Is This What it Takes to Get Into a Top School Nowadays?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately, what everyone has to realize is that even in the top 1% there is the top 10% of the top 1%. Read the information released as part of the Harvard case, because one of the interesting points is they indicated that 10% - 20% of their acceptances (again, acceptances not applications) are easy acceptances. The kids are so accomplished on every rubric that they just sail through admissions.

Honestly, this kid probably falls into that category or darn close. He says unhooked, however, LMC is actually probably a hook. That demographic is severely under-represented on elite campuses.

Some other random thoughts:
(i) would have been interesting to see if his college admissions were the same had all his ECs been far right vs. far left...can't underestimate how aligned political ideologies of AOs and the applicant likely helped
(ii) colleges don't hold it against applicants if their HS only has 6 periods, or don't allow Freshman to take APs, etc....you are compared to your HS peers, so the question is did you take a challenging courseload compared to your peers
(iii) colleges only really care about taking core APs and/or APs in the areas where you want to study...they could not care less that this applicant took AP CS Principles or any other random non-core APs.
(iv) it makes all the sense in the world that MIT rejected this applicant...MIT offered little to nothing in their major and the applicant had no ECs to support an MIT application...honestly, one has to believe the applicant misrepresented themselves to MIT to produce a competitive application, and it kind of pisses me off that they applied at all
(v) a male applicant interested in liberal arts with a story to support it gives them an admissions edge because the liberal arts are heavily female skewed

Disagree about MIT. This applicant was clearly talented at math and would have been fine academically at MIT. MIT is actually very good for political science so it's not unreasonable to apply there. He probably just didn't have enough STEM activities or involvement to convince MIT that he's a good fit.

Maybe things are different now...but my MIT friends always joke that MIT has liberal arts degrees for all the kids that can't hack STEM (so they can still graduate with an MIT degree).

Political science is no joke at MIT and they still have to take difficult STEM classes that all MIT students do. But I would agree, it's overall an odd place to get an undergrad degree for polisci. I think going there for a PhD in polisci would be more compelling. But MIT is MIT, there's nothing they're bad at.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately, what everyone has to realize is that even in the top 1% there is the top 10% of the top 1%. Read the information released as part of the Harvard case, because one of the interesting points is they indicated that 10% - 20% of their acceptances (again, acceptances not applications) are easy acceptances. The kids are so accomplished on every rubric that they just sail through admissions.

Honestly, this kid probably falls into that category or darn close. He says unhooked, however, LMC is actually probably a hook. That demographic is severely under-represented on elite campuses.

Some other random thoughts:
(i) would have been interesting to see if his college admissions were the same had all his ECs been far right vs. far left...can't underestimate how aligned political ideologies of AOs and the applicant likely helped
(ii) colleges don't hold it against applicants if their HS only has 6 periods, or don't allow Freshman to take APs, etc....you are compared to your HS peers, so the question is did you take a challenging courseload compared to your peers
(iii) colleges only really care about taking core APs and/or APs in the areas where you want to study...they could not care less that this applicant took AP CS Principles or any other random non-core APs.
(iv) it makes all the sense in the world that MIT rejected this applicant...MIT offered little to nothing in their major and the applicant had no ECs to support an MIT application...honestly, one has to believe the applicant misrepresented themselves to MIT to produce a competitive application, and it kind of pisses me off that they applied at all
(v) a male applicant interested in liberal arts with a story to support it gives them an admissions edge because the liberal arts are heavily female skewed

Ah... I get it. This whole thing (from the Reddit, to the repost here, and this response) is a setup to make a place for someone to air out their their theories on whether or not an applicant's politics affects their admissions. Wow. I mean... wow

I was thinking the same. FWIW, lots of variance in political perspectives at my kid's T15. Definitely not all lefty and some significant Right-wing perspectives. Also, the "far left" was a giveaway to that poster's bias. The post only said leftist. But, like another poster, it does make ne question whether the original is actual or made up (at least in part).

[Anonymous]

It is a little (a lot?) weird that someone applying to study political science at some of the top, top, top schools would use such lowbrow / loaded language to describe themselves. I, too, smell a fish.

"Local Leftist Teens" ?????

Come on!

Plus, the real curiosity, is that I have never once in my life known a political hound that ever missed the opportunity to say their name. I've been in DC since the 70s. Doesn't happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately, what everyone has to realize is that even in the top 1% there is the top 10% of the top 1%. Read the information released as part of the Harvard case, because one of the interesting points is they indicated that 10% - 20% of their acceptances (again, acceptances not applications) are easy acceptances. The kids are so accomplished on every rubric that they just sail through admissions.

Honestly, this kid probably falls into that category or darn close. He says unhooked, however, LMC is actually probably a hook. That demographic is severely under-represented on elite campuses.

Some other random thoughts:
(i) would have been interesting to see if his college admissions were the same had all his ECs been far right vs. far left...can't underestimate how aligned political ideologies of AOs and the applicant likely helped
(ii) colleges don't hold it against applicants if their HS only has 6 periods, or don't allow Freshman to take APs, etc....you are compared to your HS peers, so the question is did you take a challenging courseload compared to your peers
(iii) colleges only really care about taking core APs and/or APs in the areas where you want to study...they could not care less that this applicant took AP CS Principles or any other random non-core APs.
(iv) it makes all the sense in the world that MIT rejected this applicant...MIT offered little to nothing in their major and the applicant had no ECs to support an MIT application...honestly, one has to believe the applicant misrepresented themselves to MIT to produce a competitive application, and it kind of pisses me off that they applied at all
(v) a male applicant interested in liberal arts with a story to support it gives them an admissions edge because the liberal arts are heavily female skewed

Ah... I get it. This whole thing (from the Reddit, to the repost here, and this response) is a setup to make a place for someone to air out their their theories on whether or not an applicant's politics affects their admissions. Wow. I mean... wow

I was thinking the same. FWIW, lots of variance in political perspectives at my kid's T15. Definitely not all lefty and some significant Right-wing perspectives. Also, the "far left" was a giveaway to that poster's bias. The post only said leftist. But, like another poster, it does make ne question whether the original is actual or made up (at least in part).

You guys are delusional. Just be happy for a high achieving kid for once.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately, what everyone has to realize is that even in the top 1% there is the top 10% of the top 1%. Read the information released as part of the Harvard case, because one of the interesting points is they indicated that 10% - 20% of their acceptances (again, acceptances not applications) are easy acceptances. The kids are so accomplished on every rubric that they just sail through admissions.

Honestly, this kid probably falls into that category or darn close. He says unhooked, however, LMC is actually probably a hook. That demographic is severely under-represented on elite campuses.

Some other random thoughts:
(i) would have been interesting to see if his college admissions were the same had all his ECs been far right vs. far left...can't underestimate how aligned political ideologies of AOs and the applicant likely helped
(ii) colleges don't hold it against applicants if their HS only has 6 periods, or don't allow Freshman to take APs, etc....you are compared to your HS peers, so the question is did you take a challenging courseload compared to your peers
(iii) colleges only really care about taking core APs and/or APs in the areas where you want to study...they could not care less that this applicant took AP CS Principles or any other random non-core APs.
(iv) it makes all the sense in the world that MIT rejected this applicant...MIT offered little to nothing in their major and the applicant had no ECs to support an MIT application...honestly, one has to believe the applicant misrepresented themselves to MIT to produce a competitive application, and it kind of pisses me off that they applied at all
(v) a male applicant interested in liberal arts with a story to support it gives them an admissions edge because the liberal arts are heavily female skewed

Ah... I get it. This whole thing (from the Reddit, to the repost here, and this response) is a setup to make a place for someone to air out their their theories on whether or not an applicant's politics affects their admissions. Wow. I mean... wow

I was thinking the same. FWIW, lots of variance in political perspectives at my kid's T15. Definitely not all lefty and some significant Right-wing perspectives. Also, the "far left" was a giveaway to that poster's bias. The post only said leftist. But, like another poster, it does make ne question whether the original is actual or made up (at least in part).

You guys are delusional. Just be happy for a high achieving kid for once.

+1 can’t imagine how some of these people treat their kids’ friends who get into top schools, all the mental gymnastics must get exhausting at some point. This guy is a great student who’s going to do well at Duke, period. Who cares if he said leftist he’s just trying to inform and help future applicants on reddit

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s an amazing resume, but some of the listed activities are hard to verify (e.g. 30hr/wk at restaurants every summer). Do people self claim or exaggerate on college app? DC is bloody honest and I am afraid that’ll hurt the chances.

But DC will have their integrity, much more important in the long run. Huge difference between lying and "stretching your ECs into multiple" as in breaking Band into Marching band, Wind ensemble, State/regional honor bands, solo festival, drum major, local youth symphony, pit orchestra for all 4years for fall and spring shows, etc where all are true, you are just breaking them out into multiple categories to list everything and all leadership in more detail---where this is not unethical and is simply providing more detail for a "pointY" kid who has mostly music related activities.

[Anonymous]

HYP alum and I've seen write ups of current admits with similar amazingly impressive profiles. So yes these kids exist. And then in the alum group we all comment about how applicants are so much more impressive these days, and how we never would have gotten in.

What I don't know if how representative this is of the whole class.

[Anonymous]

It's the insistence that his humor is funny for me ... something is off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HYP alum and I've seen write ups of current admits with similar amazingly impressive profiles. So yes these kids exist. And then in the alum group we all comment about how applicants are so much more impressive these days, and how we never would have gotten in.

What I don't know if how representative this is of the whole class.

+1 the best kids these days are truly amazing. This guy is definitely better than the average student at HYP or Duke or Columbia, but probably not top of the class. There are the international Olympiad medalists and such who have advanced understanding of certain subjects before stepping foot on a campus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's the insistence that his humor is funny for me ... something is off.

You’re really grabbing at straws here LOL, but if denial makes you feel better go for it

[Anonymous]

I went to Stanford for undergrad back in the late 1980s. Seems about right to me, but at the high end. Stanford had a program for the extra special people called SLE that students like this were invited into. I have 3 friends who did it and lived in the special dorm for them frosh year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to Stanford for undergrad back in the late 1980s. Seems about right to me, but at the high end. Stanford had a program for the extra special people called SLE that students like this were invited into. I have 3 friends who did it and lived in the special dorm for them frosh year.

Very interesting, do you know if it still exists?

[Anonymous]

Looks like a troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looks like a troll.

Yeah, no "leftist teen" is going to pick Duke over all those other schools. My semi-leftist kids wouldn't even apply to Duke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looks like a troll.

Yeah, no "leftist teen" is going to pick Duke over all those other schools. My semi-leftist kids wouldn't even apply to Duke.

? Misinformed, we visited Duke and the student body seemed very liberal, as is the case with every elite school. Seems like DCUM has no grip on reality.