Reply to Reach vs. Possibility vs. Safety?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you have a top kid -- I mean like top 10% or higher SATs and GPA but no [b]"hook" like being an underrepresented minority, [/b]playing a sport or having a unique talent or strength, then I'd say be careful with applying to Ivies. When competing for college acceptance at the highest levels, almost no one can consider themselves "likely" for admission. If you are going the Ivy (or Ivy equivalent) route, I'd advise applying to a few more schools than typical, and including a true safety like UMD, Michigan, Tulane, Penn State. [/quote]There are so many highly qualified, high academic and test score applicants that the underrepresented minority is becoming passe.  If anything, they are competing among themselves for the selective slots AND there scores are just as good if not better than the top 10% of non-white students.

I personally know 7 black students (private and public schools) who were early admit to Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Stanford.  Every one of them had superior grades and scores, attended top flight private and public in this area, and ranked in single digits (one school does not rank).  There is absolutely no doubt they were admitted for their outstanding credentials.  If the Ivy schools salivated and did not look beyond their skin color, that's their problem.

People should stop assuming that underrepresented minorities are solely admitted because of their skin color.  Harvard or any of the other top schools will not admit someone who can't carry their academic weight regardless if they are the first purple person on earth.  Richard Sherman (football) may be rambunctious and was most likely admitted for sports, he had a 3.7 GPA at Stanford.

Simply having a "hook" as a minority no way guarantees admission.[/quote]

Oh please.  URM is a huge hook, equivalent to hundreds of SAT points.  It does not guarantee admission, but it sure increases one's chances.  Just take a stroll through some College Confidential accepted student threads to see the advantage being a URM provides.

As for Sherman's grades, it is well known that everybody does well at the top schools.  Grade inflation there is out of control.  As they say, the only thing harder than getting into an an an Ivy, is failing out.[/quote]

While it is true that failing out of an Ivy is almost impossible, it's not due to grade inflation. In fact, the idea of grade inflation is a lie.

As an Ivy grad, I can assure you everyone works their asses off for every grade they receive and not everyone gets an A. However, there are lots of A's given simply because you're dealing with the cream of the crop, best of the best students.[/quote]

Sounds like a serious case of selection bias, "because we are all so smart here (as validated by our admission) most everyone deserves an A."     As for grade inflation, Princeton had to put a cap on the number of As professors were handing out. "Grade deflation" was not only not a lie, it was policy.  It looks like now Princeton may reverse that policy after nearly a decade because it is "not consistent with our educational goals."  And so the grade inflation continues.[/quote]

Of course rationing out A's based on policy instead of granting the true grade that was earned is "not consistent with educational goals".

I am aware of the idea and study of "grade inflation" at selective schools. However, I am here to tell you that the A's are not handed out like candy on Halloween. They are earned. However, these highly selective Ivy Leagues--where very, very deeply intellectual people are always challenging the status quo--looked at the data and decided that it was worth looking at why so many A's were being given. Was it because the professors were lax? Were the classes not intellectually challenging? Or *gasp!* Was it because they'd only accepted the cream of the crop who'd spent their wholes lives making nothing less than straight A's in very competitive classes? Many have concluded the last, which is what I suspect caused Princeton to reverse it's policy.

Of course, the 'grade inflation' theory works well at soothing the hurt feelings and insecurities of those who didn't make it into the Big League. :wink: [/quote]

That last line is such a giveaway!  I smell Cornell a mile away.   [/quote]

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