I can’t say this to my kid’s face, of course, but...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
That's why I despise the American college exceptionalism.

Everywhere else, students are accepted on academic merit, with thresholds for grades and/or exams, which universities tweak for international students with different high school systems.

This makes the most sense, because universities remain places of higher learning, and judging based on extra-curriculars that don't have standardized norms makes comparing students impossible.

So at least in other countries, you know where you are. You're not messed around and have hopes dashed after waiting for months. As soon as you know your exam results, you also know where you're getting in.

There are FAR more qualified students than seats. This part gets passed over way too many heads like yours.

Universities such as Harvard, standard, NYU, etc refuse to expand their seats in over 40+ years even though our population has rapidly increased over half a century.
That alone makes us different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your child is half-Asian he should have checked multiracial as his ethnicity. That is what we have taught our children to do. They are biracial.

Clearly you have never laid eyes on the Common App. There is no “other” or “multiracial” box to check. You have to check all that apply, and it is done as a tree, so if you check Asian you then get a drop down menu that prompts you to check Korean or Chinese or whatever. If you check white you then check if you are of European or Middle Eastern descent. And so forth.

Exactly. She sounds dumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
That's why I despise the American college exceptionalism.

Everywhere else, students are accepted on academic merit, with thresholds for grades and/or exams, which universities tweak for international students with different high school systems.

This makes the most sense, because universities remain places of higher learning, and judging based on extra-curriculars that don't have standardized norms makes comparing students impossible.

So at least in other countries, you know where you are. You're not messed around and have hopes dashed after waiting for months. As soon as you know your exam results, you also know where you're getting in.

There are FAR more qualified students than seats. This part gets passed over way too many heads like yours.

Universities such as Harvard, standard, NYU, etc refuse to expand their seats in over 40+ years even though our population has rapidly increased over half a century.
That alone makes us different.

Yep. They keep taking our tax dollars, building fancy crap we don't need, care about, or benefit from, bend us over, and laugh all the way to the bank. And fools like you call it 'exceptionalism' and defend it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
That's why I despise the American college exceptionalism.

Everywhere else, students are accepted on academic merit, with thresholds for grades and/or exams, which universities tweak for international students with different high school systems.

This makes the most sense, because universities remain places of higher learning, and judging based on extra-curriculars that don't have standardized norms makes comparing students impossible.

So at least in other countries, you know where you are. You're not messed around and have hopes dashed after waiting for months. As soon as you know your exam results, you also know where you're getting in.

There are FAR more qualified students than seats. This part gets passed over way too many heads like yours.

Universities such as Harvard, standard, NYU, etc refuse to expand their seats in over 40+ years even though our population has rapidly increased over half a century.
That alone makes us different.

Yep. They keep taking our tax dollars, building fancy crap we don't need, care about, or benefit from, bend us over, and laugh all the way to the bank. And fools like you call it 'exceptionalism' and defend it.

Gosh, if only there were other colleges.... it's so bad there are only a few and if you can't attend those you don't get an education.

/sarcasm of course

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
That's why I despise the American college exceptionalism.

Everywhere else, students are accepted on academic merit, with thresholds for grades and/or exams, which universities tweak for international students with different high school systems.

This makes the most sense, because universities remain places of higher learning, and judging based on extra-curriculars that don't have standardized norms makes comparing students impossible.

So at least in other countries, you know where you are. You're not messed around and have hopes dashed after waiting for months. As soon as you know your exam results, you also know where you're getting in.

There are FAR more qualified students than seats. This part gets passed over way too many heads like yours.

Universities such as Harvard, standard, NYU, etc refuse to expand their seats in over 40+ years even though our population has rapidly increased over half a century.
That alone makes us different.

This is wrong. For one, all the top colleges have expended.

And there are not far more qualified students than seats. If that were true kids at the tier two 10-20 schools would be no different than kids at Ivies. That’s certainly not true. There’s an oversupply of good not great dime a dozen overachievers, there is not an oversupply of truly exceptional unique kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
That's why I despise the American college exceptionalism.

Everywhere else, students are accepted on academic merit, with thresholds for grades and/or exams, which universities tweak for international students with different high school systems.

This makes the most sense, because universities remain places of higher learning, and judging based on extra-curriculars that don't have standardized norms makes comparing students impossible.

So at least in other countries, you know where you are. You're not messed around and have hopes dashed after waiting for months. As soon as you know your exam results, you also know where you're getting in.

There are FAR more qualified students than seats. This part gets passed over way too many heads like yours.

Universities such as Harvard, standard, NYU, etc refuse to expand their seats in over 40+ years even though our population has rapidly increased over half a century.
That alone makes us different.

This is wrong. For one, all the top colleges have expended.

And there are not far more qualified students than seats. If that were true kids at the tier two 10-20 schools would be no different than kids at Ivies. That’s certainly not true. There’s an oversupply of good not great dime a dozen overachievers, there is not an oversupply of truly exceptional unique kids.

Every elite admissions officer I have ever heard speak has said the same thing: that they could throw out the entire class, replace it with the next batch, then do it a third time, and not notice the difference in performance. They feel, as PP does, that there are way more qualified kids than seats.

At least publicly.

[Anonymous]

Oh wow admissions officers?! The professional losers paid $40,000 a year to drive around in rental cars and lie to parents to drum up applications are not experts.

Yale vs Vanderbilt. Brown vs Michigan. Princeton vs UVA. Yeah, totally no differences. Same kids.

This is a cope rejects tell themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh wow admissions officers?! The professional losers paid $40,000 a year to drive around in rental cars and lie to parents to drum up applications are not experts.

Yale vs Vanderbilt. Brown vs Michigan. Princeton vs UVA. Yeah, totally no differences. Same kids.

This is a cope rejects tell themselves.

Interesting - my adult experience has been that the HYP + Stanford crowd is a lot like my highly ranked SLAC crowd -- some smart, some not. And, my peers at my SLAC (which is top 10 SLACs now but wasn't when I attended) have consistently been some of the smartest people I've met throughout my life. So, I believe that nowadays, with so many hardworking, smart kids applying (more than back when I went to school) that there absolutely are classes full of kids who could've competed at the HYPS schools, just didn't get in.

For the record, I don't think any of them should be tax exempt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh wow admissions officers?! The professional losers paid $40,000 a year to drive around in rental cars and lie to parents to drum up applications are not experts.

Yale vs Vanderbilt. Brown vs Michigan. Princeton vs UVA. Yeah, totally no differences. Same kids.

This is a cope rejects tell themselves.

You are repulsive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is mindnumbingly boring. Except for the parts where Big 3 or Big 5 parents lament their kids' college rejections. That's fun!

It is mean to say something like this while others are in such unlucky position.

I agree. These are real kids with real feelings. The poster who posted that should really be ashamed. Not nice.

It's fun to see that money can't solve everything. These parents thought that paying 50k a year for high school gave them a golden ticket. Not so fast!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh wow admissions officers?! The professional losers paid $40,000 a year to drive around in rental cars and lie to parents to drum up applications are not experts.

Yale vs Vanderbilt. Brown vs Michigan. Princeton vs UVA. Yeah, totally no differences. Same kids.

This is a cope rejects tell themselves.

Interesting - my adult experience has been that the HYP + Stanford crowd is a lot like my highly ranked SLAC crowd -- some smart, some not. And, my peers at my SLAC (which is top 10 SLACs now but wasn't when I attended) have consistently been some of the smartest people I've met throughout my life. So, I believe that nowadays, with so many hardworking, smart kids applying (more than back when I went to school) that there absolutely are classes full of kids who could've competed at the HYPS schools, just didn't get in.

For the record, I don't think any of them should be tax exempt.

+ 1. Right on!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
That's why I despise the American college exceptionalism.

Everywhere else, students are accepted on academic merit, with thresholds for grades and/or exams, which universities tweak for international students with different high school systems.

This makes the most sense, because universities remain places of higher learning, and judging based on extra-curriculars that don't have standardized norms makes comparing students impossible.

So at least in other countries, you know where you are. You're not messed around and have hopes dashed after waiting for months. As soon as you know your exam results, you also know where you're getting in.

There are FAR more qualified students than seats. This part gets passed over way too many heads like yours.

Universities such as Harvard, standard, NYU, etc refuse to expand their seats in over 40+ years even though our population has rapidly increased over half a century.
That alone makes us different.

Yep. They keep taking our tax dollars, building fancy crap we don't need, care about, or benefit from, bend us over, and laugh all the way to the bank. And fools like you call it 'exceptionalism' and defend it.

Gosh, if only there were other colleges.... it's so bad there are only a few and if you can't attend those you don't get an education.

/sarcasm of course

Yep. There ARE only a few top 10 schools (10 actually). If I pay for something, i need access to it, especially if I have the same "qualifications" or better that someone whose pappy donated a bunch of money or someone who can throw a pigskin 20 yards. Don't like that, give me my tax $ back? Why depend on my tax handout? Because you can get away with legalized stealing? Thieves..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is mindnumbingly boring. Except for the parts where Big 3 or Big 5 parents lament their kids' college rejections. That's fun!

It is mean to say something like this while others are in such unlucky position.

I agree. These are real kids with real feelings. The poster who posted that should really be ashamed. Not nice.

It's fun to see that money can't solve everything. These parents thought that paying 50k a year for high school gave them a golden ticket. Not so fast!

I certainly don’t think my kids are owed anything just because they went to private school. Is that what you think? Are you a private school parent?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is mindnumbingly boring. Except for the parts where Big 3 or Big 5 parents lament their kids' college rejections. That's fun!

It is mean to say something like this while others are in such unlucky position.

I agree. These are real kids with real feelings. The poster who posted that should really be ashamed. Not nice.

It's fun to see that money can't solve everything. These parents thought that paying 50k a year for high school gave them a golden ticket. Not so fast!

I certainly don’t think my kids are owed anything just because they went to private school. Is that what you think? Are you a private school parent?

I happen to be surprised and elated at my "Big 3 or Big 5" 3.0 kid's college options. Never would have had them as 3.0 from a local public. Never.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
That's why I despise the American college exceptionalism.

Everywhere else, students are accepted on academic merit, with thresholds for grades and/or exams, which universities tweak for international students with different high school systems.

This makes the most sense, because universities remain places of higher learning, and judging based on extra-curriculars that don't have standardized norms makes comparing students impossible.

So at least in other countries, you know where you are. You're not messed around and have hopes dashed after waiting for months. As soon as you know your exam results, you also know where you're getting in.

There are FAR more qualified students than seats. This part gets passed over way too many heads like yours.

Universities such as Harvard, standard, NYU, etc refuse to expand their seats in over 40+ years even though our population has rapidly increased over half a century.
That alone makes us different.

Yep. They keep taking our tax dollars, building fancy crap we don't need, care about, or benefit from, bend us over, and laugh all the way to the bank. And fools like you call it 'exceptionalism' and defend it.

Gosh, if only there were other colleges.... it's so bad there are only a few and if you can't attend those you don't get an education.

/sarcasm of course

Yep. There ARE only a few top 10 schools (10 actually). If I pay for something, i need access to it, especially if I have the same "qualifications" or better that someone whose pappy donated a bunch of money or someone who can throw a pigskin 20 yards. Don't like that, give me my tax $ back? Why depend on my tax handout? Because you can get away with legalized stealing? Thieves..

Lol. Legalized stealing. Jumbo Shrimp. Pretty Ugly. Open secret. Now you know why they put "moron" in oxymoron.