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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Do they go the extra mile?  Do they love to learn?  Are they scholarly with a natural gift for academic pursuits?  Are they engaged deeply and for a sustained period ( years) with ECs of interest?  Are they distinguished participants in those ECs?  Are they a real standout in a particular discipline?

Unless they have some hook, that is the type of candidate they are up against to gain admittance at top universities.  Top grades and scores are not enough....all the applicants admitted have that.[/quote]
+1

I have said in this board before that there is a difference between a high academically performing kid and a truly gifted child. Intellectual curiosity, unique interests, superior performance in a specific area need to be demonstrated.[/quote]

" Intellectual curiosity, unique interests, superior performance in a specific area need to be demonstrated." - Not ALL accepted HYPSM kids truly have these traits. Many extrapolate what they do. There is NO validation/verification done by the schools. I understand it's hard to do that for every applicant. But once they have shortlisted, they can atleast spot check one per every 100 application or something like that. Atleast the schools can verify the few things in the application that they considered for admission. This "holistic" approach truly benefits only a small percentage. There are a lot that just game the system. [/quote]

Not really.   Why would a system gamer want to go those schools anyway?[/quote]

one example of gaming the system - starting a charity organization or a tutoring agency. the website will talk have pics, info, etc projecting as if the org is doing amazing things but in reality it's not. And their essays will talk a lot about these amazing things which wouldn't have happened in that magnitude in reality. I personally know 3 such kids. 2 got into Princeton and 1 to Harvard. They are academically high achieving kids for sure but not as heavily involved in community service / leadership which they claim to be in their LinkedIn profile and their charity/tutoring websites.[/quote]

I resent these kids, too, but how would they check?  They do some Google searching and look for inconsistencies with letters, etc.  what else would you have them do?  There is a counselor in Nothern California where I live , not sure if he’s still in Business, who basically sets all of this up for your child.  There are professors you can pay for your child to “help” them with research and get the kid on the article as an author.  These things are fraud, pure and simple.  I guess the best schools can do is dig deeper when things seem too amazing.  They could also reach out to the counselors (who likely know the kids fairly well).  This is all fed by parents, by the way.  No kid is scrounging up the cash for this.  It’s parents who are insane and will do anything for their kid to get into certain schools.  I’m not even certain that the kids care all that much if they get into the schools (other than that they get in trouble if they don’t).[/quote]

If the schools cannot verify/validate a credential/accomplishment, then that should not be given so much weightage in admissions.[/quote]

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