Is This What it Takes to Get Into a Top School Nowadays?

[Anonymous]

You don’t this for uva
You don’t need this to land at a top school.
If you need to be accepted to 10 sub 5 percent schools which is an extra feat - I guess that’s what you do. But you can only go to one school. (That’s of course if this is real)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don’t this for uva
You don’t need this to land at a top school.
If you need to be accepted to 10 sub 5 percent schools which is an extra feat - I guess that’s what you do. But you can only go to one school. (That’s of course if this is real)

Agreed, and it’s real. He’s definitely well above the mean at each top school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:There is a girl in my DDs 8th grade class like this. She sleeps no more than 5 hours per night and has done this for years. Put into a time intensive sport relatively rare in DMV at age 4, and 4 musical instruments. The whole point is college admissions. So when you look at these profiles, it is very true that there is a lot of intentional shaping from early on. Now: the kid has to rise to the challenge, and that is where it gets interesting. Some actually thrive on it.

+1 these people exist and are way ahead of the game in high school. We knew another family that prepared their kids this way and they did extremely well in college too, so it wasn't just prodding from mommy and daddy. Hope this guy makes the most of his opportunity at Duke. It's a good sign that he was able to prioritize his fit, not a lot of high schoolers can say no to Harvard. But Duke is super prestigious too so it's not a big deal. I'll be over the moon if my kids even go to UVA.

I don't believe the Reddit post was legit

The guy has other, helpful comments on Reddit, and his post is actually missing some important things, like campaign volunteer experience,that would have been easy to get or fake.

I think that the post is real, and that this is a bright, mature kid who found college admissions web forums very early.

So, he found school easy, and he knew how to play the game early on. And, thanks to COVID, maybe he was able to do things like “intern for a popular newspaper” without putting in a lot of time.

No, it’s made up stuff.

Only high school intern at prestigious newspaper writing tons of articles? No, that’s not how it works.

You're actually clueless about what kids around the country do, it's funny to see some people here have such confidence about things they don't know about.

Yeah right, he’s interning a prestigious newspaper writing tons (! Lol) of articles but is not involved in the school newspaper or even the yearbook.

Why would he? It would be like taking college prep physics as a USAPhO student.

Got it, he’s too good for his high school newspaper. No indication of any kind of publishing for extracurriculars until 11th grade when he interns directly at a prestigious newspaper, (mind you, not the local one) where he publishes tons! of articles. And that’s during the school year, because for summers he’s working his restaurant job.

Seriously you’d have to be quite dim to not see though it right away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Smart accomplished kids exist, but in this case I think it’s a troll, or at least there’s a lot of exaggeration in the description of his accomplishments.

One thing that’s odd is that he’s taking AP Physics 1 and 2, then also AP Physics C. Really strange to do this since it’s the same material but at different levels of difficulty, particularly since he’s not interested in a stem degree. Same thing with math, there’s little reason to load up on math in 12 grade with stats, linear algebra and differential equation if your passion is political science. Only advantage is checking a box on a large number of advanced courses.

Looking at time commitment at his extracurriculars, first for research, nobody is going to let him design experiments, that’s a gross exaggeration, he’d probably be given a lower level task that he can handle. Then, a good graduate student will publish a paper maybe once a year, working at least 40 hours a week. To include a high school volunteer on the paper with all the hand holding guidance and mentoring he’d have to put in at least 20 hours per week. Most likely he’ll rarely see the professor but mostly the grad student he’s helping. Also really odd to ask for a recommendation from the math teacher but not from the research mentor or writing internships since if true they would be the highest accomplishments that not many student have.

Do an estimate for all activities and the heavy course load you’d realize he’d need to clone himself several times over.

Research internship 20 hours/week
Writing internship 20 hours/week
Local youth 4 hours/week
Local leftist 4 hours/week
Restaurant job 30 hours/week, summertime only
Soccer team captain: 12 hours/week, underestimate likely more
Knowledge bows with regional and stat champ 12 hours/week likely more
School debate team captain 4 hours/week
Informal debate club 4 hours/week
Philosophy club 4 hours /week

The total for extracurriculars is 84 hours excluding the summer job. Add in the regular school hours 8 hours a day, and the need to study and do homework, one hours for each class, you end up with 164 hours. The 7 day week has only 168 hours.

Sure, maybe he meets fit the philosophy club only once a month for an hour, but I’d question how ethical it is to include it on the list of extracurriculars. Most clubs meet once a week and if you are the president you’d have to also do time consuming administrative stuff. For state and local championships, those kids practice a lot, you need to add at least 10 hours a week.

Crazier people than him exist, you don't understand the type of effort some kids are able to put in. On the previous topic about Coca-Cola Scholars, someone shared one of the scholarship winner's bios and it's more time intensive: https://www.sabrinaguo.com/about

Holy cow, did she have time to sleep?

Wow! She even made her website in 2018! All of that time devoted to so many other things and still had the foresight to buy a URL domain and setup a profile when she was in the 7th grade!

Domain Information
Name: SABRINAGUO.COM
Registry Domain ID: 2329959973_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Domain Status:
clientTransferProhibited
Nameservers:
NS63.WORLDNIC.COM

NS64.WORLDNIC.COM

Dates
Registry Expiration: 2023-11-06 17:32:11 UTC
Updated: 2022-09-07 08:15:10 UTC
Created: 2018-11-06 17:32:11 UTC

Extraordinary

Lol, a truly impressive 7th grader! Makes you wonder how much of her “accomplishments” were set up by mom and dad.

To be fair, DS built a website in middle school. We would have had no idea how to help him. He taught himself 2-3 coding languages by watching universities’ free classes. Yes he was in a magnet where they were teaching python. But it’s doable.

One needs a credit card or online banking to buy a domain and renew it each year. If this kid had their own credit card and/or checking account in the 7th grade THEN I'm impressed.

Also, please tell me where my kid can get a credit card when they turn eleven.

Chase Bank. You open a kiddie account for them, they send the kid a debit card that an be used wherever credit cards are accepted. My 7 y.o. got one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Smart accomplished kids exist, but in this case I think it’s a troll, or at least there’s a lot of exaggeration in the description of his accomplishments.

One thing that’s odd is that he’s taking AP Physics 1 and 2, then also AP Physics C. Really strange to do this since it’s the same material but at different levels of difficulty, particularly since he’s not interested in a stem degree. Same thing with math, there’s little reason to load up on math in 12 grade with stats, linear algebra and differential equation if your passion is political science. Only advantage is checking a box on a large number of advanced courses.

Looking at time commitment at his extracurriculars, first for research, nobody is going to let him design experiments, that’s a gross exaggeration, he’d probably be given a lower level task that he can handle. Then, a good graduate student will publish a paper maybe once a year, working at least 40 hours a week. To include a high school volunteer on the paper with all the hand holding guidance and mentoring he’d have to put in at least 20 hours per week. Most likely he’ll rarely see the professor but mostly the grad student he’s helping. Also really odd to ask for a recommendation from the math teacher but not from the research mentor or writing internships since if true they would be the highest accomplishments that not many student have.

Do an estimate for all activities and the heavy course load you’d realize he’d need to clone himself several times over.

Research internship 20 hours/week
Writing internship 20 hours/week
Local youth 4 hours/week
Local leftist 4 hours/week
Restaurant job 30 hours/week, summertime only
Soccer team captain: 12 hours/week, underestimate likely more
Knowledge bows with regional and stat champ 12 hours/week likely more
School debate team captain 4 hours/week
Informal debate club 4 hours/week
Philosophy club 4 hours /week

The total for extracurriculars is 84 hours excluding the summer job. Add in the regular school hours 8 hours a day, and the need to study and do homework, one hours for each class, you end up with 164 hours. The 7 day week has only 168 hours.

Sure, maybe he meets fit the philosophy club only once a month for an hour, but I’d question how ethical it is to include it on the list of extracurriculars. Most clubs meet once a week and if you are the president you’d have to also do time consuming administrative stuff. For state and local championships, those kids practice a lot, you need to add at least 10 hours a week.

Crazier people than him exist, you don't understand the type of effort some kids are able to put in. On the previous topic about Coca-Cola Scholars, someone shared one of the scholarship winner's bios and it's more time intensive: https://www.sabrinaguo.com/about

Holy cow, did she have time to sleep?

Wow! She even made her website in 2018! All of that time devoted to so many other things and still had the foresight to buy a URL domain and setup a profile when she was in the 7th grade!

Domain Information
Name: SABRINAGUO.COM
Registry Domain ID: 2329959973_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Domain Status:
clientTransferProhibited
Nameservers:
NS63.WORLDNIC.COM

NS64.WORLDNIC.COM

Dates
Registry Expiration: 2023-11-06 17:32:11 UTC
Updated: 2022-09-07 08:15:10 UTC
Created: 2018-11-06 17:32:11 UTC

Extraordinary

Lol, a truly impressive 7th grader! Makes you wonder how much of her “accomplishments” were set up by mom and dad.

To be fair, DS built a website in middle school. We would have had no idea how to help him. He taught himself 2-3 coding languages by watching universities’ free classes. Yes he was in a magnet where they were teaching python. But it’s doable.

One needs a credit card or online banking to buy a domain and renew it each year. If this kid had their own credit card and/or checking account in the 7th grade THEN I'm impressed.

Also, please tell me where my kid can get a credit card when they turn eleven.

Chase Bank. You open a kiddie account for them, they send the kid a debit card that an be used wherever credit cards are accepted. My 7 y.o. got one.

YOU got one and gave it to a child. Chase Bank does not issue credit cards to 7yo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you need something like this for UVA??

Unless hooked you need to be on top 6% of class, have a gpa in excess of 4.53, an ACT in excess of 34 and,obviously, top grades in 10 or so AP courses in the most rigorous load offered. Four plus years in one foreign language is recommended. Talk to your high school counselor about whether or not your child is taking the “most rigorous” curriculum offered by the high school. Most students already know this

[Anonymous]

Does this kid - with super liberal leaning anti-capitalist viewpoints - still get in everywhere now 2 years later in a different political climate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Smart accomplished kids exist, but in this case I think it’s a troll, or at least there’s a lot of exaggeration in the description of his accomplishments.

One thing that’s odd is that he’s taking AP Physics 1 and 2, then also AP Physics C. Really strange to do this since it’s the same material but at different levels of difficulty, particularly since he’s not interested in a stem degree. Same thing with math, there’s little reason to load up on math in 12 grade with stats, linear algebra and differential equation if your passion is political science. Only advantage is checking a box on a large number of advanced courses.

Looking at time commitment at his extracurriculars, first for research, nobody is going to let him design experiments, that’s a gross exaggeration, he’d probably be given a lower level task that he can handle. Then, a good graduate student will publish a paper maybe once a year, working at least 40 hours a week. To include a high school volunteer on the paper with all the hand holding guidance and mentoring he’d have to put in at least 20 hours per week. Most likely he’ll rarely see the professor but mostly the grad student he’s helping. Also really odd to ask for a recommendation from the math teacher but not from the research mentor or writing internships since if true they would be the highest accomplishments that not many student have.

Do an estimate for all activities and the heavy course load you’d realize he’d need to clone himself several times over.

Research internship 20 hours/week
Writing internship 20 hours/week
Local youth 4 hours/week
Local leftist 4 hours/week
Restaurant job 30 hours/week, summertime only
Soccer team captain: 12 hours/week, underestimate likely more
Knowledge bows with regional and stat champ 12 hours/week likely more
School debate team captain 4 hours/week
Informal debate club 4 hours/week
Philosophy club 4 hours /week

The total for extracurriculars is 84 hours excluding the summer job. Add in the regular school hours 8 hours a day, and the need to study and do homework, one hours for each class, you end up with 164 hours. The 7 day week has only 168 hours.

Sure, maybe he meets fit the philosophy club only once a month for an hour, but I’d question how ethical it is to include it on the list of extracurriculars. Most clubs meet once a week and if you are the president you’d have to also do time consuming administrative stuff. For state and local championships, those kids practice a lot, you need to add at least 10 hours a week.

Crazier people than him exist, you don't understand the type of effort some kids are able to put in. On the previous topic about Coca-Cola Scholars, someone shared one of the scholarship winner's bios and it's more time intensive: https://www.sabrinaguo.com/about

Holy cow, did she have time to sleep?

Wow! She even made her website in 2018! All of that time devoted to so many other things and still had the foresight to buy a URL domain and setup a profile when she was in the 7th grade!

Domain Information
Name: SABRINAGUO.COM
Registry Domain ID: 2329959973_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Domain Status:
clientTransferProhibited
Nameservers:
NS63.WORLDNIC.COM

NS64.WORLDNIC.COM

Dates
Registry Expiration: 2023-11-06 17:32:11 UTC
Updated: 2022-09-07 08:15:10 UTC
Created: 2018-11-06 17:32:11 UTC

Extraordinary

Lol, a truly impressive 7th grader! Makes you wonder how much of her “accomplishments” were set up by mom and dad.

To be fair, DS built a website in middle school. We would have had no idea how to help him. He taught himself 2-3 coding languages by watching universities’ free classes. Yes he was in a magnet where they were teaching python. But it’s doable.

One needs a credit card or online banking to buy a domain and renew it each year. If this kid had their own credit card and/or checking account in the 7th grade THEN I'm impressed.

Also, please tell me where my kid can get a credit card when they turn eleven.

Chase Bank. You open a kiddie account for them, they send the kid a debit card that an be used wherever credit cards are accepted. My 7 y.o. got one.

YOU got one and gave it to a child. Chase Bank does not issue credit cards to 7yo

The kid has an account and the card is in their name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nobody writes up an EXHAUSTIVE document like that but then carefully cuts out the names of the print publications and the names of the broadcasters, etc.

Look at the biographies of the Coca-Cola scholars. They document everything. This Reddit post is 100% smoke and dance moves.

Its BS

Maybe he didn’t want butthurt parents on DCUM or Reddit to dox him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does this kid - with super liberal leaning anti-capitalist viewpoints - still get in everywhere now 2 years later in a different political climate?

The left seems to be still supporting higher education and the right seems to be hell bent on trying to destroying it. It seems logical to surmise that applicants in the supportive category might have an admissions advantage over those in the destruction category.

Why would you want to admit applicants that are in favor of your demise?

[Anonymous]

And why if you were against higher education, would you apply for admittance in the first place? That makes no sense.