Fascinating article from the WSJ re the methods of an "elite" college counseling firm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After reading this article, parents will have their kids start podcasts, work on novel writing, and do research.. instead of sports, violin and piano.. 🙄

Huh?

They are already doing this.

Seriously...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why no one will hire students from these colleges ever again. They are all fake people who have done nothing real on their own. They will be terrible team players on projects.

Yes this is a little cringe but people will fall over themselves to hire from these schools. Those that will not are a small subset and really a rounding error. These people are led on a path but you cannot deny that they are crazy smart in ways that matter. I would not worry about the team player with these kids. They can adapt to anything.

Not a fan of all this but these kids are in demand after graduation. You are filling yourself with fake news otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know that college admissions ask if you're a first generation student. Do they also ask about things like whether you get tutoring or college counseling? If not, seems like they should.

Why? It is clear to the AOs when they read the package. And there is nothing wrong with tutoring and colelge cousneling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So its all lies just to get into an Ivy? What a sham.. what kind of environment will this create on the campus.. all fake people doing fake activities to get a piece of paper that says they went to Harvard..

Where is the lie or the sham? Kids really get those grades and scores and really do the ECs. All are real not fake. What are you talking about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So its all lies just to get into an Ivy? What a sham.. what kind of environment will this create on the campus.. all fake people doing fake activities to get a piece of paper that says they went to Harvard..

Where is the lie or the sham? Kids really get those grades and scores and really do the ECs. All are real not fake. What are you talking about?

I think there’s some skepticism about whether the kids are really doing the activities. President of chess club, sure. But these kids founding and running non profits is almost all bullshit — parents or parents friends are doing the work, or it’s really not doing much at all.

I also think there’s a big range in what these college counselors do. We hired one and paid an hourly rate for a few consultations to get suggestions about schools we hadn’t thought of, plus to help develop a timeline for kid to work on application (so it wasn’t me fighting with her). That kind of counselor is basically doing what the HS counselor should do but cannot because they have 1000 kids on their plate. Then you have the counselors like this that are taking 13-14 year olds and molding them like Eliza Doolittle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So its all lies just to get into an Ivy? What a sham.. what kind of environment will this create on the campus.. all fake people doing fake activities to get a piece of paper that says they went to Harvard..

Where is the lie or the sham? Kids really get those grades and scores and really do the ECs. All are real not fake. What are you talking about?

We all know some of these curated kids, and we know exactly how they got the ECs and what really went on in them. And sure the kid with 23 tutors (!!) had great grades, duh. Will they have tutors at work too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So its all lies just to get into an Ivy? What a sham.. what kind of environment will this create on the campus.. all fake people doing fake activities to get a piece of paper that says they went to Harvard..

This is why these 'elite' schools are offering remedial classes now and back to SAT required. Professors are not impressed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So its all lies just to get into an Ivy? What a sham.. what kind of environment will this create on the campus.. all fake people doing fake activities to get a piece of paper that says they went to Harvard..

Where is the lie or the sham? Kids really get those grades and scores and really do the ECs. All are real not fake. What are you talking about?

Just like Varsity Blues! They really had a piece of paper that said they got those scores.

[Anonymous]

It's actually staggering that 23% of Harvard students used a private consulting firm. Once you take out FGLI, athletes, URMs, rural students, and other people who have hooks, then it's likely that a near-majority of unhooked applicants used one of these services.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So its all lies just to get into an Ivy? What a sham.. what kind of environment will this create on the campus.. all fake people doing fake activities to get a piece of paper that says they went to Harvard..

Where is the lie or the sham? Kids really get those grades and scores and really do the ECs. All are real not fake. What are you talking about?

Its all lies because the kids are not doing xyz because they are passionate about something or have a specific interest in something. They are consciously curating their resume based on what activity will get them into an Ivy. If you don’t see a difference between a kid who has actually pursued his own interest vs brainstorming an activity that will get them into college than you are not very bright.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's actually staggering that 23% of Harvard students used a private consulting firm. Once you take out FGLI, athletes, URMs, rural students, and other people who have hooks, then it's likely that a near-majority of unhooked applicants used one of these services.

Look at the profiles of applicants on Reddit or College Confidential. Kids have 2-4 internships at fortune 500 companies while in high school. They're managing non-profits with budgets of 200K. They've been published multiple times. It's ABSURD what they're doing and no 14-17 year old (at the time of the activities) is capable of creating those resumes on their own. No 14-17 year old would even know that half that stuff EXISTS, let alone how to make it happen.

It's completely the work of adults (paid consultants or parents or both) but admissions officers are eating it up. They fall for it every time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So its all lies just to get into an Ivy? What a sham.. what kind of environment will this create on the campus.. all fake people doing fake activities to get a piece of paper that says they went to Harvard..

Where is the lie or the sham? Kids really get those grades and scores and really do the ECs. All are real not fake. What are you talking about?

Its all lies because the kids are not doing xyz because they are passionate about something or have a specific interest in something. They are consciously curating their resume based on what activity will get them into an Ivy. If you don’t see a difference between a kid who has actually pursued his own interest vs brainstorming an activity that will get them into college than you are not very bright.

+1

Exactly! Someone is telling them oh you should do this activity and this is how you should do it and here are all the resources you need to do it..
this process can only make a great robot.

[Anonymous]

It’s interesting to me how openly cynical the founder of Crimson is. I suppose it’s capitalism at work, but turning a kid into a luxury good to be purchased does feel icky to me, personally. And a bit sad.

[Anonymous]

The AOs are not “falling for it.” They helped create it and they know what is going on. It’s so much BS. They say they want to hear the student’s authentic voice but they don’t. They admit these heavily “curated” students. They reward and encourage this behavior.

The problem is this strongly favors rich kids. So the AOs are full of it wrt actual diversity on campus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's actually staggering that 23% of Harvard students used a private consulting firm. Once you take out FGLI, athletes, URMs, rural students, and other people who have hooks, then it's likely that a near-majority of unhooked applicants used one of these services.

Look at the profiles of applicants on Reddit or College Confidential. Kids have 2-4 internships at fortune 500 companies while in high school. They're managing non-profits with budgets of 200K. They've been published multiple times. It's ABSURD what they're doing and no 14-17 year old (at the time of the activities) is capable of creating those resumes on their own. No 14-17 year old would even know that half that stuff EXISTS, let alone how to make it happen.

It's completely the work of adults (paid consultants or parents or both) but admissions officers are eating it up. They fall for it every time.

I wonder if articles like this that shines into the dark alleys of admissions will push schools to again shift the profile they seek. When you have a company now worth over half a billion whose sole existence is to try to game slots from a handful of schools because the schools have become a bit predictable, makes wonder if they will change the algorithm.

Like Google changing the rules of SEO