WSJ: the Secrets of Elite College Admissions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The original readers gave him a score of 2 out of 5 in that category, observing that he wanted to major in pre-med “but we don’t see activities to support that,” one of the admissions officers said.

other than taking all available bio and chem classes, how exactly does a high school kid demonstrate a love of premed?

"Taking"? More like 5s on those stem AP exams. Plus 3-4 years of volunteering at children's hospital, "research" at local university or lab, summer pre-med camps, passionate letter of rec from MD mentor. And bundling all of this into a story, a narrative, on what kind of doctor and what motives you to want to be that kind of doctor.

So being connected and knowing the “right” people (who is your mentor or gets you that volunteering spot)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Davidson College, Emory University and the University of Washington, aren’t exactly “elite.” They are solid, high ranking schools. Elite would be like T10.

There are 4K colleges/unis in the US.

So what? Nobody really cares about schools outside the top 15. People definitely don't care about Davidson, Emory, and Washington. Fine schools of course, but honestly, nobody cares. Just like nobody cares about UVA outside of the DMV. It's just a good state school. Maybe -- maybe -- people will assume you're preppy and were in Greek life, but that's the extent of the UVA reputation outside of DMV.

hot take right there, do you have a newsletter that I can subscribe to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are only, what, <25,000 avail freshman seats at the top 15 universities for 4 million American 12th graders (plus global applicants)?

Even with the stats, unless you're rich and connected (and/or an URM), it's always going to be a roll of the dice to get into truly elite colleges.

Sorta but only the top 10% (At most) of American hs students apply to elites.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Davidson College, Emory University and the University of Washington, aren’t exactly “elite.” They are solid, high ranking schools. Elite would be like T10.

Any reason to think the admissions process would be any different at a T10?

T10 is need blind. I’d like to see WSJ exposing this claim as fraud.

[Anonymous]

Elite?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The original readers gave him a score of 2 out of 5 in that category, observing that he wanted to major in pre-med “but we don’t see activities to support that,” one of the admissions officers said.

other than taking all available bio and chem classes, how exactly does a high school kid demonstrate a love of premed?

Hospital shadowing and research (which is a whole other issue—not really acessible for kids in rural or suburban areas if they don’t have their own cars)

so being connected or going to a connected school?

Yes. Except for NAF programs at poor high schools.

Or doing all of that to try to signal a school, interested or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Davidson College, Emory University and the University of Washington, aren’t exactly “elite.” They are solid, high ranking schools. Elite would be like T10.

There are 4K colleges/unis in the US.

So what? Nobody really cares about schools outside the top 15. People definitely don't care about Davidson, Emory, and Washington. Fine schools of course, but honestly, nobody cares. Just like nobody cares about UVA outside of the DMV. It's just a good state school. Maybe -- maybe -- people will assume you're preppy and were in Greek life, but that's the extent of the UVA reputation outside of DMV.

Yo don’t be trolling

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The original readers gave him a score of 2 out of 5 in that category, observing that he wanted to major in pre-med “but we don’t see activities to support that,” one of the admissions officers said.

other than taking all available bio and chem classes, how exactly does a high school kid demonstrate a love of premed?

Hospital shadowing and research (which is a whole other issue—not really acessible for kids in rural or suburban areas if they don’t have their own cars)

Yep. One of my friends who is a doctor spent high school summers and weekends as “Candystriper.” I don’t know if they even have that program anymore, but it involved volunteering at local hospitals. They wore a striped smock to identify them as young volunteers, thus the name.

My sisters and I did the same. Ours were jumpers (similar to what a first grade Catholic
School uniform looks like) and they were pink and white. We wore white shirts. I don’t remember doing much more than delivering flowers from the gift shop.

If you want to torture yourself, you can go to Princeton’s web site. The financial aid page has a calculator where you can guesstimate your DC’s cost of attendance for the year. Spoiler alert - they think you can pay way more than you think you can for DC to be a Princeton tiger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Davidson College, Emory University and the University of Washington, aren’t exactly “elite.” They are solid, high ranking schools. Elite would be like T10.

Any reason to think the admissions process would be any different at a T10?

T10 is need blind. I’d like to see WSJ exposing this claim as fraud.

No but WSJ did expose how many kids get into the elite schools via early decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Davidson College, Emory University and the University of Washington, aren’t exactly “elite.” They are solid, high ranking schools. Elite would be like T10.

Any reason to think the admissions process would be any different at a T10?

T10 is need blind. I’d like to see WSJ exposing this claim as fraud.

No but WSJ did expose how many kids get into the elite schools via early decision.

By "expose" do you mean "printed the statistics that are easily available for nearly every college in their common data set"?

No exposé there whatsoever.

[Anonymous]

College has become WAYYYYYYY too expensive. Unnecessarily so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College has become WAYYYYYYY too expensive. Unnecessarily so.

Yes it’s become a country club.

[Anonymous]

The article is from an upcoming book

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The original readers gave him a score of 2 out of 5 in that category, observing that he wanted to major in pre-med “but we don’t see activities to support that,” one of the admissions officers said.

other than taking all available bio and chem classes, how exactly does a high school kid demonstrate a love of premed?

Hospital shadowing and research (which is a whole other issue—not really acessible for kids in rural or suburban areas if they don’t have their own cars)

Yep. One of my friends who is a doctor spent high school summers and weekends as “Candystriper.” I don’t know if they even have that program anymore, but it involved volunteering at local hospitals. They wore a striped smock to identify them as young volunteers, thus the name.

My sisters and I did the same. Ours were jumpers (similar to what a first grade Catholic
School uniform looks like) and they were pink and white. We wore white shirts. I don’t remember doing much more than delivering flowers from the gift shop.

If you want to torture yourself, you can go to Princeton’s web site. The financial aid page has a calculator where you can guesstimate your DC’s cost of attendance for the year. Spoiler alert - they think you can pay way more than you think you can for DC to be a Princeton tiger.

I had the polar opposite experience with Princeton’s NPC. You must have a high HHI,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The original readers gave him a score of 2 out of 5 in that category, observing that he wanted to major in pre-med “but we don’t see activities to support that,” one of the admissions officers said.

other than taking all available bio and chem classes, how exactly does a high school kid demonstrate a love of premed?

Hospital shadowing and research (which is a whole other issue—not really acessible for kids in rural or suburban areas if they don’t have their own cars)

Yep. One of my friends who is a doctor spent high school summers and weekends as “Candystriper.” I don’t know if they even have that program anymore, but it involved volunteering at local hospitals. They wore a striped smock to identify them as young volunteers, thus the name.

My sisters and I did the same. Ours were jumpers (similar to what a first grade Catholic
School uniform looks like) and they were pink and white. We wore white shirts. I don’t remember doing much more than delivering flowers from the gift shop.

If you want to torture yourself, you can go to Princeton’s web site. The financial aid page has a calculator where you can guesstimate your DC’s cost of attendance for the year. Spoiler alert - they think you can pay way more than you think you can for DC to be a Princeton tiger.

I ran it too. I’d consider us MC/UMC and we got $25k/yr efc.