How do college AOs assess relative high school rigor?

Citation please that things have changed as to legacy admission and the effect of applying for financial aid? Any data or just a feeling?

He for sure wasn’t selected for sweeping floors. But sweeping (it was more mopping to be honest- fast food is greasy) didn’t HURT him, and since you don’t know us, the idea that we have absorbed some bizarre anti-intellectualism is hilarious.

I know HS seniors who have never made a bed. Never prepared a meal. Don’t know how to bake a potato. Their parents have assumed the jobs of servant, maid, cook, driver, all in the service of making the kid the biggest intellectual/academic success in the world. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Pity the kids where it doesn’t work.

I don’t live in that world. My kids had two working parents and learned to be contributing members of the family early on. If you call that anti-intellectual-- hey, who cooks YOUR meals and does YOUR laundry? Having strong mathematical skills and knowing how to operate a washing machine are not mutually exclusive. Being extraordinary at something intellectual AND knowing how to cash a paycheck doesn’t make you a pariah.

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:icecream: :ice_cream: :joy:

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Might I remind members of the forum rules: “Our forum is expected to be a friendly and welcoming place, and one in which members can post without their motives, intelligence, or other personal characteristics being questioned by others."

and

“College Confidential forums exist to discuss college admission and other topics of interest. It is not a place for contentious debate. If you find yourself repeating talking points, it might be time to step away and do something else
 If a thread starts to get heated, it might be closed or heavily moderated.”

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/guidelines

Just to review, you cited a study and several posters asked you for a link/source
seems simple and reasonable.

In my post, I stated that college admissions are quite different than they were pre-2006. I didn’t cite any study or offer any data. That’s an opinion.

Of course if you wanted to you could look into the number of schools who have stopped giving legacy preference in the last 20 years, and those who have decreased its importance in the admissions process.

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Not sure how either research would be relevant to the question of the ivies (all of whom still until now recognize legacy admissions) have in your opinion changed their stance regarding legacy + financial aid. That’s a pretty specific statement and topic.

I understand that your opinion is that ivies no longer look at financial aid when they assess legacy tip. I guess we can respectfully disagree. I see no reason that would have changed especially with the majority of legacies not applying for aid anyway.

I didn’t say that.

All the Ivies are need blind when reviewing apps. So, even if a given school knows a student applied for FA, they don’t know whether the applicant has any need or if they do, how much need they have.

And none of that has changed since data that you are doubting. Need blind was in place long before “The Price of Admission” wasn’t it?

And that dat suggests whether to give a legacy tip might have something to do with FA.

I’m not sure where this class / wealth angle became relevant.

Your child sounds like a nice person and well socialized. MIT saw someone they liked. Not hard to imagine especially if there were also truly exemplary academics.

I was just talking to my friend who grew up in rural third-world poverty and won a gold medal at the IPhO and best theoretical award. His kids don’t do IMO or IPhO. He not surprisingly said kids in the US don’t generally have the drive to do what it takes to do IPhO. Too comfortable. Surprisingly he said that was a good thing. That level of achievement leads to imbalance.

Children of wealth have their own problems. Just because mom or dad is home doesn’t mean mom or dad isn’t at the Club or busying themselves with Barre classes or golf or social causes. And it doesn’t mean they’re getting private tutors (except for the SAT, lacrosse and college counselors long after their path is set). Frankly I see a lot of benign neglect and expectation that the “good school” will take care of the education.

Since you asked, I have no problem with parents doing their kids’ laundry and cooking for them. Parents in my book are in a no judgement zone. If their brand of advocating for their kids is showing up at school after a booze soaked party that excludes all of the minorities in school saying “remember, he’s just a child”, okay. If other parents want to hire the soccer coach for 3 hours every Saturday, okay by me. Kids don’t pick their parents. Our friends who are quite comfortable told their son to bus tables at our local restaurant. I thought that was a great idea for my kid until the restaurant owner told me that these days you just don’t want a teenage girl waiting on possibly drunk customers. And thats in a really good neighborhood. In that way, ice cream is better.

If some parents want to push their kids academically, fine by me. I see it with sports, drama, music, you name it. Lots of what people judge others on is cultural. Certain races and religions are more comfortable with academic ambition. Others have no problem going to baseball 3 hours a day. Why should each group look down on the other? Top colleges want students who are great at both, frankly.

Most of what I see among the wealthy though is passivity. And it does make it hard for kids, with every reason to be comfortably unmotivated, to get busy. At least to the degree of achievement that makes any difference for top colleges. I’m not sure the other side of the fence as you describe it is as green as you portray.

So
what are we talking about again?

How does this relate back to how college admissions offices assess relative high school rigor?

given the question that’s in the thread title, extracurricular activities aren’t really applicable to answering the question
IF what you’re REALLY asking about is assessing relative rigor of different high schools’ curriculum and classes. :wink:

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