Obsession with HYPS, why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Being a Navy SEAL is more prestigious and harder to do than to get admitted to and then graduate from an Ivy League school, including Harvard.

The SEALS have no legacy admissions, and if you can't cut the mustard - 80 percent of those who are selected for and start training washout - you are out! Harvard has a few hundred thousand alumni. The SEALS - living and dead - number about 10,000.

I'm more impressed with a Navy SEAL than the run-of-the-mill Harvard grad.

Well, you must be a man then because they don't let women in the SEALS. I hate the military so it is not impressive to me to teach someone to go out and kill people. And please, they are not defending me...the US should have never gone to Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Afghanistan, etc. And, if they were "defending me" ...they'd be in Saudia Arabia. I'm guessing you voted for the Trumpster.

You do realize it's elected officials that start these wars and not the military. And no, I've not voted GOP since 1984.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the kids from California boarding school don't go to the UCs lol. Just take a look at matriculation lists. Ivies, private Us, and LACs are a lot more popular.

Hmm. Looking at Harvard Westlake right now. I see 10 to UCs, 16 to Michigan, 5 to Wisconsin, 2 to Indiana, 3 to UVA, 1 to University of Georgia, 1 to Washington, 3 to Texas, 2 to Colorado for class of 17...

The forum if full of very frustrated, underachieving toxic people.

[Anonymous]

The Foreign Service has a selection rate equal to or below that of many Ivies - 3 - 5% - and there are FSOs who don't go to Ivies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Must be an East Coast thing, I'm from CA and THE schools everyone strives for out there will always be UCLA, Stanford, Berkeley...

It is not, go to the elite prep schools in LA and SF and you will see that people are striving for HYPSM, then the rest of the ivies and finally the UCs. I speak from personal experience. The only place these kids turn down the ivies for is Stanford. UCLA and Berkeley are not on that level.

This might not be true for the CA public school or smaller private school crowd though.

Or the UMC suburban publics in CA. I lived in a college (UC) town and my HS sent kids to the Ivies. Still does -- more so today. My sibs are still in SoCal and the one who lives in a UMC suburb sends his kids to a public school with classmates who want to go to HYP. When I was a kid, lesser Ivies weren't that appealing because Cal was dirt cheap and great and, on the West Coast, schools other than Harvard and Yale didn't have the same kind of name recognition. That HAS changed. As has Stanford's prestige.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Recently was speaking with the mom of the top-ranked kid in DC 's class during PTA meeting. She said the following: "I would be rather disappointed if [her son] didn't make it to HYPS. But i guess a lesser ivy would be better than no ivy at all." She is truly an insufferably pompous woman, both her and her husband went to Harvard and she won't shut up about it. Sadly she is not the only one in our private school...

Anyway, she got me thinking. Why is HYPS such a big deal? I m also reading this forum for the first time and HYPS seems to be mentioned a lot.

Husband and I went to public universities and public high schools so we don't really know this stuff. We don't mingle well with the elite prep-school crowd, but have sent our kids there for better opportunities. So why is HYPS such a big deal?

Ask her what school she went to... unless she went to one herself, express that's a huge shame since her lack of legacy status will impact her child adversely in the admittance process. Let her know it would actually be her fault if this tragic outcome were to happen.

[Anonymous]

Wow, so much for being the change you'd like to see....

[Anonymous]

Why are some people obsessed with the best? Dumb question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are some people obsessed with the best? Dumb question.

It is not dumb. It is ok to strive for the most prestigious but to be obsessed with them to the point of actively saying that anything else is a disappointment, doesn't seem normal. Would you feel like your kid was a disappointment if they didn't make it to Stanford but instead got into Penn?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are some people obsessed with the best? Dumb question.

It is not dumb. It is ok to strive for the most prestigious but to be obsessed with them to the point of actively saying that anything else is a disappointment, doesn't seem normal. Would you feel like your kid was a disappointment if they didn't make it to Stanford but instead got into Penn?!

Obsessed because nobody accidentally gets into HYPS. It takes years of conditioning and prep and resume building.

As for life is over if they don't get in, it's not really like that. Worst case for a polished tiger cub is UVA, Michigan or a full ride at Alabama. All fine schools where a kid can become really successful and meet plenty of other tiger cubs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are some people obsessed with the best? Dumb question.

It is not dumb. It is ok to strive for the most prestigious but to be obsessed with them to the point of actively saying that anything else is a disappointment, doesn't seem normal. Would you feel like your kid was a disappointment if they didn't make it to Stanford but instead got into Penn?!

Obsessed because nobody accidentally gets into HYPS. It takes years of conditioning and prep and resume building.

As for life is over if they don't get in, it's not really like that. Worst case for a polished tiger cub is UVA, Michigan or a full ride at Alabama. All fine schools where a kid can become really successful and meet plenty of other tiger cubs.

Wrong. Unless you are a student with something really unique (major award, research etc) then getting into HYPS as opposed to another Ivy is largely down to luck. Not everyone who makes it to HYPS is a nationally recognized scholar or inventor. There are many normal high stats kids admitted as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are some people obsessed with the best? Dumb question.

It is not dumb. It is ok to strive for the most prestigious but to be obsessed with them to the point of actively saying that anything else is a disappointment, doesn't seem normal. Would you feel like your kid was a disappointment if they didn't make it to Stanford but instead got into Penn?!

Obsessed because nobody accidentally gets into HYPS. It takes years of conditioning and prep and resume building.

As for life is over if they don't get in, it's not really like that. Worst case for a polished tiger cub is UVA, Michigan or a full ride at Alabama. All fine schools where a kid can become really successful and meet plenty of other tiger cubs.

Many of the most successful people in American life never set foot on an Ivy campus (at least as a student).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not MIT?

Yout have to be good at math?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not MIT?

Yout have to be good at math?

MIT is much more intense than HYPS. It is not for just any top student. It takes a certain type of kid to thrive there.

[Anonymous]

I laugh every time my DW tries to claim how much smarter she is than me b/c she went to an Ivy. How insecure is that?

[Anonymous]

So, pretty much HYSP are hard to get into but not so demanding once you're in. According to the Princeton Review these are the most academically demanding schools in the US:

Georgia Tech, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States Coast Guard Academy, California Institute of Technology, Rice University, Carnegie Mellon University, United States Naval Academy, Swarthmore College, Grinnell College and Amherst College.