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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Princeton is not among my favorite colleges. I've always disliked it. That said, this kid was pretty messed up before he went to Princeton.

He reads his admission essay on youtube. He is US born. His father was bon in China but adopted by a Caucasian American family and grew up in the US. So, this kid is NOT from an immigrant family in the usual sense.

Much of his essay is about his father's rage and how he was regularly beaten by his father and how he tried to save his sister from that when his father began to beat her.

That sort of upbringing leaves scars no matter where you go to college--and even if you don't go at all.

Other aspects of the essay make it seem as if the kid is OCD.

Now, I don't think Princeton is a great place, but this kid's issues aren't entirely due to being at Princeton.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

How do you explain the rash of suicides by Princeton students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

How do you explain the rash of suicides by Princeton students?

Or the 83% retention rate from freshman to sophomore year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

How do you explain the rash of suicides by Princeton students?

Or the 83% retention rate from freshman to sophomore year?

The 4-year graduation rate of entering freshmen at Princeton is generally among the highest in the country. Are you mischaracterizing some statistic about students who took a voluntary leave during Covid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

How do you explain the rash of suicides by Princeton students?

Or the 83% retention rate from freshman to sophomore year?

The 4-year graduation rate of entering freshmen at Princeton is generally among the highest in the country. Are you mischaracterizing some statistic about students who took a voluntary leave during Covid?

Mischaracterizing? No, just reading the number listed in Scoir.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

QB finalist, I believe. Which means his family income/background made him QB eligible. Perhaps he withdrew in order to apply to more schools.

I agree the problem seems to be that his identity has become elite college admissions. Not so much a warning about Princeton as about the whole dang game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

How do you explain the rash of suicides by Princeton students?

Or the 83% retention rate from freshman to sophomore year?

The 4-year graduation rate of entering freshmen at Princeton is generally among the highest in the country. Are you mischaracterizing some statistic about students who took a voluntary leave during Covid?

Mischaracterizing? No, just reading the number listed in Scoir.

DP: What year is that number from? Is it an average? What does the trajectory of retention rates look like? Is it an anomaly due to Covid year/s? That number is totally irrelevant without that contextual information. Nearly all private residential colleges had a significant dip in freshman retention post Covid because what you are paying the $ money for is the residential experience--it's only now recently started to climb back up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Then it sounds like your dorm was the "Fraternity." It's called college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

How do you explain the rash of suicides by Princeton students?

Or the 83% retention rate from freshman to sophomore year?

The 4-year graduation rate of entering freshmen at Princeton is generally among the highest in the country. Are you mischaracterizing some statistic about students who took a voluntary leave during Covid?

Mischaracterizing? No, just reading the number listed in Scoir.

Reading and reading comprehension are two different things.

[Anonymous]

I’m not surprised that it’s an Asian guy making this video

Princeton is attractive to Asian kids BUT once you are there, it’s not very Asian friendly like Penn is. Especially if you are an Asian guy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

How do you explain the rash of suicides by Princeton students?

Or the 83% retention rate from freshman to sophomore year?

The 4-year graduation rate of entering freshmen at Princeton is generally among the highest in the country. Are you mischaracterizing some statistic about students who took a voluntary leave during Covid?

Mischaracterizing? No, just reading the number listed in Scoir.

DP: What year is that number from? Is it an average? What does the trajectory of retention rates look like? Is it an anomaly due to Covid year/s? That number is totally irrelevant without that contextual information. Nearly all private residential colleges had a significant dip in freshman retention post Covid because what you are paying the $ money for is the residential experience--it's only now recently started to climb back up.

DP Princeton is a Scoir partner and encouraged applying through Scoir at the info session we attended last week. They should have their data fixed if it’s not accurate. Our school uses Scoir and our CC encouraged my son to compare retention rates for prospective colleges as an important factor and the next lowest on his list after Princeton is 95% - so the 83% was a bit of a striking figure.

[Anonymous]

I have to admit that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m not surprised that it’s an Asian guy making this video

Princeton is attractive to Asian kids BUT once you are there, it’s not very Asian friendly like Penn is. Especially if you are an Asian guy

What fresh nonsense is this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

How do you explain the rash of suicides by Princeton students?

Or the 83% retention rate from freshman to sophomore year?

The 4-year graduation rate of entering freshmen at Princeton is generally among the highest in the country. Are you mischaracterizing some statistic about students who took a voluntary leave during Covid?

Mischaracterizing? No, just reading the number listed in Scoir.

DP: What year is that number from? Is it an average? What does the trajectory of retention rates look like? Is it an anomaly due to Covid year/s? That number is totally irrelevant without that contextual information. Nearly all private residential colleges had a significant dip in freshman retention post Covid because what you are paying the $ money for is the residential experience--it's only now recently started to climb back up.

DP Princeton is a Scoir partner and encouraged applying through Scoir at the info session we attended last week. They should have their data fixed if it’s not accurate. Our school uses Scoir and our CC encouraged my son to compare retention rates for prospective colleges as an important factor and the next lowest on his list after Princeton is 95% - so the 83% was a bit of a striking figure.

The issue isn't that the data isn't accurate, it's decontextualized. Certain schools are prized for their residential experience in particular (Princeton being one of the most prime examples). During the Covid years where collective activities were limited people don't want to spend the money on a Princeton without all the valued residential features that are closed down. So you can't just throw out a retention rate as a fixed number and have it be meaningful--you've got to look at when that data was from and what goes into it. Yes, in general, freshman retention rates are meaningful. But in recent years, not so much. So look at their freshman retention rates before Covid and look at their freshman retention in 2023 to really understand how students feel about a school. Data from 2020-2022 tell you little--students in schools where the residential experience didn't matter as much trudged on and schools where it really did (and they had the means) took gap years. So you can have an upside-down relationship in the data where schools that don't have as treasured a residential experience have a higher retention rate than those who do--which is the opposite of what it is in normal times.

I have no connection to Princeton, and don't know their specific numbers, just voicing my perspective on how to think about data meaningfully and accurately and not as just a fixed list of true numbers.

[Anonymous]

Re eating clubs: they’re large mansions run by undergrads that host massive underage drinking parties and allow people to enter only based on membership or being added to a list. “Joining” one of the mansions requires networking with upperclassmen and going through a hazing process.

Not the slightest bit like a frat. Altogether different thing entirely.