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I implied that it is not very common. However, I might be wrong because I do not frequent the boards you mention and therefore do not know whether users of those boards regularly abuse each other.</p>
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That is exactly what I was pointing out.</p>
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That 17 year old girl was a fair game was never implied, and I, at least, did not protect Northstarmom.</p>
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That is very bad.</p>
<p>On cc we have a tendency of piling it on. I have experienced it myself. Thank goodness I have thick skin. :)</p>
<p>This is also a very emotional time for many families. Emotion is still very raw. Take it all with a grain of salt.</p>
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<p>Ah, I understand now. If you hang out around the Parent’s Forum or the main college forums, most people are pretty friendly to each other. Go outside of those, and it’s hit or miss. I wouldn’t say that most people were rude, but there’s a tendency for one negative comment to lead to a huge pile-on (either towards the target of the negative comment or to the person who made the negative comment).</p>
<p>I agree, NSM can take it as well as dish it out!</p>
<p>The key to a good critique is to be truthful but humble. And respectful. Anyway, this girl is writing in a public blog. She will need to take it all with the grain of salt as someone mentioned above, but also keep an ear out for the occasional constructive comment. Comes with the territory (of blogging, that is).</p>
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<p>This has already been discussed in this thread, but as a California applicant myself, most are content with attending UCLA, CAL, or UCSD. There really is no point in applying to other schools like those, which are much more expensive, much farther away ( less viable networking), and depending on her major, could provide less opportunities for a career. Many top cali students also consider those 3 UCs safeties, and don’t feel a need to apply to extraneous schools that they won’t ever attend. Of course admissions to a UC with a 20% admission rate isn’t a safety, but some cali schools will feed 20-30 students to a UC every year. Instead, people will only apply to UCs/CSUs and extreme reaches for the heck of it.</p>
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<p>That is what I was remarking on. It wasn’t that NorthStarMom didn’t deserve some critique, it’s that how many times does the same thing need to be said? I would have had the same reaction if people kept repeating the same critique of the original blogger.</p>
<p>did she ever post her stats? does anyone know? looking at her list of schools, they must have been pretty good</p>
<p>Without her stats, its difficult to comment on how fairly or unfairly she was treated. Getting accepted to UC Irvine (honors program) and UCLA is pretty impressive, but the list of institutions who did not offer admission is a virtual Murderers Row of the most exclusive college in the country.</p>
<p>I think Paik has been reading too many cheap self help books. It shines through in her work. I think NSM was being nice when she called the stuff “trite”. Her title, " I’m still fabulous" has all the pat answers , but no reasons to * believe* that she even was fabulous to begin with… no substance. no acceptances… oh boo hoo, only UCLA , oh gosh, get me the tissues…</p>
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<p>Except that you didn’t, Pea. There has been much (and still continuing) repeated trashing of the blogger and your view was she shouldn’t be treated with “kid gloves”.</p>
<p>I suppose it’s become a wheel in motion, but the defenses of the blogger continue in response to the character attacks …</p>
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<p>I don’t like the trashing of the blogger. I don’t mean to be inconsistent. If I went back and reread all of the posts maybe I would come away with a different impression of events.</p>
<p>I maintain the neither NorthStarMom or the blogger need to be treated with kid gloves. The criticisms of the blogger have been more interspersed, maybe that is why they didn’t catch my attention as readily.</p>
<p>I’m with Garland: I don’t think disagreeing with NSM (which is all I, and quite a few others, did) constitutes mudslinging. I’m a big fan of NSM too, but that doesn’t mean I can’t disagree with her now and then!</p>
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<p>Unless a student is bent upon going to a private university, for the top students in California UCB and UCLA provide a very good safety.
With increasing competition it seems many CCs, now a days, are urging students to include UCSD too.</p>
<p>No, they must not have been very good. She got rejected from Pomona, so she really had no chance at being accepted to the top schools on her list.</p>
<p>I am a current Stanford student, and when I applied, my safety schools like UCLA, Pomona, USC, etc were calling me constantly to invite me to all sorts of events to woo their top student picks. If she didn’t have the stats to get into Pomona, she had ZERO chance at Stanford. </p>
<p>I know that’s harsh, but for some reason people think that they deserve to get into top schools just because they have good grades/scores and some cool activities. NOT TRUE. Anybody can do that with a little effort, so it really isn’t very impressive.</p>
<p>iliekturtles – Pomona is a very difficult school to get into. I don’t have the stats to back that up.</p>
<p>and this is why I’m so glad my parents never created an account on cc…</p>
<p>Re 114, 115</p>
<p>According to the College Board’s web site, Pomona’s admitted only 16% of their applicants last year. The [url=<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/liberal-arts-rankings]sixth-ranked[/url”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/liberal-arts-rankings]sixth-ranked[/url</a>] LAC in the nation can hardly be called a “safety.”</p>
<p>Edit:
Disclaimer–I do not currently attend nor did I apply to Pomona College.</p>
<p>I’ll take a different tack on this. I haven’t read the student blogger’s writing and can’t comment on that. Let me be clear on that.
However, the whole thing seems a bit “cute” and contrived to me. I won’t ever know the student’s motivation for doing the blogging. It could be a talented, engaged teen who loves to write. It could be someone urged to do it to add to the paper record for apps. Then I am much less impressed. It doesn’t appear super genuine to me, but that’s me. Maybe I disagree with having students do this type of prominent blogging - it is too self-centered, too entitled. Yes, possibly indicative of the current generation.
I have more than one child and have been observing the college app process for several years and have been generally disheartened at what I have witnessed about the current state of things: ultra-competition, increased cheating, students obsessing over test grades and other conditions that create an uneven playing table for applicants. These things include what I will call “things done by others” - that is, if you have the money and crafty parents who plan years ahead. The paid cram school mentality for years, the contrived, parent-arranged (and paid!) so-called community service at an overseas orphanage and so on. Come on. To my knowledge - you may dispute this - it appears these things have greatly increased since “the olden days” (which aren’t THAT long ago since I am a younger parent considering the age of my kids). I might make a good college admissions officer (unspecified type or level of college) because I have the feeling I can feel the true voice coming through.
Oh, one more thing: when I hear you applied to over 20 “top” universities, then I tend to doubt your sincerity of real interest in, much less actual knowledge of each insititution. I tend to believe you did this to “one up” your peers by having bragging rights about admission to X # of universities. That’s my take.</p>
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<p>Yes, it can be and is safety for top students because
<p>At DD’s school 80% of the top students don’t apply to LACs and 20% those who apply applies only to top 3.
You cann’t compare under 10% acceptance rate of HMSPY and that of top LACs because a lot chunk of qualified applicants chose to not apply to LACs.</p>
<p>I’m not a parent, I’m a Stanford undergrad, I just thought the stats comment was ridiculous.</p>
<p>@Pea–you’re right, you DON’T have the stats to back that up. Pomona’s acceptance rate is a little under 16% (I read 15.7%), which is more than DOUBLE that at top tier schools (e.g. Harvard 6.9% and Stanford 7.2%)</p>