UVA hasn't been anywhere near an "average school" (regardless of what DCUM will tell you) in 50 years. |
I'm going to say the article is correct in spirit, but maybe not from a legal standpoint. I have read that legally colleges cannot hold you to your ED contract, but the spirit of the ED contract is that you won't ED unless you are confident you can afford it and will attend if offered admittance. Students are definitely supposed to pull their other outstanding applications once they are admittted ED. UMiami as one example said very clearly at their admissions presentation that ED is binding and that you should not apply ED unless you know the finances will work out for you and you will attend if offered a spot. Can they hold you to this? Probably not, but if it was super easy to back out of an ED contract, everyone would apply ED. The high school college counselor has to also sign the ED contract. They will absolutely ask you to rescind all outstanding applications if your child is accepted ED. The process was not created for people to be able to compare their financial options. It definitely discriminates against people needing financial aid. |
+1, I'm a lawyer who went to a top law school and used to work in Big Law in DC and I don't buy PPs story. First I bet they were not actually "middle class." Many people like this call themselves middle class because they grew up a doctor's kid from the midwest, and that seems more middle class to them than attending Sidwell as the child of a Big Law partner. But it's not, really. The PP doesn't say whether their high school was public or private, but I'm betting parochial schools or public in a wealthy district where most parents are well-paid white collar professionals. PP also doesn't say whether they or their spouse received aid for college, since middle class families have never been able to afford the cost tuition at Ivies or top private colleges. So either their families had more money than PP is letting on or they wound up with a pile of loans, but I don't see any mention of that. Actual middle class people go to mediocre public schools and in-state colleges, because that's what they can afford. Sometimes a very bright an ambitious middle class person will make it to an Ivy or similar, but that means loans and feeling like a total fish out of water during that experience. A very small number might wind up at Big Law firms or similar, but it's not common. At my AmLaw 50 firm in DC, the vast majority of my colleagues were the children of lawyers and doctors. Some were from extremely wealthy backgrounds but most were just from UMC white collar professional families where their dad was a very well paid, highly-educated professional and their mom was a SAHM. *That is not a middle class family.* And no, becoming an attorney or doctor when coming from a family where your parent(s) were an attorney or doctor is not the result of you being "super smart." It's a very typical outcome of kids following in parental footsteps. Big Law firms in DC are absolutely not filled with a bunch of overachieving middle class kids who bootstrapped their way up. What an absolutely insane take. |
UM UVA is top 25 school. Not average. |
Yes definitely. There are several schools that don't even require extra supplementals to the common app (ie Northeastern, Pitt, Clemson, etc) so you can quickly submit to multiple schools as long as you can afford the application fees. |
Sorry typed my answer too fast--you are definitely not totally clueless--the common app does make it super easy to apply to more schools. Many require additional supplemental essays, but lots don't. |
Yep--same in VA. Even with three strong state schools, depending on the HS, students have to be in the top 10-15% of their class to get in. |
She also got into Michigan and Johns Hopkins so she had solid options. So much of it when you come from a small private is who you are applying against from your same school which is why the need for 15+ applications arises. |
Calling BS on this post. I am another lower middle class student who made it to Ivy for undergrad and law school and got significant aid/loans. Spent many years at Big Law and now in house at the highest level. Know many classmates like me from undergrad, law school and Big Law. It is not an uncommon path. Obviously lots of UMC kids make it there too, but there is not a bias against hiring kids like me and I never felt "like a fish out of water." Silly that people think because you didn't have money growing up that you are "uncomfortable" at places you get to through merit. |
In what world is UVA just "average" |
DP here. Depends whom you ask. |
This!! I lived this year. And no one talks about it. Private high schools generally do well, but the competition from your peers is what leads to the crazy strategies. |
Is this satire? |
Basically this is all saying that your academic performance in high school + how well you play the college admissions game = your prospects for a great job. The prospects for these kids are in the hands of a small group of college administrators who will judge their worthiness at a time when their brains haven't even finished maturing and so much of where they are is based on factors completely out of their control (parents, family income, quality of college prep help at their school, etc.). It insane. Merit system my butt. |
Merit is nonsense and always has been. This forum is entirely people who've done relatively well in life, making sure they extend those advantages to their offspring by whatever means necessary. No one is here to make sure someone else's more meritorious kid gets the brass ring. |