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[quote=Anonymous][quote] I am particularly surprised to hear that applying ED does not come with any advantage. [/quote]
School specific topic. Ours doesn’t confer an advantage.

[quote] A question about indicating race. From what is in this thread, it seems that Asian applicants should not identify their race on the application. Worst case is they will be held to the same standards as other Asian kids, and best case is they will be held two more lenient requirements. Correct? 
How are mixed-race applicants reviewed? If my child is 3/4 Asian and 1/8 White descent, is the best approach just the indicate mixed race? 
Finally, if my non-Asian child does not identify her race on the application she will be assumed to be Asian or white? That seems to penalize people for deciding to keep their race private, yes? [/quote]

We actually like when students disclose their race; it helps us better solicit programming for them if they matriculate. We’re not disadvantaging Asians on an absolute scale; that pool is simply so competitive that not being near the benchmark will disadvantage you relatively. But the race question is not required. Also, as pointed out before, a benchmark is just a standard, not a barrier. We are not going to say no if an Asian student doesn’t have a 750 on each section. A good number of our Asian admits don’t.

We review mixed-race kids under both contexts. If they’re a mixed race URM, we’ll consider them under the URM benchmark, even if their other race is not a URM. If they’re a mixed race not URM, we consider them under both the Asian and Caucasian pool. The benchmarks for test expectations in both groups are comparable. 
We practice race based affirmative action. If a mixed race student who is part URM chooses not to disclose that they are, they have the right to do that, but they shouldn’t expect that we’ll consider their performance relative to the URM pool. The whole point of AA is to contextualize performance relative to groups who have been historically underserved or underrepresented. It’s a boost overall, not something made at the expense of non-URMs.

[quote] So what makes an essay "good" vs. a "bad" essay? Or what made these essays "bad"?[/quote]
Lots of good discussion on this; I agree with what’s posted. You have to put it in the light of an admissions officer. We read around 40-50 applications in some days, spending 10-20 minutes on each (yes, that means we’re working all day and well into the night). Most of the essays are similar in content. They don’t excite us. We want students to be bold, passionate, and daring. Those are the essays that stick with us year after year- the ones we use to train future admission officers about what a good essay is.

[quote] How are 9th grade grades weighed? Any forgiveness in the process for a student who makes mistakes in 9th grade, then matures into a great student? I'm a bit worried that the system seems to be set up to reward pre-mature frontal lobe development [/quote]
Yes, the trend matters more as was mentioned, but if 9th grade grades are bringing down the rest of the application to an extent you don’t meet our standards (being in the top 10%, for instance), that will hurt you. 
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