Do you ever worry that your child might not be "elite college material"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. I worry that my DC will take after single sibs and never get married or have kids and live a life of loneliness.

Academics? Easy. Love? Difficult.

Such a western answer.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/westerners-want-love-while-eastern-citizens-wish-for-better-health-a6786011.html

Actually, I'm a DC Native!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I will be seriously disappointed if DS (now 12) is not accepted to a top 25 school. Or a top 10 school for his major, which is looking like it could be engineering. The very best engineering schools don't overlap neatly with absolute top 25.

I will love him just the same if he winds up at U. Wisconsin though. And he will have a nice life if that happens. But it's not wrong to strive for better.

U of Wisconsin isn't that easy to get into either you know.

It is for a certain profile. It's where the disappointed Sidwell parents send their mid-pack, affluent white kids with no hook, for example.

If you go to Sidwell and and up there--or Michigan, for that matter--ask yourself, why did I spend money for this crap?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I care deeply that my children go to college and I want very badly for them to develop passions. I hope they find a college that is the right place to nurture those passions, but we do not care a bit whether that is a top 25 school. In fact, I would prefer that they not strive for Harvard etc. The pressure isn't worth it. We want them to be happy and well-rounded, not stressed or anxious.

Be careful about harping on and on about the importance of developing a "passion". I work with college age students, and I see a lot of kids who think work = passion. It really holds them back from getting work experience that they could benefit from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I will be seriously disappointed if DS (now 12) is not accepted to a top 25 school. Or a top 10 school for his major, which is looking like it could be engineering. The very best engineering schools don't overlap neatly with absolute top 25.

I will love him just the same if he winds up at U. Wisconsin though. And he will have a nice life if that happens. But it's not wrong to strive for better.

U of Wisconsin isn't that easy to get into either you know.

It is for a certain profile. It's where the disappointed Sidwell parents send their mid-pack, affluent white kids with no hook, for example.

If you go to Sidwell and and up there--or Michigan, for that matter--ask yourself, why did I spend money for this crap?

You provincial idiots can go bust on the University of Wisconsn all you like. The large number of billionaire Fortune 500 CEOs who went there can laugh about you and your cute little 500-800K HHI.

[Anonymous]

I'm more worried that my children won't have the work ethic and drive they need to succeed in the world regardless of where they go to college.

+1000

[Anonymous]

I'm worried my kids will end up cogs in a mindless machine. Striving to be the fanciest cog but with no ability to think outside the box.

[Anonymous]

It's funny, my nephew is applying for colleges now. He is an "A" student at a highly competitive private school in Ca., taking AP course in physics, calculus, Chinese etc., perfect score on the SATs in math and physics, 35-36 ACT, father a hyp alumni, community service, glowing teacher evaluations and in the top 200 in his sport. He applied early at admissions and has struck out. So now it a scrambled and they are applying to places that are still taking applications. It's just so competitive.

[Anonymous]

Most people don't go to elite colleges. Elite colleges can be nothing but a rat race. They aren't some sort of golden ticket to the perfect life.

Only in the DC bubble does this type of thinking dominate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's funny, my nephew is applying for colleges now. He is an "A" student at a highly competitive private school in Ca., taking AP course in physics, calculus, Chinese etc., perfect score on the SATs in math and physics, 35-36 ACT, father a hyp alumni, community service, glowing teacher evaluations and in the top 200 in his sport. He applied early at admissions and has struck out. So now it a scrambled and they are applying to places that are still taking applications. It's just so competitive.

What sport? I really give you the side eye because if he is a top 200 player (especially something like basketball, soccer, lax, football) he would've been easily a recruit at hyp, especially with those grades and scores. Something doesn't smell right. Jeremy Lin wasn't a top 150 baller in his high school class (unranked on Rivals.com) and was flagged as an athletic recruit for harvard. HYP sports, while d1 for many of the 'big sports' are not that high level if you are a top 200 athlete nationally. Maybe something like crew or fencing is different.

[Anonymous]

It's funny, my nephew is applying for colleges now. He is an "A" student at a highly competitive private school in Ca., taking AP course in physics, calculus, Chinese etc., perfect score on the SATs in math and physics, 35-36 ACT, father a hyp alumni, community service, glowing teacher evaluations and in the top 200 in his sport. He applied early at admissions and has struck out. So now it a scrambled and they are applying to places that are still taking applications. It's just so competitive.


What sport? I really give you the side eye because if he is a top 200 player (especially something like basketball, soccer, lax, football) he would've been easily a recruit at hyp, especially with those grades and scores. Something doesn't smell right. Jeremy Lin wasn't a top 150 baller in his high school class (unranked on Rivals.com) and was flagged as an athletic recruit for harvard. HYP sports, while d1 for many of the 'big sports' are not that high level if you are

It's not a team sport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It's funny, my nephew is applying for colleges now. He is an "A" student at a highly competitive private school in Ca., taking AP course in physics, calculus, Chinese etc., perfect score on the SATs in math and physics, 35-36 ACT, father a hyp alumni, community service, glowing teacher evaluations and in the top 200 in his sport. He applied early at admissions and has struck out. So now it a scrambled and they are applying to places that are still taking applications. It's just so competitive.


What sport? I really give you the side eye because if he is a top 200 player (especially something like basketball, soccer, lax, football) he would've been easily a recruit at hyp, especially with those grades and scores. Something doesn't smell right. Jeremy Lin wasn't a top 150 baller in his high school class (unranked on Rivals.com) and was flagged as an athletic recruit for harvard. HYP sports, while d1 for many of the 'big sports' are not that high level if you are

It's not a team sport.

It has to be a sport then where ivy teams are consistently ranked t25 in the country and most of the best players go there already. It can't be tennis either -ivy tennis is eh - decent but not amazing. Still pretty surprised he wasn't recruited if he's top 200. oh well, i'm sure penn-wharton or columbia will take him. Or whichever two hyp's he didn't apply to scea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I will be seriously disappointed if DS (now 12) is not accepted to a top 25 school. Or a top 10 school for his major, which is looking like it could be engineering. The very best engineering schools don't overlap neatly with absolute top 25.

I will love him just the same if he winds up at U. Wisconsin though. And he will have a nice life if that happens. But it's not wrong to strive for better.

U of Wisconsin isn't that easy to get into either you know.

It is for a certain profile. It's where the disappointed Sidwell parents send their mid-pack, affluent white kids with no hook, for example.

If you go to Sidwell and and up there--or Michigan, for that matter--ask yourself, why did I spend money for this crap?

You provincial idiots can go bust on the University of Wisconsn all you like. The large number of billionaire Fortune 500 CEOs who went there can laugh about you and your cute little 500-800K HHI.

The "large number" ? Is the number "larger" than the number of elite CEOs who went to, I dunno, Yale? UCLA? No. No it is not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. I worry that my DC will take after single sibs and never get married or have kids and live a life of loneliness.

Academics? Easy. Love? Difficult.

Such a western answer.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/westerners-want-love-while-eastern-citizens-wish-for-better-health-a6786011.html

Actually, I'm a DC Native!

The link is to an international survey, so you'd be classified as a Westerner.

[Anonymous]

Can't strike out unless you've had at least 3 chances to connect. If someone applied SCEA to an HYP school, he's basically had one chance at an Ivy (and probably still has another chance even at that school). UCs don't do early decision, so he hasn't been rejected from his state school(s). Most international schools wouldn't have done admissions yet either. So "struck out" probably means didn't get into his first choice Ivy early. Demoralizing, yes -- but shouldn't be a crisis. Are they "scrambling" now because he assumed he'd get into his #1 and didn't apply to safeties to begin with?

[Anonymous]

I honestly don't know what I want for my children. I went to an ivy and medical school and for me -- someone who was raised in a trailer park in Nebraska -- it was life changing, but incredibly stressful because that was.my.one.shot.

My kids have easier lives than mine. Or my husband's (who also grew up poor, but went to a good college and grad school which led to his high paying career). They have a higher margin of error than I did. I couldn't make a mistake. They can. They have something I never did, which is the means to be supported. If I would have flunked out or burned out, I knew my future. Waiting tables, working at a gas station, other low paying jobs that my family (the ones who weren't drug addicted or abusing alcohol) went to on a daily basis.