Reply to It really is SUCH a huge disadvantage to be applying to college from the DMV

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Would you be willing to live in Arizona or Oregon, and send your kid through public schools there?

Geographic diversity at top school is also really valuable. These schools can get very intensive group think from the coastal bubbles. It actually does matter. It results in a better education for everyone, not just a great opportunity for the kids from these other places.

Also consider that the kid from Arizona with the 33 and a few AP exams likely had to work very hard to seize every academic opportunity that came their way to get to the point where they are applying to and getting into these schools. They tend to be special kids and real standouts. You only see their numbers but you're talking valedictorians, class presidents, kids who are standout musicians, debaters, mathletes, etc. And again, doing this in environments where academics are not always prioritized and where they don't have a zillion peers doing the same stuff. They have to be self motivated in a way that kids in the DMV never have to self motivate because of the culture here, because of who their parents are, because their peers are often all pushing in that same direction.

Like sure, it feels unfair when you look at it on the surface. But in reality those kids are EARNING their admission to those schools, and you just don't see it because you are comparing apples (your kid and all the kids like your kid in the DMV area) to oranges (these kids from far less represented areas who are like the standout Ivy League hope of their entire school or hometown and have never had a chance to be in a school environment filled with kids similar to them).

I was an orange and now I live in DC and am raising an apple. You don't know. It's not the easy gift you think it is. It's hard. My kid has a zillion more and better opportunities than I did growing up where I did, and is also just savvier about the world and speaks the language of professionals better than I did even up graduating college. And she might wind up at a perfectly good but not tip top college despite having better grades, more APs, better test scores. Guess what? She's going to be fine and she will have far fewer barrier to success than I did. She doesn't have to learn a whole new world and navigate everything with parents who have no clue and are suspicious and overwhelmed by it all. She's still better off even if she doesn't go to an Ivy.

Perspective, OP. You need to step outside your bubble a bit.[/quote]

Stop preaching.  OP here and I grew up in rural America. 
I got a great education in a town in a red state that most of DCUM would scoff at.  YOU need to get out of your DC bubble.  [/quote]

No, you're missing my point. I'm saying you are looking at these kids in the videos, or even at your own experience, and treating it like it's the norm in these places. It's not. I am from a small town in a red state. I was an extreme outlier as someone who not only had the grades and test scores to leave that place and get a fancy education at a top ranked school, but who actually had the will to do it. Most kids in those places don't aspire to any of that. Even the academic kids. They go to ASU and aspire to have a life much like their parents have and they don't care that much about going to an Ivy or having a big or exciting job.

If you lived in one of these places, there's like a 95% chance that's what your kid would be like. And also that would be fine and there wouldn't be pressure to aim higher because that's what most people there do.

So for the small percent of kids who both aspire to something else, and have the motivation and work ethic to go pursue it and get the grades and scores and apply to these schools and get in, it's a huge deal. They are breaking from the pack. They are special.

Whereas your kid doing that in this environment where "the norm" is to want to go to a top school and have a big important job, is not special. Your kid is not as special as those kids. You can't compare test scores or grades. You are missing the point.[/quote]

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