Anonymous
Post 07/16/2025 08:28     Subject: Social Portfolios?!?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote: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.


Or, the more likely reason is they want to see the kids ethnicity so they can continue using that for admissions without putting it on paper.


Most schools are 25% Asian. They aren’t discriminating against your kid bc they’re Asian.

They are rejecting your kid because they’re indistinguishable from every other kid who wants to be a computer science, engineering or business major - just for the money.
Anonymous
Post 07/16/2025 08:24     Subject: Social Portfolios?!?
Anonymous wrote:It sounds like this, which one of the private schools required when DS was applying a few years ago.

https://www.enrollment.org/tools/snapshot/character-skills-snapshot

It presumably gives an insight into interpersonal skills and maturity. My guess is that these colleges are finding that some applicants who seem great on paper lack EQ skills.


So they are going to require adherence to a bunch of topic that favor the exact same type of student they currently are full of?
Anonymous
Post 07/16/2025 08:19     Subject: Social Portfolios?!?
Anonymous wrote:at best, it's to work around fake applications written by others.

at worse, it's the ol' Georgetown "attach a picture" thing - we like the good looking!


Except it will circle back to anyone but a smart asian kid.
Anonymous
Post 07/16/2025 08:15     Subject: Social Portfolios?!?
Anonymous wrote: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.


Or, the more likely reason is they want to see the kids ethnicity so they can continue using that for admissions without putting it on paper.
Anonymous
Post 07/16/2025 08:13     Subject: Social Portfolios?!?
This is about two things that this generation has had to deal with: COVID and AI.

This generation of kids lost one to two key socializing years, locked up in their homes and staring at classmates through a pane of glass. None of that is a critique of the difficult choices people made at the time; regardless of how you feel that was all handled, the fact is that students had fewer opportunities to interact in the real world with peers, adults, society at large, etc. So I can understand why schools would want a way to suss out whether the students they’re considering were able to overcome that friction in development.

Second, AI. If I can prompt engineer my way in 30 seconds to having an LLM write my essay, there’s no guarantee I actually know how to engage with new ideas, or apply critical thinking, or empathetically hear a counterargument, or evolve my thinking. So I can understand why schools would want a way to assess that.

I’m not saying that any of the specific platforms are the right way to go about addressing these specific dynamics, but I get why colleges would feel the need for some new tools as they select their next classes.
Anonymous
Post 07/16/2025 07:49     Subject: Social Portfolios?!?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It sounds like it might be a way to check that it’s the kid that wrote the essay and not Mommy or a consultant etc. Admissions folks also tend to notice if someone who is really articulate on paper turns up to an interview and is less so.

At my university we are also doing things like having students attach a short video to an essay submission where you respond to questions like “what inspired you to choose this topic?” Or “is there anything you changed your mind about after writing the essay?” If writing the essay involved a “thought process” these questions are easy. If writing the essay involved writing a check or pushing a button they are somewhat harder.

What you think is “harder” is yet another coachable hoop. You think you are gleaning insight, when what you are really doing is funding an arms race benefitting coaching. A little self awareness would be nice.


Or someone else entirely. You don’t include photo identification with apps so anybody could stand in for you.

lol- this is ridiculous


Exactly. How could they even verify you are who they say you are in these dialogues?

omg this sounds exactly like what i read about last night - how employers are duped when they hire people from a certain region of the world. Someone else does the remote interview and the employer has no idea who it is really hiring.
Anonymous
Post 07/15/2025 23:25     Subject: Social Portfolios?!?
Gross
Anonymous
Post 07/15/2025 23:23     Subject: Social Portfolios?!?
Anonymous wrote:Funny in our tour of both Yale and Duke we kept commenting on how good looking the guys were. Very prom king!


It’s not a coincidence.
Same with Vanderbilt.
It’s the Glimpse videos (Duke has them too).
Anonymous
Post 07/15/2025 23:07     Subject: Social Portfolios?!?
Anonymous wrote:The title of the article says it all:

Elite Colleges Have Found a New Virtue for Applicants to Fake


Good, at least the article is calling this them out on their BS rather than writing some kind of fawning piece.
Anonymous
Post 07/15/2025 21:22     Subject: Social Portfolios?!?
Odd. Is it a way to potentially counteract the proliferation of AI essays/applications by having a live exercise that forces students to think and speak on their feet?
Anonymous
Post 07/15/2025 21:05     Subject: Social Portfolios?!?
No way I’m letting my kids do this. Very creepy!
Anonymous
Post 07/15/2025 21:04     Subject: Social Portfolios?!?
Anonymous wrote:This post show DCUM's weird aversion to all things they perceive as weirdo/quirky/woke. Honestly, I think they throw in most high school drama departments into this category, ironically usually the most inclusive group of kids in a high school. (When I saw people calling Northwestern "quirky", I thought, they must mean guys who wear birks?)

Glimpses came about to solve an actual problem: applicants from Asia with great apps but got to campus and were not reflective of their apps. Sometimes with language issues. Clearly they had consultants who wrote their apps.

Also, it's a good way to get keep your URM minority numbers from falling off a cliff.

This is just another product w similar motives: including profit.

What a do really enjoy is that the DCUM mafia feels like these products weed out those "weird" kids, but colleges are fine with the vast majority of weird. Many AO staff were those same drama kids. Stay weird! Meanwhile, what these programs actually do is show the AO team who are the bros who talk over other people. The frat boys DCUM moms love and AOs do not. They already admitted the athletic recruits. They dont' need more cosplay lax players.

So .. think what you want folks, but the call is coming from inside the house.


I've seen this come up again and again on this board, and I don't think "weird" in this context is referring to drama kids.

My sense is that it refers to kids who are 100% focused on academics and highly academic competitions and ECs. These are the kids who have incredible stats and have already achieved all sorts of accolades in high school . . . but they're mostly "solo contributors" rather than collaborative or group-oriented teammates. Add in limited social experience and interaction with more than a handful of peers, and you get "weird".

I think the overall concern is that these kids are going to come to college and live in the library and/or the labs. That's great for their personal knowledge acquisition, but it adds little else during those four years to their peers and to the college community as a whole.

FWIW, I find that "drama kids" are usually the opposite of that. They're very comfortable working in groups and know how to reach out and engage others. They may show up differently than the preppy athlete types, but the fact is that yes, drama kids tend to be very engaged in campus life inside AND outside the classroom.
Anonymous
Post 07/15/2025 14:52     Subject: Re:Social Portfolios?!?
Anonymous wrote:In 4-5 years time they are going to have to start scrounging for applicants with the population cliff. Adding more BS won’t help.


The population “cliff” that takes us back to 2012, not including international kids? Keep dreaming.
Anonymous
Post 07/15/2025 14:50     Subject: Social Portfolios?!?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
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.


This.
Heard from one T10 school admission officer on a recalibration in their social metrics for this year.


Yes. We recently went to an accepted student function for an Ivy. The kids by-in-large were REALLY weird. No other way to say it.
Out of 40 maybe 5 appeared to be social, typical kids. My husband and I left saying: "no doubt these kids are brilliant but are they going to be employable in a few years when extensive in-person interviewing is involved?"

It's the colleges' own fault. They chose to admit kids who have the resumes 40 year olds at age 18 and focused on pointy, obscure interests. There is simply so way to be a typical social teenager and invest in your peers and do all that stuff in 4 years.


It's allowed to be academically inclined and nerdy and it's allowed for there to be colleges for nerdy kids. There's a spot for everyone.
Relax.
Anonymous
Post 07/15/2025 14:48     Subject: Social Portfolios?!?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Home schooled kids will shine on this activity- they’re more well rounded, well spoken, empathetic, and open to different ideas than any mainstream kid will ever be.


Former homeschooled kid here: this will totally depend on the homeschooled kid. DD has a few homeschooled friends who would do amazing, but also some homeschooled friends who would...not.


100% this.

Some homeschooled kids are amazing. Others not so much.

But amazingly, ALL homeschooling parents think their kids are amazingly accomplished. And are willing to devote hours to tell you all about it.



Lol