Most educated people know not to apply to 5, much less 8 Ivies. Pick 2 or 3 max plus safeties.

Correction. Only dummies fail to reach for the stars. There are many high fliers in the DC area applying to Stanford, Cal tech, MIT, HYP, Swarthmore, Amherst. I guess by your lowly standards such characters are uneducated?

Sounds like you are blindly envious.

I just can't imagine a student who would think they were a good fit for, and want to attend, all 8. And let's face it, there are better non-Ivys than Cornell, for instance. It seems to have just been a ploy to get bragging rights.

Or perhaps he lives on the East coast and prefers a top notch university in NE to be relatively close to family. Who cares. I'm sure he has no input into the college choices of your children so why should you care about his choices?

I bet the Ivies are actually pretty pissed about these kinds of kids. They are yield killers. Multiple admits really mess up their numbers and you can bet they try to avoid it happening.

What kind of kids do you mean?

Many in my neighborhood who are USAMO winners, NMF, GPA > 4.0, multiple APs are Jewish, Asian and White applying the HYP, MIT, Stanford, Amherst, U of C, Cal Tech. I bet you hate the kids on my street too?

How many colleges would you apply to if only 5 or 6 out of 100 get accepted? Or would you simply apply to Podunk University and be done with it?

His parents are immigrants who studied medicine and became NURSES

Why the surprise? If the parents were Afrikaner from South Africa (instead of West Africa) or from northern Europe (as trained doctors) there are far less barriers immigrating to the US and joining the US physician ranks instead of driving a cab.

There are many doctors from the Southern global hemisphere (as opposed to Northern hemisphere) who become nurses or other allied health personel because of barriers to entry.

His parents are immigrants who studied medicine and became NURSES

Why the surprise? If the parents were Afrikaner or from northern Europe (as trained doctors) there are far less barriers immigrating to the US and joining the US physician ranks instead of driving a cab.

There are many doctors from the Southern global hemisphere (as opposed to Northern hemisphere) who become nurses or other allied health personel because of barriers to entry.

No, I am jealous because my kid isn't black. Therefore, she applied to not a single Ivy, despite having higher SATs than this kid, plus other stuff that wouldn't matter, because she's white. Why bother applying?

No, you are a fool because if you wanted a Black kid you should have married a Black spouse. Q.E.D.

I'm white and I don't have a bit of trouble with black kids getting in with lower SAT scores. Admissions offices consider the whole package. SAT scores are only one piece of the information they receive. SAT scores under predict the performance of black kids by quite a bit. On average, black kids do better in college than their SAT scores would suggest. That may occur for a couple of reasons:

1) Black kids on the whole are less prepared for the SAT.

2) They face psychological barriers when taking it. Expectations matter a tremendous amount. When a person is told that members of her demographic group do well on a test, they do better. When a person is told that members of his/her demographic group does poorly, they do worse. It's called stereotype threat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype_threat

3) The test is biased against black kids.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/06/21/sat

Because there is evidence that the test and testing situation are biased and the test scores for black kids underpredict their performance, lessening the emphasis on SAT scores for black kids is completely fair. Score ranges are flexible for all sorts of groups, including legacies and children of very important people and celebrities and student athletes. Why aren't you railing against the admissions advantage those groups have?

BTW, even if that kid isn't more qualified than your snowflake, he is a more interesting student to have on campus. He has an interesting story (child of immigrant parents from Ghana). Your snowflake sounds like a dime-a-dozen bright kid from a high SES group in an overrepresented area of the county. It always helps to have something that makes you stand out.

Why should you when his SAT scores were much higher than Bush and many other admitted Whites, Asians, Hispanics an other Blacks?

I bet the Ivies are actually pretty pissed about these kinds of kids. They are yield killers. Multiple admits really mess up their numbers and you can bet they try to avoid it happening.

Nonsense. What would you advise you're own child to do? Apply to one school! Idiocy, indeed given the 3-6% acceptance rates.

I just can't imagine a student who would think they were a good fit for, and want to attend, all 8. And let's face it, there are better non-Ivys than Cornell, for instance. It seems to have just been a ploy to get bragging rights.

In view of the behaviour of Americans and her history what makes you think any of the schools is a slam dunk for this kid with his name? I'd hire him in my investment firm as a trader. He is no fool to put all his eggs in one basket. His last name is not Bush.

You, on the other hand, would not handle my 7 figure portfolio!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All fighting over the token.

Are you jealous because no one is fighting over your kid?

Exactly!

No, I am jealous because my kid isn't black. Therefore, she applied to not a single Ivy, despite having higher SATs than this kid, plus other stuff that wouldn't matter, because she's white. Why bother applying?

I'm pretty sure even if your kid had applied he/she wasn't next in line to get one of the spots. So I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. Probably a long list of white, black and Asian kids ahead of yours.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All fighting over the token.

Are you jealous because no one is fighting over your kid?

Exactly!

No, I am jealous because my kid isn't black. Therefore, she applied to not a single Ivy, despite having higher SATs than this kid, plus other stuff that wouldn't matter, because she's white. Why bother applying?

I'm white and I don't have a bit of trouble with black kids getting in with lower SAT scores. Admissions offices consider the whole package. SAT scores are only one piece of the information they receive.

SAT scores under predict the performance of black kids by quite a bit. On average, black kids do better in college than their SAT scores would suggest. That may occur for a couple of reasons:

1) Black kids on the whole are less prepared for the SAT.

2) They face psychological barriers when taking it. Expectations matter a tremendous amount. When a person is told that members of her demographic group do well on a test, they do better. When a person is told that members of his/her demographic group does poorly, they do worse. It's called stereotype threat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype_threat

3) The test is biased against black kids.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/06/21/sat

Because there is evidence that the test and testing situation are biased and the test scores for black kids underpredict their performance, lessening the emphasis on SAT scores for black kids is completely fair. Score ranges are flexible for all sorts of groups, including legacies and children of very important people and celebrities and student athletes. Why aren't you railing against the admissions advantage those groups have?

BTW, even if that kid isn't more qualified than your snowflake, he is a more interesting student to have on campus. He has an interesting story (child of immigrant parents from Ghana). Your snowflake sounds like a dime-a-dozen bright kid from a high SES group in an overrepresented area of the county. It always helps to have something that makes you stand out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All fighting over the token.

Are you jealous because no one is fighting over your kid?

Exactly!

No, I am jealous because my kid isn't black. Therefore, she applied to not a single Ivy, despite having higher SATs than this kid, plus other stuff that wouldn't matter, because she's white. Why bother applying?

Great parenting job mom/dad! While you’re poisoning your daughter’s mind by teaching her to see her “whiteness” as a handicap, please make sure she also knows that she lost out to white legacies, and other similarly situated whites with better extracurriculars and geographic diversity.

Unlike your daughter, this kid had to overcome negative racial stereotyping, low expectations from teachers (not every teacher, but trust me, there was at least one), stereotype threat, etc. However, unlike you, he did not cast himself as the victim. Because of what he had to deal with (“the soft bigotry of low expectations” from many people like you), he is actually more qualified for admission to those universities than white students with similar numbers. Your daughter may not have been admitted to any Ivy League school…if she had applied, but not because she’s white.

You sound like an unhappy and bitter person. I hope that you find peace.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw this on GMA. His "2" parents are doctors and very much upper middle class. A great feat, but hardly compares to the Banneker boy. Congrats to both. This kid says he's leaning towards Yale.

His parents are immigrants who studied medicine and became NURSES.

I'm proud of the young man. He's so well-spoken. I was expecting an accent given that he's first gen. His parents did a terrific job.

And yes, his was a TREMENDOUS feat. How many kids do you know getting into all 8 ivies?

I know a TON of upper middle class students who don't get into 1.

Why would he have an accent? He was born here and grew up here.

+1. He was born and raised American. Where will he get an accent?

I can answer this as a Cuban American. Have you visited Miami? My first-generation American Cuban friends (now in our 40s) speak English with a Cuban-Spanish accent, just like their/our immigrant parents. Perhaps more surprisingly, the children of my friends, second-generation American Cubans (from toddlers to late teens), also speak English with the Cuban-Spanish accent of their immigrant grandparents.

Why are you comparing thousands of Cubans living together and keeping their Cuban-Spanish accent to a young man from Ghana whose parents probably don't live in a neighborhood with thousands of countrymen around them whose speaking style would greatly influence the children. Yes, Cubanos, you all speak whatever Spanglish you want to speak, but most children of immigrants won't have an accent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All fighting over the token.

Are you jealous because no one is fighting over your kid?

Exactly!

No, I am jealous because my kid isn't black. Therefore, she applied to not a single Ivy, despite having higher SATs than this kid, plus other stuff that wouldn't matter, because she's white. Why bother applying?

Easy to say you never had a chance of winning when you never even played the game. Were you the one who told her not to apply because of her race?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All fighting over the token.

Are you jealous because no one is fighting over your kid?

Exactly!

No, I am jealous because my kid isn't black. Therefore, she applied to not a single Ivy, despite having higher SATs than this kid, plus other stuff that wouldn't matter, because she's white. Why bother applying?

Can we assume that your kid also had the same ECs? Also, your kid is competing against other white kids, and maybe didn't meet their standards. Ever think of that?

By the way, according to CNN, this kid plays three instruments for the chamber orchestra, sings in an a cappella group, throws shot put and discus for the high school's track and field team, participates in student government and has had a lead role in school plays since the ninth grade.

That kid could've gotten in on a music or sports scholarship. What's your kid's excuse?