<p>As cold as it sounds, colleges can only accept so many applicants; some has to be turned down. With that said I really do feel that things happen for a reason and there may be a phenomenal opportunity awaiting the blogger and every other student who ends up not attending their first choice. An opportunity they can’t even imagine right now.</p>
<p>i dont get the point of this blog… so she got rejected to a lot of prestigous schools, what else is new ? she got into UCLA, can’t feel too bad for her.</p>
<p>This thread is unnecessary. She was rejected by 11 schools. It hurts, and there’s no need for a bunch of “adults” to rub it in her face. Yes, what she writes is public. Yes, she should expect some negative feedback. But give her credit for being so forthcoming about what is, for many people, a very personal and private process. Before you retaliate, I would ask yourself to consider: What if she was your child or sibling? Would you really want to read this thread every time you google her name from now until eternity? Would you want a future employer, years down the line, to google her name and see a bunch of adults chastising her writing skills- those of a 17 or 18 year old kid?</p>
<p>It’s already in the NYT. Odds are that most educated people who care about college admissions have already read it. As such, adding to the embarrassment on here is completely unnecessary and even immature. </p>
<p>Here’s to hoping your beloved child never has to be publicly humiliated- twice.</p>
<p>To be honest, I’m tired of all of these “I got rejected but I realized I’m not defined by college acceptances and my life is still awesome” stories and their variants. Really, can’t one of these kids write a blog about their unending desire to incinerate the rejectors in the fires of hell? To drive the offending adcoms into drooling insanity? Would be a breath of fresh air.</p>
<p>Starbright -</p>
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<p>You must be referring to Michael Greshko, the Yale early admit. His comments are certainly cringe worthy. His canned and awkward metaphors just don’t don’t sound like any teenage boy I know. Reading his posts, I wondered what, exactly, he conveyed in his application that appealed to adcoms. Additionally, it is pretty hard to understand his logic in applying to thirteen other schools after he was already accepted at Yale, other than as fuel for his ego.</p>
<p>Northstarmom, stop harassing the girl . Can’t you see she just got rejected by her top choice schools? I would advise you to see her situation from the perspective of a parent and be more sensitive. I would also advise you to concentrate on your own child. I don’t know of any decent parent who would criticize other children’s like this without knowing them personally.</p>
<p>While you’re at it, work on improving your writing and critical thinking skills as well. You can’t attribute her rejection to any one factor, and making reckless conjectures about it only makes you look stupid.</p>
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<p>Not true. Some people are fortunate enough to have opportunities presented to them even if they didn’t give the right effort to deserve them.</p>
<p>You just work with what you got. You’re right on the rejection thing. If it’s not in the cards, it’s just not meant to be.</p>
<p>As for Northstarmom, your argument relies too much on ethos and, thus, lacks depth. And you use circular reasoning too, evident here as I highlight parts of a post:</p>
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<p>Are you sure you know what good writing is? lol</p>
<p>How did she score a blogging deal with the Times? Grrr. I’m so jealous. :(</p>
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<p>That would be too entertaining immature. Every aspect of the college admissions process must be enlightening; every student must be like the Buddha, drawing wisdom from divine suffering.</p>
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<p>Haha. More like every aspect of life…</p>
<p>Agree with poetgrl. Some nasty stuff here.</p>
<p>Jumping on the bandwagon of those disturbed by the cheapshot posts. Very odd for a parent to simultaneously boast about herself while trashing a child. Very odd. And a teacher at the HS/college level no less? Where can I sign up for THAT course?</p>
<p>And BTW, this girl is accepted at UCLA et al. The problem with elitism is its only fun if you have someone (lots of someones) to feel superior to.</p>
<p>same with me…</p>
<p>eight schools hits pretty hard…</p>
<p>Actually, reading this post made by her:
[Awash</a> in Nervous Anticipation - The Choice Blog - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/envelope-paik-1/]Awash”>Awash in Nervous Anticipation - The New York Times)</p>
<p>The content seems kinda fake.
Are you sure this is all you do? lol</p>
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If you want to scratch something, why not just remove the first part?</p>
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<p>Ouch, Northstarmom. I would have expected better of you. Your posts here are generally very respectful and well thought out; this was neither of those things.</p>
<p>Remember, these bloggers are kids. Kids writing for the NYTimes, but kids nonetheless. You should thus keep two things in mind: one, they have very real feelings and are not adult, paid journalists; two, they are writing for the NYTimes, and understandably very nervous about it. For one, what you said about Anne was rude and insensitive; she is a TEENAGER. There’s no need for words like “trite,” and certainly no need to judge her “thinking skills” based on a few writings. (Frankly, if I were to judge your critical thinking skills on your past two posts, I would take your generally poor grammar and faulty assumptions demonstrated in this thread to mean you were far from the brightest bulb.)</p>
<p>I read the NYTimes blogs of one of my classmates as I was applying to schools; in the posts, he came off as arrogant and pretentious, but in real life he is a sweet, smart kid. He’s admitted that he way overwrote his blogs and was just terrified of the huge NYTimes readership and the nasty “adults” in the comments section (and on CC).</p>
<p>Go with UCLA, a better school than all of those. Why? Academics are probably the same at all of them and LA has the best opportunities ever.</p>
<p>“Remember, these bloggers are kids. Kids writing for the NYTimes, but kids nonetheless. You should thus keep two things in mind: one, they have very real feelings and are not adult, paid journalists; two, they are writing for the NYTimes, and understandably very nervous about it. For one, what you said about Anne was rude and insensitive; she is a TEENAGER. There’s no need for words like “trite,” and certainly no need to judge her “thinking skills” based on a few writings. (Frankly, if I were to judge your critical thinking skills on your past two posts, I would take your generally poor grammar and faulty assumptions demonstrated in this thread to mean you were far from the brightest bulb.)”</p>
<p>I’ve been a columnist myself, and my older son was a columnist for a professional newspaper starting at age 9. I think that anyone who is writing for publication should be prepared to be critiqued. If one isn’t prepared for that, then don’t publish. </p>
<p>I don’t know why anyone would choose to blog about their college application process. Certainly that’s an invitation for the public to evaluate their character, writing skills, thinking skills just like colleges would be doing. It’s also a set-up for one to be very embarrassed if, as occurred with student we’re discussing, one receives a string of rejections. </p>
<p>Anyway, I stand by my opinion that for the level of private reach schools she was aspiring to, her writing was weak and that may have been a factor in her rejections. </p>
<p>This discussion about the appropriateness of commenting like this reminds me of a discussion here last year in response to a newspaper article about a top male student who got a string of rejections. Some posters thought that it was inappropriate to comment negatively on why he may have been rejected. I was with those who thought that if someone puts themselves out in public that way, it’s fine to comment on them.</p>
<p>It also reminded me of the discussion during the winter over the U Chicago essay that the admissions dean sent to students who were applying. That got high praise from some as well as some very harsh criticism.</p>
<p>^ There is critiquing and there is trashing. NSM, you engaged in the latter, and seem to take pleasure in it because the blogger was “asking for it”. Really? And I’m sure that famous sports journalist would be nobody today if you had not annointed her. Get over yourself. Are you really still admiring a paper you wrote in high school??? Mirror mirror on the wall …</p>
<p>She has superb college choices; her biggest mistake was buying into the “elite” private college hype which is a crapshoot.</p>
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<p>Comment? Yes. Chastise a kid? No. </p>
<p>Common decency goes a long way in this world. Those who lack it deserve to be criticized.</p>
<p>These posts are really harsh and uncalled for. Rejection hurts, and I can only imagine how badly a dozen rejections must feel at this point. But the fact that complete strangers who don’t even know any of her qualifications are determining why she didn’t get into schools is an all time low for CCers. I’m sure the girl is bound to find this thread, since its now on CC’s featured discussions. Way to encourage her to move on with her life!</p>