Walls student gets into 8 Ivy League schools

[Anonymous]

Wow, how impressive that she finished AP Calc sophomore year and took 5 college math courses already! I'm sure that won't get overshadowed by the fact that she's black!

[Anonymous]

She's also won a bunch of local awards--White House at Bat Challenge, an award for starting an after-school program that engages middle school African American kids in STEM, National Space Club award, etc. She is interested in math and physics and eventually wants to be an astronaut (even more rarefied interest for an AA girl, making her even more of a unicorn). Lofty goal, but she's already got an impressive track record, so good for her!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I took the time to listen to her interview. Interestingly used the term under represented..."People who look like me are underrepresented." So clearly she is keenly aware that she is playing up that hook. Still, great achievement either way.

She is black. It is who she is. And there are fewer black students in top colleges than there were 35 years ago, which is pretty shameful. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/24/us/affirmative-action.html

Are they maybe going to all black colleges instead in greater numbers?

Enrollment in HBCUs is declining.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I took the time to listen to her interview. Interestingly used the term under represented..."People who look like me are underrepresented." So clearly she is keenly aware that she is playing up that hook. Still, great achievement either way.

She is black. It is who she is. And there are fewer black students in top colleges than there were 35 years ago, which is pretty shameful. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/24/us/affirmative-action.html

Are they maybe going to all black colleges instead in greater numbers?

Maybe but it's mostly because the Ivies have had an influx of legacies and full-pay applicants from around the world. Overall fewer black American applicants are being admitted. It's on the universities, not the students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:y'all some dumbasses who didn't get into any ivy and are salty asf lmaoooooo

Huh? Are we supposed to understand this? Is the English?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:y'all some dumbasses who didn't get into any ivy and are salty asf lmaoooooo

Huh? Are we supposed to understand this? Is this English?

Sorry for the typo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I took the time to listen to her interview. Interestingly used the term under represented..."People who look like me are underrepresented." So clearly she is keenly aware that she is playing up that hook. Still, great achievement either way.

She is black. It is who she is. And there are fewer black students in top colleges than there were 35 years ago, which is pretty shameful. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/24/us/affirmative-action.html

Are they maybe going to all black colleges instead in greater numbers?

Maybe but it's mostly because the Ivies have had an influx of legacies and full-pay applicants from around the world. Overall fewer black American applicants are being admitted. It's on the universities, not the students.

I think what I've heard lately is that HBCUs have had an uptick in their applications. They definitely get some of the top students that the Ivies want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:y'all some dumbasses who didn't get into any ivy and are salty asf lmaoooooo

Huh? Are we supposed to understand this? Is the English?

Yes it is English. As your teen to explain it to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I took the time to listen to her interview. Interestingly used the term under represented..."People who look like me are underrepresented." So clearly she is keenly aware that she is playing up that hook. Still, great achievement either way.

She is black. It is who she is. And there are fewer black students in top colleges than there were 35 years ago, which is pretty shameful. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/24/us/affirmative-action.html

Are they maybe going to all black colleges instead in greater numbers?

Maybe but it's mostly because the Ivies have had an influx of legacies and full-pay applicants from around the world. Overall fewer black American applicants are being admitted. It's on the universities, not the students.

I think what I've heard lately is that HBCUs have had an uptick in their applications. They definitely get some of the top students that the Ivies want.

As a graduate of one, my sense is that enrollment has gone down at all but a few (Morehouse, Spelman, Hampton, Howard may be exceptions) over the last few decades, but there has been an uptick in the last year or two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I took the time to listen to her interview. Interestingly used the term under represented..."People who look like me are underrepresented." So clearly she is keenly aware that she is playing up that hook. Still, great achievement either way.

She is black. It is who she is. And there are fewer black students in top colleges than there were 35 years ago, which is pretty shameful. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/24/us/affirmative-action.html

Are they maybe going to all black colleges instead in greater numbers?

Maybe but it's mostly because the Ivies have had an influx of legacies and full-pay applicants from around the world. Overall fewer black American applicants are being admitted. It's on the universities, not the students.

I think what I've heard lately is that HBCUs have had an uptick in their applications. They definitely get some of the top students that the Ivies want.

As a graduate of one, my sense is that enrollment has gone down at all but a few (Morehouse, Spelman, Hampton, Howard may be exceptions) over the last few decades, but there has been an uptick in the last year or two.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/28/a-look-at-historically-black-colleges-and-universities-as-howard-turns-150/

Fewer students at HBCUs, smaller percentage of black students overall are attending HBCUs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I took the time to listen to her interview. Interestingly used the term under represented..."People who look like me are underrepresented." So clearly she is keenly aware that she is playing up that hook. Still, great achievement either way.

Or she understands the importance of more opportunities for minority students. Like when she started a club to AA girls into STEM and worked as a teen educator at the Air and Space Museum.

[Anonymous]

The haters on this forum can't even begin to match this young woman's achievements. Yet, they want to persist in claiming that she's somehow undeserving. It just goes to show how narrow minded you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What bothers me about these "grand sweep" stories is that it is always a URM winning all eight and that because they applied to all 8 (with terrific GPA and scores, I get it), they are going to get in all 8. But that leaves seven other deserving students out there waitlisted. Out of the 8 Ivies, surely these students have a top one, two or three picks. So why apply to all eight for bragging rights? No, I'm not bitter as a PP said. I don't even have a student applying this year. I'm just reflecting on why some students feel they must do this. The whole point of SCEA and EDs were to make students pick the elite school they most wanted early on in the game, so that all 8 schools didn't have to review the same 50K applications. It's counterproductive when a student does this. Now she'll pick one and call or email the other seven to release a spot.

Let me tell you why students have to do this. In most cases its because of $. In our case my kids this year was accepted to multiple Ivies as well. Our financial aid packages were all over the place, literally, we got zero to very generous aid and everything in between. If you need money you cannot count on getting it in the EA round. ITS NOT FOR BRAGGING RIGHTS. These schools know how to pick HUMBLE kids! And the go on TV to help other kids they may not realize they can do it too.

Some kids are not dead set on going to their EA choice - it is not binding, so you are free to apply in the ED rounds. I know other kids that were accepted to multiple top schools and are trying to be deliberate about making the choice. It's not fair for people to hate on these kids, hate on the system that has been created but not the kids. And no one here really knows all of the ins and outs of these kids applications and their financial situations. I speak from experience. Hating on these kids for this, smacks of entitlement. Deserving kids will get those spots when a final decision is made.

This may make sense as a rationale to apply to 3 or 4 Ivies -- but all eight?

C'mon, they are very different schools, in different settings, with different strengths and weaknesses.

Also, financial aid is not a problem if you are in the Questbridge program. We didn't qualify so we're a donut hole family making do with what student loans were proffered. I think it is bragging rights - the financial aid packages aren't going to vary that much. Also she is hurting the chances of her own high school classmates by "taking" 8 seats when only one or two could have sufficed. She probably wanted Princeton or Harvard . . . then why apply to another six RD? Except for bragging right OR if the high school college counselor wants bragging rights!

[Anonymous]

She talks here about why she applied to all 8--she said she wasn't sure what she wanted in a college but did want a liberal arts education, and thought that getting into some but not others would make the decision for her. Seems legit to me. I wouldn't dissuade a strong applicant from applying to all 8 if they really didn't know what they wanted yet.

http://www.wusa9.com/video/opinion/editorials/off-script/offscripton9-dc-teen-accepted-into-all-8-ivy-league-schools/65-8072504

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, that North Dakota boy wouldn't have gotten into all, if not most, of those schools if he lived in the DMV.

And if the Walls girl were white or Asian she wouldn't have gotten into all the Ivies.

That's not to say they aren't both great kids and deserving of getting into any of those college, but they each have a big hook that helped him/her.

The jealousy and bitterness in this thread isn’t surprising I guess. Disappointing in 2018.

I detect no bitterness or jealousy in this post. Just a grain of truth that some apparently want to call bitterness and jealousy.

It is bitterness nd jealousy, actually. If you think an AA appearing kid hasn't overcome tremendous institutional and social obstacles that upper class white kids just don't have to deal with, you are living in a white bubble. The black kids have a harder path even when their parents are well off.