Common app essay and identity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sara Harberson just posted an article that suggests referencing race or culture might cause parts of your application to be “thrown out.” She’s drawing this conclusion because Harvard told their interviewers not to make note of a student’s race, ethnicity or national origin.

Really? If a kid is a member of the Chinese cultural club (and lusted as an EC), the application will be thrown out?

you can say they were a member of a cultural club, but you just can’t specify which culture, which country etc. similarly if kid mentions being a refugee family, immigrant family, having to learn a new language, translate for family members, we can mention that. but can not specify which country, which race, which language. I’m a Harvard alum and sat in on the zoom training session. This is directly what the AOs stated.

What if it’s disclosed in the application?

[Anonymous]

What if you’re test optional but disclose your ethnic, racial or religious background and you are part of an overrepresented group? Then what?

Do these rules only apply to the schools that have been targeted by the administration?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sara Harberson just posted an article that suggests referencing race or culture might cause parts of your application to be “thrown out.” She’s drawing this conclusion because Harvard told their interviewers not to make note of a student’s race, ethnicity or national origin.

I think this is conflating what admission wants, diversity, with what lawyers want, which is no paper trail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hearing many private counselors are advising not to mention anything about racial, ethic or religious identity in common app essay given current Trump admin oversight and general cautiousness in college GC office.

Do we agree?

App Nation (Sara Harberson) isn't "approving" any personal essay topics related to heritage/identity. I've seen TikToks from other private counselors (influencers) as well advising to stay away from these topics as much as humanly possible.
Don't think it makes sense to do that now.

I wouldn't listen to influencers on this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sara Harberson just posted an article that suggests referencing race or culture might cause parts of your application to be “thrown out.” She’s drawing this conclusion because Harvard told their interviewers not to make note of a student’s race, ethnicity or national origin.

I think this is conflating what admission wants, diversity, with what lawyers want, which is no paper trail.

But I do think the lawyers are in the admissions room now. They don't want a trail. I do believe that's the case at the targeted schools. The others - probably not so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hearing many private counselors are advising not to mention anything about racial, ethic or religious identity in common app essay given current Trump admin oversight and general cautiousness in college GC office.

Do we agree?

App Nation (Sara Harberson) isn't "approving" any personal essay topics related to heritage/identity. I've seen TikToks from other private counselors (influencers) as well advising to stay away from these topics as much as humanly possible.
Don't think it makes sense to do that now.

I wouldn't listen to influencers on this.

There's another thread on this on here. Its not influencers. Former AOs are talking about this. College newspapers are reporting it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sara Harberson just posted an article that suggests referencing race or culture might cause parts of your application to be “thrown out.” She’s drawing this conclusion because Harvard told their interviewers not to make note of a student’s race, ethnicity or national origin.

Really? If a kid is a member of the Chinese cultural club (and lusted as an EC), the application will be thrown out?

you can say they were a member of a cultural club, but you just can’t specify which culture, which country etc. similarly if kid mentions being a refugee family, immigrant family, having to learn a new language, translate for family members, we can mention that. but can not specify which country, which race, which language. I’m a Harvard alum and sat in on the zoom training session. This is directly what the AOs stated.

This is really sad. Students are not being viewed as their authentic selves, but as numbers and scores.

My daughter is of Hispanic origin with a 1550+ ACT and top 10% of her class. She is applying to top schools and in some essays where it was prompted, she exposes her heritage in a fun and entertaining way. She probably did it in most of her applications. I expect this is the golden ticket these days...URM with strong scores, great essays, and ECs. Our private counselor encouraged her to do this and thinks Sara is giving very bad guidance that should be nuanced.

If you have a student with strong scores, you should be fine sharing race. It's only if you are test optional or scores below the middle 50% that you should consider leaving that information out. A student's application stands on its own with strong stats and the sharing of heritage gives it a nice little boost.

FWIW, one of UMD's questions is about culture.

Something about the way you say that about the golden ticket…. 🤦‍♀️

Yeah yet it’s true watch this kid walk into Princeton

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sara Harberson just posted an article that suggests referencing race or culture might cause parts of your application to be “thrown out.” She’s drawing this conclusion because Harvard told their interviewers not to make note of a student’s race, ethnicity or national origin.

Really? If a kid is a member of the Chinese cultural club (and lusted as an EC), the application will be thrown out?

you can say they were a member of a cultural club, but you just can’t specify which culture, which country etc. similarly if kid mentions being a refugee family, immigrant family, having to learn a new language, translate for family members, we can mention that. but can not specify which country, which race, which language. I’m a Harvard alum and sat in on the zoom training session. This is directly what the AOs stated.

This is really sad. Students are not being viewed as their authentic selves, but as numbers and scores.

My daughter is of Hispanic origin with a 1550+ ACT and top 10% of her class. She is applying to top schools and in some essays where it was prompted, she exposes her heritage in a fun and entertaining way. She probably did it in most of her applications. I expect this is the golden ticket these days...URM with strong scores, great essays, and ECs. Our private counselor encouraged her to do this and thinks Sara is giving very bad guidance that should be nuanced.

If you have a student with strong scores, you should be fine sharing race. It's only if you are test optional or scores below the middle 50% that you should consider leaving that information out. A student's application stands on its own with strong stats and the sharing of heritage gives it a nice little boost.

FWIW, one of UMD's questions is about culture.

No one is entitled to anything, honey. There is no golden ticket. Nor should there be.
Your kid doesn't have a better shot than a white or Asian girl with the same stats.
Nor should she.

[Anonymous]

Her child needs to teach your privileged white child about what it means to be a URM. Kid deserves a bump for that.

[Anonymous]

This is the year of the high stat URM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the year of the high stat URM.

If you look at some schools, it’s actually not. URM numbers plummeted last cycle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the year of the high stat URM.

If you look at some schools, it’s actually not. URM numbers plummeted last cycle.

They did, because high stat URMs are I. Very short supply. Kids like the Hispanic girl referenced in this thread have their pick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the year of the high stat URM.

It’s always the year of high stat, fully qualified URM and FGLI.

As it should be!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the year of the high stat URM.

It’s always the year of high stat, fully qualified URM and FGLI.

As it should be!!

A full pay URM is NOT more deserving than a white or Asian full pay. Not this year. Not anymore.

[Anonymous]

YCBK talks about this today - urgent question from a listener.
S8 E584 Nov 1