Best advice for students of average-above average intelligence to get into elite schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hasn’t it ever occurred to you that your ordinary child might thrive at an ordinary school, or are the bragging rights attached to an “elite” school just too tasty to give up?

Elite sports training and elite high school and elite college leads to elite life....right?

Well, I can't imagine anyone thinking or saying their kid is "ordinary"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hasn’t it ever occurred to you that your ordinary child might thrive at an ordinary school, or are the bragging rights attached to an “elite” school just too tasty to give up?

Elite sports training and elite high school and elite college leads to elite life....right?

Well, I can't imagine anyone thinking or saying their kid is "ordinary"

Not in this pathetic city, no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hasn’t it ever occurred to you that your ordinary child might thrive at an ordinary school, or are the bragging rights attached to an “elite” school just too tasty to give up?

Elite sports training and elite high school and elite college leads to elite life....right?

Well, I can't imagine anyone thinking or saying their kid is "ordinary[b]"

My kid is.

[Anonymous]

-- $2 million gift (see: Jared Kushner, Harvard)
-- recruited athlete
-- URM with decent grades/scores

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a dd who was considered "average" at her elite private OP. We went into stealth mode and got kid SAT tutoring, elite sports training and essay writing help. Kid was recruited for 2 D1 sports. Chose HYP for one sport. Kid entered and won national essay contests on Fastweb for different orgs. Kid also started a non- profit.

We did not allow our kid to hang out at friend's houses to waste time. So it can be done OP. It takes a lot of time management. I help a lot of kids get into elite colleges. Good luck to you!

Amy is that you?!

[Anonymous]

Agree with the recent posters.
OP, if you child is average to above-average why do you want him/her to go to an elite school? And you must really want this as you're posting online about it 5 years before he/she starts college.
So being "elite" is very important to you. I think perhaps you should do some soul searching about what drives this thinking. It's not likely that your average to above average kid (and this is most of
our kids) is going to suddenly leap into the elite ring of life, via college or other means. So you're going to have to come to terms with the fact that you have a lovely, bright, and totally average-to-above average
young adult on your hands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Work hard and make connections. It has very little to do with intelligence or “finding a passion.” Just work hard and make lots of connections.

This is the best advice. There are many successful people in the corporate world who were not good students in college. It is not how much you know but who you know. The key here is to work hard and make lot of connections. You only need 1 successful connection out of 300 attempts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Attend the least competitive high school as you can. My sister has twins. The gifted twin attends a really competitive magnet school where most students have parents who are professors, doctors, lawyers, computer scientists. It is really hard to stand out.He does not have all A's.

His twin who never qualified for any gifted programs attends their incredibly low ranked, above 75% FARM high school. She is in the honors track there and stands out. She has straight A's taking the highest level classes available. She has opportunities available to her because there are several programs for bright kids attending high poverty schools.

But what about their college acceptances?

I'm 100% positive they will go to schools that are a great fit!

Chill, Tiger mom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take a DNA test and pray form some black, Latino or Native American genes.

Yes, this is why those groups are the majority in colleges and universities because admissions is based solely on that DNA criteria.

You're an idiot.

Everyone has a little bit of Native American blood. Ask Warren.

Warren has a little bit of Native American blood, as a matter of fact. She just didn't have as much as her mother told her she did.

Lots of people in the South have some NA genes. It's not uncommon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous[b wrote:]Let your kid follow his/her passions and interests while working hard in rigorous classes.[/b]
There are hundreds of good/great colleges and universities that will get your child where she/he wants to be in life. She/he will get into several of them.

And if your kid's passion is skateboarding that's not going to do jack sh** for him. If it's not too late encourage your kid to get into an activity where there are a lot of opportunities to earn awards.

Sick. Your skateboarder will be less likely to have a breakdown in college.

Skateboarding is a competitive sport. It will be in the 2020 Olympics. Encourage your kid to skate and enter some competitions. He/she will at least look more interesting on applications than the usual student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take a DNA test and pray form some black, Latino or Native American genes.

Yes, this is why those groups are the majority in colleges and universities because admissions is based solely on that DNA criteria.

You're an idiot.

Everyone has a little bit of Native American blood. Ask Warren.

Isn't everyone a little black too? Didn't science declare that the human race started in Africa?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take a DNA test and pray form some black, Latino or Native American genes.

Yes, this is why those groups are the majority in colleges and universities because admissions is based solely on that DNA criteria.

You're an idiot.

Everyone has a little bit of Native American blood. Ask Warren.

Isn't everyone a little black too? Didn't science declare that the human race started in Africa?

But liberals only want to use science when it is coinvent for them.

and giving preference to white looking people doesn't help disenfranchise minorities for their base.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take a DNA test and pray form some black, Latino or Native American genes.

Yes, this is why those groups are the majority in colleges and universities because admissions is based solely on that DNA criteria.

You're an idiot.

Everyone has a little bit of Native American blood. Ask Warren.

Isn't everyone a little black too? Didn't science declare that the human race started in Africa?

But liberals only want to use science when it is coinvent for them.

and giving preference to white looking people doesn't help disenfranchise minorities for their base.

kind of like conservatives and morality and patriotism. Got it.

You're all terrible people - on both sides.

[Anonymous]

My advice is this... Find a passion and do something with it. Elite schools want to see what kids do with the talent that they are given. They want to find kids that are passionate about something and then have the drive to use that passion for good because they are looking for people that will add to their campus "community."

Many people think, wow, my kid has never had anything other than an A, he/she should go to a top school. Great grades and high standardized scores are table stakes at elite universities. You have to find differentiating factors.

And in the end, if your kid still doesn't get in, they've earned lifelong skills in the process and will find somewhere where they can continue to follow his/her passion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Attend the least competitive high school as you can. My sister has twins. The gifted twin attends a really competitive magnet school where most students have parents who are professors, doctors, lawyers, computer scientists. It is really hard to stand out.He does not have all A's.

His twin who never qualified for any gifted programs attends their incredibly low ranked, above 75% FARM high school. She is in the honors track there and stands out. She has straight A's taking the highest level classes available. She has opportunities available to her because there are several programs for bright kids attending high poverty schools.

But what about their college acceptances?

I'm 100% positive they will go to schools that are a great fit!

Chill, Tiger mom.

Well you certainly can't use two kids who haven't been admitted to an elite school, or any school for that matter, as data points.