint the reputation of their future university in this way, the OP is bringing insight from an experience that is obviously beyond your understanding. To convert his higher message to a clich?: be thankful for what you have.</p>
<p>The War on Terror isn?t a melodrama that plays nightly on the news. You can?t watch television, read the paper, or search info out on the internet to know what?s going on in places like Iraq. The soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen are the only men and women who are truly fit to provide adequate comments about the state of the war. In addition, only a soldier knows what it takes to soldier. Some may be your age, and have fewer academic credentials, but they become much more familiar with fear, death, and tragedy than an average student. Thus, they will often possess a maturity, and deeper understanding of nature, than many of those who have provided this thread with negative comments can hope to comprehend during their next 4 years in school. </p>
<p>Also, I think it would do many of you, who are going to attend Ivy schools (and the like), good to know that some of your classmates will be soldiers. Princeton, MIT, U Penn, Cornell, Dartmouth, WashU, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, NYU, Boston University, and Wake Forest for example, all have at least one ROTC program on campus. All other Ivies offer a cross enrollment program (ex: ROTC cadets at Harvard take military science classes at MIT). These cadets are studying just as hard as you for the chance to fight. </p>
<p>Soldiers don?t have to be infantrymen. Soldiers can also be doctors, lawyers, dentists, engineers, veterinarians, pharmacists, nurses, scientists, professors, finance officers, etc. I make this distinction because it seems some people here don?t realize that these jobs exist in the Army. Soldiers aren?t just a bunch of young, uneducated kids, who joined up without a clue of what they?re getting into. Many soldiers are smarter than me, and many are smarter than you. </p>
<p>Finally, the next time a vet has a message to relay, I encourage those in disagreement to keep their immature comments to themselves. Nobody wants your sympathy. If anything, it seems it?s the OP who?s sympathetic towards some kids? lack of cognition. Someone on this thread said that not every soldier is a good guy, which is true. It?s also true, however, that not every kid who goes to a top 25 school is smart. </p>
<p>Thanks for serving, OP.</p>
<p>This is an incredibly condescending post. It’s even more condescending than the original poster who tells kids who are ambitious, who study hard, and who want to get into the best possible school that they can that they need to “get their priorities straight.” Telling people to “stay at the kiddie table while the grown-ups talk” is just obnoxious. And I have read very very few posts on this site from students who “have the world figured out.” It sounds like you fit in that category.</p>
<p>huh? I liked his post, it cleared up some misconceptions of the military for the more ignorant people…</p>
<p>“Levon wears his war wounds like a crown…”</p>
<p>Why is it, piccolojunior, that you need to call people names (“ignorant people”) instead of addressing the basic issues here? I’m sorry, but starting with the OP and following that up with people who agree with him, it seems like you are not addressing substantative issues but are instead resorting to name-calling and insults. “Snotty brats who need another whipping,” “posters who whine, sulk, and bemoan rejection letters”, and who “belong at the kiddie table.”</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbOcJ6kqJAA&eurl=[/url]”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbOcJ6kqJAA&eurl=</a></p>
<p>The above link is a speech by Lieutenant Colonel Randolph C. White Jr. at the graduation ceremony for the 258 Infantry Regiment. </p>
<p>He comments directly on some of the issues discussed in this thread. The speech isn?t politically correct, but it provides insight into the way soldiers think and feel. It?s 12 minutes, but for any of you who are still following this thread, I highly encourage you to watch?It illuminates the OP?s message rather well, I believe. </p>
<p>Also, nobody is deriding any student for their hard work. Many students on CC have the potential to become the premier leaders in their chosen profession. The OP was clearly impressed with their academic prowess, as seen in his opening paragraphs, which could partially account for his disappointment in some people?s childish behavior. To be disappointed is not childish, but to allow such a disappointment to supersede all other aspects of life is. There are more important things than college admissions. A hard working, ambitious student as you described, Susanna, will find success regardless of where he/she goes to school. </p>
<p>I have respect for a majority of the people on this board, because most of them want to get into good schools so they can make the best possible impact in society. However, there are a select few whose opinions are neither here nor there. To argue about the war?s location is one thing?.I?ll disagree with you, but I?ll respect your argument if you can bring convincing facts to the table. However, to shoot off statements alluding to troops as blithe pawns in a pointless war is misguided and uninformed. Each year, the service academies are towards the top of the list in producing Rhodes Scholars and Truman Scholars, to be promoted past the rank of Major an officer must earn a masters degree, and as I mentioned, soldiers come into the Army after graduating from all kinds of colleges/medical schools/law schools/and theology schools. I would hardly view them as unthinking robots.</p>
<p>The OP didn?t ask for anyone?s opinions. He merely made a post for others to dwell on. People like you, Susanna, began making irrelevant comments and diluting the purpose the OP?s thread. You?re not a soldier or a current high school/undergrad student, you convoluted the topic, and you initially bashed the OP for making a remark that included the quote, ?one whipping to few? (neither here nor there). The OP was trying to help some of America?s top kids, just like he wanted to help others when he first signed up, and didn?t deserve some people?s snide remarks. He risked his life, and everything he had. He could have died for you, without ever knowing what it feels to find ?true love?, without ever experiencing the privilege of raising a child and seeing that child grow into a prosperous adult, and without the comfort that he will be remembered. He made that choice, without you asking him. Don?t give him sympathy, but show him, and other soldiers, the respect they deserve for risking all the joys and pleasures of life for you and your family. In this situation, the adage ?if you don?t have anything nice to say, then don?t say anything?, would have been appropriate. If showing common courtesy to a man who had the misfortune of earning the Purple Heart is asking too much from an individual, then yes, I don?t think I?m being too ostentatious by referencing the kiddie table. </p>
<p>(To those interested: if the link provided doesn?t turn out, a search on google for ?Randolph C. White Jr.? should bring up any number of sites with the video.)</p>
<p>RLTW!</p>
<p>Actually I witnessed something yesterday which is relevant to this discussion! My daughter rows on our high school crew team and we were at the rowing facility. Practice was letting out and hundreds of kids from Northern Virginia schools were heading home.
I noticed a father and daughter slowly walking toward their car. The dad wore a VFW cap (possibly a vet from first Iraq war?). His daughter looked like she was a junior or senior. She was weeping profusely. She had been cut from her boat at practice, meaning she would not row in today?s regatta. Her dad just hugged her and just kept saying, ?Tell me what happened, honey?. Eventually she calmed down and they got into the car and drove off. Now, that?s a vet I really admire! A terrific parent!
And to those of you who do not want to hear what high school kids have to say, I mean, come on! This is college confidential and you are in the high school forum!!! What did you expect?!</p>
<p>jones101ut said – “The soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen are the only men and women who are truly fit to provide adequate comments about the state of the war.”</p>
<p>Last time I read the Constitution, it didn’t say that only those in the military have the right to free speech with respect to wars. In fact, a fundamental principle of American democracy is civilian control of the military. The head of the armed forces (commander-in-chief) is not a general, but the president. The funding for the armed forces must come from the legislative branch, the Congress. </p>
<p>As Senator Webb of Virginia (a decorated Marine, Vietnam War combat veteran and former Secretary of the Navy under President Reagan) said recently (and this is not an exact quote) – Those who say we have to stay in Iraq to support the troops have it backwards. We don’t have wars for the troops, the troops fight for Americans and Americans decide what is worth fighting for.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Just wanted to highlight that again.</p>
<p>Just want to let this out. You can’t blame the troops for anything really. They are just people being told to do things. They don’t have too much say in what they want to do. If their commander tells them to go and stay watch, killing anyone who comes through they have to do it. I don’t see how the hate flows all the way to the troops.</p>
<p>Both soldier and murderer act of their own volition.</p>
<p>God bless you, sir! My father has been in the USMC (United State Marine Corps) for 25 years. He just came back from Iraq for the fourth time. He was recently stationed in SPAWAR (located in San Diego), and his superiors promised he would not have to go to Iraq again so long as he remained there. So much for that.</p>
<p>I thank God every day for the small things in life. I just turned 18, so I can finally move out of my mom’s house and live with my dad. For the past 5 years, I’ve spent a few days each month with him. I told the courts when I was 13 that I wanted to live with him, and it should have been my choice. However, because he is in the military, the courts decided I would live with my mom.</p>
<p>I thank God that we are fortunate enough to own a house (my dad bought it 15 years ago, when houses weren’t in the millions). It is close to Camp Pendleton and not too far of a drive from San Diego. My father has been wise with his money, and because of this, he can afford to send me to UCSD.</p>
<p>My father received a 3.6 GPA out of a possible 4.0 in his Kentucky high school. He had one of the best GPA’s in his school, but because his parents didn’t have any money, he joined the USMC. He couldn’t go to college. All he received was a $500 scholarship. He had to support his parents with the money he made.</p>
<p>Before you start crying about how you didn’t get into MIT or Princeton, think about the men and women serving our country, and what they have to sacrifice for us all.</p>
<p><a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070408/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq[/url]”>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070408/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq</a></p>
<p>It’s Easter. We’ve lost 6 more. </p>
<p>That’s what should be making you weep.</p>
<p>I kinda wish… that news and media would report the amount of iraqi civilians that were harmed / injured / dead. I know this statement kind of diverts fromt he topic but the above post is making me say it o_o.</p>
<p>From the above article:</p>
<p>“At least 47 people were killed or found dead in violence Sunday, including 17 execution victims dumped in the capital”</p>
<p>I agree with you. Report it. God bless them and weep for them too.</p>