<p>Having read through the examples given, don’t you think these kids wasted their time in high school? If you could score multiple 800s and 5s on vast numbers of AP courses, wouldn’t you be better off skipping two or more years of high school and just heading for college? It seems like kids like these are just putting in time in high school, waiting for the real thing. I asked the #1 and #2 (Mr. Science, intel research and AP national scholars by junior year, 2400 SAT, 36 ACT ) from my school whether they wished they had graduated early. #2 arguably the stronger student, now a student at MIT, said that she was glad she had stayed in h.s. but she was young for her grade so must have accelerated early. #1, now at Harvard said he wished he had gone to college earlier.</p>
<p>dignified, are you responding to moi? There are several of us here sporting the Lady moniker. I’m just curious, because I couldn’t figure out how your response related to anything I’ve posted. :)</p>
<p><i>20-30 points can be the result of a single error.</i></p>
<p>Eggzackly.</p>
<p>When I took the verbal GRE, way back in the day, I was convinced I’d aced an 800. I thought it was the easiest test I’d ever taken–even the analogies were easy. (Remember analogies? Talk about weird, subjective, and questionable.)</p>
<p>Well, turned out I got a 750. DH, who was convinced he’d done horribly on the verbal test, got a 760–10 points higher than artsy, verbal, right-brained moi. Just goes to show. 
To this day, I can’t figure out what I did wrong on that verbal GRE. (Not that I stay awake at nights worrying about it, or anything…)</p>
<p>Princess’ Dad…hmmmm, Stanford’s one of the places recruiting my (2100 SAT) son. Obviously, as you say, they look for more than just test-taking perfection. (Son is not interested. We live in a state that has one of the best state-college systems in the country. It would be insane not to take advantage of that, especially given the possibility of full-ride scholarships.)</p>
<p>LoremIpsum, your reply to HarvardBound was pretty classless. Thanks so much for raising the tone of this board. \s</p>
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<p>Actually, Apollo, for most colleges except the super-elite, completing numerous AP courses effectively means taking one’s freshman year in college at one’s high school, sometimes more. If my son doesn’t get into HYPSM, he should be able to finish college at his flagship state school in about 2.5 years – an interesting consolation prize.</p>
<p>LadyDianeski, HarvardBound is a ■■■■■ who just registered yesterday and posted a bunch of silly or obnoxious comments on various boards – see for yourself. I was just having a little fun with him, as he was doing with other posters.</p>
<p>Lorem
Except for the $, why would you want him to? It should instead enable him to take many more interesting classes other than his major</p>
<p>LadyDianeski
Not sure of your financials - but Stanford guarantees full ride if your income less than $100Kish.</p>
<p>Rethink The advantage of Stanford as opposed to State School is that at State, you have great teachers teaching the subject. At Stanford, you have the people who did the original work (eg discovery of DNA, etc)</p>
<p>LadyDianeski, it sounds like your son is a wonderful student, but I suspect that he’s getting the same mailings that schools send out to many many many other wonderful students. The nice glossy brochures and videos and letters shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Receiving mail from these schools doesn’t mean that your child is a slam-dunk (or even a likely) for admissions.</p>
<p>On CC, nothing annoys me more then parents who constantly boast about their childrens stats and talks about it.</p>
<p>Agree! CC is for the kid to boast about their own stats! (sigh)</p>
<p>LoremIpsum–so sorry! I’m a newbie here, and I have not become familiar yet with the flora and fauna. :)</p>
<p>Princess’ Dad: We do have a HHI less than $100K…and I know Stanford is an amazing school. But it’s so far away—waaaaah! (Must. Cut. Umbilical. Cord…LOL.)</p>
<p>We are in North Carolina. UNC-Chapel Hill has such a great reputation. Plus, we have Duke and Wake Forest. And UNC-Asheville is a little gem – great Honors Program, spectacular setting, small student body with low student/faculty ratio, solid liberal arts curriculum…I dunno. Why send one’s son so far away when there is so much here? (she said over-protectively).</p>
<p>Plus–while it’s true that Stanford and the Ivies have stellar professors, how much contact do undergraduates have with them? As I think I’ve mentioned, my husband got his doctorate at Harvard (in the oh-so-marketable specialty of Byzantine history ;-)). <em>He</em> had tons of contact with top professors like the late Ernst Badien. But undergrads weren’t so fortunate. My husband served as a non-resident tutor at Leverett House, one of the Harvard houses. He taught Sophomore History Tutorial there, to history majors. IOW: Those kids had more contact with a teaching fellow just a few years older than they were than they had with star professors. </p>
<p>I know the top schools provide great credential and networking opportunities. But an excellent small liberal arts school can actually give your child a better <em>education,</em> with much more interaction with faculty (faculty who can <em>teach,</em> not just research).</p>
<p>It’s the perennial conundrum for the prospective student: Do you want the prestige and cachet of a major research university (and I’m certainly not knocking that!!) or do you want a great education? I think my son is leaning toward the great education. :)</p>
<p>Slithey–not just talking about glossy brochures. (I work in advertising myself, so I’m underwhelmed by such stuff. :)) Rather, I’m talking about persistent emails encouraging my son to apply, with info re scholarships and what-not.</p>
<p>DH is a Harvard alumnus (GSAS), so there’s that, too. </p>
<p>But, to be frank, we’re really not sure we want that sort of thing for our kids. And our kids do not seem overly keen on it, either. They want an education, not just a credential.</p>
<p>I guess part of it relates to where we are geographically. I’m a native Bostonian, born and bred, and I’ve spent a ton of time in Harvard Square. Wouldn’t go back on a bet, except to visit family. The North does nothing for us. We love NC!</p>
<p>Great response. :)</p>
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That is your typical college spam.</p>
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Recruited as in athletically? I think that you are misinterpreting college spam mail as “recruiting”. </p>
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Less than 400 students receive a 2400 on the SAT and assuming you meant a 36 ACT, the number is somewhere around 500 or 600 I believe, so your statement is false. In any case, these same students with sky high stats also do “something besides study” and it’s a tad immature to make such a blanket statement.</p>
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If by recruiting you mean sending spam mail, obviously Stanford will send brochures and other information to more than just students with perfect test scores.</p>
<p>@lady - if your son put his email address on his PSAT form, he is going to get a boat load of emails. My daughter gets them, but we know that does not mean she is being recruited. They buy lists from the college board based on a loose criteria, and blast you with email and snail mail. </p>
<p>I have sort of stayed out of this, but my kids are both very strong students. My son has a 2270 on his SAT after his first sitting, and did not retake. My daughter has a 2380. My son had 7 APs going into his senior year, my daughter has 9. My daughter is a strong candidate. My son, though not looking quite as good from an SAT/AP standpoint, is probably one of those stellar students. I know at least one school considered him a ‘clear admit’, which meant he did not go to the admissions committee (I know this, because I know someone on the admissions committee, and she said he never got there), but was rubber stamped by someone in the admissions office. </p>
<p>So, why is he so much more a sure thing that his sister, who is applying this year? because my son did do very well in the USAMO, and other math competitions. When one school accepted him the little note was “you are one of the top math students in the country”</p>
<p>BTW, those constant emails? he did not get any. He also didn’t get a lot of glossy brochures. Because he did not bother with the PSAT. Also, he could have taken the SAT a second time, and got a higher score, but we knew he would not need it. He just needed to be in the normal range for the top schools.</p>
<p>Apparently, the different testing organizations handle selling their students’ stats differently. My son didn’t get a single piece of junk mail or email after his 36.0 ACT. He did, however, start getting mail shortly after receiving his AP Scholar with Distinction letter – and that mail specifically mentioned his AP scores. While my son is graduating this year (his 3rd), he is still technically a junior until mid-year and was thus required to take not only the PSAT but also the “practice ACT.” So I guess the junk mail will really start to overflow once he no longer has any use for it?</p>
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<p>Why finish college in 2.5 years rather than 4, just because you can, with AP credits? Well, Princess’Dad, that’s perhaps a question worthy of its own thread. Certainly, money is a major factor for us. But even if I had an extra $30k for 3 more semesters at a state college, is this an optimal use of resources?</p>
<p>I consider learning a life-long process, and we certainly don’t need to sit in a lecture hall for a semester to explore a new area of interest. This could, however, be our personal bias, because both my son and I have learned faster and more efficiently from books than from lectures (we’re both visual-spatial learners).</p>
<p>One major purpose of college to learn how to think, but that can easily be learned in a year or two; thereafter, it becomes a credentials-conferring factory. The random, interesting stuff can always be pursued part-time, either for credit or not, after one has a degree in hand and a job or other central life’s activity.</p>
<p>So suppose we take that extra $30k and tell the kid, come on, live at home for awhile, let’s play with that money. Take $10k and start a small business or kick-start a charity that fills a missing need; take another $10k and travel the world cheaply for 6-8 months; and hold the last $10k for books, additional classes, or other educational purposes. Take that same 18 months of remaining pre-packaged structured college time and put together your own customized version of truly discovering what you want to do.</p>
<p>So, why? Flexibility – whether it’s to start grad school earlier, to job-hunt with a degree while taking additional classes or to experiment as I mentioned above. Why take the usual college “package tour”?</p>