Student accepted at 115 colleges

[Anonymous]

Never a mention of SAT or AP scores during these charades. Always mention the meaningless inflated GPA though. That’s why I love that the whiney kid from Florida got into Harvard. Before he knew he’d get into Harvard his reddit was discovered, where he disclosed his awful SAT score and totally mediocre 9th and 10th grade GPA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This behavior costs admissions people time and energy and for every school that accepted her, some student was rejected--maybe an URM who really wanted to go there.

That's not how this works. For elite schools, you have no idea whether you will get in, barring multi-million dollar donations. For the very good schools with competitive admissions proccesses, the waitlists are large and at most she bumped a person from the waitlist that was never getting in. But for the vast majority of the schools that she was likely admitted to, there was little to no admissions process. She is a URM and a first-gen college student. She has 5 siblings, including one with serious health concerns. She plans to be a teacher. A full-ride (or very close) is probably more important to her than many of the things she would find out on a tour. And you only know that after you apply. Look at the schools that she was reported as considering:

Louisiana State University, Valparaiso University, University of North Texas, Fisk University, Randolph University, Brandeis University, and Mississippi State University.

These are fine schools, but only one of them is ranked within the top 100. And these are presumably the "best" options according to this student's assessment. So, pressumably a good chunk of the other places that she applied were local universities that admit basically anyone that meets some fairly low minmum.

Though I do love all the outrage about how a poor, black girl from the South is just abusing the system.

Most of those schools do not have 100% admittance so yes, she took those 114 spots from someone else who could have gotten admitted. She also took millions of scholarship dollars away from other poor black girls in the South that applied to those schools. They won't then go to someone else this year. They decide each year how much they can offer and if a certain kid doesn't choose the school it goes back for next year. So someone else missed on those scholarships this year that truly needed them.

I don't have any problem offering free applications to poor kids, but there must be a limit. Just because you can get a free sample, doesn't mean you go up and take all the samples off the table. It is a gesture to be use with grace. Not abused. This was not only abused, but someone people thought it was newsworthy for the positive. For people that are currently in this process, it is disheartening. There are families right above the poverty/pell line that need to pay to apply, pay to send scores, and can only do a handful. They desperately need scholarship money to even attend. Most will end up only going to community college and dropping out to work FT because of it. Our income is less than $75K and we struggled with paying close to $1000 in applications, FAFSA, CSS, and college board score fees. If schools WANT you to apply to as many as possible, like you said, make them free for everyone. But schools don't want that. They make a ton of money off of apps and most of the time, they barely look at the first round anyway. I highly doubt colleges would want anyone who makes the free app cut off, to send out 100 of them. Do you? This was only to make the news. She is that kind of girl. No consideration to her fellow classmates around her. All about me. I deserve this. I will show them. Congrats for being a selfish idiot.

Wrong on many points. Main one being that colleges make money on apps. It's not a profitable endeavor, even with the low pay of adcoms.

Michigan received almost 70,000 applications this year. Even if only 50,000 of them were paid, that is still $3,750,000 million

And you think they got to keep it?

What about the 20+ admissions officers and staff salaries and benefits, offices, events, travel, technology? What does that all cost? What is their margin on each application?

It's like the old joke, "We lose money on each widget, but we make it up in volume". Applications are not profitable. Universities do not "make money" from them.

Also, I recommend you never start a business.

Lol good advice!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Never a mention of SAT or AP scores during these charades. Always mention the meaningless inflated GPA though. That’s why I love that the whiney kid from Florida got into Harvard. Before he knew he’d get into Harvard his reddit was discovered, where he disclosed his awful SAT score and totally mediocre 9th and 10th grade GPA.

Are you talking about the heroic student/activist David Hogg? Well, your racist, pea-brained, NRA addled brain may not comprehend it, but the one time Harvard did something right was when they offered him a seat.

He is one of the most dynamic and influential young people and he will go far in life. Harvard and Hogg will help each other. That is the kind of kid we want to see in Harvard. Not some creep like Kushner or Kavanaugh who pay their way into these institutions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This behavior costs admissions people time and energy and for every school that accepted her, some student was rejected--maybe an URM who really wanted to go there.

That's not how this works. For elite schools, you have no idea whether you will get in, barring multi-million dollar donations. For the very good schools with competitive admissions proccesses, the waitlists are large and at most she bumped a person from the waitlist that was never getting in. But for the vast majority of the schools that she was likely admitted to, there was little to no admissions process. She is a URM and a first-gen college student. She has 5 siblings, including one with serious health concerns. She plans to be a teacher. A full-ride (or very close) is probably more important to her than many of the things she would find out on a tour. And you only know that after you apply. Look at the schools that she was reported as considering:

Louisiana State University, Valparaiso University, University of North Texas, Fisk University, Randolph University, Brandeis University, and Mississippi State University.

These are fine schools, but only one of them is ranked within the top 100. And these are presumably the "best" options according to this student's assessment. So, pressumably a good chunk of the other places that she applied were local universities that admit basically anyone that meets some fairly low minmum.

Though I do love all the outrage about how a poor, black girl from the South is just abusing the system.

Most of those schools do not have 100% admittance so yes, she took those 114 spots from someone else who could have gotten admitted. She also took millions of scholarship dollars away from other poor black girls in the South that applied to those schools. They won't then go to someone else this year. They decide each year how much they can offer and if a certain kid doesn't choose the school it goes back for next year. So someone else missed on those scholarships this year that truly needed them.

I don't have any problem offering free applications to poor kids, but there must be a limit. Just because you can get a free sample, doesn't mean you go up and take all the samples off the table. It is a gesture to be use with grace. Not abused. This was not only abused, but someone people thought it was newsworthy for the positive. For people that are currently in this process, it is disheartening. There are families right above the poverty/pell line that need to pay to apply, pay to send scores, and can only do a handful. They desperately need scholarship money to even attend. Most will end up only going to community college and dropping out to work FT because of it. Our income is less than $75K and we struggled with paying close to $1000 in applications, FAFSA, CSS, and college board score fees. If schools WANT you to apply to as many as possible, like you said, make them free for everyone. But schools don't want that. They make a ton of money off of apps and most of the time, they barely look at the first round anyway. I highly doubt colleges would want anyone who makes the free app cut off, to send out 100 of them. Do you? This was only to make the news. She is that kind of girl. No consideration to her fellow classmates around her. All about me. I deserve this. I will show them. Congrats for being a selfish idiot.

Wrong on many points. Main one being that colleges make money on apps. It's not a profitable endeavor, even with the low pay of adcoms.

Michigan received almost 70,000 applications this year. Even if only 50,000 of them were paid, that is still $3,750,000 million

And you think they got to keep it?

What about the 20+ admissions officers and staff salaries and benefits, offices, events, travel, technology? What does that all cost? What is their margin on each application?

It's like the old joke, "We lose money on each widget, but we make it up in volume". Applications are not profitable. Universities do not "make money" from them.

Also, I recommend you never start a business.

Oh my, if you think there is no profit in common/coalition apps that get plugged right into a college’s database within minutes, I have a bridge to sell ya.
Michigan could have 30 officers (they don’t) and it wouldn’t come close to the millions they earn in fees each year.

NP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This behavior costs admissions people time and energy and for every school that accepted her, some student was rejected--maybe an URM who really wanted to go there.

That's not how this works. For elite schools, you have no idea whether you will get in, barring multi-million dollar donations. For the very good schools with competitive admissions proccesses, the waitlists are large and at most she bumped a person from the waitlist that was never getting in. But for the vast majority of the schools that she was likely admitted to, there was little to no admissions process. She is a URM and a first-gen college student. She has 5 siblings, including one with serious health concerns. She plans to be a teacher. A full-ride (or very close) is probably more important to her than many of the things she would find out on a tour. And you only know that after you apply. Look at the schools that she was reported as considering:

Louisiana State University, Valparaiso University, University of North Texas, Fisk University, Randolph University, Brandeis University, and Mississippi State University.

These are fine schools, but only one of them is ranked within the top 100. And these are presumably the "best" options according to this student's assessment. So, pressumably a good chunk of the other places that she applied were local universities that admit basically anyone that meets some fairly low minmum.

Though I do love all the outrage about how a poor, black girl from the South is just abusing the system.

Most of those schools do not have 100% admittance so yes, she took those 114 spots from someone else who could have gotten admitted. She also took millions of scholarship dollars away from other poor black girls in the South that applied to those schools. They won't then go to someone else this year. They decide each year how much they can offer and if a certain kid doesn't choose the school it goes back for next year. So someone else missed on those scholarships this year that truly needed them.

I don't have any problem offering free applications to poor kids, but there must be a limit. Just because you can get a free sample, doesn't mean you go up and take all the samples off the table. It is a gesture to be use with grace. Not abused. This was not only abused, but someone people thought it was newsworthy for the positive. For people that are currently in this process, it is disheartening. There are families right above the poverty/pell line that need to pay to apply, pay to send scores, and can only do a handful. They desperately need scholarship money to even attend. Most will end up only going to community college and dropping out to work FT because of it. Our income is less than $75K and we struggled with paying close to $1000 in applications, FAFSA, CSS, and college board score fees. If schools WANT you to apply to as many as possible, like you said, make them free for everyone. But schools don't want that. They make a ton of money off of apps and most of the time, they barely look at the first round anyway. I highly doubt colleges would want anyone who makes the free app cut off, to send out 100 of them. Do you? This was only to make the news. She is that kind of girl. No consideration to her fellow classmates around her. All about me. I deserve this. I will show them. Congrats for being a selfish idiot.

Again, this isn't how that works. Noncompetitive schools don't have 100% acceptance rates because there are always going to be some folks that don't meet minimum standards. A school like say Harvard, will know exactly how many folks they want to admit. And they will have a huge waitlist to make sure that they fill it. So applying to those schools, no seat lost. Just a happy waitlist winner. As you move down the rankings, things get looser. Particularly, when it comes to actual enrollment. Let's look at Fisk. It's not Harvard, but it's definitely not a diploma mill either. Still, about 80% of applicants are accepted. Could the school actually enroll 80% of its applicant pool? Almost certainly not, but considering that only 5% of those admitted actually enroll they are going to have more flex from year to year and probably a smaller waitlist. If a student applied to Fisk and didn't get in, it has more to do with their application than others.

https://www.prepscholar.com/sat/s/colleges/Fisk-University-admission-requirements
https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/fisk-university/applying/entering-class-stats/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This behavior costs admissions people time and energy and for every school that accepted her, some student was rejected--maybe an URM who really wanted to go there.

That's not how this works. For elite schools, you have no idea whether you will get in, barring multi-million dollar donations. For the very good schools with competitive admissions proccesses, the waitlists are large and at most she bumped a person from the waitlist that was never getting in. But for the vast majority of the schools that she was likely admitted to, there was little to no admissions process. She is a URM and a first-gen college student. She has 5 siblings, including one with serious health concerns. She plans to be a teacher. A full-ride (or very close) is probably more important to her than many of the things she would find out on a tour. And you only know that after you apply. Look at the schools that she was reported as considering:

Louisiana State University, Valparaiso University, University of North Texas, Fisk University, Randolph University, Brandeis University, and Mississippi State University.

These are fine schools, but only one of them is ranked within the top 100. And these are presumably the "best" options according to this student's assessment. So, pressumably a good chunk of the other places that she applied were local universities that admit basically anyone that meets some fairly low minmum.

Though I do love all the outrage about how a poor, black girl from the South is just abusing the system.

Most of those schools do not have 100% admittance so yes, she took those 114 spots from someone else who could have gotten admitted. She also took millions of scholarship dollars away from other poor black girls in the South that applied to those schools. They won't then go to someone else this year. They decide each year how much they can offer and if a certain kid doesn't choose the school it goes back for next year. So someone else missed on those scholarships this year that truly needed them.

I don't have any problem offering free applications to poor kids, but there must be a limit. Just because you can get a free sample, doesn't mean you go up and take all the samples off the table. It is a gesture to be use with grace. Not abused. This was not only abused, but someone people thought it was newsworthy for the positive. For people that are currently in this process, it is disheartening. There are families right above the poverty/pell line that need to pay to apply, pay to send scores, and can only do a handful. They desperately need scholarship money to even attend. Most will end up only going to community college and dropping out to work FT because of it. Our income is less than $75K and we struggled with paying close to $1000 in applications, FAFSA, CSS, and college board score fees. If schools WANT you to apply to as many as possible, like you said, make them free for everyone. But schools don't want that. They make a ton of money off of apps and most of the time, they barely look at the first round anyway. I highly doubt colleges would want anyone who makes the free app cut off, to send out 100 of them. Do you? This was only to make the news. She is that kind of girl. No consideration to her fellow classmates around her. All about me. I deserve this. I will show them. Congrats for being a selfish idiot.

Wrong on many points. Main one being that colleges make money on apps. It's not a profitable endeavor, even with the low pay of adcoms.

Michigan received almost 70,000 applications this year. Even if only 50,000 of them were paid, that is still $3,750,000 million

And you think they got to keep it?

What about the 20+ admissions officers and staff salaries and benefits, offices, events, travel, technology? What does that all cost? What is their margin on each application?

It's like the old joke, "We lose money on each widget, but we make it up in volume". Applications are not profitable. Universities do not "make money" from them.

Also, I recommend you never start a business.

Oh my, if you think there is no profit in common/coalition apps that get plugged right into a college’s database within minutes, I have a bridge to sell ya.
Michigan could have 30 officers (they don’t) and it wouldn’t come close to the millions they earn in fees each year.

NP

Again, I recommend you never start a business. Whether it's selling bridges or anything else.

Doesn't matter how easy it is for a student to submit the app, somebody has to read it, including the essays! Notes are made, things are filed, many go to committee where it they are discussed... Also it not just the officers, it's the staff, overhead, benefits, and other expenses. You act like it's $70 and they pull it out of a hat like a VFW 50-50. It tells me you know NOTHING about how the admissions process works and I think if you have kids heading to college you should learn.

Even if it were marginally profitable -- and it isn't, nor is that margin the goal of the college -- it's an insignificant amount.

[Anonymous]

Never a peep about the kids’ SAT score. Wonder why...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Showboating, selfish, narcissistic, and soft bigotry of low expectations to report this in national media and act like she cured cancer. Awful all-around.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This behavior costs admissions people time and energy and for every school that accepted her, some student was rejected--maybe an URM who really wanted to go there.

That's not how this works. For elite schools, you have no idea whether you will get in, barring multi-million dollar donations. For the very good schools with competitive admissions proccesses, the waitlists are large and at most she bumped a person from the waitlist that was never getting in. But for the vast majority of the schools that she was likely admitted to, there was little to no admissions process. She is a URM and a first-gen college student. She has 5 siblings, including one with serious health concerns. She plans to be a teacher. A full-ride (or very close) is probably more important to her than many of the things she would find out on a tour. And you only know that after you apply. Look at the schools that she was reported as considering:

Louisiana State University, Valparaiso University, University of North Texas, Fisk University, Randolph University, Brandeis University, and Mississippi State University.

These are fine schools, but only one of them is ranked within the top 100. And these are presumably the "best" options according to this student's assessment. So, pressumably a good chunk of the other places that she applied were local universities that admit basically anyone that meets some fairly low minmum.

Though I do love all the outrage about how a poor, black girl from the South is just abusing the system.

Most of those schools do not have 100% admittance so yes, she took those 114 spots from someone else who could have gotten admitted. She also took millions of scholarship dollars away from other poor black girls in the South that applied to those schools. They won't then go to someone else this year. They decide each year how much they can offer and if a certain kid doesn't choose the school it goes back for next year. So someone else missed on those scholarships this year that truly needed them.

I don't have any problem offering free applications to poor kids, but there must be a limit. Just because you can get a free sample, doesn't mean you go up and take all the samples off the table. It is a gesture to be use with grace. Not abused. This was not only abused, but someone people thought it was newsworthy for the positive. For people that are currently in this process, it is disheartening. There are families right above the poverty/pell line that need to pay to apply, pay to send scores, and can only do a handful. They desperately need scholarship money to even attend. Most will end up only going to community college and dropping out to work FT because of it. Our income is less than $75K and we struggled with paying close to $1000 in applications, FAFSA, CSS, and college board score fees. If schools WANT you to apply to as many as possible, like you said, make them free for everyone. But schools don't want that. They make a ton of money off of apps and most of the time, they barely look at the first round anyway. I highly doubt colleges would want anyone who makes the free app cut off, to send out 100 of them. Do you? This was only to make the news. She is that kind of girl. No consideration to her fellow classmates around her. All about me. I deserve this. I will show them. Congrats for being a selfish idiot.

Wrong on many points. Main one being that colleges make money on apps. It's not a profitable endeavor, even with the low pay of adcoms.

Michigan received almost 70,000 applications this year. Even if only 50,000 of them were paid, that is still $3,750,000 million

And you think they got to keep it?

What about the 20+ admissions officers and staff salaries and benefits, offices, events, travel, technology? What does that all cost? What is their margin on each application?

It's like the old joke, "We lose money on each widget, but we make it up in volume". Applications are not profitable. Universities do not "make money" from them.

Also, I recommend you never start a business.

Oh my, if you think there is no profit in common/coalition apps that get plugged right into a college’s database within minutes, I have a bridge to sell ya.
Michigan could have 30 officers (they don’t) and it wouldn’t come close to the millions they earn in fees each year.

NP

I'm a college counselor. You are quite wrong. Every year Princeton has to hire 35 outside readers in addition to regular admissions staff (now enormous due to the craziness of college applications and the sheer volume). They aren't making any money on applications. Admissions has enormous overhead plus those reps in charge of certain states and territories have to be flown out to those territories for college tours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This behavior costs admissions people time and energy and for every school that accepted her, some student was rejected--maybe an URM who really wanted to go there.

That's not how this works. For elite schools, you have no idea whether you will get in, barring multi-million dollar donations. For the very good schools with competitive admissions proccesses, the waitlists are large and at most she bumped a person from the waitlist that was never getting in. But for the vast majority of the schools that she was likely admitted to, there was little to no admissions process. She is a URM and a first-gen college student. She has 5 siblings, including one with serious health concerns. She plans to be a teacher. A full-ride (or very close) is probably more important to her than many of the things she would find out on a tour. And you only know that after you apply. Look at the schools that she was reported as considering:

Louisiana State University, Valparaiso University, University of North Texas, Fisk University, Randolph University, Brandeis University, and Mississippi State University.

These are fine schools, but only one of them is ranked within the top 100. And these are presumably the "best" options according to this student's assessment. So, pressumably a good chunk of the other places that she applied were local universities that admit basically anyone that meets some fairly low minmum.

Though I do love all the outrage about how a poor, black girl from the South is just abusing the system.

Most of those schools do not have 100% admittance so yes, she took those 114 spots from someone else who could have gotten admitted. She also took millions of scholarship dollars away from other poor black girls in the South that applied to those schools. They won't then go to someone else this year. They decide each year how much they can offer and if a certain kid doesn't choose the school it goes back for next year. So someone else missed on those scholarships this year that truly needed them.

I don't have any problem offering free applications to poor kids, but there must be a limit. Just because you can get a free sample, doesn't mean you go up and take all the samples off the table. It is a gesture to be use with grace. Not abused. This was not only abused, but someone people thought it was newsworthy for the positive. For people that are currently in this process, it is disheartening. There are families right above the poverty/pell line that need to pay to apply, pay to send scores, and can only do a handful. They desperately need scholarship money to even attend. Most will end up only going to community college and dropping out to work FT because of it. Our income is less than $75K and we struggled with paying close to $1000 in applications, FAFSA, CSS, and college board score fees. If schools WANT you to apply to as many as possible, like you said, make them free for everyone. But schools don't want that. They make a ton of money off of apps and most of the time, they barely look at the first round anyway. I highly doubt colleges would want anyone who makes the free app cut off, to send out 100 of them. Do you? This was only to make the news. She is that kind of girl. No consideration to her fellow classmates around her. All about me. I deserve this. I will show them. Congrats for being a selfish idiot.

This is spot on and extremely well-said. And apparently this high school has made sport out of encouraging this behavior since a boy the year before bragged about getting into 83 colleges. Someone there is wrongly encouraging this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This behavior costs admissions people time and energy and for every school that accepted her, some student was rejected--maybe an URM who really wanted to go there.

That's not how this works. For elite schools, you have no idea whether you will get in, barring multi-million dollar donations. For the very good schools with competitive admissions proccesses, the waitlists are large and at most she bumped a person from the waitlist that was never getting in. But for the vast majority of the schools that she was likely admitted to, there was little to no admissions process. She is a URM and a first-gen college student. She has 5 siblings, including one with serious health concerns. She plans to be a teacher. A full-ride (or very close) is probably more important to her than many of the things she would find out on a tour. And you only know that after you apply. Look at the schools that she was reported as considering:

Louisiana State University, Valparaiso University, University of North Texas, Fisk University, Randolph University, Brandeis University, and Mississippi State University.

These are fine schools, but only one of them is ranked within the top 100. And these are presumably the "best" options according to this student's assessment. So, pressumably a good chunk of the other places that she applied were local universities that admit basically anyone that meets some fairly low minmum.

Though I do love all the outrage about how a poor, black girl from the South is just abusing the system.

Most of those schools do not have 100% admittance so yes, she took those 114 spots from someone else who could have gotten admitted. She also took millions of scholarship dollars away from other poor black girls in the South that applied to those schools. They won't then go to someone else this year. They decide each year how much they can offer and if a certain kid doesn't choose the school it goes back for next year. So someone else missed on those scholarships this year that truly needed them.

I don't have any problem offering free applications to poor kids, but there must be a limit. Just because you can get a free sample, doesn't mean you go up and take all the samples off the table. It is a gesture to be use with grace. Not abused. This was not only abused, but someone people thought it was newsworthy for the positive. For people that are currently in this process, it is disheartening. There are families right above the poverty/pell line that need to pay to apply, pay to send scores, and can only do a handful. They desperately need scholarship money to even attend. Most will end up only going to community college and dropping out to work FT because of it. Our income is less than $75K and we struggled with paying close to $1000 in applications, FAFSA, CSS, and college board score fees. If schools WANT you to apply to as many as possible, like you said, make them free for everyone. But schools don't want that. They make a ton of money off of apps and most of the time, they barely look at the first round anyway. I highly doubt colleges would want anyone who makes the free app cut off, to send out 100 of them. Do you? This was only to make the news. She is that kind of girl. No consideration to her fellow classmates around her. All about me. I deserve this. I will show them. Congrats for being a selfish idiot.

This is spot on and extremely well-said. And apparently this high school has made sport out of encouraging this behavior since a boy the year before bragged about getting into 83 colleges. Someone there is wrongly encouraging this.

It really, really isn't. Otherwise, why limit it to those applying to more than 83 or 115. Aren't you a terrible person for applying to more than 10? Or 5? You have snatched scholarships away from so many! *Gasp* *Clutch pearl* *Dies from shame*

Schools make offers of financial aid with the same understand as the make offers of admission. They know that large portions of the offered scholarships will not be accepted, as generally they are offered to the most desirable students. It's rare that they redistribute, because the school counted on a number of students rejecting them. If students began doing this en mass, all that would change is more schools offering late fin aid. Or offering financial aid to admits from the waitlist. You know that every year schools revise financial aid offers to prospective students, right? That's not to say that you can talk yourself into a full-ride, but often you can get a bit more if you are polite, an attractive applicant, and can plausibly explain how an increased offer will make a difference. They also want to know that if you get the increased offer, you will come and not use them as leverage against another school.

[Anonymous]

At a certain point, they aren't hiring more people. They only need enough staff to administer the number of seats they have available. More applications just means more go into the discard pile right from the start.

There are only so many spots and they absolutely do not read every essay. Grades and SAT ACT are the first cut.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This behavior costs admissions people time and energy and for every school that accepted her, some student was rejected--maybe an URM who really wanted to go there.

That's not how this works. For elite schools, you have no idea whether you will get in, barring multi-million dollar donations. For the very good schools with competitive admissions proccesses, the waitlists are large and at most she bumped a person from the waitlist that was never getting in. But for the vast majority of the schools that she was likely admitted to, there was little to no admissions process. She is a URM and a first-gen college student. She has 5 siblings, including one with serious health concerns. She plans to be a teacher. A full-ride (or very close) is probably more important to her than many of the things she would find out on a tour. And you only know that after you apply. Look at the schools that she was reported as considering:

Louisiana State University, Valparaiso University, University of North Texas, Fisk University, Randolph University, Brandeis University, and Mississippi State University.

These are fine schools, but only one of them is ranked within the top 100. And these are presumably the "best" options according to this student's assessment. So, pressumably a good chunk of the other places that she applied were local universities that admit basically anyone that meets some fairly low minmum.

Though I do love all the outrage about how a poor, black girl from the South is just abusing the system.

Most of those schools do not have 100% admittance so yes, she took those 114 spots from someone else who could have gotten admitted. She also took millions of scholarship dollars away from other poor black girls in the South that applied to those schools. They won't then go to someone else this year. They decide each year how much they can offer and if a certain kid doesn't choose the school it goes back for next year. So someone else missed on those scholarships this year that truly needed them.

I don't have any problem offering free applications to poor kids, but there must be a limit. Just because you can get a free sample, doesn't mean you go up and take all the samples off the table. It is a gesture to be use with grace. Not abused. This was not only abused, but someone people thought it was newsworthy for the positive. For people that are currently in this process, it is disheartening. There are families right above the poverty/pell line that need to pay to apply, pay to send scores, and can only do a handful. They desperately need scholarship money to even attend. Most will end up only going to community college and dropping out to work FT because of it. Our income is less than $75K and we struggled with paying close to $1000 in applications, FAFSA, CSS, and college board score fees. If schools WANT you to apply to as many as possible, like you said, make them free for everyone. But schools don't want that. They make a ton of money off of apps and most of the time, they barely look at the first round anyway. I highly doubt colleges would want anyone who makes the free app cut off, to send out 100 of them. Do you? This was only to make the news. She is that kind of girl. No consideration to her fellow classmates around her. All about me. I deserve this. I will show them. Congrats for being a selfish idiot.

This is spot on and extremely well-said. And apparently this high school has made sport out of encouraging this behavior since a boy the year before bragged about getting into 83 colleges. Someone there is wrongly encouraging this.

It really, really isn't. Otherwise, why limit it to those applying to more than 83 or 115. Aren't you a terrible person for applying to more than 10? Or 5? You have snatched scholarships away from so many! *Gasp* *Clutch pearl* *Dies from shame*

Schools make offers of financial aid with the same understand as the make offers of admission. They know that large portions of the offered scholarships will not be accepted, as generally they are offered to the most desirable students. It's rare that they redistribute, because the school counted on a number of students rejecting them. If students began doing this en mass, all that would change is more schools offering late fin aid. Or offering financial aid to admits from the waitlist. You know that every year schools revise financial aid offers to prospective students, right? That's not to say that you can talk yourself into a full-ride, but often you can get a bit more if you are polite, an attractive applicant, and can plausibly explain how an increased offer will make a difference. They also want to know that if you get the increased offer, you will come and not use them as leverage against another school.

Please stop comparing 5, 10, or even 20 apps to over a 100. Not.even.close

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This behavior costs admissions people time and energy and for every school that accepted her, some student was rejected--maybe an URM who really wanted to go there.

That's not how this works. For elite schools, you have no idea whether you will get in, barring multi-million dollar donations. For the very good schools with competitive admissions proccesses, the waitlists are large and at most she bumped a person from the waitlist that was never getting in. But for the vast majority of the schools that she was likely admitted to, there was little to no admissions process. She is a URM and a first-gen college student. She has 5 siblings, including one with serious health concerns. She plans to be a teacher. A full-ride (or very close) is probably more important to her than many of the things she would find out on a tour. And you only know that after you apply. Look at the schools that she was reported as considering:

Louisiana State University, Valparaiso University, University of North Texas, Fisk University, Randolph University, Brandeis University, and Mississippi State University.

These are fine schools, but only one of them is ranked within the top 100. And these are presumably the "best" options according to this student's assessment. So, pressumably a good chunk of the other places that she applied were local universities that admit basically anyone that meets some fairly low minmum.

Though I do love all the outrage about how a poor, black girl from the South is just abusing the system.

Most of those schools do not have 100% admittance so yes, she took those 114 spots from someone else who could have gotten admitted. She also took millions of scholarship dollars away from other poor black girls in the South that applied to those schools. They won't then go to someone else this year. They decide each year how much they can offer and if a certain kid doesn't choose the school it goes back for next year. So someone else missed on those scholarships this year that truly needed them.

I don't have any problem offering free applications to poor kids, but there must be a limit. Just because you can get a free sample, doesn't mean you go up and take all the samples off the table. It is a gesture to be use with grace. Not abused. This was not only abused, but someone people thought it was newsworthy for the positive. For people that are currently in this process, it is disheartening. There are families right above the poverty/pell line that need to pay to apply, pay to send scores, and can only do a handful. They desperately need scholarship money to even attend. Most will end up only going to community college and dropping out to work FT because of it. Our income is less than $75K and we struggled with paying close to $1000 in applications, FAFSA, CSS, and college board score fees. If schools WANT you to apply to as many as possible, like you said, make them free for everyone. But schools don't want that. They make a ton of money off of apps and most of the time, they barely look at the first round anyway. I highly doubt colleges would want anyone who makes the free app cut off, to send out 100 of them. Do you? This was only to make the news. She is that kind of girl. No consideration to her fellow classmates around her. All about me. I deserve this. I will show them. Congrats for being a selfish idiot.

Wrong on many points. Main one being that colleges make money on apps. It's not a profitable endeavor, even with the low pay of adcoms.

Michigan received almost 70,000 applications this year. Even if only 50,000 of them were paid, that is still $3,750,000 million

And you think they got to keep it?

What about the 20+ admissions officers and staff salaries and benefits, offices, events, travel, technology? What does that all cost? What is their margin on each application?

It's like the old joke, "We lose money on each widget, but we make it up in volume". Applications are not profitable. Universities do not "make money" from them.

Also, I recommend you never start a business.

Oh my, if you think there is no profit in common/coalition apps that get plugged right into a college’s database within minutes, I have a bridge to sell ya.
Michigan could have 30 officers (they don’t) and it wouldn’t come close to the millions they earn in fees each year.

NP

I'm a college counselor. You are quite wrong. Every year Princeton has to hire 35 outside readers in addition to regular admissions staff (now enormous due to the craziness of college applications and the sheer volume). They aren't making any money on applications. Admissions has enormous overhead plus those reps in charge of certain states and territories have to be flown out to those territories for college tours.

Gotta love how the “college counselor” always shows up with her “facts”

Most reps LIVE in the area of their states, not the college. LOL
My daughter’s reps only go to their college a few times a year. Everything is uploaded online

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At a certain point, they aren't hiring more people. They only need enough staff to administer the number of seats they have available. More applications just means more go into the discard pile right from the start.

There are only so many spots and they absolutely do not read every essay. Grades and SAT ACT are the first cut.

Agree