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<p>What you are missing is that she didn’t say anything <em>bad</em> about “the others.” To the contrary, she said she wanted to be one of them, because what they had made them something other than the “saltine” girl that she was.</p>
<p>I feel like some people are trying as hard as they can to be offended by what she wrote.</p>
<p>is there a copy of the letter? Or a link to the news?</p>
<p>Here is a different angle on this from someone who knows a thing or two about selective college admissions, the former dean of admissions for MIT. In the discussion at the link, she was the only one who agreed with part of the essay – that Ms. Weiss was lied to by selective colleges. See: [Bernard</a> Whitman Discusses An Entitled High School Senior’s WSJ Article About College Admissions - YouTube](<a href=“Bernard Whitman Discusses An Entitled High School Senior's WSJ Article About College Admissions - YouTube”>Bernard Whitman Discusses An Entitled High School Senior's WSJ Article About College Admissions - YouTube)</p>
<p>Her point rings true to me – many highly selective schools know exactly what candidates they are looking for, but they deliberately mislead applicants into believing they have a chance at admission to boost the number of applications. Why, the US News algorithm, of course. Most of the parents reading CC have children who achieved highly in HS. As a result, we saw the tons of mail coming to the house from the Wash U’s and even Harvard extolling our children to apply. The more savvy among us knew this as a ruse to boost applications, but the vast majority of students out their and their parents don’t know that.</p>
<p>I have to say I find the Ivy apologists commenting on this thread somewhat whiney and disingenuous, just as they find Ms. Weiss. We all know of bright students who blatantly pad their resumes for their Ivy applications, with success. We also know of the elite- school-educated children of Fortune 50 executives who happen to be minorities and who catapult over their higher stat classmates and into better schools. To argue that the Ivy’s and other selective schools are truly meritocracies which always root out only the most exceptional students is frankly, bunk.</p>
<p>Those on here who have achieved their dream of an Ivy education, I say congratulations, you must be truly exceptional candidates. But to suggest that there isn’t a any level of randomness to those school’s selection decisions, is also, bunk. The sheer number of applicants makes that so.</p>
<p>It comes off as whining maybe that wasn’t her intended purpose but that is what it comes off as to me.</p>
<p>[YingYing</a> Shang: An Open Letter to Suzy Lee Weiss](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yingying-shang/an-open-letter-to-suzy-lee-weiss_b_3041458.html)</p>
<p>emersongarcia,</p>
<p>Did you read this thread before posting? Look at post #222 and the discussion following.</p>
<p>Who is being “lied” to? Who’s being mislead? As a disadvantaged senior even I knew that all the Ivy mail I was receiving meant nothing. How come my wealthier counterparts can’t see this? Why do they look at single digit acceptance rates and feel entitled to a “spot”? Is privilege that blinding or are they genuinely stupid?</p>
<p>Post 244: I have never seen Mary Lee Jones in action. Interesting to see her saying Suzy’s letter’s beginning is correct. </p>
<p>The host of the show says she is Hispanic at the end and starts the show by saying it was funny. She also mentions that it hurts her that people think she got where she is by being Hispanic.</p>
<p>alexissss – why are the schools sending the mailings if not to mislead? They send the stuff to kids with even mediocre PSAT tests scores. Many commenters on here blast Weiss for bothering to apply to highly selective schools with “only” a 2150 SAT, yet it is not “lying” to you that those schools actively solicit applications from such students??</p>
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<p>This might be why I am entertained by her letter. I have personal experience.</p>
<p>Here’s another example: Six kids at our high school were waiting to hear about their ED decision from an Ivy. One of those kids is my daughter’s BF. Said kid was very anxious about being accepted, especially because history had taught us that only one kid would be accepted from our high school. Privately, I told my D that said kid would be accepted, because she was a legacy, her father is a doctor, and they could pay full freight. When my daughter argued that said kid had lower SAT scores than she, and struggled to maintained a 90% average, I told her I was certain that said kid would be admitted. But, she argued, another boy at 2/486, with stellar SAT scores, and tons of ECs would probably be admitted ahead of her. No, I told her, because his parents could not pay full freight.</p>
<p>Said kid was admitted, very capable boy was deferred and then rejected.</p>
<p>I saw this happen multiple times with my older daughter’s friends, which is one of the main reasons we encouraged this daughter not to apply at Ivies.</p>
<p>So I think your response to Suzy’s letter is all about prior experiences. In our family, we are very glad events transpired as they did, because we now realize that an Ivy would not have been a good fit for older D. That’s another reason I can laugh at Suzy’s letter.</p>
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<p>I see this in my community as well. Part of it is they want to believe their kid has a chance, and another part is that unless you are on CC, you don’t realize how competitive it has become.</p>
<p>We encouraged our older D to apply before I found CC. By that time it was too late.</p>
<p>@ava55 </p>
<p>I believe that is simple marketing. </p>
<p>Also, her SAT score is perfectly fine. Perfect scores are rejected as well. Nothing was, imo, wrong with her app. Nothing is wrong with her feeling disappointed. I was sad, too as were thousands of other kids.</p>
<p>I’m assuming this has been posted already. It’s even more hilarious after reading this thread.</p>
<p>[How</a> High Schoolers Imagine the College Admissions Process - YouTube](<a href=“How High Schoolers Imagine the College Admissions Process - YouTube”>How High Schoolers Imagine the College Admissions Process - YouTube)</p>
<p>Suzy was more than qualified stats-wise for all of the colleges she applied to. She just didn’t have something else that made her stand out.</p>
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<p>Humm, TPG, I am afraid that you must have missed a lot of the finer details of the rise and fall of Marilee Jones. A search on this forum would be shed some light. All I have to say is that it is no coincidence that a defrocked fraudster continues to display the same abject hypocrisy she put on display during her reign at MIT. </p>
<p>Having THAt person on a panel speaks volume about the direction of the “discussion.”</p>
<p>Marketing, yes, but for what purpose? The purpose is to boost applications for the US News rankings, plain and simple. It is not to flesh out additional applicants. The schools in issue already receive many times the number of applicants as slots.</p>
<p>I agree with Mary Lee Jones that the “marketing” by such schools is disingenuous.</p>
<p>People use their wealth, connections, legacies, etc. to get into prestigious schools all the time. However, Suzy Weiss did not choose to write a satirical piece on those folks. Probably because she saw minorities and lesbians as assuming a place that is rightfully her’s. So, these minorities and lesbians is where she directed her bitter vitriol–err, excuse me, I meant, “satire.” Does anyone else find this peculiar?</p>
<p>" I am afraid that you must have missed a lot of the finer details of the rise and fall of Marilee Jones"</p>
<p>I have heard the stories. I found what she had to say about USNWR rankings and how increasing the application numbers as the name of the game quite acceptable.</p>
<p>As I said, TPG, if that is what you recalled from this snake of a person who climbed to the top with deception and shenanigans, you did indeed miss the finer and perhaps most important points. Broken clocks are right twice a day. </p>
<p>But here is a quote with relevance to MIT and the present discussion. From the MIT forum</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/massachusetts-institute-technology/1473244-cruel-process-4.html#post15773668[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/massachusetts-institute-technology/1473244-cruel-process-4.html#post15773668</a></p>
<p>Originally Posted by luisarose:
Here’s the thing about humility. I <em>was</em> surprised, honored, and grateful to be admitted into MIT, and I was humble about it and didn’t brag, etc. But when someone starts suggesting I don’t deserve my acceptance, humility is the last thing on my mind.</p>
<p>Answer by MITChris:
Yeah, and what bothers me most, as I said before, is when people who are not admitted take out their disappointment on people who were.</p>
<p>@ava55</p>
<p>I’ll agree with that.
However, a simple Google search will reveal that college letters/emails mean nothing. It’s not hard.</p>