'It's a crap shoot': Father of girl who wrote scathing letter to Ivy League colleges

<p>In my opinion, the piece is sarcastic, but not satire.</p>

<p>I think I found her high school on Great Schools.org. It’s not a ritzy high school by any means, but some of the reviews from parents and students claim that it does send “kids who work hard” to the Ivies. So, from her perspective, the adults in her immediate vicinity might have been telling the students that hard workers go to the Ivy League.</p>

<p>Unless she’s omitted part of her list, it seems very weird to have 3 Ivy League schools, Vanderbilt, the University of Michigan, then Penn State, Indiana and Wisconsin. As others have said, where’s Kenyon? I can think of many great schools which would have been financially comparable to UM out of state, and been good matches with her very-good-but-not-superlative stats. She had lots of reaches, some safeties, but one match?</p>

<p>“Pray tell. I’m fascinated”</p>

<p>Are you suggesting private schools exist in some other country such that if supreme court says “thou shall not consider race” and private schools go “Heck no, we are privates and we are not in US?”</p>

<p>Have you looked at how much federal research money they receive? As Hunt mentioned, they will figure a different way to lay out their admission criteria in the holistic process without mentioning race. Nevertheless, they will be impacted if supreme court comes out against UT.</p>

<p>I don’t know if I’m allowed to make this comments. But she would be good enough to poke adcom if she had 2400 SAT with great EC?</p>

<p>I don’t know.</p>

<p>I’m also amused to see CC-ers get into a huff and exclaim that there is no way that meritorious students do not get rejected for a slew of reasons. “She deserved her rejection!” you all crow. It’s like you expect her to get her rejections and, as penance for being white and suburban, expect to get no closer to Dartmouth than to say, “Thank you, sir, may I have another?”</p>

<p>texaspg, you’re not making much sense. </p>

<p>Public colleges are under different requirements than are private colleges. Why would the Supreme Court decision have any effect on private school admissions?</p>

<p>I think only MAYBE 1 or 2 people said anything along the lines of “she deserved the rejection”.</p>

<p>Just as plenty of first chairs, plenty of dedicated Intel pseudo-passionate-scientists, plenty of graduates from summer camps and academic competitions, and the list goes on. </p>

<p>Fwiw, the resume padding exercises are definitely easier when people have connections or means. The train to a SUNY lab is a shorter ride from LI than from a reserve filled with headdresses-wearing natives. The safari cum a bit of social service are beyond the means of most minorities. </p>

<p>Availability of time, money, and opportunities are a factor in admissions. From whom much is given, much is expected. Overcoming adversity does play a role, and this because it is not as easy as people from the other side of the tracks think it is.</p>

<p>"texaspg, you’re not making much sense. "</p>

<p>Google is a wonderful tool. It took me all of 20 seconds to find some support.</p>

<p>[TheDartmouth.com:</a> Court case could have effect on admissions](<a href=“http://thedartmouth.com/2012/10/22/news/affirmativeaction]TheDartmouth.com:”>http://thedartmouth.com/2012/10/22/news/affirmativeaction)</p>

<p>My son was waitlisted from his first preference (which wasnt mine) and he has very similar grades to some of his friend that got in to that school. He chose a major which we think has much less ‘seats’ then the majors his friends chose. It was a crap shoot as far as choosing a major with less chance of getting in. In hindsight, maybe we should have tried applying to another major, just so he could get in. I kind of wish schools would be very specific on the application forms, as to how many students they admit to each major. This way you have an idea what the ‘odds’ are.</p>

<ul>
<li>for the record, my child is not an IVY league student. I am talking about New York State SUNY schools *</li>
</ul>

<p>Interestingly, supremes took on a case from Michigan just a few weeks ago?</p>

<p>[Supreme</a> Court to Review Michigan’s Ban on Race-Conscious Admissions - Government - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“Supreme Court to Review Michigan’s Ban on Race-Conscious Admissions”>Supreme Court to Review Michigan’s Ban on Race-Conscious Admissions)</p>

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<p>I think this paragraph is referring to those kids who become so heavily involved in volunteer work ONLY because it looks good on their application. She’s also saying she refused to “play the game”, and now realizes that she is paying the price. How many high school kids would get involved in charity work if it wasn’t that it paid dividends on their college application?</p>

<p>Lately, kids seem to be doing the following because there is a belief that that’s what is needed to for the elites:</p>

<ol>
<li> Start a charity, register it with a non-profit tax id etc.</li>
<li> Start a for profit company</li>
</ol>

<p>I have seen resumes saying they have done both. Since when has this much of involvement been needed to be noticed?</p>

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<p>I think she is poking fun at the kids who write a personal essay about some life changing event in their lives, and that somehow that essay is viewed as better than writing about how much you loved your calc class, for example.</p>

<p>Am I the only one who sees through the thinly veiled attempt at sincerity of these types of essays? I just want to say, “Get real!” and write about something less superficial.</p>

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<p>Exactly! Kids just keep trying to outdo each other so that they will be unique.</p>

<p>So…how do we know she didn’t utilize her parents’ connections to pad her resume/secure unique ECs?</p>

<p>Also, no one is saying she shouldn’t have been disappointed. Heck, I threw a tantrum after being rejected by my then “dream school” (stupid concept, btw). She surely didn’t deserve rejection. On the flip side, she didn’t deserve to be accepted either. Admission to the elite is a privilege, not a right. However, as an AA student raised by a single mother who has worked her TAIL off to even compete with these kids, people like Weiss anger me. I’m sick of people like her discounting my work and the work of those like me then pretending they don’t mean it and beckoning me to “lighten up.”</p>

<p>I don’t think so.</p>

<p>… because we know that creating a FAKE charity and writing about Kimto are real winners! And why CCers recommend those strategies with abandon.</p>

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<p>Because of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d: “No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
See Gratz v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 244, 275-276 (2003) (“because the University’s use of race in its current freshman admissions policy is not narrowly tailored to achieve respondents’ asserted compelling interest in diversity, the admissions policy violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. We further find that the admissions policy also violates Title VI and 42 U.S.C. § 1981.”); see also Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306, 343 (2003).</p>

<p>I haven’t read this entire thread, but can someone tell me which school the-girl-who-wrote-the-scathing-letter-in-the-WSJ WILL attend?</p>

<p>too much time & energy wasted on something not really worthy.
I am a new member here and read a lot of great posts - very helpful. but i think we’d better off not writing more on this topic. We are all matured & seasoned enough to know what the girl & her parents wanted to say. that’s enough. Let’s keep focusing on those good for our kids getting into their dream schools.</p>

<p>A lot of rejected people to the top schools are qualified. The problem is simple:</p>

<p>There are only soooo many openings AND</p>

<p>These qualified applicants are a “DIME A DOZEN”</p>

<p>She was just an average applicant to a top school.</p>

<p>That’s reality.</p>