<p>As we approach I-day and pass Summer Seminar, that means the inevitable return of the “What are my chances” threads. [Somewhat like the swallows of Capistrano.] Kate, in the interest of efficiency, I propose the following quick replies . . .</p>
<p>42: Improve your SATs
38: Improve your ECs
69: Your ECs look good but you could use some leadership positions. [This one is for DT.]
18: You need some athletic participation
14: Your grade point average is a little low
15: GPA looks good but maybe you could [fill in the blank.] Then you could just combine two, i.e. 15, 42.
99: Wow! You look like a shoe-in [even though I have no say in the matter.]</p>
<p>Feel free to add others. Then, you could just respond</p>
<p>38; 69; and 15, 42.</p>
<p>Much more efficient use of time and strokes.</p>
<p>Sheesh, Bill, you’re mellowing. Where’s “00 - Good luck graduating from high school”? ;)</p>
<p>Seriously, folks, a general recommendation. Read the prospectus and class profile. Then find out who your local admission rep is (from WP) and email him/her. Then read the prior threads. Then, if you still have questions, we’ll give you our best opinion. As Bill has pointed out, it’s worth exactly what you’re paying for it.</p>
<p>After a week off from posting [did you get another life?] you must be rusty.</p>
<p>By the way, what is up with talk of salmon, sparrows, & [mice?] returning to Capistrano. I though I had mis-typed . . . but I wrote swallows.
Guess I really am getting old; or, have just missed out on some popular culture. [Of course, applying the term “culture” to the move Dumb & Dumber might be a stretch.]</p>
<p>Just a little satire. Seems that many prospective (and nervous) candidates want feed back as to how they stack up. Bill’s specified answers are the responses most often given to the query “what are my chances”.
CM</p>
<p>“I’m talkin’ about a place where the beer flows like wine, where the women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. I’m talkin’ about Aspen.”</p>
<p>R05. The numbers come from the same place all good bureaucratic numbers come from: the deep, dark recesses of government employees that have nothing better to do except come up with form numbers, mission names, and meaningless responses.</p>
<p>Some day, assuming this your goal, you will be sitting on a ship [I don’t guess they take smoke breaks anymore] listening to some recent graduate trying to tell you a new joke, one that everybody else has heard for the umpteenth time. After a while, its easier if you just say a number [representing the joke], then everybody laughs. </p>
<p>Get it? Say it out loud: 99! Everybody laughs. [Or, in this context, you run off and tell somebody close to you that you’ve been told you are a shoe-in for admittance to the academy. Yeah!]</p>
<ol>
<li> Yeah!</li>
</ol>
<p>Just a little bit of bored levity in anticipation of the inevitable. [In any event, the salmon of Aspen do INDEED flock and are VERY tasty!] </p>
<p>Spider . . . I’ve been wondering where my dollars are. Do you my correct address?</p>