Reply to What are “Lived Experiences” vs “Exeriences”

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]For applicants with unarguably privileged backgrounds, this essay is a minefield.  Maybe there was someone in your life who had an outsized influence that you can focus on.  But it seems like a no-win proposition for children of privilege.[/quote]

This is why so many of you are so fired up about this question. Because your children are privileged and yes, this specific question is "no-win" for a privileged child, but here's the thing. Your privileged child has been winning in many other categories up until this exact point. You are angry that now at this point, you do not get to continue using that privilege to guarantee this particular success (admission to an elite college) for your child and you CAN buy this thing (paying full freight for a private college). About 45% of students at Ivy schools are full pay. The stats on how many Americans are rich are nebulous depending on what you consider rich, but if we use a basic number - how many households have a net worth over $2 million. That works out to right under 10% of households. What that number means is that rich kids are already incredibly overrepresented in those places. It is what it is.

I have yet to meet a parent of a child who is not privileged that has a problem with this question. Privileged children were overrepresented before in top colleges and they will continue to be. Pick another essay prompt and remember that 45% of the slots are going to 10% of the population. If your child doesn't get one of those slots, they will still have a decent life with whatever college they end up going to. [/quote]

Being a child of normal middle class is not a privilege
It's a normal thing.  It should not be penalized.

Under-privileged kids will still have a decent life with whatever college they end up going to.

Merit should be the major measure.
I can understand social status as a tiebreaker.  
That much I can understand, but middle class normal kids should not be penalized.

[/quote]

You have to read the thread in conjunction with other threads about elite schools losing their luster.

It’s vexing if you think a small handful of elite universities are the ticket to a successful life, and then see how a certain cohort of high-achieving kids from well-off families are systematically denied access to those institutions because, on the one hand, they don’t have “hooks,” yet on the other hand they don’t check the diversity boxes (which essays about “lived experiences” are intended to surface) that give them an edge with liberal admissions officers.

However, if you recognize that some of the elite schools increasingly see themselves as in the business of promoting social change and mobility, and less interested in rewarding academic merit than in the 70s to 00s, you can move on.  An ever-increasing percentage of the young adults who make valuable contributions to society will come from less “selective” state schools, and the Ivies and “top” SLACs will be seen as increasingly twee - a nice lottery to have won, but not necessarily indicative of exceptional smarts or intellectual strength.

So, sure, when some schools demand essays about kids’ “lived experiences,”    they can try to write an honest, introspective essay, but it seems there’s also every reason to believe they are now used by left-leaning admissions officers as a tool to toss applications from kids deemed to have enjoyed too many “unearned privileges.”  [/quote]

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