Rest In Peace Meritocracy

[Anonymous]

No one should be surprised by his results, even in a non-COVID year. My kid with a perfect SAT score and three perfect subject test scores etc. only applied to three tippy top schools a few years ago and expected to get rejected, and she did, along with every single other high stats, high rigor, non-hooked kid we know. And she and some of them had some really high level and interesting ECs. Playing violin for 10 years isn’t going to excite a school if you are recruited for the orchestra nor is varsity or club volleyball if you are not recruited to play.

I’m not sure why anyone thinks high stats are synonymous with merit. Nothing in the list he presented should have made him or anyone else think admissions to any of those top 10 schools was remotely likely to happen, because he had nothing special from their perspective to distinguish himself from all the other bright kids who applied. It makes me sad that he didn’t realize this. Tons of great SLACs or top 40 schools would have been delighted to have him.

[Anonymous]

Charlie, my kid will see you in UMD. Similar stats...+ he is Asian American male like you too. Congrats on getting UMD because all of you high stat Asian-American kids have made it a powerhouse where STEM majors are concerned. Will you be super successful in life? Absolutely.

Both of you keep safe and remember this is the beginning of your life and yes, the racism inherent in college and work place was not just something your parents faced. USA is not even pretending to be egalitarian and fair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It has never been a meriticracy. It has been a rich person's playground.

+1.

+100. Make that a rich white person's playground.

[Anonymous]

I feel for that kid and I hope things go well for him, I’m sure they will and he’ll probably go to a bomb grad school. But over and over again people are shocked when the perfect stats kids don’t get into the top schools. Perfect stats don’t get you into those schools, excellent stats get you in to the pool for consideration then they need to stand out in other ways. Does it feel like a bait and switch for those kids who grind away for four years for perfect grades and test scores so they can go to a top college? Maybe. But we see the same thing happening year after year it’s not just a Covid thing. Somebody associated with MIT admissions office said something about when choosing between a kid with a perfect set of numbers or somebody who had shown innovation and creativity in their research but a few points lower in their SAT they would always choose the latter. I don’t think anyone can accuse MIT of not being a meritocracy it’s just not measured simply by numbers on the test.

[Anonymous]

You know, there is something we all can do to revive meritocracy. You know where the smart kids are these days, so when it’s time to recruit on campus, bypass HYP et al. When you get a stack of resumes, ignore the brand names, be on the lookout for the brilliant kids who ended up at state schools. Let the different pipelines and networks develop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Charlie, my kid will see you in UMD. Similar stats...+ he is Asian American male like you too. Congrats on getting UMD because all of you high stat Asian-American kids have made it a powerhouse where STEM majors are concerned. Will you be super successful in life? Absolutely.

Both of you keep safe and remember this is the beginning of your life and yes, the racism inherent in college and work place was not just something your parents faced. USA is not even pretending to be egalitarian and fair.

Umd is a great education but that is ridiculous to say that this student could not have had many more acceptances if his application list had been more realistic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one should be surprised by his results, even in a non-COVID year. My kid with a perfect SAT score and three perfect subject test scores etc. only applied to three tippy top schools a few years ago and expected to get rejected, and she did, along with every single other high stats, high rigor, non-hooked kid we know. And she and some of them had some really high level and interesting ECs. Playing violin for 10 years isn’t going to excite a school if you are recruited for the orchestra nor is varsity or club volleyball if you are not recruited to play.

I’m not sure why anyone thinks high stats are synonymous with merit. Nothing in the list he presented should have made him or anyone else think admissions to any of those top 10 schools was remotely likely to happen, because he had nothing special from their perspective to distinguish himself from all the other bright kids who applied. It makes me sad that he didn’t realize this. Tons of great SLACs or top 40 schools would have been delighted to have him.

How do you know that he did not distinguish himself. This is the fuzzy logic sick racists use to discriminate against Asian-Americans. Oh, he must not have a personality or something to distinguish himself...oh, he must be a boring person with no original thought...oh, he only has book knowledge. Meanwhile your ilk produces as asshat like Donald Trump.

He is special. More special than all those hooked individuals who are given admission in the top schools who have nothing of substance to show for themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It has never been a meriticracy. It has been a rich person's playground.

Such a lazy excuse for those that want to belittle the opportunities everyone has. Read some more. People rotate in and out of the top 20% all the time.

https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/evidence-shows-significant-income-mobility-in-the-us-73-of-americans-were-in-the-top-20-for-at-least-a-year/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This has been the case for several years now. My son with similar stats was also rejected from these schools!

that is because there are tens of thousands of kids with these stats and a few thousand seats aggregate in these schools. That is what happens when there is massive grade inflation and upward scaling of standardized tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one should be surprised by his results, even in a non-COVID year. My kid with a perfect SAT score and three perfect subject test scores etc. only applied to three tippy top schools a few years ago and expected to get rejected, and she did, along with every single other high stats, high rigor, non-hooked kid we know. And she and some of them had some really high level and interesting ECs. Playing violin for 10 years isn’t going to excite a school if you are recruited for the orchestra nor is varsity or club volleyball if you are not recruited to play.

I’m not sure why anyone thinks high stats are synonymous with merit. Nothing in the list he presented should have made him or anyone else think admissions to any of those top 10 schools was remotely likely to happen, because he had nothing special from their perspective to distinguish himself from all the other bright kids who applied. It makes me sad that he didn’t realize this. Tons of great SLACs or top 40 schools would have been delighted to have him.

How do you know that he did not distinguish himself. This is the fuzzy logic sick racists use to discriminate against Asian-Americans. Oh, he must not have a personality or something to distinguish himself...oh, he must be a boring person with no original thought...oh, he only has book knowledge. Meanwhile your ilk produces as asshat like Donald Trump.

He is special. More special than all those hooked individuals who are given admission in the top schools who have nothing of substance to show for themselves.

He is special. thousand and thousands of special kids get rejected from Princeton and Dartmouth every single year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one should be surprised by his results, even in a non-COVID year. My kid with a perfect SAT score and three perfect subject test scores etc. only applied to three tippy top schools a few years ago and expected to get rejected, and she did, along with every single other high stats, high rigor, non-hooked kid we know. And she and some of them had some really high level and interesting ECs. Playing violin for 10 years isn’t going to excite a school if you are recruited for the orchestra nor is varsity or club volleyball if you are not recruited to play.

I’m not sure why anyone thinks high stats are synonymous with merit. Nothing in the list he presented should have made him or anyone else think admissions to any of those top 10 schools was remotely likely to happen, because he had nothing special from their perspective to distinguish himself from all the other bright kids who applied. It makes me sad that he didn’t realize this. Tons of great SLACs or top 40 schools would have been delighted to have him.

How do you know that he did not distinguish himself. This is the fuzzy logic sick racists use to discriminate against Asian-Americans. Oh, he must not have a personality or something to distinguish himself...oh, he must be a boring person with no original thought...oh, he only has book knowledge. Meanwhile your ilk produces as asshat like Donald Trump.

He is special. More special than all those hooked individuals who are given admission in the top schools who have nothing of substance to show for themselves.

+1

Club and varsity volleyball while playing and instrument and obviously having stellar academics makes Charlie far better than the "cookie-cutter Asian who only studies." Stop your racist dogwhistling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This has been the case for several years now. My son with similar stats was also rejected from these schools!

Yep. DC has similar stats and disadvantages (asian male) as the kid in the video. We adviced against applying to the Ivies. He did apply to a couple and rejected. Rejected at top state schools as well. If you are going to chime in with "what about ECs?" save your breath. Not going to get into the details but he had plenty to account for leadership, well roundedness and pointiness..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has been the case for several years now. My son with similar stats was also rejected from these schools!

Yep. DC has similar stats and disadvantages (asian male) as the kid in the video. We adviced against applying to the Ivies. He did apply to a couple and rejected. Rejected at top state schools as well. If you are going to chime in with "what about ECs?" save your breath. Not going to get into the details but he had plenty to account for leadership, well roundedness and pointiness..

Just curious, where did he end up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Charlie, my kid will see you in UMD. Similar stats...+ he is Asian American male like you too. Congrats on getting UMD because all of you high stat Asian-American kids have made it a powerhouse where STEM majors are concerned. Will you be super successful in life? Absolutely.

Both of you keep safe and remember this is the beginning of your life and yes, the racism inherent in college and work place was not just something your parents faced. USA is not even pretending to be egalitarian and fair.

Umd is a great education but that is ridiculous to say that this student could not have had many more acceptances if his application list had been more realistic.

If he is going for CS or Engineering...he made the right choice to go in-state (I am guessing here that he is an MD student) because how highly ranked UMD is for these two majors. Try for Ivies and know that it is a crapshoot and then also apply in-state for MD and get a free education. Well done, Charlie!

And no point in doing majors that does not get you a high paying job. He maximized his education dollars. Good for him. And while this was put in tiktok by him, I can bet that he was very aware that while he was an Ivy-level kid who was going to UMD, he was always going to be successful. Regardless of if Ivy rejected him because of racism, this kid is going to UMD with the best credentials. That is a mark of the candidate. I say this is Harvard's loss.

I also think that it is about time that the Asian-Americans realize the kinds of racism they are facing in USA. This is a valuable lesson for Charlie and my kid. Watch, experience and learn the reality of this country and society.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He applied to schools with single-digit acceptance rates. Those schools have thousands of flawless applications.

No one is owed an acceptance in a competitive admissions process.

Seriously, there are a million reasons he didn't get into those 10 schools, ranging from just bad luck to writing terrible essays to geographic preference to letting the entitled attitude show through to anything in between.

And this video sure ain't going to help his cause.