Anonymous wrote:These schools are realizing that many "top students" are complete weirdos.

Have you been to a tour at a top20 lately? Or an accepted student day? I have and a large percentage of the crowd looks like they spent high school in their bedroom.

+1000 It is mind blowing how socially awkward and nerdy so many of these kids are and it has completely changed the vibe of so many colleges. The colleges have done this to themselves though. The resumes of the kids they accept leaves little time for normal teen social experiences like hours hanging out in groups, dating, etc. Sad but true.

That’s awful

Anonymous wrote:It’s to weed out the kids with green hair, wear face masks, don’t bathe, and/ or talk in ebonics. Those types of people bring the school down a notch and top schools can’t afford to have them on campus.

But what if their test scores are super high? Are you suggesting they should choose based on identity over merit?

Anonymous wrote:It’s to weed out the kids with green hair, wear face masks, don’t bathe, and/ or talk in ebonics. Those types of people bring the school down a notch and top schools can’t afford to have them on campus.

You can tell who wears face masks in public or doesn’t bathe on Zoom?

Anonymous wrote:The title of the article says it all:

Elite Colleges Have Found a New Virtue for Applicants to Fake

Yup. As a culture we’ve clearly hit some kind of cynicism saturation about elite colleges. Everything they ask for immediately comes to seem performative and empty.

Schools investing in the newest tech platform created by one of their own? Shocked!

The title of the article says it all:

Elite Colleges Have Found a New Virtue for Applicants to Fake

Anonymous wrote:Who are these “peer tutors”?

They are responsible for the ratings? Yeah that doesn’t sound like it’s ripe with sabotage- oh I’ll give my friend a perfect. He wants to come here.

The bit OP quoted said the participating students rate one another on various things. I would guess there’s a system that averages the results. Still not perfect, but harder to game.

Anonymous wrote:They aren't social portfolios in the sense of, are your friends celebrities. It's one way to measure if you are able to have respectful conversations with others, particularly those different from you.

It seems to be replacing the DEI question -- Michigan explicitly changed its supplemental essay from one asking about diversity/community to one asking about talking to/learning from someone different from you.

As if these schools are not DEI enough? Columbia? Hello

Who are these “peer tutors”?

They are responsible for the ratings? Yeah that doesn’t sound like it’s ripe with sabotage- oh I’ll give my friend a perfect. He wants to come here.

Is this for this cycle - Seniors 2026?

Yuck

These schools are realizing that many "top students" are complete weirdos.

Have you been to a tour at a top20 lately? Or an accepted student day? I have and a large percentage of the crowd looks like they spent high school in their bedroom.

They aren't social portfolios in the sense of, are your friends celebrities. It's one way to measure if you are able to have respectful conversations with others, particularly those different from you.

It seems to be replacing the DEI question -- Michigan explicitly changed its supplemental essay from one asking about diversity/community to one asking about talking to/learning from someone different from you.

Unclear?

But there’s a reason they are all jumping on “Glimpse” videos. They want to see kids talk off the cuff for 120 seconds in their own words looking at a camera.

Think they are trying to filter out for kids who aren’t able to socially integrate.

This can’t be real. Are schools really going to use this in admissions?

“ This fall, an expanding number of top schools — including Columbia, M.I.T., Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt and the University of Chicago — will begin accepting “dialogues” portfolios from Schoolhouse.world, a platform co-founded by Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, to help students with math skills and SAT prep. High-schoolers will log into a Zoom call with other students and a peer tutor, debate topics like immigration or Israel-Palestine, and rate one another on traits like empathy, curiosity or kindness. The Schoolhouse.world site offers a scorecard: The more sessions you attend, and the more that your fellow participants recognize your virtues, the better you do.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/opinion/college-admissions-essays.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Wk8.Q6mj.mdE1wwoF5Huh&smid=url-share