Anonymous wrote:The TJ student who got in is Indian-American and a standout student even in TJ. She was smart to apply to all 8 Ivy schools because we know that the admissions criteria for Asians is more stringent than any other racial group. There is no Affirmative Action for Asians.
Considering that both parents are engineers from Bangalore - she probably had the finances to apply to multiple colleges, which she did.
While I applaud her getting into all the colleges she applied to (14 in all) - I did feel disheartened as an Asian parent, to see how much our brightest Asian students have to hedge their bets.
Now that she has the options, she can decide where to go. The colleges think that she is a good student to add to their student body, now she has to decide which college is the best match for her. Academically, she can nail it where ever she goes.
Anonymous wrote:It makes sense for a kid to apply to MIT, Cal Tech, Carnegie Mellon, and Georgia Tech. Or Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, and Swarthmore. Or maybe Brown, Oberlin, and Reed. These groups of schools all have qualities that would attract similar students.
But the eight Ivies plus MIT and Stanford are not interchangeable. A kid for whom UPenn would be a good match would probably be very unhappy at Dartmouth and vice versa. I would tell my own child to figure out what he wanted in a school before sending out applications to any and all. What would happen if the child only got into the one Ivy that would not at all suit that child? Would the student just go to any Ivy just because it's an Ivy?
Anonymous wrote:Time to take the affirmative action training wheels off.
Anonymous wrote:Amazing. It really surprises me how most people in this country look down on foreigners.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Amazing. It really surprises me how most people in this country look down on foreigners.
Huh? Can you point us to another country that welcomes so many foreigners and provides them so quickly with access to their most elite institutions? Apart from perhaps Canada and Australia, I can't think of any.
Anonymous wrote:Amazing. It really surprises me how most people in this country look down on foreigners.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:OP has a point. Many people familiar with the Ivies and similar schools look at someone's applying and gaining admission to all of them as a "Stupid Pet Trick," even if they are too polite to say it. There are such differences among the schools that applying to all of them is not especially rational, unless the goal is just to get into an Ivy and/or show that you can kick ass with admissions departments.
If I was a teen living in NoVa going to TJ, I would definitely apply to numerous schools. Your peers are virtually all as smart as you and her race puts her at a disadvantage as far as admissions go. It's not like she was the the standout student in a mediocre school, they're all so talented and smart.
If this child was a white, black or hispanic student the posts would be completely different and that is the sad reality of DCUM.
Anonymous wrote:OP has a point. Many people familiar with the Ivies and similar schools look at someone's applying and gaining admission to all of them as a "Stupid Pet Trick," even if they are too polite to say it. There are such differences among the schools that applying to all of them is not especially rational, unless the goal is just to get into an Ivy and/or show that you can kick ass with admissions departments.