WSJ: the Secrets of Elite College Admissions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The original readers gave him a score of 2 out of 5 in that category, observing that he wanted to major in pre-med “but we don’t see activities to support that,” one of the admissions officers said.

other than taking all available bio and chem classes, how exactly does a high school kid demonstrate a love of premed?

Hospital shadowing and research (which is a whole other issue—not really acessible for kids in rural or suburban areas if they don’t have their own cars)

Yep. One of my friends who is a doctor spent high school summers and weekends as “Candystriper.” I don’t know if they even have that program anymore, but it involved volunteering at local hospitals. They wore a striped smock to identify them as young volunteers, thus the name.

My sisters and I did the same. Ours were jumpers (similar to what a first grade Catholic
School uniform looks like) and they were pink and white. We wore white shirts. I don’t remember doing much more than delivering flowers from the gift shop.

If you want to torture yourself, you can go to Princeton’s web site. The financial aid page has a calculator where you can guesstimate your DC’s cost of attendance for the year. Spoiler alert - they think you can pay way more than you think you can for DC to be a Princeton tiger.

Fortunately you don’t need to be a “Princeton tiger” to go to med school—I know so many people who went to undergrads you’d never consider and they’re doctors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College has become WAYYYYYYY too expensive. Unnecessarily so.

State schools have become way too expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Davidson College, Emory University and the University of Washington, aren’t exactly “elite.” They are solid, high ranking schools. Elite would be like T10.

They are elite schools. Since there are only 8 Ivies and 400,000 plus or minus students other schools have moved up. There just isn’t room in the Ivies for every qualified student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The original readers gave him a score of 2 out of 5 in that category, observing that he wanted to major in pre-med “but we don’t see activities to support that,” one of the admissions officers said.

other than taking all available bio and chem classes, how exactly does a high school kid demonstrate a love of premed?

Hospital shadowing and research (which is a whole other issue—not really acessible for kids in rural or suburban areas if they don’t have their own cars)

Yep. One of my friends who is a doctor spent high school summers and weekends as “Candystriper.” I don’t know if they even have that program anymore, but it involved volunteering at local hospitals. They wore a striped smock to identify them as young volunteers, thus the name.

My sisters and I did the same. Ours were jumpers (similar to what a first grade Catholic
School uniform looks like) and they were pink and white. We wore white shirts. I don’t remember doing much more than delivering flowers from the gift shop.

If you want to torture yourself, you can go to Princeton’s web site. The financial aid page has a calculator where you can guesstimate your DC’s cost of attendance for the year. Spoiler alert - they think you can pay way more than you think you can for DC to be a Princeton tiger.

I ran it too. I’d consider us MC/UMC and we got $25k/yr efc.

We did too on the EFC...until we added in the equity in our house. That jumped us up another $10K per year to $35K. That is a killer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The original readers gave him a score of 2 out of 5 in that category, observing that he wanted to major in pre-med “but we don’t see activities to support that,” one of the admissions officers said.

other than taking all available bio and chem classes, how exactly does a high school kid demonstrate a love of premed?

Hospital shadowing and research (which is a whole other issue—not really acessible for kids in rural or suburban areas if they don’t have their own cars)

Yep. One of my friends who is a doctor spent high school summers and weekends as “Candystriper.” I don’t know if they even have that program anymore, but it involved volunteering at local hospitals. They wore a striped smock to identify them as young volunteers, thus the name.

My sisters and I did the same. Ours were jumpers (similar to what a first grade Catholic
School uniform looks like) and they were pink and white. We wore white shirts. I don’t remember doing much more than delivering flowers from the gift shop.

If you want to torture yourself, you can go to Princeton’s web site. The financial aid page has a calculator where you can guesstimate your DC’s cost of attendance for the year. Spoiler alert - they think you can pay way more than you think you can for DC to be a Princeton tiger.

All schools have a net price calculator that estimates the price. My kid and I put together his school list based on his interests and my estimated payment. Schools that we can’t afford don’t go in the list. Our goal is for him to have zero student debt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The original readers gave him a score of 2 out of 5 in that category, observing that he wanted to major in pre-med “but we don’t see activities to support that,” one of the admissions officers said.

other than taking all available bio and chem classes, how exactly does a high school kid demonstrate a love of premed?

Hospital shadowing and research (which is a whole other issue—not really acessible for kids in rural or suburban areas if they don’t have their own cars)

Yep. One of my friends who is a doctor spent high school summers and weekends as “Candystriper.” I don’t know if they even have that program anymore, but it involved volunteering at local hospitals. They wore a striped smock to identify them as young volunteers, thus the name.

My sisters and I did the same. Ours were jumpers (similar to what a first grade Catholic
School uniform looks like) and they were pink and white. We wore white shirts. I don’t remember doing much more than delivering flowers from the gift shop.

If you want to torture yourself, you can go to Princeton’s web site. The financial aid page has a calculator where you can guesstimate your DC’s cost of attendance for the year. Spoiler alert - they think you can pay way more than you think you can for DC to be a Princeton tiger.

I ran it too. I’d consider us MC/UMC and we got $25k/yr efc.

We did too on the EFC...until we added in the equity in our house. That jumped us up another $10K per year to $35K. That is a killer.

Go with the county assessment for the home value - it’s what the government says your house is worth and it probably reduces your equity by a decent amount

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Davidson College, Emory University and the University of Washington, aren’t exactly “elite.” They are solid, high ranking schools. Elite would be like T10.

There are 4K colleges/unis in the US.

So what? Nobody really cares about schools outside the top 15. People definitely don't care about Davidson, Emory, and Washington. Fine schools of course, but honestly, nobody cares. Just like nobody cares about UVA outside of the DMV. It's just a good state school. Maybe -- maybe -- people will assume you're preppy and were in Greek life, but that's the extent of the UVA reputation outside of DMV.

Emory is a top 20 school. I hope you assume no one cares about Cornell and Berkeley either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Davidson College, Emory University and the University of Washington, aren’t exactly “elite.” They are solid, high ranking schools. Elite would be like T10.

They are elite schools. Since there are only 8 Ivies and 400,000 plus or minus students other schools have moved up. There just isn’t room in the Ivies for every qualified student.

Umiversity of Washington is “elite.” If you say so. This makes every State Podunk Uni “elite.” Good to know.

[Anonymous]

I didn't feel like I learned anything new from this article.

Overall: I can't believe we subject ourselves to this ridiculous game. I'm encouraging my kids to go to state schools and not get caught up in all this nonsense.

Part of me wants these over-priced private schools to fail in the coming corona-fallout and demographic crisis and get their come-uppance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The original readers gave him a score of 2 out of 5 in that category, observing that he wanted to major in pre-med “but we don’t see activities to support that,” one of the admissions officers said.

other than taking all available bio and chem classes, how exactly does a high school kid demonstrate a love of premed?

Hospital shadowing and research (which is a whole other issue—not really acessible for kids in rural or suburban areas if they don’t have their own cars)

Yep. One of my friends who is a doctor spent high school summers and weekends as “Candystriper.” I don’t know if they even have that program anymore, but it involved volunteering at local hospitals. They wore a striped smock to identify them as young volunteers, thus the name.

My sisters and I did the same. Ours were jumpers (similar to what a first grade Catholic
School uniform looks like) and they were pink and white. We wore white shirts. I don’t remember doing much more than delivering flowers from the gift shop.

If you want to torture yourself, you can go to Princeton’s web site. The financial aid page has a calculator where you can guesstimate your DC’s cost of attendance for the year. Spoiler alert - they think you can pay way more than you think you can for DC to be a Princeton tiger.

I ran it too. I’d consider us MC/UMC and we got $25k/yr efc.

We did too on the EFC...until we added in the equity in our house. That jumped us up another $10K per year to $35K. That is a killer.

Go with the county assessment for the home value - it’s what the government says your house is worth and it probably reduces your equity by a decent amount

I am pretty sure people at Princeton are smart enough to google Zillow, trulia, realtor.com to see the true value of homes.

[Anonymous]

Can someone paste in the full article? The author is known for being an expert on these issues and I'd like to read it.

[Anonymous]

it's on reddit/A2C

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't feel like I learned anything new from this article.

Overall: I can't believe we subject ourselves to this ridiculous game. I'm encouraging my kids to go to state schools and not get caught up in all this nonsense.

Part of me wants these over-priced private schools to fail in the coming corona-fallout and demographic crisis and get their come-uppance.

You seem to have a problem with private schools and you write terribly. Pretty clear what happened to you.

[Anonymous]

it's on reddit/A2C

Um, sorry, I googled that and it didn't pop up. Anyone have a link?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't feel like I learned anything new from this article.

Overall: I can't believe we subject ourselves to this ridiculous game. I'm encouraging my kids to go to state schools and not get caught up in all this nonsense.

Part of me wants these over-priced private schools to fail in the coming corona-fallout and demographic crisis and get their come-uppance.

WOW. You do realize elite universities are way cheaper for poor kids than public universities, right?