Reply to S/O, Where did your "top private school" DC get into through ED (that's not Ivy, or a Top 10 school)

Forum Index » Private & Independent Schools

Reply to "S/O, Where did your "top private school" DC get into through ED (that's not Ivy, or a Top 10 school)"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]And sadly, schools that cutoff at the 3.9 level are going to miss a lot of great kids.  Who  says that a 3.9 kid at a top private has learned more than a 3.2 kid.  At our school a lot of the 3.2 kids are just as smart, and pretty hardworking, but kinder, more passionate, less self-absorbed and more interesting than some of the 3.9s.  This is not to criticize those at the tippy top, but rather to sway that a lot of that energy gets lost in a highly stats driven admissions process.  My husband went to an Ivy, and he wonders if it would be as interesting an experience now.  [/quote]

We were discussing this at work the other day. We work with/hire lots of young, ambitious college graduates, and have been completely underwhelmed by the HYP graduates that we've been seeing lately.  They have been far outperformed by the graduates of the "lesser" schools.  This is a small sample, but it belies the narrative that only "outstanding, hardworking, total package" kids get into HYP.  We finally concluded that these schools admit kids that are good at school, and that doesn't necessarily translate to the real world. YMMV[/quote]

Totally agree.  We consistently have HYP interens and young hires and I'm consistently underwhelmed by their performance.  They are "smart'" but clearly not the go-getters and often lack common sense and good judgment and have a total sense of entitlement.  We have started to look for others at top tier or two tier schools and have had much more success.  I think a lot of these soon to be graduates are about to have a rude awakening. [/quote]

Depends what job you're hiring for. I totally agree that HYP grads won't excel at making cold calls selling widgets and they're less likely to be super-aggressive in the widget marketing department. I can also see that, in some cases, some might have a sense of entitlement that gets in the way of success. [b]I tend to think of HYP grads as tending to have fewer of the rough-and-tumble skills that lead to success in certain types of American businesses. [/b]But for academic/intellectual work, I imagine the HYP student's track record of work ethic and smarts would lead to excellence in the areas of research, science, public policy.

Maybe part of what you're referring to is leadership ability in the workplace? Or sheer extroversion? Here I agree the HYP students are probably a mixed bag. The emphasis on high GPAs is going to get a lot of introverts who are uncomfortable pushing stocks/widgets on customers. The focus on ECs and high school leadership positions is supposed to select for go-getters, but I doubt it's completely effective.
[/quote]

Oh, dear.  I'm guessing you didn't attend HYP.  If you had, you'd know that there's plenty or rough-and-tumble when you get so many Alpha kids together.  Indeed, self-promotion skills are critical to surviving at HYP.    [/quote]

Oh, dear, you'd be wrong!  Probably because you didn't attend HYP yourself. There are lots of introverted/more academically-oriented kids at these schools. Also, I went to Wharton, so there's that. Wharton's where you get the rough-and-tumble kids who challenge the professors, in front of the rest of the class, in obnoxious ways, in class. So yes: I'm pretty good at telling rough-and-tumble from intellectual/academic. You could learn from me.

Here's my biggest problem with your posts: your whinging and sour grapes. First you start with "admissions officers just don't understand how tough the private schools are." That got shot down, for good reason. So then you try out "well, those HYP kids are crap employees at my widget factor anyway". News flash: maybe those HYP kids are a bad fit for your widget factory, and maybe your widget factory really would be better off with the scrappy kids from Podunk U's business "school." Fine with me, I'll hire the intellectual/academic introverts for my public policy shop. Talent comes in all shapes and sizes. Your whiny "HYP grads are useless because they don't want to sell widgets" just sounds a little pathetic to the ears of this Wharton grad. [/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