Good luck for Ivy Day!

[Anonymous]

Do you think Ivy admissions look at some of these kids and think, "he just doesn't seem like a cool kid?" I mean, you read these descriptions the parents are providing here and all I can think is, do they even have a life? Know who they are? Want anything in life other than admission to Harvard or Yale? Don't they want kids who they know have a desire to make the world--not themselves--a better place? Who will be interesting, engaging members of their school community? Can just too much stuff (I'm thinking the recent illustration of "top tier ECs") just be a giant turn off? I know this sounds like I'm being mean. I'm not trying to. My kids could never ever get into one of these schools and I am impressed by many of these ambitious kids. But some just seem, I don't know, too ambitious. And their parents seen downright obnoxious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC - 3.975 GPA unweighted at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (one B). Presidential scholar candidate. 36 ACT single sitting. National science award winner. 1st tier ECs. DC Scholastic writing award winner.

White. Full pay.

Rejected at all Ivy schools to which DC applied.

Ridiculous.

If you are not a URM it’s pretty hard out there.

Maybe your kid should’ve tried being a recruited athlete. Or maybe you should have gone to an Ivy League school. Or you should have made more money to donate to a school. All easier ways of getting into college, but sure let’s blame the URMs again.

Legacy and recruited athlete is a scam too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC - 3.975 GPA unweighted at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (one B). Presidential scholar candidate. 36 ACT single sitting. National science award winner. 1st tier ECs. DC Scholastic writing award winner.

White. Full pay.

Rejected at all Ivy schools to which DC applied.

Ridiculous.

If you are not a URM it’s pretty hard out there.

Maybe your kid should’ve tried being a recruited athlete. Or maybe you should have gone to an Ivy League school. Or you should have made more money to donate to a school. All easier ways of getting into college, but sure let’s blame the URMs again.

Legacy and recruited athlete is a scam too.

Legacy, donor, and recruited athletes is a scam too. Kids should be picked based on academics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you think Ivy admissions look at some of these kids and think, "he just doesn't seem like a cool kid?" I mean, you read these descriptions the parents are providing here and all I can think is, do they even have a life? Know who they are? Want anything in life other than admission to Harvard or Yale? Don't they want kids who they know have a desire to make the world--not themselves--a better place? Who will be interesting, engaging members of their school community? Can just too much stuff (I'm thinking the recent illustration of "top tier ECs") just be a giant turn off? I know this sounds like I'm being mean. I'm not trying to. My kids could never ever get into one of these schools and I am impressed by many of these ambitious kids. But some just seem, I don't know, too ambitious. And their parents seen downright obnoxious.

I think this is a fair question, and completely agree about the obnoxious (and bitter) parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you think Ivy admissions look at some of these kids and think, "he just doesn't seem like a cool kid?" I mean, you read these descriptions the parents are providing here and all I can think is, do they even have a life? Know who they are? Want anything in life other than admission to Harvard or Yale? Don't they want kids who they know have a desire to make the world--not themselves--a better place? Who will be interesting, engaging members of their school community? Can just too much stuff (I'm thinking the recent illustration of "top tier ECs") just be a giant turn off? I know this sounds like I'm being mean. I'm not trying to. My kids could never ever get into one of these schools and I am impressed by many of these ambitious kids. But some just seem, I don't know, too ambitious. And their parents seen downright obnoxious.

Wow. You people won’t stop blaming these kids and their families. You don’t just sound like you are being mean, you are absolutely being mean to kids you do not even know. It’s pretty much the Asian robot stereotype again.

[Anonymous]

Speaking as an employer and reading all of this stuff, I can just tell you that the Ivy leagues are not what they used to be.

Kids from the Ivy League Yes to be consistently superstars. Now I see increasing irregularity in the classes. I see kids who don’t want work hard, kids who aren’t all that smart, kids who peaked early, kids with negative attitudes. There are exceptions of course. But it’s a lot more hidden mess than it used to be.

Give me a top kid from a state school or a LAC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you think Ivy admissions look at some of these kids and think, "he just doesn't seem like a cool kid?" I mean, you read these descriptions the parents are providing here and all I can think is, do they even have a life? Know who they are? Want anything in life other than admission to Harvard or Yale? Don't they want kids who they know have a desire to make the world--not themselves--a better place? Who will be interesting, engaging members of their school community? Can just too much stuff (I'm thinking the recent illustration of "top tier ECs") just be a giant turn off? I know this sounds like I'm being mean. I'm not trying to. My kids could never ever get into one of these schools and I am impressed by many of these ambitious kids. But some just seem, I don't know, too ambitious. And their parents seen downright obnoxious.

I do wonder if they can sniff out the highly-curated resumes of some of these kids. There is a huge difference between kids who genuinely pursue their passions and achieve amazing things as a result vs kids who desperately want to get into "elite" schools and, as a result, come up with "a passion". They "start a nonprofit" or do something else as a result of said passion. Maybe it's harder to fake than these kids think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC - 3.975 GPA unweighted at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (one B). Presidential scholar candidate. 36 ACT single sitting. National science award winner. 1st tier ECs. DC Scholastic writing award winner.

White. Full pay.

Rejected at all Ivy schools to which DC applied.

Ridiculous.

If you are not a URM it’s pretty hard out there.

If you had left the URM out of your comment, I would have just scrolled on by. Since you did, why don’t you do this? Put 100 pennies on your kitchen table. Put five pennies to the side. That is the general acceptance rate at the ivies this year. Think about the list of D-1 sports the ivies have. Think about the spots for the ultra wealthy’s and staff children. Think about the millions of high school students. Just being really good at school may not get a kid one of those spots. Stop blaming people of color. Stop.

I think it takes a lot of skill and talent be a top/recruited athlete. Also, there is a lot of risk in the endeavor and it is a hard, long road. And many of those athletes have the same stats as your child.

Further, your child is a superstar and will do well at college and be happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you think Ivy admissions look at some of these kids and think, "he just doesn't seem like a cool kid?" I mean, you read these descriptions the parents are providing here and all I can think is, do they even have a life? Know who they are? Want anything in life other than admission to Harvard or Yale? Don't they want kids who they know have a desire to make the world--not themselves--a better place? Who will be interesting, engaging members of their school community? Can just too much stuff (I'm thinking the recent illustration of "top tier ECs") just be a giant turn off? I know this sounds like I'm being mean. I'm not trying to. My kids could never ever get into one of these schools and I am impressed by many of these ambitious kids. But some just seem, I don't know, too ambitious. And their parents seen downright obnoxious.

Lol ivies are not a popular contest and trying to figure out who the cool kids were in high school

The common theme is exceptionalism

But I would add that being hyper-ambitious is considered an important trait, at least at the ivy that I attended

Ivies are looking for the next Mark Zuckerberg, Barack Obama, or Carl Icahn...the leader of the playdate group mom or the youth baseball or soccer coach? not so much...

[Anonymous]

I went to an Ivy school and liked it well enough but honestly don't understand the magic that is ascribed to them. It's a little bizarre that 8 completely different schools hold such power in people's minds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC - 3.975 GPA unweighted at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (one B). Presidential scholar candidate. 36 ACT single sitting. National science award winner. 1st tier ECs. DC Scholastic writing award winner.

White. Full pay.

Rejected at all Ivy schools to which DC applied.

Ridiculous.

If you are not a URM it’s pretty hard out there.

Maybe your kid should’ve tried being a recruited athlete. Or maybe you should have gone to an Ivy League school. Or you should have made more money to donate to a school. All easier ways of getting into college, but sure let’s blame the URMs again.

Legacy and recruited athlete is a scam too.

Legacy, donor, and recruited athletes is a scam too. Kids should be picked based on academics.

I remember an asian american kid that got into Harvard a few years ago, my family is friends with their family:

ranked top 1% academically at a public high school with similar stats to any of the stronger fairfax or montgomery high schools
state champion swimmer and voted athlete of the year in his northeast US state, ranked in top 5 male hs swimmers in the US, olympic qualifier
6' tall with literally model tier looks + confident/humble/articulate personality
works at a hedge fund now and very ambitious

This is the type of student that ivies are looking for

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you think Ivy admissions look at some of these kids and think, "he just doesn't seem like a cool kid?" I mean, you read these descriptions the parents are providing here and all I can think is, do they even have a life? Know who they are? Want anything in life other than admission to Harvard or Yale? Don't they want kids who they know have a desire to make the world--not themselves--a better place? Who will be interesting, engaging members of their school community? Can just too much stuff (I'm thinking the recent illustration of "top tier ECs") just be a giant turn off? I know this sounds like I'm being mean. I'm not trying to. My kids could never ever get into one of these schools and I am impressed by many of these ambitious kids. But some just seem, I don't know, too ambitious. And their parents seen downright obnoxious.

I think these parents are exaggerating wildly. I have no idea how so many class of '22 kids supposedly compiled all these amazing ECs in the middle of a pandemic and when pretty much everything was either shot down or remote during the heart of their high school careers. Perhaps in reality, they didn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think Ivy admissions look at some of these kids and think, "he just doesn't seem like a cool kid?" I mean, you read these descriptions the parents are providing here and all I can think is, do they even have a life? Know who they are? Want anything in life other than admission to Harvard or Yale? Don't they want kids who they know have a desire to make the world--not themselves--a better place? Who will be interesting, engaging members of their school community? Can just too much stuff (I'm thinking the recent illustration of "top tier ECs") just be a giant turn off? I know this sounds like I'm being mean. I'm not trying to. My kids could never ever get into one of these schools and I am impressed by many of these ambitious kids. But some just seem, I don't know, too ambitious. And their parents seen downright obnoxious.

I think these parents are exaggerating wildly. I have no idea how so many class of '22 kids supposedly compiled all these amazing ECs in the middle of a pandemic and when pretty much everything was either shot down or remote during the heart of their high school careers. Perhaps in reality, they didn't.

Yeah, I feel like colleges forgot this and didn’t appreciate the out of the box self directed pandemic era activities like they did the year before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC - 3.975 GPA unweighted at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (one B). Presidential scholar candidate. 36 ACT single sitting. National science award winner. 1st tier ECs. DC Scholastic writing award winner.

White. Full pay.

Rejected at all Ivy schools to which DC applied.

Ridiculous.

If you are not a URM it’s pretty hard out there.

If you had left the URM out of your comment, I would have just scrolled on by. Since you did, why don’t you do this? Put 100 pennies on your kitchen table. Put five pennies to the side. That is the general acceptance rate at the ivies this year. Think about the list of D-1 sports the ivies have. Think about the spots for the ultra wealthy’s and staff children. Think about the millions of high school students. Just being really good at school may not get a kid one of those spots. Stop blaming people of color. Stop.

I think it takes a lot of skill and talent be a top/recruited athlete. Also, there is a lot of risk in the endeavor and it is a hard, long road. And many of those athletes have the same stats as your child.

Further, your child is a superstar and will do well at college and be happy.

I’m not the only one who feels this way. I don’t think recruited athlete should get a break either. And I am not “blaming” URMs. I am blaming the Ivy league. There is a difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Speaking as an employer and reading all of this stuff, I can just tell you that the Ivy leagues are not what they used to be.

Kids from the Ivy League Yes to be consistently superstars. Now I see increasing irregularity in the classes. I see kids who don’t want work hard, kids who aren’t all that smart, kids who peaked early, kids with negative attitudes. There are exceptions of course. But it’s a lot more hidden mess than it used to be.

Give me a top kid from a state school or a LAC.

It doesn't surprise me. Between the admissions officers who sent out the message that they wanted to be "wowed" by kids with a "passion," and the push for diversity for the sake of diversity (while still favoring legacies and athletes), the percentage of really bright, hard-working kids who'll make a major contribution to any work place has declined (unless, of course, we're talking about work places that similarly fetishize diversity for the sake of diversity).

But on the bright side there are a ton of great alternatives to the Ivies, including state flagships that in many cases offer a better overall experience.