Aha moment - I know 7 current Ivy League students, and all of them happen to be legacies
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Anonymous
Soon, we'll be doing away with the GPA. Now there’s no way to tell whether a 4.0 unweighted was achieved cold or after months and years of intense study. |
Anonymous
You are comparing Olympics with the SAT? And actually now that I think about it it a good example because most Olympic athletes are spoiled little fuxs who have their entire lives taken care of and sponsored, either by the state or by organizations much like the spoiled fuxs to get into the ivies. And then there's a small percentage that come from actual poverty and or no sponsorship and they make their way through grit and genetics. They don't have training facilities and meal prep and likely have a job or occupation besides training. Any of those two things are seen as the same and you see them as a group of people who have things in common but in fact they don't. And that's not to reduce the genetics and training that going to be an Olympic athlete in a state sponsored or commercially sponsored arena BUT you being saying to think that the very people who are sponsored from like 10 to 13 and have their entire lives around one thing are as good as the people who do 10 other things and still manage to compete against them. |
Anonymous
Sure it is. Just because someone studied for the SAT doesn't make them dumb. In fact it shows discipline and a willingness to learn, which are very good predictors for college success. Colleges all know this. There's a reason MIT went back to test mandatory. Test Optional was a fail. The kids accepted at MIT that went test optional could not perform at the same level as prior years. So MIT now requires SAT/ACT scores. Data is data. The schools that remain test optional are doing so simply to fatten up their applicant numbers or to hit their DEI targets. White and Asian kids from the burbs applying to competitive schools still need to take the SAT/ACT. |
Anonymous
You would like this to be true but it manifestly isn’t. Just read the threads on Virginia schools. The fact is, the number of full-pay kids is limited, most are white or Asian kids from the suburbs, and expensive schools would like to enroll them if at all possible, consistent with graduating the students in a timely fashion and not tanking their rankings. The math section of the SAT is indeed a useful predictor of success in calculus, but so is an AP Calc score or a math department placement test, and many majors don’t require calculus anyway. |
Anonymous
| Have a legacy kid at Princeton. Should probably not assume anything about their qualifications, as this kid had single-sitting 36/4.0 in high school and has one A- at Princeton in a rigorous major. This kid can compete with anyone and don't see why given equivalent stats, a university should be criticized for admitting them. This is anecdotal of course, but my point is don't assume. |
Anonymous
| This is all really funny. The striving (Ivy on pedestal when there are lots of great schools) and the dogs chasing their tails on SAT trained or cold or whatever. All of this only supports holistic admissions - requires a team to put things in context and shape a class that is an interesting community that can bring perspectives. The only problem is, the Supreme Court has dismantled the boost for the disenfranchised but has left them in place for the elites. |
Anonymous
That doesn’t make sense. It makes a huge difference in a kid’s life to have a parent who went to college, no matter where the college was located. My parents did not go to college and I have seen how different my childhood was from that of people whose parents went to college. An immigrant with a college education can provide a vastly better type of upbringing for their kids than my non-college educated parents could, both in monetary terms, but also in the level of discourse and knowledge of academic subjects. Those kids have a huge leg up on kids whose parents did not go to any college, anywhere. |
Anonymous
x10000 What a concept - genetics!! You mean not prep only?? Wow!! |
Anonymous
This is wordy but PP makes an excellent point. |
Anonymous
Aren’t you then “assuming” your legacy kid would have gotten in as a non-legacy? |
Anonymous
Most Olympic athletes certainly do have a genetic gift of physical talent. All the training in the world will not get you anywhere near the Olympics if you are not extremely athletically talented. |
Anonymous
Wheeler only had 3 admits? |
Anonymous
You die on the MIT hill if you want. 1800+ colleges are test optional, including HYPS, and most of the T50. It's not going away. |
Anonymous
+1 my magnet kid took the SAT once, and one practice SAT. 1580. 4.95 wGPA, 4.0 uwGPA, is the type of kid who can finish a 45min math test in 15min without studying for it. Rejected at T20s that he applied to. Don't assume your kid could've got in without legacy. |
Anonymous
What MIT going back to test requires tells me is that the MIT admissions staff are bad at their jobs. They really couldn’t figure it out? |