Ivy League Admissions are a Sham - Gawker Article

[Anonymous]

http://gawker.com/ivy-league-admissions-are-a-sham-confessions-of-a-harv-1690402410?rev=1426703067868&utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_facebook&utm_source=gawker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

The best quote: "Instead, I've seen a boringly predictable, on-trend parade of general excellence, like eating a dozen cronuts for dinner. It's interesting in the abstract, but the palate needs cleansing after a while. Hearing the liberal-upper-middle-class consensus view of the world (but with a twist, like backpacking through Southeast Asia!) certainly does not hurt an applicant. On the other hand, if I wanted that I would just sit on the toilet and listen to NPR."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://gawker.com/ivy-league-admissions-are-a-sham-confessions-of-a-harv-1690402410?rev=1426703067868&utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_facebook&utm_source=gawker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

The best quote: "Instead, I've seen a boringly predictable, on-trend parade of general excellence, like eating a dozen cronuts for dinner. It's interesting in the abstract, but the palate needs cleansing after a while. Hearing the liberal-upper-middle-class consensus view of the world (but with a twist, like backpacking through Southeast Asia!) certainly does not hurt an applicant. On the other hand, if I wanted that I would just sit on the toilet and listen to NPR."

Right out of that episode of modern family.

[Anonymous]

First of all, these interviews are much more about Alumni Relations than Admissions. They are intended to make graduates feel like they are important contributors to the college. If a kid has 2300 SATs, a 3.9 GPA, and three great recommendation letters from teachers and a counselor how have known him for years, what difference does the impression gleaned by some random alum over a 45-minute coffee shop discussion make? Conversely, if a kid has a 3.5 and sub-2200 SATs, there's no alumni recommendation in the world that's going to get him in.

The author of this article seemed to be full of the same vainglory he accuses Harvard of. Why does he need to ask the kids' SATs and GPAs? They're already being officially reported to the Admissions Office - they don't need an unconfirmed corroboration from an alum. And if Harvard accepts roughly 5% of its applicants, then why should he expect more than 1 of 20 of the applicants he interviews to get in? I guess his word should carry much greater weight than that of another alumni interviewer.

[Anonymous]

Also, pushing like crazy to get into an undergrad is sort of not smart anymore. The long game is on graduate school, including placement in medical school or grad programs with good outcomes. Undergrad in a lot of ways is an extension of high school. Another loop to jump. It seems even more exhausting than when I went through the rat race.

[Anonymous]

He interviewed between 3 to 6 kids per year for 8 years.

That's 24 to 48 kids, with a Harvard accept rate that's averaged about 7% during that time. So, statistically, between 1.7 and 3.4 of all the people he's interviewed should have been accepted to Harvard during that time.

[Anonymous]

This makes me feel bad for my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This makes me feel bad for my kids.

why?

[Anonymous]

I don't agree. Maybe it is the community the alum lives in.

I applied and was accepted to Ivies as an exceptional student. I didn't go to an Ivy but a higher-ranking institute. All of the people I met were diverse, interesting. No two people were the same.

[Anonymous]

I would trust this more if the interviewer didn't refer to him/herself as a "Harvard admissions representative". He/she vastly overinflates his/her role and influence in the admissions process.

Maybe if an actual admission officer came out and said something like this...

[Anonymous]

Good article. Ball washer is a real job for students that actually need cash. I waitressed in high school and never would have been able to work for free in a lab.

[Anonymous]

Unless Harvard is vastly different than my Ivy alma mater (though according to DCUM, a "lesser" Ivy), a.) you are not an admissions employee and b.) alumni interviews count for very little unless you have 2 equally qualified students to choose from and need a tie breaker - one's alumni write up says the student was hard to engage in coversation, gave one word answers, etc. and the other write up says the student spoke intelligently about a range of subjects, looked the adult in the eye and kept the conversation going. The latter gets in.

Having been an alumni interviewer for over a decade, I have always understood this and use the interview to get a sense of the student as an actual person off the paper they have submitted to admissions and to give the student a chance to ask about the college, even down to simple things, like "Are the winters really that bad?" I always hope that if the student is in a tiebreaker situation that whatever I have written up will be useful to the admissions officer looking at the package. Also, we are specifically instructed not to ask the student their GPA or SAT scores and I certainly would never request that an applicant provide me with a resume or the essay they wrote for admissions. Instead I ask them about the last book they read for fun and what they spend their free non-resume building time doing.

[Anonymous]

ITA -- another alumni interviewer.

[Anonymous]

The author was trying to show that her job as Harvard alumni interviewer so important. He got in to Harvard was his luck.