Reply to Telling my special snowflake he's not so special

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Telling my special snowflake he's not so special"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DS is a superior student/athlete/artist/overall human being to his parents who matriculated HYPSM. 20+ years ago when we were going through it, however, college admissions wasn't a nuclear arms race. I'm fairly certain we would NEVER be accepted if we were applying now. I've been trying to drill this into DS's head since middle school, but he's now a junior and still has delusions of grandeur. I cannot for the life of me get him excited about safety colleges. Advice?[/quote]

Same! Here's the reality check that worked with ours. It's not about you. The internet changed everything. Higher Ed in the US was built on exclusivity of physical access to information and certain people, not the unbiased, fairly-assessed academic merit of applicants. Tests biased in favor of privelege. Legacy is rigged. Oh and don't forget about the multi-billion dollar sports industry of the NCAA and Varisty Blues side doors.

The internet puts all courses online, LinkedIn is better than alumni networking, and social media is finally giving student-athletes, or athletes who also have to be students, some agency over themselves. Oh and Silicon Valley created the Ivy Dropout Unicorn tech bro aspirational track.

So yeah, everything has changed but not all universities have caught up. They are not actually more exclusive, just more accessible. Like Vegas, the odds are always against you and the house always wins. But that doesn't mean you can enjoy a bit of gambling responsibly. Just know your limits and hedge your bets. Don't. Spend. Money. You. Don't. Have.

Grad school is the new undergrad. Might as well save money now because you'll definitely need it later.

Each school has it's own agenda for balancing classes and playing to internal constituencies. Admissions Officers have to fight like pharma salespeople to get enough applicants to check all of the INTERNAL boxes at schools. Note, these have nothing to do with whatever stats you think they think are important.

So relax, cupcake. You're bright. You have opportunities. You have resources. Most people on the planet do not. You are way ahead of the game no matter what you see on Ivy TikTok.
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics