Anonymous wrote:Racial preferences will become outmoded when racism becomes outmoded. Let me know when that happens, please. I'm looking forward to the day.

I agree they will become outmoded. After all, I can look at my own family. One sibling has children who are 1/2 AA and 1/2 white. Another has children who are 1/2 hispanic and 1/2 white. My DH has a sibling who's kids are 1/2 native american and 1/2 AA. Even within the SAME family, there can be racial differences among the children/cousins/etc. Oddly, of all the cousins in our family example, my children's only "white" cousins are the ones who've grown up without financial resources and could probably use a helping hand getting into college. The rest of us in our example have done well, had excellent college experiences, good jobs, stable homes for our kids. The white (supposedly privileged by being so!) cousins are the ones who grew up in bad schools, broken family, parental drug use etc. Those kids didn't have much of a shot in life and it didn't have anything to do with their race.

Racial preferences will become outmoded when racism becomes outmoded. Let me know when that happens, please. I'm looking forward to the day.

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Anonymous wrote:I was talking to my husband about this kid last night. Our kid went to an Ivy. 2250 would not get most white kids into an Ivy (w/o a hook that is). 2250 would get the average white kid into Middlebury or Bowdoin.

The black kid's parents are from Ghana. The Ivies like minorities with direct Afrian roots and less so for African American kids. This kid's EQs were not stellar..but fine.

Simply put, w/o being black, he would not have gotten into 8 Ivies...maybe 2...Cornell and Brown.

Just checked w/ SIL whose kids got into Yale and Cornell, and one got into Princeton, white and Jewish. Neither daughter was above 2250, but she did not have the exact numbers. I sent her this thread.

Thank you for posting this. However, the posters don't want to hear about your white nieces getting accepted into the Ivies with less stellar scores than this kid They want to continue to tell themselves that a Black kid can only get into the schools because he is an URM. Racism has never died.

And outmoded racial preferences (versus, perhaps, economic disadvantaged preferences which are race-neutral) engender a whole new level of resentment in people who previously did not have racial bias.

That essay was comprehensible, but he tries to use the style of other people so it sounds jerky, he will find his way.

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Anonymous wrote:That essay was really bad.

Where can I read the essay?

http://nypost.com/2014/04/02/this-is-the-essay-that-got-1-student-into-all-8-ivies/

Still not seeing it!!

Weird--there used to be a link to a copy of the essay in that article. Looks like they pulled it. Try here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/215907419/Kwasi-Enin-s-college-essay

For what it's worth, I don't think it's a stellar essay, but it's coherent, shows his love of music, shows he can make connections between music and his other interests, and shows a bit of his personality. I've read a lot of writing samples from college students/grad students applying for internships/jobs, some of which are from top tier schools, and many of them are a lot worse than this one.

I agree, it's not the best essay in the world. It was well structured, conveyed his passion for music, and that he is an active and caring member in his school's community. He hit all of the areas that adcoms are looking for during their brief scan and also you can tell a teenager wrote it.

I've read writing samples of my DD's classmates who attended a big three and was shocked at how uncomprehensive and disorganized their essays were and this was during senior year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He was accepted BECAUSE he was a minority. If he was white, it wouldn't be newsworthy. It is reverse racism.

He was accepted BECAUSE he was a highly-qualified candidate.

It's not the admissions committees that are being racist here.

+10000

Exactly!! He was accepted because he was qualified and did much better than his white peers. Yes this may be groundbreaking news because he is AA but he certainly wasn't accepted because he was a minority.

Anonymous wrote:

For what it's worth, I don't think it's a stellar essay, but it's coherent, shows his love of music, shows he can make connections between music and his other interests, and shows a bit of his personality. I've read a lot of writing samples from college students/grad students applying for internships/jobs, some of which are from top tier schools, and many of them are a lot worse than this one.

Biased review. I wonder what your position would have been if you were blinded and not colored by his phenotype and race!

Well, he didn't cite being a vegetarian as evidence of his qualification for an environmental analyst job--so he's ahead of some of the stuff I get.

For what it's worth, I don't think it's a stellar essay, but it's coherent, shows his love of music, shows he can make connections between music and his other interests, and shows a bit of his personality. I've read a lot of writing samples from college students/grad students applying for internships/jobs, some of which are from top tier schools, and many of them are a lot worse than this one.

Biased review. I wonder what your position would have been if you were blinded and not colored by his phenotype and race!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That essay was really bad.

Where can I read the essay?

http://nypost.com/2014/04/02/this-is-the-essay-that-got-1-student-into-all-8-ivies/

Still not seeing it!!

Weird--there used to be a link to a copy of the essay in that article. Looks like they pulled it. Try here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/215907419/Kwasi-Enin-s-college-essay

For what it's worth, I don't think it's a stellar essay, but it's coherent, shows his love of music, shows he can make connections between music and his other interests, and shows a bit of his personality. I've read a lot of writing samples from college students/grad students applying for internships/jobs, some of which are from top tier schools, and many of them are a lot worse than this one.

Anonymous wrote:How did a black African overcome the black American bias?

Wasn't he born in the States? Then he is technically a black American, even though his background is vastly different from that of a ghetto kid.
He is a desirable candidate for any top college not just for his entry parameters but also because he is not likely to drop out.

Anonymous wrote:How did a black African overcome the black American bias?

What does that mean?

How did a black African overcome the black American bias?

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL. But I know a number of kids with 2400 in SAT. Yup, in MCPS schools.

How is this ground breaking?

He's AA and has stats that are about average for Ivy league schools. That doesn't happen often.

He is also well rounded in atletics, arts and personality. It's not just about test scores either. Also, what's your kids SAT score? What was yours?

Please put your application essays up, too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL. But I know a number of kids with 2400 in SAT. Yup, in MCPS schools.

How is this ground breaking?

He's AA and has stats that are about average for Ivy league schools. That doesn't happen often.

He is also well rounded in atletics, arts and personality. It's not just about test scores either. Also, what's your kids SAT score? What was yours?

I wonder what the psychiatric treatment is costing TJ families. Or don't they have time for mental health councelling services?

Those seeing psychiatrists today and obtaining head MRIs and CT scans are really the ones with the inferiority complex who can't keep up with TJ children. These parents, many of whom sound like those here, wonder why their kids do not perform as well as those at TJ (or any magnet or AP/honors curriculum). These parents look for some magic explanation hiding in on an MRI image to explain why their child is left behind by another red or brown kid.

My office practice is loaded with parents seeking the answers to these types of questions. Testing the null hypothesis costs these folk big bucks!