Daily Beast: Ivy League freshman says rich classmates are frauds, faking first-gen and poverty

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dovetails on Princeton claiming 70% of their freshman class are "non-white" minorities. Rich liars playing the system.

Really! Hate to predict their size of endowment 10 years from now. First gen or URM are not likely to be billionaires after getting their degrees. Who will pay?

You sure about that? A lot of tech billionaires are first generation.

Haha no.

I think pp is confusing “first-generation to live in America” with “first generation to attend college.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am Ashkenazi Jewish and my husband is a non Jew - can my kids state they are multi racial?

Is your husband a POC? Ashkenazi Jewish = white.

- signed Jew of Color.

That’s really not a clear cut thing. More accurate to say White passing. But it’s off topic for this thread.

- Ashkenazi Jew

[Anonymous]

If I’m 50% black and 50% white, can I just check black? Or do I have to check biracial?

[Anonymous]

Hmmm....I thought it was game over for my white son, but now I'm not so sure. His hook will be that 23andMe says his mother carries more Neanderthal DNA than 88% of other members. WINNING!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Saying to a low income student that you understand her experience because you're "NYC low income" is stupid and cringe-inducing but it's not the same as being admitted to college as a low income student. I think people are conflating the two.

Of course. This forum is full of scammers who do this and lie, spin and rationalize why they're justified in doing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there any reason to believe that applicants across the board don’t lie to the same extent? Any reason to think Rich, upper middle class, middle class and lower financial class lie to a greater or lesser degree? About activities, personal history? I don’t doubt at all that there are scammers applying to colleges, but I don’t have any reason to think scamming is reserved to a particular economic group. his

It's almost entirely rich kid scammers with pushy Type A managerial class parents. They went to a striver high school, their parents know the game and teach their kids to lie and play all the angles. Poor first-generation minority kids are generally passive, not elbowy, they're embarrassed about being low class, and don't know how to scam the system. Rich kids are also better writers, so they excel in whipping up creative essays full of lies which push all the trendy themes. Same for public speaking ability. Plus perfect teeth, nice hair, and lots of confident. That is pure rich kid scammer. Genuine lower class kids are not like that first semester of college, which is why this Brown freshman was immediately able to identify all of these crooks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pathological liars playing the system. Wow just wow. Insightful read.

It’s Way Too Easy for Privileged Kids to Fake Being Working Class

Being a first-generation, low-income student has been an eye-opening experience—not least in finding out how many of my FGLI peers are actually children of privilege.

I am a first-generation, low-income student at Brown University. Like, actually first-generation and low-income. Not in the appropriated “Let me check off a box indicating a minority status that doesn’t describe me so that I’ll get special consideration in admissions” way, but in the “My school’s annual tuition is over seven times what my mother makes in a year” way. Far less glamorous, I know, but at least it’s real.

During my college application cycle, I watched classmates “joke” about lying to admissions officers about how their parents never received a college education while writing from the comfort of their $1.5 million dollar homes about their “experiences” with financial troubles. If anything was poor here, it wasn’t their financial status.

While a suspicious number of self-proclaimed first-generation, low-income students spent time horseback riding in high school...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/enough-with-other-college-students-fraudulently-claiming-my-identity

I'm going to be critical of the author and this clickbait article. The article is based on "jokes." The author has no evidence that these kids were actually lying in their apps. The article refers to definitions of FGLI status at these institutions, but that reference doesn't make sense - there is no "low income" or "first gen" box on these colleges' applications. There is only the Common App parent section, which asks details about education and employment.

(On another note, her high school, as an institution, wasn't exactly a bad one if her high school classmates were rich kids)

Did you miss the part about how the Brown definition of “first gen” is actually allows kids to self-define as first gen, even if their parents went to college, if they “self-identify as not having prior exposure to or knowledge of navigating higher institutions such as Brown who may need additional resources.” She quoted Cornell’s definition, which is similar.

My parents both have degrees from a second tier state university in the South and I could absolutely have answered that question “yes” with a straight face. I didn’t even bother to apply to the Ivy League because I knew my parents couldn’t have afforded the extra expense of traveling to the NE, etc.

It is Brown’s right to extend this “hook” to anyone they want, but it is definitely not what most people are envisioning when they read that X% admitted were “first gen.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Family friends living in CA come from generational wealth and have never worked much as adults. However, their property is all in the names of their parents, so their kids got full "need-based" rides to Stanford.

If they have modest incomes, assets, and a modest primary residence, do you really think that the colleges should not give them financial aid because the grandparents are loaded? Should we demand all grandparents’ info. on the FASFA? A lot of people hold onto their money until death, and even then there’s a decent chance that a ton of it will go in other directions than to their children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't want to be a terrible person and link their youtube accounts but there are at least two female YouTubers who claim to have been /FGLI admits. Both are at top schools. They live in massive houses in wealthy areas.

We are very well to do, and live in a large rural county. Questbridge was [u]after[u] my DC. It was pretty relentless. I assume they were going by the demographics of the county to target him. I just kept ignoring it, but it did cross my mind — to what extent do they double check if someone like us applies via Questbridge? If DC showed up at Harvard or Brown and told people where they were from, they would probably assume they were from a low income background. Like others referenced here, we live off of investments and make a lot of charitable contributions, so our net income is quite low. If we cared enough, we could probably arrange our wealth in trusts, etc, so it wouldn’t show up on FAFSA. I could see people doing this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Family friends living in CA come from generational wealth and have never worked much as adults. However, their property is all in the names of their parents, so their kids got full "need-based" rides to Stanford.

If they have modest incomes, assets, and a modest primary residence, do you really think that the colleges should not give them financial aid because the grandparents are loaded? Should we demand all grandparents’ info. on the FASFA? A lot of people hold onto their money until death, and even then there’s a decent chance that a ton of it will go in other directions than to their children.

Not if it’s in trust for the kids. And most rich people don’t have much “income” but live very well (e.g., cash you inherit isn’t counted as “income.”).

[Anonymous]

Well for these schools it’s going to be a long time before they can fill a class with poor, minority, first gen students bc they first need to get applications from those students who actually have the academic background to make it through the first semester of classes. So for that reason yeah they are going to expand the definition pretty wide …

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't want to be a terrible person and link their youtube accounts but there are at least two female YouTubers who claim to have been /FGLI admits. Both are at top schools. They live in massive houses in wealthy areas.

If they're on YouTube, they're public figures and eager for views. So go ahead and post them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pathological liars playing the system. Wow just wow. Insightful read.

It’s Way Too Easy for Privileged Kids to Fake Being Working Class

Being a first-generation, low-income student has been an eye-opening experience—not least in finding out how many of my FGLI peers are actually children of privilege.

I am a first-generation, low-income student at Brown University. Like, actually first-generation and low-income. Not in the appropriated “Let me check off a box indicating a minority status that doesn’t describe me so that I’ll get special consideration in admissions” way, but in the “My school’s annual tuition is over seven times what my mother makes in a year” way. Far less glamorous, I know, but at least it’s real.

During my college application cycle, I watched classmates “joke” about lying to admissions officers about how their parents never received a college education while writing from the comfort of their $1.5 million dollar homes about their “experiences” with financial troubles. If anything was poor here, it wasn’t their financial status.

While a suspicious number of self-proclaimed first-generation, low-income students spent time horseback riding in high school...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/enough-with-other-college-students-fraudulently-claiming-my-identity

I'm going to be critical of the author and this clickbait article. The article is based on "jokes." The author has no evidence that these kids were actually lying in their apps. The article refers to definitions of FGLI status at these institutions, but that reference doesn't make sense - there is no "low income" or "first gen" box on these colleges' applications. There is only the Common App parent section, which asks details about education and employment.

(On another note, her high school, as an institution, wasn't exactly a bad one if her high school classmates were rich kids)

Did you miss the part about how the Brown definition of “first gen” is actually allows kids to self-define as first gen, even if their parents went to college, if they “self-identify as not having prior exposure to or knowledge of navigating higher institutions such as Brown who may need additional resources.” She quoted Cornell’s definition, which is similar.

My parents both have degrees from a second tier state university in the South and I could absolutely have answered that question “yes” with a straight face. I didn’t even bother to apply to the Ivy League because I knew my parents couldn’t have afforded the extra expense of traveling to the NE, etc.

It is Brown’s right to extend this “hook” to anyone they want, but it is definitely not what most people are envisioning when they read that X% admitted were “first gen.”

My point was that there is no self-defining as first gen, no box to check on the application, no place the applicant announces "I'm first gen," no place to say "yes." All the application has is the parent info section, where the applicant indicates parent education level and employment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pathological liars playing the system. Wow just wow. Insightful read.

It’s Way Too Easy for Privileged Kids to Fake Being Working Class

Being a first-generation, low-income student has been an eye-opening experience—not least in finding out how many of my FGLI peers are actually children of privilege.

I am a first-generation, low-income student at Brown University. Like, actually first-generation and low-income. Not in the appropriated “Let me check off a box indicating a minority status that doesn’t describe me so that I’ll get special consideration in admissions” way, but in the “My school’s annual tuition is over seven times what my mother makes in a year” way. Far less glamorous, I know, but at least it’s real.

During my college application cycle, I watched classmates “joke” about lying to admissions officers about how their parents never received a college education while writing from the comfort of their $1.5 million dollar homes about their “experiences” with financial troubles. If anything was poor here, it wasn’t their financial status.

While a suspicious number of self-proclaimed first-generation, low-income students spent time horseback riding in high school...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/enough-with-other-college-students-fraudulently-claiming-my-identity

I'm going to be critical of the author and this clickbait article. The article is based on "jokes." The author has no evidence that these kids were actually lying in their apps. The article refers to definitions of FGLI status at these institutions, but that reference doesn't make sense - there is no "low income" or "first gen" box on these colleges' applications. There is only the Common App parent section, which asks details about education and employment.

(On another note, her high school, as an institution, wasn't exactly a bad one if her high school classmates were rich kids)

Did you miss the part about how the Brown definition of “first gen” is actually allows kids to self-define as first gen, even if their parents went to college, if they “self-identify as not having prior exposure to or knowledge of navigating higher institutions such as Brown who may need additional resources.” She quoted Cornell’s definition, which is similar.

My parents both have degrees from a second tier state university in the South and I could absolutely have answered that question “yes” with a straight face. I didn’t even bother to apply to the Ivy League because I knew my parents couldn’t have afforded the extra expense of traveling to the NE, etc.

It is Brown’s right to extend this “hook” to anyone they want, but it is definitely not what most people are envisioning when they read that X% admitted were “first gen.”

My point was that there is no self-defining as first gen, no box to check on the application, no place the applicant announces "I'm first gen," no place to say "yes." All the application has is the parent info section, where the applicant indicates parent education level and employment.

The applicant never is in a position to claim first gen as a status. First gen status could be flagged internally by the admissions office (and as you note, the college can do whatever they like), but not by the applicant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't want to be a terrible person and link their youtube accounts but there are at least two female YouTubers who claim to have been /FGLI admits. Both are at top schools. They live in massive houses in wealthy areas.

If they're on YouTube, they're public figures and eager for views. So go ahead and post them.

https://m.youtube.com/c/tbhstudying

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC7_c9XWVuK-Sza-alb-CxGA

YouTuber on top link has stated that she is “first generation low income.” From videos it is clear her family lives in a gigantic house with with granite countertops. Admittedly upon digging I found that she went to a wealthy suburban competitive high school.

Second YouTuber stated that she was accepted to P through Questbridge. Attended wealthy high school in California and has the nicest everything—MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, expensive camera, etc.