The Newest College Admissions Ploy: Paying to Make Your Teen a “Peer-Reviewed” Author

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Case Western just early-admitted 23 students who were clients of one of the pay-for-play research companies. Stanford accepted 11. Most are from China. Agreed that some AOs definitely do not see through this . . .

Same company had 19 to MIT and 39 to Harvard. What is going on?

[Anonymous]

I can't believe anyone who has been through the college process in the last 5 years believes the "AOs can see right through this."

Two reasons:

1. Our communal lived experience. Kid after kid with mom and dad generated internships, fancy ECs, and published papers have gotten in to top schools when the kids we were all rooting for (not nec. are own) and really deserved it did not. Because no, that after school job at their mom and dad's restaurant didn't really impress these AOs while Chad's soon-to-be-dropped "passion project" did.

2. The published fact that more and more readers and now AOs are underpaid, sometimes seasonal workers with less than 3 year experience. Not only can't they "see through this", they also aren't as familiar as your school counselors tell you about how hard your high school is, what that award means, or any of the rest of it.

The system is broken and the market has stepped in to take advantage.

[Anonymous]

My kids participated in science fairs in middle and high school. I would google the parents of the winners, and very often the winning projects were aligned with a parent's field of expertise. I saw the same thing with kids in 11th and 12th grade with winning projects, academic papers and patents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe anyone who has been through the college process in the last 5 years believes the "AOs can see right through this."

Two reasons:

1. Our communal lived experience. Kid after kid with mom and dad generated internships, fancy ECs, and published papers have gotten in to top schools when the kids we were all rooting for (not nec. are own) and really deserved it did not. Because no, that after school job at their mom and dad's restaurant didn't really impress these AOs while Chad's soon-to-be-dropped "passion project" did.

2. The published fact that more and more readers and now AOs are underpaid, sometimes seasonal workers with less than 3 year experience. Not only can't they "see through this", they also aren't as familiar as your school counselors tell you about how hard your high school is, what that award means, or any of the rest of it.

The system is broken and the market has stepped in to take advantage.

Yes, this is what we see in the Boston area. And they aren’t ashamed of it either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe anyone who has been through the college process in the last 5 years believes the "AOs can see right through this."

Two reasons:

1. Our communal lived experience. Kid after kid with mom and dad generated internships, fancy ECs, and published papers have gotten in to top schools when the kids we were all rooting for (not nec. are own) and really deserved it did not. Because no, that after school job at their mom and dad's restaurant didn't really impress these AOs while Chad's soon-to-be-dropped "passion project" did.

2. The published fact that more and more readers and now AOs are underpaid, sometimes seasonal workers with less than 3 year experience. Not only can't they "see through this", they also aren't as familiar as your school counselors tell you about how hard your high school is, what that award means, or any of the rest of it.

The system is broken and the market has stepped in to take advantage.

Yes, this is what we see in the Boston area. And they aren’t ashamed of it either.

It's interesting to see how often these patent-generating, article-publishing super high school kids slack off once beyond the clutches of their parents in college. Despite going to world leading universities, many of them don't seem to generate another patent or publish another article past high school.

[Anonymous]

Once again show the tremendous advantage of having supportive parents. That continues after graduation.