a final warning to high school students in the college admissions game

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having attended Princeton, I think the mix of eating clubs and administrators/professors obsessed with "rigor" can make for a unusually rough environment, even compared to other T10s.

In my opinion, eating clubs are are just a more pretentious cousin of Frats and Sororities. They become an obsession for a lot of people and define a lot of students' social identities. The participation rates are really high, something like 70% of upperclassmen. On party nights and even party days, Princeton felt like a Greek Life school for the mega rich.

"Rigor"- at least in STEM - generally translates into raising the difficulty until it's clear that a majority of people are struggling to keep afloat. If the majority aren't struggling hard, the professor must raise the rigor. This can really quickly kill the joy of learning for at least half the class.

HOWEVER, if you can master the rigor and the Greek Life, the school can open the doors to absolutely unbelievable opportunities(I know people who had seven figure incomes at top hedge funds by their late twenties). The Eating Clubs(i.e. Greek Life) make for incredible networking opportunities. Those same rich students that may make some Questbridge kids feel alienated can also open the doors to incredible opportunities in IB and PE for those same kids if they learn to fit in. The same academic rigor that may make most STEM kids begin to hate learning and gives most STEM students unattractive GPAs can also allow the top performers to truly stand out from the crowd - and subsequently get recruited by the top quant hedge funds.

Princeton enables the "winners" to win greatly. However it also convinces a lot of people that they are "losers". Both socially and academically the road to "winning" is an absolute dogfight. There isn't time or energy to care about other people or personal growth outside of the dogfight. I suspect that with the shift towards STEM and more preprofessional types than ever before, the "dogfight" is probably more central to the student experience than it was in the past. I also imagine people are too busy with the "dogfight" to show much concern for others or make time for genuine connections. I suspect this is a big part of what bothered Quon so much.

Sounds toxic.

[Anonymous]

Look at his other videos.

It's pretty clear this kid has tied his whole self worth to elite college admissions. Every single d@mn video. It's no surprise that this is where that led.

His other videos:
(1) "Life Advice & Regrets from an Ivy League Admit" (2 yrs ago)
(2) "Reading my college essay that got me into Princeton, Penn, Duke & Brown"
(3) "Accepted into 7 schools on Ivy Day?!"
(4) "31 Schools and 1 Safety"

Every video he publishes is about elite school admissions.

While I feel for the kid, trying to pin his mental health issues on Princeton really seems to miss the forest for the trees.

[Anonymous]

And another one of his videos:

"Stats that got me into Ivy League"

[Anonymous]

What makes it the final warning?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look at his other videos.

It's pretty clear this kid has tied his whole self worth to elite college admissions. Every single d@mn video. It's no surprise that this is where that led.

His other videos:
(1) "Life Advice & Regrets from an Ivy League Admit" (2 yrs ago)
(2) "Reading my college essay that got me into Princeton, Penn, Duke & Brown"
(3) "Accepted into 7 schools on Ivy Day?!"
(4) "31 Schools and 1 Safety"

Every video he publishes is about elite school admissions.

While I feel for the kid, trying to pin his mental health issues on Princeton really seems to miss the forest for the trees.

I assumed if you are accepted into QB (which guarantees you acceptance into one of the like 10 schools on your list), that you wouldn’t apply to 32 schools.

Is he actually QB?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What makes it the final warning?

Final warning before decision day

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having attended Princeton, I think the mix of eating clubs and administrators/professors obsessed with "rigor" can make for a unusually rough environment, even compared to other T10s.

In my opinion, eating clubs are are just a more pretentious cousin of Frats and Sororities. They become an obsession for a lot of people and define a lot of students' social identities. The participation rates are really high, something like 70% of upperclassmen. On party nights and even party days, Princeton felt like a Greek Life school for the mega rich.

"Rigor"- at least in STEM - generally translates into raising the difficulty until it's clear that a majority of people are struggling to keep afloat. If the majority aren't struggling hard, the professor must raise the rigor. This can really quickly kill the joy of learning for at least half the class.

HOWEVER, if you can master the rigor and the Greek Life, the school can open the doors to absolutely unbelievable opportunities(I know people who had seven figure incomes at top hedge funds by their late twenties). The Eating Clubs(i.e. Greek Life) make for incredible networking opportunities. Those same rich students that may make some Questbridge kids feel alienated can also open the doors to incredible opportunities in IB and PE for those same kids if they learn to fit in. The same academic rigor that may make most STEM kids begin to hate learning and gives most STEM students unattractive GPAs can also allow the top performers to truly stand out from the crowd - and subsequently get recruited by the top quant hedge funds.

Princeton enables the "winners" to win greatly. However it also convinces a lot of people that they are "losers". Both socially and academically the road to "winning" is an absolute dogfight. There isn't time or energy to care about other people or personal growth outside of the dogfight. I suspect that with the shift towards STEM and more preprofessional types than ever before, the "dogfight" is probably more central to the student experience than it was in the past. I also imagine people are too busy with the "dogfight" to show much concern for others or make time for genuine connections. I suspect this is a big part of what bothered Quon so much.

Sounds toxic.

It does sound toxic, but it’s also not something that actually would ring true to most alumni. I think PP is pitching a pilot of some show that’s a hybrid of an Ivy experience and The Hungrr Games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really feel for this young man who seems kind and thoughtful and a little heartbroken. I hope everything gets better for him.

I agree, but I don't think posting this video showed good judgment. Making these blanket statements that strongly denigrate Princeton and then jumping to conclusions about other universities where he has no experience just sets him up for serious backlash from many points. I worry more about his mental health after posting this.

What kind of judgment did you have when you were 20 years old? Were you really great at seeing future ramifications?

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Definite judgment lapses. Absolutely!
But, I didn't post my short-sighted judgments on the worldwide web, that's for sure.

[Anonymous]

No one who calls the eating clubs “Greek Life” (capitalized, for some reason?) actually went to Princeton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone seen this video from current Princeton student Quon? The comments from current students at Ivies and other top schools are unsettling and worth reading. As parents, we need to hear this and let it resonate as many of our students approach decision day.

What a wuss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I admire his courage, but this will affect his future career prospects. Also if he is so unhappy why doesn’t he transfer?

It’s not all about career prospects bro

[Anonymous]

What is QB????

[Anonymous]

No one who calls the eating clubs “Greek Life” (capitalized, for some reason?) actually went to Princeton

I lived in Henry Hall with what felt like half of the population of Cottage. My dorm felt like something out of Animal House. In my opinion, eating clubs are the gentleman’s frat house. If it walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck we should probably just call it a duck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is QB????

QuestBridge (I think?)

[Anonymous]

Oh Please. There is no way I would take one kids opinion and make that the rule. All the other very happy, successful students aren't whining on social media for clicks. They are living their best lives. Get out of your dorm and join a club.