This should tell you how elite college admissions really are

[Anonymous]

Texas has some fantastic high schools. I am not surprised by that list.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:No one is owed Harvard. Do you understand that you are competing globally for 2000 or so spots? Tell me when you looked at the acceptance rate did you think of another outcome ? I’m trying to understand why you are so surprisEd.

Seriously. The only thing that’s changed since I was young is the enormous amount of parents who think their child with half a brain can get into Harvard.

You mean parents who spend their whole life making their kids study for a test... think they DESERVE (are ENTITLED) to Harvard.

Step back and take a deep breath and be nice, won't you? I swear half the people posting are high school kids.

The world has evolved from a time 20 years ago when Harvard and the other top colleges held themselves up as the best of the American universities and told all applicants we're seeking for the best and brightest students and these are our standards and expectations, and if you meet them you have a fair chance of being admitted. That was understood. And now they've gone from "fair chance" to virtually no chance of being admitted in part because we're giving all these spots to athletes and legacies and all the other special interest groups. At the same time they still call themselves the best universities taking in the best and brightest students. There's a certain inconsistency and hypocrisy involved here. And it's clearer and clearer than ever. And before you shout in capitalized letters, no, I'm not someone who has any stakes in these admissions games, and am just an amused observer from the sidelines.

Oxbridge can still claim that. Harvard, not so much.

It makes you wonder if it is worth aspiring to these schools anymore.

+1
My kids are in elementary; I have two Ivy League degrees. We are white immigrants and when we grew up we read about these great American schools for the most brilliant minds which demanded excellence above everything. There were actually weekly articles about famous American schools in the children's magazine I grew up with.

But these days excellence is a minor consideration. These schools are for social jockeying above any kind of intellectual pursuit. So disgusting. I can't believe things changed so much so quickly.

I don't want my kids to participate in this at all. When the time comes, they can perhaps apply to Oxbridge if they really are excellent or just go to college at our home country. Which, amazingly enough, turns out to be is so much more intellectual and rigorous and fair.

Gosh, if your country is so great why did you come to the US. I hate immigrants that deliberately move to another country and just bash their new homeland and prop up the country they left for some reason. Go back to your paradise if you don't like our education system. Bye Felicia.

Did you read what I wrote? I came because I wanted to be among the best of the best - and I was. But this is clearly not the case any more.

And yes - I will be going back to my home country - one that American foreign service members fight to live in. What you don’t get is that this is your loss, you dummy. 20 years ago all foreign PhD students were fighting tooth and nail to stay on the USA. Now they are all returning home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is owed Harvard. Do you understand that you are competing globally for 2000 or so spots? Tell me when you looked at the acceptance rate did you think of another outcome ? I’m trying to understand why you are so surprisEd.

Seriously. The only thing that’s changed since I was young is the enormous amount of parents who think their child with half a brain can get into Harvard.

You mean parents who spend their whole life making their kids study for a test... think they DESERVE (are ENTITLED) to Harvard.

Step back and take a deep breath and be nice, won't you? I swear half the people posting are high school kids.

The world has evolved from a time 20 years ago when Harvard and the other top colleges held themselves up as the best of the American universities and told all applicants we're seeking for the best and brightest students and these are our standards and expectations, and if you meet them you have a fair chance of being admitted. That was understood. And now they've gone from "fair chance" to virtually no chance of being admitted in part because we're giving all these spots to athletes and legacies and all the other special interest groups. At the same time they still call themselves the best universities taking in the best and brightest students. There's a certain inconsistency and hypocrisy involved here. And it's clearer and clearer than ever. And before you shout in capitalized letters, no, I'm not someone who has any stakes in these admissions games, and am just an amused observer from the sidelines.

Oxbridge can still claim that. Harvard, not so much.

It makes you wonder if it is worth aspiring to these schools anymore.

+1
My kids are in elementary; I have two Ivy League degrees. We are white immigrants and when we grew up we read about these great American schools for the most brilliant minds which demanded excellence above everything. There were actually weekly articles about famous American schools in the children's magazine I grew up with.

But these days excellence is a minor consideration. These schools are for social jockeying above any kind of intellectual pursuit. So disgusting. I can't believe things changed so much so quickly.

I don't want my kids to participate in this at all. When the time comes, they can perhaps apply to Oxbridge if they really are excellent or just go to college at our home country. Which, amazingly enough, turns out to be is so much more intellectual and rigorous and fair.

Gosh, if your country is so great why did you come to the US. I hate immigrants that deliberately move to another country and just bash their new homeland and prop up the country they left for some reason. Go back to your paradise if you don't like our education system. Bye Felicia.

Did you read what I wrote? I came because I wanted to be among the best of the best - and I was. But this is clearly not the case any more.

And yes - I will be going back to my home country - one that American foreign service members fight to live in. What you don’t get is that this is your loss, you dummy. 20 years ago all foreign PhD students were fighting tooth and nail to stay on the USA. Now they are all returning home.

PP, you speak truth. It is really a sad state if affairs here in the US.