<p>I don’t think the posts ought to be removed. If you want to remove the name, okay, but several posters on this thread have made claims about elite admissions, apparently using this school as the example of why certain students are justified in expecting to be admitted and how unfair the process is. I don’t think the facts make that case. The school admitted 6% of the class to elite schools 14/211(approx), and we know that 4 of them were recruited athletes, and probably some were students “of color” and low-income (18% get FA at this school), and supposedly development types.</p>
<p>Those posters also accused others of being wrong for calling them on their entitled attitudes (I was accused of calling she-who-may-not-be-named “delusional,” and “trash talking” about her and her S, which I did neither.) They need to back up their claims with the facts, now that we have some of them in front of us.</p>
LOL, I just watched their admission day video and I saw several kids who looked to be Asian or East Asian but very few AfAm, my guest is that included in the count are all students who are not White or of European descent.</p>
<p>We were also told that we “didn’t understand the point” of being a student at an elite private high school. Because, you know, it’s somehow worse when students at elite privates get turned down from their first-choice schools, and the whole point of going to an elite private is to guarantee that you have chances that the great unwashed public high school kids don’t. In fact, I think there should be a new meme - my private hs kid’s spot at (H,Y,P,S,M) was stolen by the public hs kid down the block!</p>
<p>Pg, WOW!
Do you really have to get that way? You are positively hyperbolic!</p>
<p>Before you take that much further, it sounds as if you want to have your cake and eat it, have it both ways. One of the points just made was that from these elite private HS, many of the elite colleges take a good number of URM’s. </p>
<p>Anyway, I am not part of this mini-thread. I just do not understand why it is always ok to bash anything elite, or those who have more financial resources. It is a sport for some of you. Thank God there are some who are secure enough financially to share and support the very institutions of education that everyone is discussing here. Some people make it a priority to give to schools of all levels. And they do it by saving and not spending lavishly. Thank goodness there are happy and faithful alums at all these schools, as well.</p>
<p>Get over it. The colleges you all drool over function very similarly to these elite HS.<br>
And PG you certainly extol and defend THEIR admissions practices.</p>
<p>?? I’ve got no problem whatsoever with people who have great financial resources, and / or who use those resources to send their kids to elite private high schools OR elite private colleges. Why, my checkbook reminds me that I’m sending two kids to elite private colleges full-pay right now, and happy to do so. </p>
<p>What I’m making fun of is the entitlement mentality - people who dreamed of their kids going to Ivy schools from birth, told them that if they worked hard all their lives they would earn their spot, and when disappointment happens, complain that it’s not faaaaaair, they thought the 5% admission rates didn’t or shouldn’t apply to THEIR kid, especially because he was attending (insert elite private high school). Like they truly didn’t understand that a 5% admission rate means that 95% of students get turned down, and no, that’s not because half the HYPSM applicants are C students who applied on a lark.</p>
<p>No, I was not saying anyone was bashing this school. I was responding to PG’s post #1323 which was generalizing about the expectations of all those who attend elite HS. I saw a large contradiction, and perhaps some hypocrisy.
I was also, in my post, referring to the generosity of those who donate to support the private colleges. Just another point of view about this, one of many angles we all need to see to get closer to the truth.</p>
<p>There is so much generalizing going on. I thought that lessons of “diversity” at all these hallowed institutions were meant to help us to be tolerant of ALL who are different from ourselves, and to express our opinions with respect to others, and to try to see the world from others’ points of view.</p>
<p>Just started in on this thread about five pages back.</p>
<p>I wanted confirm what was mentioned a few posts back. Generally, when private high schools talk about minority students they are including Asian students. The school my two sons attend/attended also has a 30% minority population. When I attended our back to school night with the other parents I noticed very few Blacks or Hispanics, but quite a few Chinese and Indian families.</p>
<p>I don’t agree that PG was generalizing in 1323. Some posters on this thread did, in fact, communicate that the expectations for private school students are rightfully different than for other students.</p>
<p>I wasn’t generalizing about the expectations of ALL of those who attend elite high schools. Just some, who posted on this very thread that they expected that attending the elite high school would guarantee the benefit of being accepted to HYPSM.</p>
Actually they don’t. Money can buy your kid’s way into these elite private HS, but that is not the case w/ the elite colleges. Which is where the problem lies – part of this “doing the right thing” is $$$$$ spent to send kiddo to the elite private HS. Do not be fooled by the listed financial aid. How much FA is award to non-athletes? A closer look may show that the FA is heavily weighted towards 5th year seniors (recruited athletes).</p>
<p>I would like to hear more of QuantMech’s thoughts (4 pages back #1266) on top math students (special snowflakes?) and if there are enough places for them as undergraduates in top math programs. And where “ought” they be admitted? That seemed a pretty interesting line of inquiry to me.</p>
<p>Tutu- Sorry but there are TIPPY TOP private and public HS that have very very selective admissions. Not all are like that, but neither are all the colleges LOL.</p>
<p>soomoo: sorry, no ridicule, having a very rough time keeping up with this thread myself, but have really enjoyed QuantMech’s posts and want to follow those thoughts to their conclusion, or at least to the end of what QuantMech has to say. It is a pretty fascinating question to me how we might define top math students and if there are enough places for math majors at top math programs to accommodate those students. And if not, do we as a society see that as a potential problem?</p>
<p>St. Mark’s had no PGs when my son was there-athletes or otherwise. In fact, one URM from a Dallas Cowboy player family did a PG year at my son’s boarding school to develop a little more.</p>
<p>Also, money didn’t keep you in St. Mark’s if you were an academic or behavioral problem. (not referring to my family here). What I saw was it got you one “pass” but the next time you were out, whether you were loaded or not.</p>
<p>Performersmom, that may be the case for some of the elite HS, but not the one my nephew attended as a 5th year senior, recruited BB player. Interestingly, neither his ACT scores nor his previous schools grades were included in the overall stats for the elite private school.</p>
<p>“Ought” being one of the tippy-top math students in the country get a student into MIT/Caltech if –
a) there are other things about the student that are not compelling to the institution (for example, rec letters reveal that he or she is unpleasant, not a team player, an excessive loner, etc.) and / or
b) there are other institutional priorities that are best met by admitting a different student - which may mean that a “merely very good” math student who is from South Dakota or plays the oboe or shows something interesting outside math will be admitted over our “genius” math student?</p>