a final warning to high school students in the college admissions game

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could some of this issue (or most of it) be caused by the test optional trend of the last 4 years?

I imagined if you were an average or slightly above average student with an inflated GPA who got into one of these intense schools via test optional, starting behind everyone else from the get go would be very stressful and demoralizing.

Maybe? Maybe not. ALDC have been accepted with lower-than-normal grades. They managed. I know a football player that attended HYSP, and he was extremely insecure about his abilities.

Your post also assumes the classes a lot harder than at other schools. Meanwhile, I've heard from numerous Harvard grads and current students that the hardest thing about Harvard is getting accepted...

Numerous? I couldn't name five that I personally know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You do know you can transfer - right? I do not feel bad for anyone who just whines and doesn't try to do anything about it.

If you watch this kid’s YouTube video on where he got in, you will see he is the child of immigrants with a very low income. I don’t think transferring is easy for kids that are on large amounts of financial aid. He was a questbridge finalist or something, so under $65,000 HHI

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel bad for this kid, but he is really conflating some personal experience and rumor with an absolute. When he goes on about other schools, it really chips away at the quality of his assessment. How can he know what campuses are like? His claim that Brown is "weird" and "bad" feels loaded and is unsupported. I've had 2 kids at Brown, and it has been mostly collaborative and supportive in its environment. What a strange assertion.

Brown is weird. Everyone knows that.

Only in the best ways! But, you likely don't have any direct experience w/ Brown. Those of us who do, know the bad "weird" is not accurate.

Stay weird, y'all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of many reasons to be thankful, not upset, when your kid gets a C freshman year of high school.

+1,000

Same. My kid graduated HS with a 3.3 gpa that he worked hard for. It fell right in the middle of his graduating class at a Catholic school. He applied wisely and got in everywhere he applied. He was very well prepared for college. He knows how to come back from very low grades because his high school didn’t allow retakes for higher grades or lowest grades at a 50%. At one point he had a 32% in a math class as his cumulative grade. I’m thankful that his school didn’t lead him down a false road. He had to work for his grades but also knew that if he got as bad one, it was within him to improve it instead of blaming his teacher, grading policies, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do know you can transfer - right? I do not feel bad for anyone who just whines and doesn't try to do anything about it.

If you watch this kid’s YouTube video on where he got in, you will see he is the child of immigrants with a very low income. I don’t think transferring is easy for kids that are on large amounts of financial aid. He was a questbridge finalist or something, so under $65,000 HHI

And also might under huge grade stresses from parents who might not fully understand the US college way of things…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do know you can transfer - right? I do not feel bad for anyone who just whines and doesn't try to do anything about it.

If you watch this kid’s YouTube video on where he got in, you will see he is the child of immigrants with a very low income. I don’t think transferring is easy for kids that are on large amounts of financial aid. He was a questbridge finalist or something, so under $65,000 HHI

Wonder if part of his problem is meeting kids there who have immense family wealth and he’s being eaten up with jealousy. It’s one thing to know that billionaires exist, it’s another to meet one and think “why him and not me?”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not convinced he had a Princeton problem. He has a mental health problem at Princeton. Could happen anywhere. I went to a pressure cooker school decades ago and we lost people to mental illness. That wasn’t TO or the pandemic, just a new environment and a tough curriculum.[/quote]
"It's not that classes are hard." Also, he's been there for more than 2 years. It's no longer a new environment for him.

Of course, everyone's experiences can be different, but he's providing his viewpoint. Others are welcome to post their views.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could some of this issue (or most of it) be caused by the test optional trend of the last 4 years?

I imagined if you were an average or slightly above average student with an inflated GPA who got into one of these intense schools via test optional, starting behind everyone else from the get go would be very stressful and demoralizing.

Maybe? Maybe not. ALDC have been accepted with lower-than-normal grades. They managed. I know a football player that attended HYSP, and he was extremely insecure about his abilities.

Your post also assumes the classes a lot harder than at other schools. Meanwhile, I've heard from numerous Harvard grads and current students that the hardest thing about Harvard is getting accepted...

Numerous? I couldn't name five that I personally know.

dp.. I've heard this from some Harvard grads, too. Actually, one transferred out and went out west for pre-law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do know you can transfer - right? I do not feel bad for anyone who just whines and doesn't try to do anything about it.

If you watch this kid’s YouTube video on where he got in, you will see he is the child of immigrants with a very low income. I don’t think transferring is easy for kids that are on large amounts of financial aid. He was a questbridge finalist or something, so under $65,000 HHI

Wonder if part of his problem is meeting kids there who have immense family wealth and he’s being eaten up with jealousy. It’s one thing to know that billionaires exist, it’s another to meet one and think “why him and not me?”

This is probably the most unlikely theory.

[Anonymous]

I think there have been people who have felt this way for all time--it's just now they have a public platform to share their views/experiences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do know you can transfer - right? I do not feel bad for anyone who just whines and doesn't try to do anything about it.

If you watch this kid’s YouTube video on where he got in, you will see he is the child of immigrants with a very low income. I don’t think transferring is easy for kids that are on large amounts of financial aid. He was a questbridge finalist or something, so under $65,000 HHI

And also might under huge grade stresses from parents who might not fully understand the US college way of things…

I think this is a huge factor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think there have been people who have felt this way for all time--it's just now they have a public platform to share their views/experiences.

I don't know. Maybe it is certain majors or circles. A big chunk of my club sports team were Princeton grads (from the late 90s), and they all had a blast and loved Princeton. None were CS majors though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You do know you can transfer - right? I do not feel bad for anyone who just whines and doesn't try to do anything about it.

He's a junior so it's basically too late. Maybe it took him a while to understand his feelings or maybe he just realized it doesn't;t hav ego be that way after seeing his sister's experience.

[Anonymous]

The problem with QB and colleges with low income kids is nobody gives them a crash course in social dynamics when you throw $65k kids into a pool where the majority are wealthy and super wealthy.

Lots of focus on academics and traditional college life, but nobody gives the “scared straight” talk about how jarring the different socio-economic strata may be.

There was an article several years back about how one Ivy school (it may have been Princeton) would give FA kids free tickets to student events and what not (that required an entry fee), but you had to wait in a separate line that basically “outed” you as poor. Well, the poor kids just stopped going until someone in the administration asked.

Also, it was only recently that many of these schools decided that they wouldn’t have students do work study in the dining halls, because it just created a terrible dynamic betweeen rich and poor.

Maybe they are starting to wake up to this…don’t know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do know you can transfer - right? I do not feel bad for anyone who just whines and doesn't try to do anything about it.

He's a junior so it's basically too late. Maybe it took him a while to understand his feelings or maybe he just realized it doesn't;t hav ego be that way after seeing his sister's experience.

Maybe it's also financial. He could have a great FA package at Princeton. If he transferred, he may not get great FA.

I feel for that kid. My high stats Asian DS got rejected from Cal (amongst others). They are at UMD now with merit aid, and DS seems pretty happy there.

I come from a low income immigrant background myself; parents don't speak English. I could see myself being miserable at places like Princeton. I had a friend with a similar background go to Harvard, and they hated it, too.

IMO, this is why, in part, I think legacies aren't good. It fuels this kind of divide even more.