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All these smart kids are getting rejected across the board
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Anonymous
But those are their matches now. Welcome to 2022. |
Anonymous
If they didn't get in anywhere, they haven't been paying attention. Nor have their counselors, parents, etc. More likely they thought they were unicorns. |
Anonymous
That's because they are applying to all reaches or not counting some admissions (like state school). I know one of these kids. Applied to all top 10/Ivy as well as state flagship. Got rejected at top 10 Ivy but in at state flagship but considered it all rejection. Also going to reiterate what others have said: there are more kids applying than in previous years (pop growth should peak in a few years, but there are also higher percentage applying for college), there are more kids applying than spaces, colleges want diversity, not the same old legacy crowd. A diverse student body adds to the educational quality for everyone. It's about being realistic and looking for good matches on the basis of fit, not prestige. Mine got lucky with admissions, but she also was smart. She chose schools she really liked on a variety of levels and found things to like about state flagship. She ended up getting into 3 top 10/Ivy schools w/ good FA, but she would have been good at state flagship, targets or safeties. She would not have been "shut out." |
Anonymous
Yes, college costs suck. But there are MANY affordable options. Select a private college with over 50% admission rate where your kid is at the 90% for SAT/ACT/GPA. Then show tons of interest, apply for merit scholarships, etc. and your kid can get 60-70% or full tuition, sometime even some R&B paid for. No, it won't happen at a T50 school, but there are plenty of choices if you search. Plenty of great schools for your kid to get an excellent education for minimal costs. But it doesn't happen at a school with low acceptance rates or where your kid is below the 75-90%. What your kid does while at college is much, much more important than WHERE they attend college. And coming out of college with minimal debt is so much more important than attending a "more elite" college |
Anonymous
I think it is hard for a student who got better grades and better test scores to see a fellow classmate with worse everything gaining acceptance because they are URM. I have heard it was a really bad year for many MC and UMC white and Asian students. |
Anonymous
Yes! Recently toured CWRU and met a graduating senior who is heading to Harvard to get his PHD in EE. So tell me again how Case is 2nd Tiered. |
Anonymous
Then those students need some guidance ASAP from their parents who can explain to them that colleges look for more than grades and test scores. They obviously are neither smart nor savvy if they are getting butthurt because they think colleges owe them anything. |
Anonymous
Wow! Perhaps you don't know the whole story for the URM as a whole person? Test scores and grades are not everything. From your privileged position, you apparently do not recognize that the URM might be heading home after school to help take care of siblings or a grandparent, may not have time to go to tutoring or participate in 3 Varsity level sports, etc. They might have to work a job to help support the family; they might not be growing up in a home where the parents can help with school work, or with parents who went to college. If your parents didn't attend college, you often grow up with a very different perspective on life than someone whose parents both have Graduate degrees. Maybe they have a learning disability and their family doesn't have the financial resources to provide services that many privileged kids would get (I have lived this; paid $250-300/week for 4+ years to get my own kid on track once I paid for a full neuropsychological evaluation to diagnose the issues. I am so grateful that we as a family could afford to provide this for our kid). You simply don't know their life outside of school. It really is time for the privileged to start recognizing the great advantages they have over many just from growing up privileged. |
Anonymous
It's always hard not to get what you want. But that's part of life - it's a good lesson to learn. Nobody said that schools ranked kids purely by their gpa/test score numbers to determine acceptances. I think it's important to be upfront with kids from the start that college acceptances are unpredictable. And to be happy for whoever gets in to wherever they go. And make sure you have a list of schools that has appropriate balance in selectivity risks and that you'd be happy with any of the schools on that list. It's a much healthier path... |
Anonymous
Stop the rescue fantasy. Most of the URM they take are coming from upper middle class families. Not all URM are poor. |
Anonymous
The ones benefiting most are UMC blacks and Hispanics. |
Anonymous
Asian American here. Dh and I are both first generation poor immigrants. Even 30 years ago, my parents would tell me that I needed better scores and SATs. It seems nowadays the higher grades and test scores don’t mean anything. You are just one in a sea of highly qualified students. |
Anonymous
This is exactly what I’ve seen in our social circle. Our kids were raised in incredibly similar families, dads had the same kind of jobs, same kinds of degrees, same six figure incomes, same type of high schools, same rigor and test scores, moms college-educated. 2 half Mexican kids to Yale, 2 black kids to Harvard, our white kids rejected from everything with less than a 40% acceptance rate. The program is just not as noble as it seems. |
Anonymous
The issue is this phrase: "compelling personal narrative." So and so had a compelling personal narrative, so they chose him or her or them over your child. I have long maintained that the problem is that it's really hard to have a 'compelling personal narrative' when you grow up in the suburbs with your two parents who are still married to each other. I manned the table at a college fair for the selective college that I attended as an alum a few years back, and I watched the professional college admissions person get really excited about the adopted African child with two lesbian moms. And I agree -- she was interesting. She had a compelling personal narrative. The problem is that stable, traditional family life doesn't seem to produce the coveted 'compelling personal narriitve' the way that hardship and adversity and having non mainstream identity characteristics often does. The girl from a traditional Muslim family wearing a hijab whose mother doesn't believe that women should be educated? That's a compelling story. It's very dramatic. I have no idea if it's actually true, but it's memorable, concise and the admissions people can feel really good about themselves for admitting her. I assume that's what those highly paid college admissions consultants do -- help you mine your family's past to dig up a 'compelling personal narrative'. My kids were lots of things including academically prepared. They just weren't unique and compelling. It feels more like you're auditioning for a role in a Hollywood production ("Oh, here's the girl who had to drop out of ballet school when she developed juvenile rheumatoid arthritis", "Here's the kid whose house burned down") than a seat in a classroom. |
Anonymous
It’s always the same stereotype pablum. Somebody has got to show me exactly how race quotas do anything to improve the academic experience at a college. I’ll go w you a hint…..it doesn’t. If anything it’s far more likely to extract value from academics. |