This should tell you how elite college admissions really are

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is owed Harvard. Do you understand that you are competing globally for 2000 or so spots? Tell me when you looked at the acceptance rate did you think of another outcome ? I’m trying to understand why you are so surprisEd.

Seriously. The only thing that’s changed since I was young is the enormous amount of parents who think their child with half a brain can get into Harvard.

You mean parents who spend their whole life making their kids study for a test... think they DESERVE (are ENTITLED) to Harvard.

Step back and take a deep breath and be nice, won't you? I swear half the people posting are high school kids.

The world has evolved from a time 20 years ago when Harvard and the other top colleges held themselves up as the best of the American universities and told all applicants we're seeking for the best and brightest students and these are our standards and expectations, and if you meet them you have a fair chance of being admitted. That was understood. And now they've gone from "fair chance" to virtually no chance of being admitted in part because we're giving all these spots to athletes and legacies and all the other special interest groups. At the same time they still call themselves the best universities taking in the best and brightest students. There's a certain inconsistency and hypocrisy involved here. And it's clearer and clearer than ever. And before you shout in capitalized letters, no, I'm not someone who has any stakes in these admissions games, and am just an amused observer from the sidelines.

Oxbridge can still claim that. Harvard, not so much.

[Anonymous]

I appreciate the data. I think it would be a wake up call for a lot of people who aren’t paying attention. (Maybe not this board.) I graduated from a high school in upstate ny in the 90s and it was absolutely the case that the top kids (top 25-30 out of 250) in the class got into hpy, ivies, Stanford, top LACs. And the top kids took 5-7 APs, max. It was just a normal suburban high school with bright kids. The smartest kids got into Harvard and Stanford but the next rung down still ended up at Williams, penn, Cornell, etc.

Times have really changed. In a way, I find it a relief that the top schools are out of reach financially and admissions wise for my own kids. We won’t even bother playing the game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is owed Harvard. Do you understand that you are competing globally for 2000 or so spots? Tell me when you looked at the acceptance rate did you think of another outcome ? I’m trying to understand why you are so surprisEd.

Seriously. The only thing that’s changed since I was young is the enormous amount of parents who think their child with half a brain can get into Harvard.

You mean parents who spend their whole life making their kids study for a test... think they DESERVE (are ENTITLED) to Harvard.

Step back and take a deep breath and be nice, won't you? I swear half the people posting are high school kids.

The world has evolved from a time 20 years ago when Harvard and the other top colleges held themselves up as the best of the American universities and told all applicants we're seeking for the best and brightest students and these are our standards and expectations, and if you meet them you have a fair chance of being admitted. That was understood. And now they've gone from "fair chance" to virtually no chance of being admitted in part because we're giving all these spots to athletes and legacies and all the other special interest groups. At the same time they still call themselves the best universities taking in the best and brightest students. There's a certain inconsistency and hypocrisy involved here. And it's clearer and clearer than ever. And before you shout in capitalized letters, no, I'm not someone who has any stakes in these admissions games, and am just an amused observer from the sidelines.

Oxbridge can still claim that. Harvard, not so much.

It makes you wonder if it is worth aspiring to these schools anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is owed Harvard. Do you understand that you are competing globally for 2000 or so spots? Tell me when you looked at the acceptance rate did you think of another outcome ? I’m trying to understand why you are so surprisEd.

Seriously. The only thing that’s changed since I was young is the enormous amount of parents who think their child with half a brain can get into Harvard.

You mean parents who spend their whole life making their kids study for a test... think they DESERVE (are ENTITLED) to Harvard.

Step back and take a deep breath and be nice, won't you? I swear half the people posting are high school kids.

The world has evolved from a time 20 years ago when Harvard and the other top colleges held themselves up as the best of the American universities and told all applicants we're seeking for the best and brightest students and these are our standards and expectations, and if you meet them you have a fair chance of being admitted. That was understood. And now they've gone from "fair chance" to virtually no chance of being admitted in part because we're giving all these spots to athletes and legacies and all the other special interest groups. At the same time they still call themselves the best universities taking in the best and brightest students. There's a certain inconsistency and hypocrisy involved here. And it's clearer and clearer than ever. And before you shout in capitalized letters, no, I'm not someone who has any stakes in these admissions games, and am just an amused observer from the sidelines.

Oxbridge can still claim that. Harvard, not so much.

It makes you wonder if it is worth aspiring to these schools anymore.

What's the point of all of this? If you think the above is true, no one is making your kid apply or aspire to them. Have them apply somewhere else and be happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I stopped reading after the OP mentioned the race and ethnicity of the students going to top 10 colleges.

Why? It's interesting.

No it isn’t. It is creepy and borderline racist. “Half Asian?”

This OP has spent easy to much time dissecting the stats and outcomes of 500 kids.

What do you call the race of a person who has an Asian Parent and a White Parent?

Hapa

I don't understand. By "Hapa" do you mean "Half pale"?

"She was tall and freckled, with long, dark hair — and we stood out in the same way. As I leaned in to say hi, she yelled over the din, 'You're hapa, aren't you?' It was the last word I expected to hear in D.C., but I welcomed the refreshing respite from the constant and inevitable question: 'What are you?'"

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/12/15/370416571/half-asian-half-white-no-hapa

Thank you for sharing about "Hapa" and for the link. You educated me about it and for that I feel enriched. I will remember that lovely term.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one is owed Harvard. Do you understand that you are competing globally for 2000 or so spots? Tell me when you looked at the acceptance rate did you think of another outcome ? I’m trying to understand why you are so surprisEd.

One reason is that many of us parents are GenXers who went to T25 schools and have cousins who did. I was waitlisted at MIT with only a 3.8 UW GPA, a 710 on my math SATs and no serious extracurriculars. I have cousins who went to HYPS schools who probably had weaker stats. The new standards are something of a shock.

But I think another reason is that even schools like Harvard know they’re in fierce competition with the University of Texas at Austin for kids from Texas. A fair number of kids who get into both UT and Harvard probably pick UT for financial reasons. Harvard admissions people know any Texas kids they reject have a great public flagship. So, they may be a little extra tough on applicants from Texas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I stopped reading after the OP mentioned the race and ethnicity of the students going to top 10 colleges.

OP is obviously trying to make a point with the racial make-up of the "elite" students at his or her school. He or she is making a universal generalization, the law of the universe - all based on a sample size of 1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But DCUM told me if I move to flyover country my kids will be Ivy autoadmits

Suburban Texas is no longer "flyover country." A top public school in suburban Austin (or Dallas or Houston), is, if anything, more competitive than the DC suburbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Not sure why people think that the post was racist. I am giving objective detailed data on the students accepted because otherwise stats mean very little. Also, these kids are not "academic drones". Many are accomplished kids with good EC's and participate in many real community service projects.


I am just saying that none of that seems to have helped them get into a top 20 school. Use the information as you will.

And btw, many universities like Brown have actually said they are trying to recruit more kids from Texas. I guess they are looking for a "different profile" than these kids.

They're looking for "development cases," i.e., oil money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is owed Harvard. Do you understand that you are competing globally for 2000 or so spots? Tell me when you looked at the acceptance rate did you think of another outcome ? I’m trying to understand why you are so surprisEd.

Seriously. The only thing that’s changed since I was young is the enormous amount of parents who think their child with half a brain can get into Harvard.

You mean parents who spend their whole life making their kids study for a test... think they DESERVE (are ENTITLED) to Harvard.

Step back and take a deep breath and be nice, won't you? I swear half the people posting are high school kids.

The world has evolved from a time 20 years ago when Harvard and the other top colleges held themselves up as the best of the American universities and told all applicants we're seeking for the best and brightest students and these are our standards and expectations, and if you meet them you have a fair chance of being admitted. That was understood. And now they've gone from "fair chance" to virtually no chance of being admitted in part because we're giving all these spots to athletes and legacies and all the other special interest groups. At the same time they still call themselves the best universities taking in the best and brightest students. There's a certain inconsistency and hypocrisy involved here. And it's clearer and clearer than ever. And before you shout in capitalized letters, no, I'm not someone who has any stakes in these admissions games, and am just an amused observer from the sidelines.

Oxbridge can still claim that. Harvard, not so much.

It makes you wonder if it is worth aspiring to these schools anymore.

Nobody goes to Harvard anymore. It’s too crowded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I stopped reading after the OP mentioned the race and ethnicity of the students going to top 10 colleges.

Why? That’s probably the most pertinent fact in college admissions these days

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I stopped reading after the OP mentioned the race and ethnicity of the students going to top 10 colleges.

Why? That’s probably the most pertinent fact in college admissions these days

You know this is not true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I stopped reading after the OP mentioned the race and ethnicity of the students going to top 10 colleges.

Why? That’s probably the most pertinent fact in college admissions these days

Yes. If you’re Asian you are disadvantaged compared to whites. But that’s always been true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I stopped reading after the OP mentioned the race and ethnicity of the students going to top 10 colleges.

Why? That’s probably the most pertinent fact in college admissions these days

You know this is not true.

DP. You’re kidding yourself if you think this isn’t true. The amount of effort and money the elites pour into scouring the country for black and Latino applicants that are even remotely qualified is staggering. And that’s just the beginning because they pour an equal amount of resources into ensuring they graduate at a rate that is somewhat comparable to the median. The entire admissions and retention effort is social justice kabuki and nobody has any idea if it makes a difference at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I stopped reading after the OP mentioned the race and ethnicity of the students going to top 10 colleges.

Why? That’s probably the most pertinent fact in college admissions these days

You know this is not true.

DP. You’re kidding yourself if you think this isn’t true. The amount of effort and money the elites pour into scouring the country for black and Latino applicants that are even remotely qualified is staggering. And that’s just the beginning because they pour an equal amount of resources into ensuring they graduate at a rate that is somewhat comparable to the median. The entire admissions and retention effort is social justice kabuki and nobody has any idea if it makes a difference at all.

Racist much?