is THIS really what it takes for non-hooked kids to get into HYPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Harvard alumn interviewers have no influence and no insider knowledge of the admissions process.

This is true. But I have interviewed for a while and have a sense of who gets admitted and who doesn't. That's gotten more challenging in recent to years, but I've seen enough to conclude that both Eagle and Gold Pin mean a lot.

[Anonymous]

Eagle scout??? It this really that difficult to obtain?

When I was a kid, it was mostly dorks in cub scouts. The parents involved in scouting were typically effeminate guys.

I'm not saying that these kids aren't great academically, but I'm not buying these resumes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eagle scout??? It this really that difficult to obtain?

When I was a kid, it was mostly dorks in cub scouts. The parents involved in scouting were typically effeminate guys.

I'm not saying that these kids aren't great academically, but I'm not buying these resumes.

I agree it is mostly dorks in Boy Scouts. However, Eagle is no joke. One must 1) Apply, with references. 2) Earn 21 merit badges, including in 13 in specified categories (one of which is Swimming OR Hiking OR Cycling, which filters out some of the more hopeless dorks). 3) Serve in a leadership position. 4) Complete a major service project. 5) Complete a board of review process.

So basically, one Eagle Scout rank equals one regular leadership position EC plus one self-directed volunteer EC, plus a bunch of other less impressive stuff. It's not a hook like being a recruited athlete, but it's equivalent to, for example, being NHS president, organizing a 5K for charity, and being a member of the ballroom dance team. Those examples are a bit contrived, but the point is it's a few EC points wrapped into one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I honestly don't see how one kid can have the time to do all that?!

^^^
This. I know several with resumes like this that are half made up of lies. They got elected officers of clubs that don't really exist. The "charities" they founded were invented and parents/grandparents gave a little $$$. One had her dad writing many papers for course work.
in college. Several have washed out of graduate programs when candidates from less prestigious undergrad programs excelled. Unless you want to work on Wall Street, don't let your kid become a serial liar and con to get into a top school.

The HYPS adcoms long ago learned to see through fake charities and the like. Kids like that get into schools at schools a tier below that unless they have some sort of hook.

The non-hooked HYPS admits I've met are the real deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard alumn interviewers have no influence and no insider knowledge of the admissions process.

This is true. But I have interviewed for a while and have a sense of who gets admitted and who doesn't. That's gotten more challenging in recent to years, but I've seen enough to conclude that both Eagle and Gold Pin mean a lot.

Even if you've interviewed 100 kids (highly unlikely and, if true, an experience that would extend over 20 years of changing standards), fewer than 10 would have been admitted and the odds that that experience produced sufficient data to enable you to say with confidence (and credibility) that both Eagle and Gold Pin mean a lot in Harvard admissions are nil.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eagle scout??? It this really that difficult to obtain?

When I was a kid, it was mostly dorks in cub scouts. The parents involved in scouting were typically effeminate guys.

I'm not saying that these kids aren't great academically, but I'm not buying these resumes.

I agree it is mostly dorks in Boy Scouts. However, Eagle is no joke. One must 1) Apply, with references. 2) Earn 21 merit badges, including in 13 in specified categories (one of which is Swimming OR Hiking OR Cycling, which filters out some of the more hopeless dorks). 3) Serve in a leadership position. 4) Complete a major service project. 5) Complete a board of review process.

So basically, one Eagle Scout rank equals one regular leadership position EC plus one self-directed volunteer EC, plus a bunch of other less impressive stuff. It's not a hook like being a recruited athlete, but it's equivalent to, for example, being NHS president, organizing a 5K for charity, and being a member of the ballroom dance team. Those examples are a bit contrived, but the point is it's a few EC points wrapped into one.

Seek therapy.

[Anonymous]

You must be either recruited athlete, super rich, super famous (Obama), alumni, URM, or Jewish (27% of the students are Jewish- which would make them ORM (over represented minorities).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looking at the profiles for a youth award. This is what two white girls headed to HYPS each have:

- All As (mostly APs)
- Founder of own charity (one is volunteering, the other is youth fitness related)
- Hundreds of volunteering hours at senior center, hospice, homeless shelter, children's hospital (since middle school)
- Raised tens of thousands of dollars for charity (since middle school, no less!)
- One plays musical instrument at very high level
- One plays individual sport at very high level (not playing in college)
- Two years working in research lab at local university
- Top 3 placements at regional science or writing events (since 9th)
- Handful of clubs at school, always an officer position (if not president)
- Doesn't mention ACT/SAT but I think we can fill in the blank
- Theater or debate or editor of school paper
- Super clean cut; outgoing, type A personality
- Bilingual

I don't know how the masses can ever compete with super kids like this.

You forgot the photo op with a starving baby in Africa

[Anonymous]

Please tell me there's only one poster obsessed with Jews. I'm a white atheist from an historically Catholic family and it strikes me as utterly ludicrous to suggest that non-Jewish whites are discriminated against in the admissions process at HYPS schools.

[Anonymous]

Eager Scout is a very legit EC. I think it also signals you're a straight shooter, probably not going to be a drunken degenerate frat boy.

[Anonymous]

The "masses" don't go to HYPS. The competition is such that you have to really stand out as extraordinary in some way(s). It's fine. Attending one of those four schools is not a prerequisite for a successful career or a happy life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please tell me there's only one poster obsessed with Jews. I'm a white atheist from an historically Catholic family and it strikes me as utterly ludicrous to suggest that non-Jewish whites are discriminated against in the admissions process at HYPS schools.

Check your math. Harvard is 42% white , 27% Jewish. America is 2% Jewish and the majority of Jewish people in this country are white. So if 26% of the students were white and Jewish then about 16% would be white and non Jewish. The country is about 65%-70% white, non Jewish. Those numbers point to a HUGE bias towards Jewish students over non Jewish. I could care less what race, religion, or culture people are. But when I see such favortism towards any one group it makes me sick.

[Anonymous]

Then focus your revulsion on the upper middle class. That's where favoritism gets shown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please tell me there's only one poster obsessed with Jews. I'm a white atheist from an historically Catholic family and it strikes me as utterly ludicrous to suggest that non-Jewish whites are discriminated against in the admissions process at HYPS schools.

Check your math. Harvard is 42% white , 27% Jewish. America is 2% Jewish and the majority of Jewish people in this country are white. So if 26% of the students were white and Jewish then about 16% would be white and non Jewish. The country is about 65%-70% white, non Jewish. Those numbers point to a HUGE bias towards Jewish students over non Jewish. I could care less what race, religion, or culture people are. But when I see such favortism towards any one group it makes me sick.

You don't understand what the word "favoritism" means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Feel better now?

The old SATs were much more difficult than the current ones. At some point the test was redesigned to forgo differentiation at the top. I had a 750 on math which was excellent at the time. I have heard the comparison that a score of 720 on the math SAT in the 1980's was equivalent to an 800 in the 2000's.

Scores were recentered in 1995. Before that, there were about a dozen 1600s in the country annually. Afterwards, there were several at each school.


My DH got one of the 1600's - he went to Memphis State.