New York teen accepted to all 8 Ivy League schools

[Anonymous]

My daughter is currently a sophomore at Harvard. She has a large rooming group that includes four Asian American young women, three of whom are from California. Really nice girls all around. None of them were valedictorians of their high school class. None of them had board scores as high as my daughter's, who is African American. Each has one or two strong talents outside of the classroom in addition to being really good students (not necessarily geniuses). My only point to this is that the mass hysteria over the idiosyncratic nature of college admissions has led people to create mythology about what it takes for someone from this group or that group to get into places like Harvard, or Yale or Stanford. The fact of the matter is that if you were unsuccessful at getting in, it is probably because they selected someone else who looks a whole lot like you, but perhaps had something more that they were looking for. And, that something else does not reduce down to 50 or even 100 points on your SATs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So no one thinks that checking off african american had any effect on this?

Of course it did. It would never have happened otherwise.

Silly rabbit. Is that you Paleo?

I don't know who Paleo is. But are you really suggesting that minority status doesn't affect admissions chances?

My point is that posters like you are always fixated on the ONE who gets in and present this argument that there is this flood of African American students who are unqualified and accepted for admission. It is untrue and a blatant lie. The stats bear this out and so does some of this thread.

While minority status with good/excellent grades can play a role with colleges who want a diversified environment, the same application is applied to legacy, sports, music, science, literary, etc. MIT, for example, wants to fill some seats in their Global Language program. So, someone with strengths might get that seat (I know an American minority who is passionate in languages and speaks two critical and one Romance) as their language proficiency changes their "status."

No matter how you spin it, African-Americans are not the majority (other than HBCUs) in the Ivys and their representation is low in single digits. This is why I take exception with the attempts of some to vilify this young woman because she has applied to all 8 Ivys or because she may or may not have gotten application assistance. It's trivial.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is currently a sophomore at Harvard. She has a large rooming group that includes four Asian American young women, three of whom are from California. Really nice girls all around. None of them were valedictorians of their high school class. None of them had board scores as high as my daughter's, who is African American. Each has one or two strong talents outside of the classroom in addition to being really good students (not necessarily geniuses). My only point to this is that the mass hysteria over the idiosyncratic nature of college admissions has led people to create mythology about what it takes for someone from this group or that group to get into places like Harvard, or Yale or Stanford. The fact of the matter is that if you were unsuccessful at getting in, it is probably because they selected someone else who looks a whole lot like you, but perhaps had something more that they were looking for. And, that something else does not reduce down to 50 or even 100 points on your SATs.

+1. You get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yep, it's that easy. Just check the AA box and voila!, admitted to all eight Ivy's. Ignorant.

What's ignorant is presenting and attacking strawman arguments. Nobody said that it's all you have to do, but it's significantly easier if you are AA. It would be the equivalent of a white kid getting into UVA, VT, and W&M. Great accomplishment, but not newsworthy.

No, what is ignorant is making an assertion that is completely unsupported by facts. Please tell me how many non-URM candidates that were accepted by all eight Ivy's, or all Ivy's that they applied to? You don't know would be my bet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the application fees for these 8 schools?

I wonder if her HS pushed it and covered fees?

What the hell difference does it make? It doesn't matter to you that she was valedictorian or an Intel Science finalist. Not important that her GPA was amazing or her parents instilled in her the value of education which is what DCUM posters are always complaining about that AA students don't value. It's meaningless that her credo is "persistence and tenacity."

I have followed college acceptances and rejections on College Confidential for a couple of years and have gone back to previous years postings to look for a pattern of admissions, denials, and deferrals. Ethnicity is also included. There are tons of students who have similar stats and were admitted or denied who were black, white, Asian, Native American, etc. I notice there are an inordinate number, the majority, of admitted students from ALL races do NOT have these over the top standardized scores and range between 2100-2400 with 2400 not being the norm. A 2200, for example, puts you in the 98th percentile according to the College Board. The college admissions work independently of each other when making college decisions and, yes, this admit was Vegas odds.

If your preference is to disregard everything this child did because it's more important who covered her college fees, that's your prerogative and says volumes. I say way to go, congratulations, and continue the legacy of persistence and tenacity.

Get a hobby?

+1

You are way overreacting, PP. I think it's great that she has so many opportunities and good for her for her achievements. BUT the Ivy League only is an athletic conference. There is a wide variety of schools. It does seem odd that she chose ALL of them. The top 10 schools in her field of interest, whatever it is, would not all be Ivy. So we here at DCUM are casually discussing possible motivations. Not tearing down her achievements. So chill.

The publicity would be great for her HS to get two students in a row so I can see how they'd encourage her, a very strong candidate, to apply to all of them.

She also got into Hopkins and MIT. Do you share the same sentiment when other groups apply to all top 10 schools and is that odd that they choose ALL of them? Just asking.

I don't know anyone of any "GROUP" who applied to all 8 Ivies. CHILL OUT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the application fees for these 8 schools?

I wonder if her HS pushed it and covered fees?

What the hell difference does it make? It doesn't matter to you that she was valedictorian or an Intel Science finalist. Not important that her GPA was amazing or her parents instilled in her the value of education which is what DCUM posters are always complaining about that AA students don't value. It's meaningless that her credo is "persistence and tenacity."

I have followed college acceptances and rejections on College Confidential for a couple of years and have gone back to previous years postings to look for a pattern of admissions, denials, and deferrals. Ethnicity is also included. There are tons of students who have similar stats and were admitted or denied who were black, white, Asian, Native American, etc. I notice there are an inordinate number, the majority, of admitted students from ALL races do NOT have these over the top standardized scores and range between 2100-2400 with 2400 not being the norm. A 2200, for example, puts you in the 98th percentile according to the College Board. The college admissions work independently of each other when making college decisions and, yes, this admit was Vegas odds.

If your preference is to disregard everything this child did because it's more important who covered her college fees, that's your prerogative and says volumes. I say way to go, congratulations, and continue the legacy of persistence and tenacity.

Get a hobby?

+1

You are way overreacting, PP. I think it's great that she has so many opportunities and good for her for her achievements. BUT the Ivy League only is an athletic conference. There is a wide variety of schools. It does seem odd that she chose ALL of them. The top 10 schools in her field of interest, whatever it is, would not all be Ivy. So we here at DCUM are casually discussing possible motivations. Not tearing down her achievements. So chill.

The publicity would be great for her HS to get two students in a row so I can see how they'd encourage her, a very strong candidate, to apply to all of them.

She also got into Hopkins and MIT. Do you share the same sentiment when other groups apply to all top 10 schools and is that odd that they choose ALL of them? Just asking.

I don't know anyone of any "GROUP" who applied to all 8 Ivies. CHILL OUT.

I'm not one for childish banter, but you need to GROW UP. Your silly outburst are no longer worthy of my time or any reasoning individual here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So no one thinks that checking off african american had any effect on this?

Of course it did. It would never have happened otherwise.

Silly rabbit. Is that you Paleo?

I don't know who Paleo is. But are you really suggesting that minority status doesn't affect admissions chances?

My point is that posters like you are always fixated on the ONE who gets in and present this argument that there is this flood of African American students who are unqualified and accepted for admission. It is untrue and a blatant lie. The stats bear this out and so does some of this thread.

While minority status with good/excellent grades can play a role with colleges who want a diversified environment, the same application is applied to legacy, sports, music, science, literary, etc. MIT, for example, wants to fill some seats in their Global Language program. So, someone with strengths might get that seat (I know an American minority who is passionate in languages and speaks two critical and one Romance) as their language proficiency changes their "status."

No matter how you spin it, African-Americans are not the majority (other than HBCUs) in the Ivys and their representation is low in single digits. This is why I take exception with the attempts of some to vilify this young woman because she has applied to all 8 Ivys or because she may or may not have gotten application assistance. It's trivial.

You're totally misunderstanding the statistics and probabilities of the matter. It's precisely BECAUSE there are so few competitive African-American applicants that the ones who are have a much easier time gaining admittance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the application fees for these 8 schools?

I wonder if her HS pushed it and covered fees?

What the hell difference does it make? It doesn't matter to you that she was valedictorian or an Intel Science finalist. Not important that her GPA was amazing or her parents instilled in her the value of education which is what DCUM posters are always complaining about that AA students don't value. It's meaningless that her credo is "persistence and tenacity."

I have followed college acceptances and rejections on College Confidential for a couple of years and have gone back to previous years postings to look for a pattern of admissions, denials, and deferrals. Ethnicity is also included. There are tons of students who have similar stats and were admitted or denied who were black, white, Asian, Native American, etc. I notice there are an inordinate number, the majority, of admitted students from ALL races do NOT have these over the top standardized scores and range between 2100-2400 with 2400 not being the norm. A 2200, for example, puts you in the 98th percentile according to the College Board. The college admissions work independently of each other when making college decisions and, yes, this admit was Vegas odds.

If your preference is to disregard everything this child did because it's more important who covered her college fees, that's your prerogative and says volumes. I say way to go, congratulations, and continue the legacy of persistence and tenacity.

Get a hobby?

+1

You are way overreacting, PP. I think it's great that she has so many opportunities and good for her for her achievements. BUT the Ivy League only is an athletic conference. There is a wide variety of schools. It does seem odd that she chose ALL of them. The top 10 schools in her field of interest, whatever it is, would not all be Ivy. So we here at DCUM are casually discussing possible motivations. Not tearing down her achievements. So chill.

The publicity would be great for her HS to get two students in a row so I can see how they'd encourage her, a very strong candidate, to apply to all of them.

She also got into Hopkins and MIT. Do you share the same sentiment when other groups apply to all top 10 schools and is that odd that they choose ALL of them? Just asking.

I don't know anyone of any "GROUP" who applied to all 8 Ivies. CHILL OUT.

^ If she applied to the Top 10 schools - by any ranking - that would NOT include ALL 8 Ivies. Sounds like she (or her HS) wanted to see if she could get into all 8 just for the publicity, not out of pure academic interest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is currently a sophomore at Harvard. She has a large rooming group that includes four Asian American young women, three of whom are from California. Really nice girls all around. None of them were valedictorians of their high school class. None of them had board scores as high as my daughter's, who is African American. Each has one or two strong talents outside of the classroom in addition to being really good students (not necessarily geniuses). My only point to this is that the mass hysteria over the idiosyncratic nature of college admissions has led people to create mythology about what it takes for someone from this group or that group to get into places like Harvard, or Yale or Stanford. The fact of the matter is that if you were unsuccessful at getting in, it is probably because they selected someone else who looks a whole lot like you, but perhaps had something more that they were looking for. And, that something else does not reduce down to 50 or even 100 points on your SATs.

+1. You get it.

+2. Worth repeating

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the application fees for these 8 schools?

I wonder if her HS pushed it and covered fees?

What the hell difference does it make? It doesn't matter to you that she was valedictorian or an Intel Science finalist. Not important that her GPA was amazing or her parents instilled in her the value of education which is what DCUM posters are always complaining about that AA students don't value. It's meaningless that her credo is "persistence and tenacity."

I have followed college acceptances and rejections on College Confidential for a couple of years and have gone back to previous years postings to look for a pattern of admissions, denials, and deferrals. Ethnicity is also included. There are tons of students who have similar stats and were admitted or denied who were black, white, Asian, Native American, etc. I notice there are an inordinate number, the majority, of admitted students from ALL races do NOT have these over the top standardized scores and range between 2100-2400 with 2400 not being the norm. A 2200, for example, puts you in the 98th percentile according to the College Board. The college admissions work independently of each other when making college decisions and, yes, this admit was Vegas odds.

If your preference is to disregard everything this child did because it's more important who covered her college fees, that's your prerogative and says volumes. I say way to go, congratulations, and continue the legacy of persistence and tenacity.

Get a hobby?

+1

You are way overreacting, PP. I think it's great that she has so many opportunities and good for her for her achievements. BUT the Ivy League only is an athletic conference. There is a wide variety of schools. It does seem odd that she chose ALL of them. The top 10 schools in her field of interest, whatever it is, would not all be Ivy. So we here at DCUM are casually discussing possible motivations. Not tearing down her achievements. So chill.

The publicity would be great for her HS to get two students in a row so I can see how they'd encourage her, a very strong candidate, to apply to all of them.

She also got into Hopkins and MIT. Do you share the same sentiment when other groups apply to all top 10 schools and is that odd that they choose ALL of them? Just asking.

I don't know anyone of any "GROUP" who applied to all 8 Ivies. CHILL OUT.

I'm not one for childish banter, but you need to GROW UP. Your silly outburst are no longer worthy of my time or any reasoning individual here.

"Childish banter"? "Silly outburst"? You sound, and I have never used this term before, unhinged. Step away from the computer and go find a new hobby. This one isn't working out for you.

Please explain why anyone would choose to apply to all 8 Ivy League schools? You know, outside of getting the publicity of getting into all 8 schools. Do you even know anything about these schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So no one thinks that checking off african american had any effect on this?

Of course it did. It would never have happened otherwise.

Silly rabbit. Is that you Paleo?

I don't know who Paleo is. But are you really suggesting that minority status doesn't affect admissions chances?

My point is that posters like you are always fixated on the ONE who gets in and present this argument that there is this flood of African American students who are unqualified and accepted for admission. It is untrue and a blatant lie. The stats bear this out and so does some of this thread.

While minority status with good/excellent grades can play a role with colleges who want a diversified environment, the same application is applied to legacy, sports, music, science, literary, etc. MIT, for example, wants to fill some seats in their Global Language program. So, someone with strengths might get that seat (I know an American minority who is passionate in languages and speaks two critical and one Romance) as their language proficiency changes their "status."

No matter how you spin it, African-Americans are not the majority (other than HBCUs) in the Ivys and their representation is low in single digits. This is why I take exception with the attempts of some to vilify this young woman because she has applied to all 8 Ivys or because she may or may not have gotten application assistance. It's trivial.

You're totally misunderstanding the statistics and probabilities of the matter. It's precisely BECAUSE there are so few competitive African-American applicants that the ones who are have a much easier time gaining admittance.

They may have an 'easier' time as you put it but you better know they are presenting qualifications equal to their peers. And that is a fact. Harvard and its peers DO NOT admit someone who can't handle the work. These schools reputations are what brings in billions of endowment dollars, and the money is NOT coming in if their academic reputation plummets because of academically poor admissions. It's just not happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Show me an Asian who gets admitted to all eight and I'll be impressed.

AA? Give me a break. The standards are significantly reduced.

It will never happen.

Ummmmmmm....it did happen last April. An Asian student from TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nigerians, especially the Igbo people, kick butt.

Yes, they value education and are successful in college and in the workplace.
However, they do not fit your typical disadvantaged immigrant or URM profile - most of the Nigerian immigrant families are middle-class (and just plain wealthy by the home county's standards), and parents of today's college immigrants are educated professionals.
I'd say the young woman in the article is not much different from your standard Ivy applicant from a white or asian middle-class family with laser focus on high-profile prize.

I do not begrudge her success, but let's face it - this ain't a rags to riches story. Now if there was a kid from a Somalian immigrant family, or an American-born inner city kid that made it to an Ivy...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is currently a sophomore at Harvard. She has a large rooming group that includes four Asian American young women, three of whom are from California. Really nice girls all around. None of them were valedictorians of their high school class. None of them had board scores as high as my daughter's, who is African American. Each has one or two strong talents outside of the classroom in addition to being really good students (not necessarily geniuses). My only point to this is that the mass hysteria over the idiosyncratic nature of college admissions has led people to create mythology about what it takes for someone from this group or that group to get into places like Harvard, or Yale or Stanford. The fact of the matter is that if you were unsuccessful at getting in, it is probably because they selected someone else who looks a whole lot like you, but perhaps had something more that they were looking for. And, that something else does not reduce down to 50 or even 100 points on your SATs.

+1. You get it.

This. As an Ivy grad I've come to realize that most of the people commenting on what it takes to get in and that it's easier for some groups vs. others actually don't really know. First of all its not the end all be all and second of all there is no formula. If folks really want to know, talk to people who actually got accepted to an ivy vs. those hoping and wishing their kid gets in and afraid they won't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So no one thinks that checking off african american had any effect on this?

Of course it did. It would never have happened otherwise.

Silly rabbit. Is that you Paleo?

I don't know who Paleo is. But are you really suggesting that minority status doesn't affect admissions chances?

My point is that posters like you are always fixated on the ONE who gets in and present this argument that there is this flood of African American students who are unqualified and accepted for admission. It is untrue and a blatant lie. The stats bear this out and so does some of this thread.

While minority status with good/excellent grades can play a role with colleges who want a diversified environment, the same application is applied to legacy, sports, music, science, literary, etc. MIT, for example, wants to fill some seats in their Global Language program. So, someone with strengths might get that seat (I know an American minority who is passionate in languages and speaks two critical and one Romance) as their language proficiency changes their "status."

No matter how you spin it, African-Americans are not the majority (other than HBCUs) in the Ivys and their representation is low in single digits. This is why I take exception with the attempts of some to vilify this young woman because she has applied to all 8 Ivys or because she may or may not have gotten application assistance. It's trivial.

You're totally misunderstanding the statistics and probabilities of the matter. It's precisely BECAUSE there are so few competitive African-American applicants that the ones who are have a much easier time gaining admittance.

They may have an 'easier' time as you put it but you better know they are presenting qualifications equal to their peers. And that is a fact. Harvard and its peers DO NOT admit someone who can't handle the work. These schools reputations are what brings in billions of endowment dollars, and the money is NOT coming in if their academic reputation plummets because of academically poor admissions. It's just not happening.

You continue to attack strawmen. Nobody suggested that she was not academically qualified. The thing is that the vast majority of their rejected applicants are academically qualified.