Tell me about the kids you know getting into the Ivy League . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To answer the original question: the kids I know who have gotten in have whopping test scores, are legacies (but with great credentials, too), or offer something extraordinary and unique.

I know a student with a B- average and mediocre test scores who was admitted to Harvard. Not a legacy, but the other two hooks applied.

I doubt this. Very much. I know a similar case with fantastic stats, minority plus legacy, who did not get into Harvard.

http://features.thecrimson.com/2014/recruiting/

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegebasketball/story/harvard-crimson-return-to-ncaa-tournament-under-tommy-amaker-but-academic-questions-remain-031412

Another article that mentions rival teams making allegations about lower academic standards, but says nothing about GPAs as low as B-.

http://home.comcast.net/~charles517/ivyai.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't discount the fact that some kids actually get enjoyment from playing multiple sports and interacting with their peers while participating in serious endeavors, like Model UN or the school newspaper. Free-playing in the street isn't for every kid, especially when they reach high school age. The concept of farting around is a middle-class notion developed in the last 100 years. Before then, kids had to work both in the classroom and often at home - with many unfortunates having real jobs to help support the family.

sorry way to go throug life being. Socially awkward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't discount the fact that some kids actually get enjoyment from playing multiple sports and interacting with their peers while participating in serious endeavors, like Model UN or the school newspaper. Free-playing in the street isn't for every kid, especially when they reach high school age. The concept of farting around is a middle-class notion developed in the last 100 years. Before then, kids had to work both in the classroom and often at home - with many unfortunates having real jobs to help support the family.

sorry way to go throug life being. Socially awkward.

Why the judgement? If the kid is happy and driving all the activities, who are you to say it's wrong?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't discount the fact that some kids actually get enjoyment from playing multiple sports and interacting with their peers while participating in serious endeavors, like Model UN or the school newspaper. Free-playing in the street isn't for every kid, especially when they reach high school age. The concept of farting around is a middle-class notion developed in the last 100 years. Before then, kids had to work both in the classroom and often at home - with many unfortunates having real jobs to help support the family.

sorry way to go throug life being. Socially awkward.

These are not the socially awkward kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
http://home.comcast.net/~charles517/ivyai.html

Interesting. So if you follow that link to the "converted rank" calculations, you will find this:

"A typical “low-low,” therefore, will be in the top quarter of his high school class, with a 27 on the ACT (1220 SAT), and will be a first-team all-stater or even a high school All-American caliber player. A typical “high” might still be an all-conference caliber player with a 33+ ACT (1460+ SAT) and a top 5% ranking. "

So even the athletic recruits with the lowest index scores are generally in the top 1/4 of their high school classes. Lower than non-hooked applicants, certainly, but hardly B- territory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My nephew: Top score in Governor's school, top score SAT. Published and national speeches at age 14. Eagle Scout. International Scholarship winner. From a small town. Huge ego.

What does this mean when people say their kids are published? Book? Research article? Poem in a collection? Just curious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't discount the fact that some kids actually get enjoyment from playing multiple sports and interacting with their peers while participating in serious endeavors, like Model UN or the school newspaper. Free-playing in the street isn't for every kid, especially when they reach high school age. The concept of farting around is a middle-class notion developed in the last 100 years. Before then, kids had to work both in the classroom and often at home - with many unfortunates having real jobs to help support the family.

Free playing around here leads to snogging and more snogging, not to an Ivy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To answer the original question: the kids I know who have gotten in have whopping test scores, are legacies (but with great credentials, too), or offer something extraordinary and unique.

I know a student with a B- average and mediocre test scores who was admitted to Harvard. Not a legacy, but the other two hooks applied.

I doubt this. Very much. I know a similar case with fantastic stats, minority plus legacy, who did not get into Harvard.

http://features.thecrimson.com/2014/recruiting/

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegebasketball/story/harvard-crimson-return-to-ncaa-tournament-under-tommy-amaker-but-academic-questions-remain-031412

Look, if you're gonna make statements about B-s being shoo-ins at Harvard, you're going to have to try a lot harder than this. (And Fox News?) Otherwise you look like another Chicken Little with the addition of pitiable jealousy issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The girl on my street is a legacy x 2 at either HYP (don't want to out her)

She is a 3-sport varsity athlete and a national merit finalist. She does international humanitarian work and is a junior officer at a real-deal international humanitarian NGO. She has won national writing award(s). She is a student journalist. She is white, non Hispanic.

She is fluent in a language that is all the rage now among Striving Parents.
Private school.

Also, she has never been seen outdoors playing or riding a bike or aimlessly farting around with other kids on the street since she was about 9. I am not kidding.

This is reminding me why I found so many of my ivy league colleagues so tedious. Any real people who get into the Ivies these days?

What language is that?

[Anonymous]

Mandarin Chinese, of course. Useless little language spoken by 2-3x as many of the world's inhabitants as English. It is just a fad.

[Anonymous]

My daughter got into an Ivy. Number one in her class, very active in student government and the community. Actually brought about a major change in our school/ community totally on her own initiative. She worked with great adults on the school board to do this. She exhausted the curriculum at her school and took courses at a university. But, most of all, she is very personable. She loves her friends and loves to help other students both socially and academically.
My son is actually much brighter than my daughter. He got an 800 on the math SAT in 9th grade. But, he is not a leader and has not been an active member of his school or community. I am not going to have him waste his time applying to ivies.

[Anonymous]

The most recent HYP student I know is the daughter of minority, highly educated immigrant parents who worked hard to send her to well-regarded private schools for her entire education. She did not graduate at the very top of her class but was involved in creative pursuits and had very good grades and test scores, though not as high as others mentioned in this thread. I believe her admittance was based on great teacher recommendations and minority standing - NOT to detract from her work ethic or intelligence (both of which she has in spades), but in looking for deciding factors it definitely wasn't grades and test scores. She's sort of languished at her Ivy though - hopped majors, spent lots of time abroad, let grades slip (though not drastically), didn't secure a great internship. She seems like she's happy and having a blast though.

[Anonymous]

Of the 15 kids I interviewed for my Ivy, 2 were accepted this year. One was definitely a sports recruit. He acted at the interview as if he had already been told he was in and I gave him a very mediocre report. I was a little dismayed he got in over some of the other candidates who were far more outstanding. It really is a crapshoot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of the 15 kids I interviewed for my Ivy, 2 were accepted this year. One was definitely a sports recruit. He acted at the interview as if he had already been told he was in and I gave him a very mediocre report. I was a little dismayed he got in over some of the other candidates who were far more outstanding. It really is a crapshoot.

Really, a kid is going to play sport for your Ivy. He is going to help them win, get in the paper and add to the overall pride of the school. He is going to be used and abused, given little chance to attend classes, forced to teach himself and learn from mediocre tutors and cast aside if he gets injured.

He knows this interview is useless (plus the 10-20 other he had to do), he knows your input has little to no value but it is yet another hoop he has to jump through in his life as a puppet.

.... and you want to know why he did not bow down to you at the interview. Maybe his EQ is really high and read you as a pompous ass.

"Acted as iff he had been told he was in" .... of course he was already told ... are you clueless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of the 15 kids I interviewed for my Ivy, 2 were accepted this year. One was definitely a sports recruit. He acted at the interview as if he had already been told he was in and I gave him a very mediocre report. I was a little dismayed he got in over some of the other candidates who were far more outstanding. It really is a crapshoot.

Really, a kid is going to play sport for your Ivy. He is going to help them win, get in the paper and add to the overall pride of the school. He is going to be used and abused, given little chance to attend classes, forced to teach himself and learn from mediocre tutors and cast aside if he gets injured.

He knows this interview is useless (plus the 10-20 other he had to do), he knows your input has little to no value but it is yet another hoop he has to jump through in his life as a puppet.

.... and you want to know why he did not bow down to you at the interview. Maybe his EQ is really high and read you as a pompous ass.

"Acted as iff he had been told he was in" .... of course he was already told ... are you clueless.

I am surprised the sports recruits do alumni interviews at your school. Mine did some athletic recruiting and interviewed with the coach. And yes, they are told they are in if they apply ED. Mine was pre-screened by the admissions dept before being invited for a recruiting visit. For D1 it is actually a pretty formal process, although the ivies are a bit different since there are no athletic scholarships.