Tell me about the kids you know getting into the Ivy League . . .

[Anonymous]

Are they geniuses? Recruited athletes? Musicans? Extra-curricular do it alls? Racially or economically diverse? Private or public? When you meet them, is it immediately apparent they are something special?

[Anonymous]

The kids from my DCs school who were accepted were all of the above. They are the ones I would have picked. Editors of the newspaper, debate stars, music prodigies, all of whom also had stellar grades (mostly 4.0s), and SATs over 2300. No recruited athletes this year for those schools although there have been some in other years. Some of the kids did participate in sports but also did other things. There are a few more regular kids going to cornell, still smart and with high scores but maybe not the standout extra currics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are they geniuses? Recruited athletes? Musicans? Extra-curricular do it alls? Racially or economically diverse? Private or public? When you meet them, is it immediately apparent they are something special?

Yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are they geniuses? Recruited athletes? Musicans? Extra-curricular do it alls? Racially or economically diverse? Private or public? When you meet them, is it immediately apparent they are something special?

Why?

[Anonymous]

My answer is skewed because I work with low-income youth, mostly black and latino. Our students who have gone Ivy are usually 4.0+ students, taking the most difficult courses available, strong leadership, strong extracurriculars, have survived significant adversity (think being sent to live with an uninterested relative at 12, refusing an arranged marriage at 15, and voluntarily going into foster care in order to continue education), and usually they are multi-lingual.

[Anonymous]

Athlete

[Anonymous]

Is this recent or the 90's when you were in high school? If the latter, this is irrelevant. The interesting part of the thread is what the Ivies are taking *this year*.

Not the '90s. The mid 2000s (think 2003-2008). I know this information is old, but it's less than a decade old, not 20 years old. I also know some of them have siblings who are going through this process, and it seems pretty similar.

The kids who got in were incredibly talented, and really hard working (perhaps unhealthily so for a 17 year old). But it wasn't exclusively intel prize winners. A lot of athletes, a lot of top musicians, really stellar academic records.

[Anonymous]

Yes, they are all those things. As an interviewer I am impressed that all the applicants I meet are great students, their parents should be really proud, and I am sure they will be really successful. Though I don't ask about academics, all of them bring up their nearly perfect GPAs and SATs and half a dozen APs. However, 9 out of 10 of them are rejected. The ones I meet and know will get admitted tend to stand out, but all for very different reasons.

A few are very well-rounded - standouts at their schools in everything they do. The class president, sports captain, and community service chair. But, there are a lot of really strong well-rounded candidates and the standards are very high for them. The teacher recommendations that single out the applicant as really special are often the difference maker for these kinds of students.

Others are particularly accomplished in something that they are passionate about. These are often geniuses at what they do. This applies as much to the offensive lineman as it does to the programmer with a successful app or the published author or professional actor. One of the most impressive students I met was a dancer on a well-known pop star's tour. Sometimes, I barely understand their particular niche. But, they are already fully committed and have achieved something meaningful in their field.

The one similarity I see across all the different kinds of successful applicants is a genuine intellectual curiosity. There's a real hunger to learn and master a discipline, approach problems/issues from multiple perspectives, and exploit every opportunity to understand more. The high performing applicant who can't explain what drives them to want to be a doctor or a lawyer or VC are often the ones who washout in the process.

[Anonymous]

I saw a news feature on the kid who was accepted to all 8 (?) Ivy league schools. He was a 4 yr varsity athlete, first chair something in some very advanced orchestra, lead in the school play every season, won a writing award., 4.+gpa, etc. I'm sure I have some facts wrong, but the gist was that he was a top student in at least 4 areas. Oh, and he's black. I think he chose Yale.

[Anonymous]

I am sad to say from our nova HS it is the National Hispanic Scholar several generations removed from her heritage ie doesn't speak spanish. Very good student but not top of the class.

[Anonymous]

So, sample size of one. You have a clear basis to be frustrated.

[Anonymous]

Just wondering, but does this apply to places like Cornell and Penn? I went to Cornell, along with about a dozen of my high school classmates. We were all pretty smart kids in the to 10% or so of our class, but we were hardly such exceptional people.

[Anonymous]

Lacrosse players.

[Anonymous]

They have to be exceptional in some way. Mine was a brilliant writer (had won national contests) and had the requisite grades/SAT scores/ECs/athletic prowess

[Anonymous]

The most exceptional (and perhaps rarest) are those who get in without an athletic, legacy or minority hook. But even those who have a hook are exceptional compared to their peers with the same hook.