S/O - Question to those who think having all kids in a family go to a top school is "no big deal"

[Anonymous]

This is a spin off from the thread about the middle class family who has three daughters who have attended/earned degrees from Duke, Wharton, and a chemical engineering degree from an unspecified school. I am truly shocked by the number of posters who seemed to think this was typical results for academically minded middle class families. Speaking as someone who is very academically minded and middle class, I do not see this type of college attendance as normal at all among children of middle class families, even those who stress education. My own children are only in middle school and so far have earned all A's. However, despite being involved in sports and other extracurriculars, I do not see them building the impressive resumes that are necessary to attend colleges of this caliber. I simply do not have the money/time to spend on doing what is needed to have my children perform at a very advanced level in their chosen activities. For those of you who think attending schools like Duke and Penn are ordinary for children of smart, middle class parents. What types of things are you doing (especially on the extracurricular activity front) to make this seem like no big deal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a spin off from the thread about the middle class family who has three daughters who have attended/earned degrees from Duke, Wharton, and a chemical engineering degree from an unspecified school. I am truly shocked by the number of posters who seemed to think this was typical results for academically minded middle class families. Speaking as someone who is very academically minded and middle class, I do not see this type of college attendance as normal at all among children of middle class families, even those who stress education. My own children are only in middle school and so far have earned all A's. However, despite being involved in sports and other extracurriculars, I do not see them building the impressive resumes that are necessary to attend colleges of this caliber. I simply do not have the money/time to spend on doing what is needed to have my children perform at a very advanced level in their chosen activities. For those of you who think attending schools like Duke and Penn are ordinary for children of smart, middle class parents. What types of things are you doing (especially on the extracurricular activity front) to make this seem like no big deal?

Average extracurricular activities that demonstrate a sustained interest, straight As, and mid 1500s on the SATs will get it done. The kids going to Duke and Penn didn't cure cancer.

[Anonymous]

Don't underestimate legacy admit issues either. If one parent went to a top institution, and the kid has the qualifications, and the parents can pay most (if not all) of the tuition, then the kid has a better than average shot at an early decision admit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a spin off from the thread about the middle class family who has three daughters who have attended/earned degrees from Duke, Wharton, and a chemical engineering degree from an unspecified school. I am truly shocked by the number of posters who seemed to think this was typical results for academically minded middle class families. Speaking as someone who is very academically minded and middle class, I do not see this type of college attendance as normal at all among children of middle class families, even those who stress education. My own children are only in middle school and so far have earned all A's. However, despite being involved in sports and other extracurriculars, I do not see them building the impressive resumes that are necessary to attend colleges of this caliber. I simply do not have the money/time to spend on doing what is needed to have my children perform at a very advanced level in their chosen activities. For those of you who think attending schools like Duke and Penn are ordinary for children of smart, middle class parents. What types of things are you doing (especially on the extracurricular activity front) to make this seem like no big deal?

Average extracurricular activities that demonstrate a sustained interest, straight As, and mid 1500s on the SATs will get it done. The kids going to Duke and Penn didn't cure cancer.

This shows not how much you know rather how much you don't know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a spin off from the thread about the middle class family who has three daughters who have attended/earned degrees from Duke, Wharton, and a chemical engineering degree from an unspecified school. I am truly shocked by the number of posters who seemed to think this was typical results for academically minded middle class families. Speaking as someone who is very academically minded and middle class, I do not see this type of college attendance as normal at all among children of middle class families, even those who stress education. My own children are only in middle school and so far have earned all A's. However, despite being involved in sports and other extracurriculars, I do not see them building the impressive resumes that are necessary to attend colleges of this caliber. I simply do not have the money/time to spend on doing what is needed to have my children perform at a very advanced level in their chosen activities. For those of you who think attending schools like Duke and Penn are ordinary for children of smart, middle class parents. What types of things are you doing (especially on the extracurricular activity front) to make this seem like no big deal?

Average extracurricular activities that demonstrate a sustained interest, straight As, and mid 1500s on the SATs will get it done. The kids going to Duke and Penn didn't cure cancer.

From my experience the bolded is not true. I have seen kids with these stats not get into schools of this caliber. And by mid 1500s SAT scores, are you basing it on a 1600 scale, cause that would be damn near perfect and extremely atypical for kids from any background to achieve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a spin off from the thread about the middle class family who has three daughters who have attended/earned degrees from Duke, Wharton, and a chemical engineering degree from an unspecified school. I am truly shocked by the number of posters who seemed to think this was typical results for academically minded middle class families. Speaking as someone who is very academically minded and middle class, I do not see this type of college attendance as normal at all among children of middle class families, even those who stress education. My own children are only in middle school and so far have earned all A's. However, despite being involved in sports and other extracurriculars, I do not see them building the impressive resumes that are necessary to attend colleges of this caliber. I simply do not have the money/time to spend on doing what is needed to have my children perform at a very advanced level in their chosen activities. For those of you who think attending schools like Duke and Penn are ordinary for children of smart, middle class parents. What types of things are you doing (especially on the extracurricular activity front) to make this seem like no big deal?

Average extracurricular activities that demonstrate a sustained interest, straight As, and mid 1500s on the SATs will get it done. The kids going to Duke and Penn didn't cure cancer.

I'm curious to know what your idea of "average extracurricular activities that demonstrate sustained interest" are? Would you consider playing flute for all 4 years in the Marching Band to be good enough? Being an average player on the soccer team throughout high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a spin off from the thread about the middle class family who has three daughters who have attended/earned degrees from Duke, Wharton, and a chemical engineering degree from an unspecified school. I am truly shocked by the number of posters who seemed to think this was typical results for academically minded middle class families. Speaking as someone who is very academically minded and middle class, I do not see this type of college attendance as normal at all among children of middle class families, even those who stress education. My own children are only in middle school and so far have earned all A's. However, despite being involved in sports and other extracurriculars, I do not see them building the impressive resumes that are necessary to attend colleges of this caliber. I simply do not have the money/time to spend on doing what is needed to have my children perform at a very advanced level in their chosen activities. For those of you who think attending schools like Duke and Penn are ordinary for children of smart, middle class parents. What types of things are you doing (especially on the extracurricular activity front) to make this seem like no big deal?

Average extracurricular activities that demonstrate a sustained interest, straight As, and mid 1500s on the SATs will get it done. The kids going to Duke and Penn didn't cure cancer.

no way - there are so many asian kids with those stats that get rejected by penn (not as much duke, but def penn). penn caps asian enrollment.

[Anonymous]

Athletics play a HUGE role too. My DS got into 3 top LACs due to his sport. Btw, he had excellent stats ( Val + high SATs), but did not get into the ivy he hoped for.

[Anonymous]

It's just the world you're in OP. In my world the kids were all professors kids and went to top schools, so it's normal. I don't know what else to tell you. The fact is that it's not that hard to get into Duke Law if you have great LSATs, great undergrad record, and something in your background indicating you actually want to be a lawyer. Those schools are filled with "lily white" kids who are very smart and very hard working, contrary to the fever dreams of people obsessed with how "URMs" and "hooked" kids are ruining their kids chances. Ultimately if you are very smart (ie top 95-99% standardized test scores), and work hard (ie good grades) you are going to get into good schools and grad schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a spin off from the thread about the middle class family who has three daughters who have attended/earned degrees from Duke, Wharton, and a chemical engineering degree from an unspecified school. I am truly shocked by the number of posters who seemed to think this was typical results for academically minded middle class families. Speaking as someone who is very academically minded and middle class, I do not see this type of college attendance as normal at all among children of middle class families, even those who stress education. My own children are only in middle school and so far have earned all A's. However, despite being involved in sports and other extracurriculars, I do not see them building the impressive resumes that are necessary to attend colleges of this caliber. I simply do not have the money/time to spend on doing what is needed to have my children perform at a very advanced level in their chosen activities. For those of you who think attending schools like Duke and Penn are ordinary for children of smart, middle class parents. What types of things are you doing (especially on the extracurricular activity front) to make this seem like no big deal?

Average extracurricular activities that demonstrate a sustained interest, straight As, and mid 1500s on the SATs will get it done. The kids going to Duke and Penn didn't cure cancer.

This shows not how much you know rather how much you don't know.

Really. So what exactly do you think that 70% of white kids at Duke Law did that was so amazingly impossible to get admitted?

[Anonymous]

OP -- it was probably UPPER middle class highly educated parents that answered your question. That's who the audience of DCUM is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Athletics play a HUGE role too. My DS got into 3 top LACs due to his sport. Btw, he had excellent stats ( Val + high SATs), but did not get into the ivy he hoped for.

Was he recruited by the ivy coach? There is a big gap in the quality of play - for example soccer - between ivy and nescAc.

[Anonymous]

To be perfectly honest, if my kid went to Wharton, I'd feel like I had failed in their upbringing. There is more to life than making money and it was my job to teach them that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a spin off from the thread about the middle class family who has three daughters who have attended/earned degrees from Duke, Wharton, and a chemical engineering degree from an unspecified school. I am truly shocked by the number of posters who seemed to think this was typical results for academically minded middle class families. Speaking as someone who is very academically minded and middle class, I do not see this type of college attendance as normal at all among children of middle class families, even those who stress education. My own children are only in middle school and so far have earned all A's. However, despite being involved in sports and other extracurriculars, I do not see them building the impressive resumes that are necessary to attend colleges of this caliber. I simply do not have the money/time to spend on doing what is needed to have my children perform at a very advanced level in their chosen activities. For those of you who think attending schools like Duke and Penn are ordinary for children of smart, middle class parents. What types of things are you doing (especially on the extracurricular activity front) to make this seem like no big deal?

Average extracurricular activities that demonstrate a sustained interest, straight As, and mid 1500s on the SATs will get it done. The kids going to Duke and Penn didn't cure cancer.

This shows not how much you know rather how much you don't know.

Really. So what exactly do you think that 70% of white kids at Duke Law did that was so amazingly impossible to get admitted?

Law school admissions is more straight forward and stat based - especially post financial crisis

Get a strong lsat and good gpa and you'll get into a t13

UG admissions is no where near as straight forward

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a spin off from the thread about the middle class family who has three daughters who have attended/earned degrees from Duke, Wharton, and a chemical engineering degree from an unspecified school. I am truly shocked by the number of posters who seemed to think this was typical results for academically minded middle class families. Speaking as someone who is very academically minded and middle class, I do not see this type of college attendance as normal at all among children of middle class families, even those who stress education. My own children are only in middle school and so far have earned all A's. However, despite being involved in sports and other extracurriculars, I do not see them building the impressive resumes that are necessary to attend colleges of this caliber. I simply do not have the money/time to spend on doing what is needed to have my children perform at a very advanced level in their chosen activities. For those of you who think attending schools like Duke and Penn are ordinary for children of smart, middle class parents. What types of things are you doing (especially on the extracurricular activity front) to make this seem like no big deal?

Average extracurricular activities that demonstrate a sustained interest, straight As, and mid 1500s on the SATs will get it done. The kids going to Duke and Penn didn't cure cancer.

This shows not how much you know rather how much you don't know.

Really. So what exactly do you think that 70% of white kids at Duke Law did that was so amazingly impossible to get admitted?

Law school admissions is more straight forward and stat based - especially post financial crisis

Get a strong lsat and good gpa and you'll get into a t13

UG admissions is no where near as straight forward

Maybe, but very smart, very capable white students continue to get into very good colleges. The actual problem in college admissions is "undermatching" -- lower income and minority kids who don't apply to selective enough colleges that they could have gotten into. White kids continue to do fine.