Reply to Can being the no. 1 student from TJ graduating class serve as a hook to top 10 universities?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You folks don't really get how admissions works at the top universities. They don't care about valedictorians. They are looking for that "special something" and it's usually not something on paper.

I interview for one of the "holy grail" universities, and I have excellent "smell sense" for who's actually going to get in, and they don't look any different on paper from the others. Many times they don't look as fabulous on paper as others do. They are interesting kids who are interested in stuff. No one cares if they're number 1 or number 50 at TJ.

You're pushing your kids so hard. Please stop. I get depressed after some of these interviews -- I want to hug the kids and tell them it's going to be okay and some day they'll actually figure out who they are and it's okay not to know. It's okay to let your guard down.  It's okay to not be doing worthy stuff every minute of every day. It's okay just to be.

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[b]Why do you automatically assume there is pushing going on by parents?[/b] There may be some pushing by some parents but not always. Sometimes it's peer pressures and sometimes it's the kids themselves being driven and ambitious. I have a child in high school and I have to stop my child from pushing himself too far. I have to tell him to take a break, go to sleep early and so on but he feels like selective colleges want too much these days, high GPA, high SAT scores, many APs, leadership positions, volunteer hours, club activities etc.

You are quick to blame the parents but think about the role of the colleges. The population increased substantially in the last 30 years but the number of seats at the top 10-15 universities are about the same. It appears to the high school kids that the whole admission process is unfair due to preferences for legacies, athletes and URMs. The whole process is not transparent and appears to be subjective and terms like "well-roundness" and "passion"  are thrown around not to mention passing the "smell sense". That is why the high school kids are stressed out.[/quote]

I'm not the above poster, but I think the poster is saying that in an interview, you can see the difference between the internally motivated kids and the ones being pushed by the parents. The ones being pushed are just never going to be able to fake what it is that the internally motivated kids have. And maybe the kids would develop their own internal motivation if their parents pushed a bit less and instead just loved the child for who he is.

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