Reply to No, test optional isn’t the reason your kid didn’t get in.

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Reply to "No, test optional isn’t the reason your kid didn’t get in."

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There's a basic rule in admissions, now and in the past: "If your grades are the most interesting thing about you, you're not that interesting". People want to keep denying this and talk about merit and objective measures and such, but that's how admissions people think when they look at applications. Scores are a baseline, what did you do with all those smarts? After years of looking at applications, 80% of students look like the same parent-programmed, "I checked these boxes to get into college but I don't really care about any of these things" people. Sorry, but the A minus or B student --or even just the OTHER A plus student - who did something more compelling or at least unique, is going to get the nod every time.
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[b]Kids job in high school is academics first.[/b]  They should have other outlets.  But, come on?  What did a 15-year old do with his smarts?  Answer: he studied hard and got good grades and test scores.   Volunteering and being kind doesn't require smarts.  Having mom and dad set-up a non-profit to look good on your apps doesn't require smarts.  Having paid experiences at universities in the summer is not smarts.

This 'uniqueness' crap is ridiculous.  This is not an audition for an improv class or a talk show host spot---this is admission to elite universities with rigorous academics.

There is a reason the US is ranked so low in the world when it comes to education:

The top 10 countries with the best education are:

1. Germany – 0.94
2. Finland – 0.93
3. Iceland – 0.93
4. New Zealand – 0.93
5. Norway – 0.93
6. United Kingdom – 0.93
7. Australia – 0.92
8. Denmark – 0.92
9. Ireland – 0.92
10. Singapore – 0.92

https://wisevoter.com/country-rankings/education-rankings-by-country/[/quote]

Maybe in the countries you listed where kids aren’t distracting by having to save for their own college tuition, at risk of eviction, in violent neighborhoods, etc. [/quote]

No, but education works differently in those countries. For example, Germany tracks all students starting around age 10. You can move between the tracks but it’s not that common. They also force all immigrants to pass a German language test before joining schools in Germany.

Finland has no racial diversity and the kids all come to school reading and writing at age 7 by the time they start school. Schools don’t need to do any parenting because the actual parents do that. [/quote]

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