<p>re Hunt’s post #139–also give their parents some slack. Sometimes I think the parents suffer more than the kids do. We all love our kids and the idea that “some clod” who has never met him/her doesn’t recognize how truly wonderful and amazing our kid is can stop him/her from attending his/her dream school can be hard to accept.</p>
<p>I can cut the kid, and her parents some slack. Not sure about whoever decided to publish the piece.</p>
<p>Doesn’t it stand to reason that the people whom the school picks are the people who would be the best fit for the school? I recognize that, in many individual cases, it may seem like the school made a foolish choice, but isn’t it theirs to make?
Why does this discussion feel so heavy? A teenager wrote a fluff piece about college admissions so that the WSJ would have something topical to run around this time. It’s amusing padding on the Journal’s part, I doubt it cost them very much.</p>
<p>Look, this kid wrote a funny satirical op ed joking around about the very preferences that stanford says here that it uses.</p>
<p>Some of you really need to lighten up. Admissions isn’t fair. She found a way to make it funny about everyone AND herself. </p>
<p>[Stanford</a> Daily | Connections to University can affect admissions decision](<a href=“http://www.stanforddaily.com/2013/03/12/connections-to-university-can-affect-admissions-decision/]Stanford”>Connections to University can affect admissions decision)</p>
<p>Also, according to Stanford, true.</p>
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<p>to be clear, I’m in favor of private colleges accepting whoever they want to for whatever reason they want to accept them.</p>
<p>“to be clear, I’m in favor of private colleges accepting whoever they want to for whatever reason they want to accept them.” YEP!</p>
<p>It was sarcasm, pg. It’s just that ALL OVER this site folks reiterate that being an URM makes you a shoo-in (sp?) at HYPSCM. xD lol I wanted to show that this process is just as much of an enigma for URMs as it is for non URMs. Tis all.</p>
<p>My other thread was in earnest because the rejections stung a bit (I know, I know, I love Cornell but they still kinda hurt). Sowwyy. T_T</p>
<p>Edit: Saw a thread where an URM was being told he had a great chance at H bc of a 2300 SAT.
But he had a 3.5 uw. That kind of misinformation is ridiculous.
O_o</p>
<p>Also, saw a Caucasian girl get into one of HYP (can’t remember which) with an ACT score exactly mine.
Excuse me while I cry about how she stole my spot and only got in because she’s white.</p>
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<p>In real life, the 2400 student ends up becoming a money manager for the kid who learned to consistently shoot 3-pointers from half-court. The quiet and hardworking A student ends up working for the glad-handling, self-promoting C-student. Having high intelligence is not nothing, but it is far from being enough in and of itself to provide success in life.</p>
<p>Viewer said "So, what annoyed me about this blog post was that Suzy didn’t seem to understand that many “regular” kids can achieve this definition of success through hard work and sacrifice.</p>
<p>During this season I have seen a lot of kids with shocked disappointment after decisions came out. But, I’m not sure these kids or many people realize just how much work and sacrifice throughout a kid’s whole life is needed to get a spot at an elite college."</p>
<p>Maybe I’m reacting to a point that isn’t being made but this really bothers me. I don’t really understand Ivy mania and for the most part, I don’t really care who these schools admit or why they make the choices they do. BUT–especially after reading resume after resume of bright–brilliant!–kids who have worked hard and shown initiative and ability, but find themselves denied at MANY schools, not just single acceptance rate elite schools, I just don’t understand how anyone can dismiss another kid’s path, complete with sacrifice and hard work, as less “worthy” than that of his own kid. Viewer, how do you know that the thousands of kids denied at these schools weren’t just as hard working and bright as yours?</p>
<p>I also don’t get why it’s so hard to get the message that there are more than 6-10 schools to accommodate the needs of the best and the brightest. I get that this is a nervewracking process and it certainly seems to extend its reach beyond the single digit acceptance rate schools a little bit more each year but I’d think we could all find some consolation in the fact that no matter where our kids end up, they will be guaranteed to have exciting and intelligent peers beside them.</p>
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<p>I don’t get why it’s so difficult either. I have to say, I really don’t think very highly of people who get all caught up in just a mere handful of schools. They aren’t really exhibiting smarts or sophistication of any sort, since anyone with two eyes can look around and see successful people from all educational backgrounds, including not-fancy-at-all. (Which is not to say that Ivies aren’t terrific schools, just to be very clear - this is not Ivy-bashing, it’s provincial-people bashing)</p>
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<p>In real life, I don’t think there is a smidgen of a difference between what 2400’s do and what 2300’s do.</p>
<p>To the extent the author is a real HS senior, hats off to her. How to handle tremendous disappointment … suicide? binge drinking? ice cream? hostility to friends and family? painful or bitter Facebook postings? … Or, make fun of yourself in an article that is published in the WSJ. Seems pretty healthy to me.</p>
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Well, sure, but why should that stop anybody from criticizing them for their foolish choices? We freely criticize sports coaches, politicians, businesspeople, entertainers, and everybody else for decisions that don’t even impact us…why should colleges get a free pass?</p>
<p>Right, but in the case of a sports coach, for example, we can at least see the entire team and their performance. There’s no one person who has more than a miniscule view of the entire admitted class to be able to have any kind of perspective, the tiresome “but my school always sends 5 kids to Stanford and this year the 2200 kid got in and a 2400 kid didn’t and see???” posts notwithstanding.</p>
<p>I wasn’t offended in the least by the piece but I didn’t find it funny either. Just not my type of humor. Nothing more, nothing less :).</p>
<p>Trying to deny that URM status does not give advantage in college admissions is ludicrous.</p>
<p>No one’s denying it.</p>
<p>I had a six year tell me, in all seriousness, that she wished she were blind so she wouldn’t have to worry about eclipses. </p>
<p>My then six year old sibling is famous for throwing a tantrum because it wasn’t fair that I got to ride in a wheelchair and she didn’t when I injured my ankle in preschool.</p>
<p>That’s kind of what I think of when I read articles in which privileged white and Asian kids complain about not being Navajo.</p>
<p>“privileged white and Asian kids” is an obvious generalization.
I’m sure there are many underprivilaged white and Asian kids.</p>
<p>In fairness, I think CJ is referring specifically to those who ARE privileged.</p>
<p>How do you know?</p>