Theories as to why this year's acceptances were so tough...
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Anonymous
The ivies + s + mit are going to eventually be 50+ international students Even if you take away the fact that academically these international students are light years ahead of US students, they are all full pay and often with considerable donations Meanwhile almost all US students whine about not getting enough financial aid without realizing that the money is coming from somewhere and not some fake concept People don't realize that if you are getting financial aid that money is coming from somewhere and its probably a combination of endowment and full pay + donation families (which also contribute to the endowment) So if you are a world-class professor or researcher, are you comfortable reducing your compensation to subsidize poor US students that can't afford full pay or are your going to welcome with open arms international students (that are often more academically interested) that are full pay + donations The full pay + donations is more about greed, its to fund the colleges and the only way to reduce the trend of international students at US colleges is either or both a) US students become full pay + donations and/or b) another global event causing temporary closure of borders This is another reason why college football is such a big thing in the US, its literally a significant funding source for most colleges even if they have to tolerate sub-par academic students There are colleges that philosophically are somewhat similar to public high schools where its effectively an entitlement, but certainly not at the elite institutions |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
| I can understand taking out international students for consideration of the remaining spots, but Asian American and Jewish American students are also Americans. |
Anonymous
Yes, agree but why do the colleges even keep track of this information if they are simply Americans? In the past they counted Jewish American people to avoid having too many Today, they are counting Asian American people to avoid having too many as well If you want society to perceive all groups as equal then stop building mechanisms for distinction (division) But this is never going to happen because if this were to happen the elite colleges would be 80% Asian American and Jewish American (see UC Berkeley when AA policies were dropped) and that's racists |
Anonymous
Where are you getting this? Harvard has the same financial aid process for international and domestic students. Brown plans to move to need-blind admissions for international students with the class of 2029. |
Anonymous
PP is nuts. Impossible to have a rational discussion with someone so loopy. |
Anonymous
The need based admissions for international students will be from URM equivalent places and will not be in lieu of the financial source nations So what does this mean? Those that are seeking financial aid will be competing for a shrinking pot + those that are providing the financial source will have increasingly greater influence + demand from these colleges People often forget that the elite colleges operate their institutions much like successful business and hence why some of these ivies have greater wealth than most countries in the world (compare endowments compared to a country's foreign reserves). Harvard which has about 22k students has an endowment (again sourced from full pay + donations) is $53 billion which is about the same as the foreign reserves of Sweden or Netherlands and greater than any Latin American or South American nation except Brazil and Mexico That is just one country, Yale is $42 billion, Stanford $38 billion, Princeton $38 billion This endowment comes from tuition, donors and managed by investment managers, so full pay + donation student is inherently of greater value than somebody that is clamoring for financial aid |
Anonymous
Standardized tests feel like they’ve *always* been part of the admission process, but in reality they are actually pretty recent (at least relative to how long universities have been around). It just feels like it has always been because we focus on the experience during our lifetimes. I have been and remain a critic of the SAT/ACT. While I might agree that some normalization factor can be useful, neither of these tests at all resembles what an actual college (or even HS) test looks like. People game the system by test prep, which, surprise surprise, teaches you only to be good at the test, without necessarily correlating to how well you have mastered math concepts and reading and critical reasoning skills. I know its tempting to believe that all our super achiever kids are the cream of the crop, but take those scores with a grain of salt. A better way would be a long-form test actually graded by professors, akin to how the AP exams are graded. |
Anonymous
Every year, people think it’s the hardest year ever for their snowflake. 😂 |
Anonymous
This is gibberish. |
Anonymous
Yes. As someone pointed out elsewhere, punch CollegeConfidential into the Archive.org and you’ll see posts from the 2001-2002 admissions cycle decrying how it’s the hardest admissions year ever. |
Anonymous
About a third physicians in the US are foreign educated, so it's not "most." Admission to US med schools remains very competitive. |
Anonymous
This is why you got rejected from ivies or if you did attend are probably not donating back a meaningful amount, you think you are playing checkers but the game is actually chess t. family + extended family 31 ivy grads and yes we were full pay + donate |
Anonymous
Some of us didn't need to buy our way in. |
Anonymous
Lol when was the last time you saw a doctor that was a white blonde hair/blue eyes anglo-saxon heritage male which was essentially the most common male phenotype for the initial 100+ years of the US? Take a look at the other 70% and most will be naturalized or first gen immigrants |