<p>I love cpraf’s analysis.</p>
<p>I have a friend who is so nice and really smart. In a meeting for the student government, she said “I’m really only doing this to have something that looks good on college applications.” </p>
<p>That annoyed me and my other friend so so much. Why join the student government when that statement alone showed that you don’t genuinely care about the school?</p>
<p>cpraf</p>
<p>I really cannot agree with you more. However, I would not just say that it is only asians that join many clubs just to have a good resume. It is everyone.</p>
<p>I’ll give you an example. I am captain of my school’s debate team, and also was last year. Debate is one of those activities that I would say is a default team for those who wish to pad applications join. Every year, we have had members join for the first month or two, not put in any effort, and then quit because we were clear that we weren’t going to put up with their ****. As a team, we have realized that many applicants are there to pad their applications, and we make it very clear we don’t want them there. I hate it beyond all else that people will have the audacity to join a club just to put it on a resume. People who do that are true scum when it comes to college applications, and deserve to be rejected from everywhere that they apply.</p>
<p>Considering the most important thing to brown and caltech is course rigor, and both rejected her, im going to assume her classes were too easy.</p>
<p>MIT looks mostly at character/personal qualities, so her essaays probably sucked.</p>
<p>And i hate kids who walk up and do something just to have something to add to their ECs. So many kids MUNing cuz they think it looks good. Like they dont even say anything in the commitee session. Just sit in their chairs the whole conference and ask for their certificate of participation at the end. :what:</p>
<p>@muhammad9211 If she had a 4.56 W, did scientific research, was an AP scholar (doesn’t mean much but whatever), and qualified for USNCO, I’d say she took a hard course load. Just because you do/have all of the qualities a top college says it wants doesn’t mean that you’ll still be accepted. I guess this is one such case. I don’t think she’d be dumb enough to let her essays suck. The fact is that there are simply too many qualified candidates, and for some reason, she didn’t stand out among her peers. I don’t see many major weaknesses like low SAT score on her application, but I don’t see anything that stands out that much either. There’s so many factors that could slightly affect the admission committees mind that it is truly impossible to predict why she did not get in.</p>
<p>MIT and Caltech like people who apply early. They know the kid will show up. </p>
<p>They are getting much harder to get into now that the yield rate is going up for all of them so much that they are unable to admit waitlisted students.</p>
<p>I just saw the video in first link where they say she is interested in Harvard. If I was an adcom at any other top school, why would I care if I saw that video.</p>
<p>Maybe in researching her charity admissions officers found the video they linked. That news clip makes her look really bad, but that could be—as many of you have suggested—a sign that she conveyed a personality incompatible with the schools to which she applied.</p>
<p>Once in a while I read these topics and my confidence gets shattered 
I know her problem. Colleges are looking for … enthusiastic students, and as drexter said, with so many club activities she can hardly devote herself to any. Still, her scores are admirable, and as proof she still got accepted to top colleges. </p>
<p>Contrary to her I only concentrate on one or two activities, which can be my strength but also weekness. How many activites, of the 10 allowed on commonapp, should I at least have so that the admission officers won’t question:‘does this guy actually do anything else?’</p>
<p>thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Students having perfect test scores and stellar GPA’s with demonstrated course rigor who are rejected by HYPSM have failed to let the Admissions Committee’s know in their essays or by way of their teacher recommendations that they are strong, moral people able to exercise good judgement. One of my favorite Admissions quotes is from a book * What You Don’t Know Can Keep You Out Of College * by Don Dunbar.</p>
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<p>Some of these stories in CC make me very sad and nervous</p>
<p>^^ Listen to this podcast and you might be inspired: <a href=“https://wybc.com/shows-current/ideas/2013/02/ideas-2-24-13-yale-admissions-with-jeff-brenzel-75/[/url]”>https://wybc.com/shows-current/ideas/2013/02/ideas-2-24-13-yale-admissions-with-jeff-brenzel-75/</a></p>
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<p>Why? Just apply to schools that have realistic admissions rates. And if you decide to apply to a school with a single-digit admissions rate, realize that getting in would be something just this side of miraculous . . . celebrate if it happens, and don’t give it a second thought if it doesn’t.</p>
<p>gibby - that is a great link.</p>
<p>It is interesting to see that the Dean’s daughter attended Notre Dame. His line of thought that colleges don’t make people, the people make themselves is what stands out for me.</p>
<p>@Debater1996</p>
<p>You’re completely right. I know a couple of Caucasian kids at our school who are sort of becoming competitive, trying to be like the asians. And they have changed. From freshmen year to senior year, they have changed. They are more condescending towards those who they think aren’t smart, more esoteric, more competitive. I mean, i bumped into one of them, literally, and he got ****ed at me. or at least I think he was. I was thinking “This kid is not the kid I knew during freshmen year. He needs to chill out.” It’s quite annoying actually. He’s actually one of those star runners in cross country, but he has this huge bias where he’s friends with every single runner, and is really IMO impolite/rude towards everyone else… But yeah… the world’s changed.</p>
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<p>And that’s the OPPOSITE of what selective colleges are looking for!</p>
<p>William Fitzsimmons, Dean of Harvard Admissions, said it clearly several years back, as well as Jeffrey Brenzel in the podcast in post #30 of this thread:</p>
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<p>TPG, every school likes to admit kids who might show up. Obviously, a student who is hardly a hard-to-resist applicant and … seems to be a massively serial “prestige” applicant is shooting in that proverbial foot. </p>
<p>On the other hand, do you think that Caltech and MIT convert that “early like” into an admission advantage? As far as I know, MIT has never given much advantage to its early admissions, and still offers a non-restrictive early admission. </p>
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<p>In the grand scheme of the research produced by your typical “teenager-scientist,” that might amount to nothing more than a small bag of chips. The research is most often the product of parental connections and amounts to paint-by-the-number “research.” Just check the Intel Semi and Finalist to see how the best proposals are still very much the same adult manipulated process that is so despicable.</p>
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<p>Yes, and those students tend to have participated in … group activities, as opposed to be navel-gazing students who are obsessed with themselves and the pursuit of solitary academic and artistic awards. That ME obsession is often reflected in the application of the “perfect” student in terms of GPA and test scores.</p>
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<p>Brenzel let his position of Dean of Admissions at Yale quite a while ago!</p>
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<p>no offense but sometime kid do slip through despite this. I know at least one person who is haughty after getting enrolled at a top university <7 ranking in any US institution ranking.</p>
<p>but of course a single person can’t represent the whole university. If she is haughty, they she will be segregated in the university. and when people do that, her peers will say, well the university is racist.</p>
<p>@xiggi: Brenzel actually stepped down less than 3 months ago; he was Dean of Admissions for this past academic year.</p>
<p>“On the other hand, do you think that Caltech and MIT convert that “early like” into an admission advantage? As far as I know, MIT has never given much advantage to its early admissions, and still offers a non-restrictive early admission.”</p>
<p>Xiggi - my two cents.</p>
<p>Both MIT and Caltech provide women with a higher chance of admission as a percentage of applicants which is an advantage for really good candidates. </p>
<p>I think it would prove to them you are a serious about STEM major as opposed to worried about getting into the highest ranked school, all things being equal. I know a few girls at Stanford who all applied to Caltech and MIT early and got in. They are serious about engineering or CS and were sure they would be happy attending any of those three schools. Knowing the admissions lottery, they preferred having a shot at two schools EA rather than go SCEA with just one. D did the same and would have been quite happy to attend MIT but she probably would not have developed a taste for football. :p</p>
<p>Whether Amy had a shot at any of the schools with a different strategy is anybody’s guess without knowing what the essays said. My guess is that her packaging was not that good based on the fact that Harvard increased the number of early admits by a big number and she did not get in. OTOH, Harvard has no required essays which means it becomes harder to impress with writing. I will go with your assessment of navel gazing ECs as being the problem.</p>
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<p>The test will be in the week November 23 to 30. The Axe game and the hopeful revenge against God’s team who stole the game last year without divine intervention but with the help of moronic refs. </p>
<p>Hard choice between football and a juicy turkey. :)</p>
<p>Especially when it stops the kids from coming home since they are home games!</p>