Anonymous wrote:And BTW, OP, I think you meant to write "HS seniors who think they are busier than I . . . " Not trying to nitpick, but I'm sure you'll appreciate the correction since you enjoy criticizing the grammatical errors of others.
Anonymous wrote:OP you really sound incredibly unforgiving and power mad yourself. HS kids are pretty clueless and often arrogant. There is no need to smash their ego's to bits just because you can. Unless you enjoy cruelly rejecting someone because they didn't kiss the hem of your garment. But I suspect you and your husband are drunk with power here. Eventually, you will get yours. Power drunk people always do.
Anonymous wrote:I taught at a top university. This letter is not bad for a 17 year old. I was always highly amused at how students would hang themselves in email. For example, a student would send email requesting an extension on a deadline. I may have been perfectly inclined to grant it without much detail as to why they needed an extension...until I read through the next ten paragraphs of blathering nonsense about their social crisis and completely ridiculous reasons for an extension.
The other aspects that you are missing about high school students is that their activities tend to have lots of built-in incentives not to skip a session. If you miss practice then you will not play in the game. If you don't play in the game and we lose, you let your team down. If you don't attend this club meeting and you are in X position, you will lose it or we can't plan X activity. The parents play into this too. We paid for X activity, you can't miss it. The high strung kids who are over scheduled to have enough extra curricular activities to help them get into mom and dad's school (which was pretty darn easy to get into when mom and dad applied 30 years ago but is very difficult now) do think that somehow the world will end and their future will be bleak if they miss one thing or make one mistake. They make a complete reversal on this attitude that they can't miss anything by the end of their first year in college. You can watch as the freshman frantically attend everything and then learn by the end of the year how to commit to things but blow everything off. I firmly believe that an underground class is taught on this.
Anonymous wrote:why would you need to interview for a school? I never did and got into ivy leagues. I would agree that to a high school seniore this sounds like a waste of time.
Unfortunately, many alumnae who conduct admissions interviews share your overblown perception of their role in the application process. I have seen this much too often among the alum interviewers whom I know, and have heard the same thing from several former colleagues who are now admissions directors/VPs. All too frequently alum interviewers are motivated less by a genuine interest in supporting their alma maters than by a misplaced belief that they will have an inside track when their own kids apply to college.
Anonymous wrote:As the parent of a high schooler, I would be mortified to find that my child had written an email like that.