<p>This trend of privileged white students whining about not getting into elite or high ranking institutions does not amuse me in the least. Especially since the majority of these articles seem to be coming from white female students who are (go figure) the greatest beneficiaries of affirmative action.</p>
<p>For those who say that those who don’t like it just don’t “get satire,” no we get it. But when the underlying message leaves high performing African American, Native American, and Latino/a students at the butt of the joke, it’s not funny or in any way original.</p>
<p>“I note, with interest, that she doesn’t complain about legacies. I wonder why that is?”</p>
<p>Hmmm, I wonder too. Especially since unqualified but privileged kids are nearly twice as common at elite instutitions as Black and Latino students who have benefited from affirmative action.</p>
<p>“So, the schools will consider all sorts of things, like SES, personal challenges, ECs”</p>
<p>I think some of the opposition will go away if they stop making a hoopla about how many they admit of what race. SES should get them to the same corner, i.e., we admitted 300 under 40k income, 200 between 40 and 60k, 400 between 60-100k and everyone else exceeds that (or full pay).</p>
<p>Related to PBS link, is something that was done at Berkeley in 1999 relevant anymore?</p>
<p>Hunt - I think she thinks she would have gotten in as an American Indian or if she were gay/child raised by gay parents. Do you see any truth to any of that?</p>
<p>Romani, I share your feelings about this and the other thread on the article.</p>
<p>TPG, one could hope that the Berkeley example becomes irrelevant. Considering the outcome, Berkeley is one of the worst reengineering of admissions that ever took place. It is the example of what NOT to do. Not totally surprising considering the State and its leadership. </p>
I don’t think having gay parents or being gay is helpful–I am aware of no evidence that it is. If she were a Native American with the same grades and scores, it probably would have helped her, because there aren’t many Native Americans with impressive grades and scores. But at most selective schools, Native American doesn’t help unless you are enrolled with a tribe–so self-identification is limited in that regard. But–and this is also one of the problems with this article–she doesn’t really want to trade places with a URM–that’s why that part of this isn’t really funny.</p>
<p>I’m not Hunt but no, I don’t think she thinks she would have gotten in as an “American Indian” (shouldn’t that be Native American?) or gay/ ofspring of gay parents. I think it’s a joke on the level of the jokes many kids who are basic white bread teenagers make.</p>
<p>Of course, it’s possible she may have been admitted to the schools where she was rejected if she were in a different ethnic or other demo. She’ll never know and neither will you or I. Can anyone prove that she wouldn’t have been? Does it matter at all?</p>
<p>Whether you think this is funny or not, I can’t believe anyone is actually wasting their outrage over this girls letter/video a week later. It just isn’t that important.</p>
<p>Loved the letter…reminded me of Erma Bombeck back in the day. And any girl that can take a “rejection” and turn it into a national talking-point is a superstar in my book. </p>
<p>My son will be attending a school in the fall that everyone - parents, college counselor, anyone who was asked really - warned him was a “hail mary pass”. They saw something in him that we all know is there…and I have no doubt that the school will be better for having him. But then again, I love a game of craps.</p>
<p>I also saw her on the Today Show. It seems to me that the Ivies she was rejected from were reach schools- otherwise why would she have applied and got in to Penn State and Indiana. In our HS, kids applying to Ivies had safe schools like Vandy & Emory.
Something is not right here…other than a family who spent to much on tutors and bad advice.</p>
<p>Her dad went to Kenyon, so my suspicion about this was ill-founded. Her mom isn’t an Ivy-Leaguer either, although her older sister went to Columbia.</p>
<p>I thought her letter was kind of funny and from a certain perspective, had elements of truth. I took it as her effort to “blow off steam”, to make chicken salad out of chicken poop, with a soup</p>
<p>Her and her parent’s thinking that she was a shoo in to an Ivy League school and subsequent rejections is what prompted her article and this thread.</p>
<p>They would be better off not feeling so entitled.</p>
<p>I must say though that I don’t support reverse discrimination. I think that admissions are more fair than they’ve ever been. Not perfect, just more fair. Many elite schools at one time supported slavery, subjugation, segregation and the systematic exclusion of “others” into their institutions. We can’t pretend that there ever existed a day and time when admissions was fair and equitable and not based on privilege, patronage, gender, race, religion or bribe.</p>
<p>If all these privileged kids weren’t so obsessed with getting into the “Ivy League,” those schools wouldn’t hold so much power over them. It’s not like she needed to go to Penn for the FA, like a lot of the URMs she takes potshots at. </p>
<p>Surely she didn’t believe she was going to beat the long odds of admission to the Ivy League (~10%) based solely on any inherent superiority on her part over all the other candidates for admissions? </p>
<p>Call it “satire,” but she seems a tad out of touch to me, as does her dad. That’s one of the pitfalls of privilege, that you don’t always recognize the bubble in which you reside.</p>
<p>Kenyon would have been an outstanding choice for her, but I guess it didn’t hold enough cachet. (Actually, we don’t know that she didn’t apply there.) I’d be thrilled if my kid (with better SAT scores) got in there!</p>
<p>I’m sort of torn about this. I read through both articles but before I did, I went in with a mindset of “She’s obviously disappointed. Anyone would be. She worked hard for 4 years!”. I didn’t find anything that completely changed my mind, sadly, considering how funny her letter was.</p>
<p>She has a decent GPA, a very good SAT score and even an experience of working with U.S. Senate? Well, that should have been good enough for her to get in.</p>
<p>But the fact that, as she points on in her letter, she didn’t get selected for not having enough diversity on her application is, tough, to say the least. She worked hard in other areas and probably didn’t worry so much about adding various feathers to her cap.</p>
<p>We don’t know that that is the reason she was rejected, just her opinion. Face it, her GPA is as you said decent but her high school is not Bronx Science or TJ so she doesn’t stand out and there are thousands of applicants with higher SATs. She’s not a state champ on some academic contest or sports team or an Intel winner…She is just one of the many BRWK playing the game of musical chairs. Sometimes you get in, sometimes you don’t. If you know going in what your chances are, it makes for a more realistic perspective.</p>
<p>I suspect she is on a waitlist for Columbia or another Ivy and that is the main reason for this offensive. </p>
<p>I did mean Native Indian.</p>
<p>xiggi - I am under the impression a lot has changed at Berkeley in terms of admissions since 1999. So I was wondering if these links still mean something in that process.</p>
<p>First of all, if you read the article, she comes from a very affluent family. She (or more accurately her parents) will be paying full freight regardless of where she attends. It’s highly unlikely she herself will be taking on any debt! </p>
<p>She could have gone to Penn State but is opting for Michigan, which as an out-of-stater, I imagine, will cost her parents more. This family is well off financially and I’d imagine they’d be happy to pay the costs regardless, as long as their daughter is happy at the school.</p>
<p>If she were coming from a family making less than $75k a year, however, she’d be far better off attending an Ivy League school that meets “full need” than going to Penn State-University Park, which is very stingy with FA and among the most expensive state flagship universities. </p>
<p>Again, rolling the dice for Ivy admissions makes a lot more sense if you need FA than it does if you can afford to go pretty much anywhere you want!</p>
<p>I would say writing an article published in the WSJ serves as “getting over it” and “getting on with her life”. Seriously, people need to lighten up. I find it amusing how many people are unwilling to admit that PART of the college admission’s process is a “crapshoot”. Part of it is based on merit. Part of it is based on luck, legacy, all the things she mentions…that is what makes her article so timely and funny. Of course it isn’t all about luck and legacy and diversity. And it’s not all fair and merit-based. The girls has great writing skill (if that was really written by a teenager) and I found the article humorous - sent the link to everyone I know - we all laughed. But then again I laugh at much of what I read these days.</p>