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<p>You’re crazy. The adcoms are not stupid. They will not reject an applicant simply because he wrote about hunting.</p>
<p>they will reject someone who may not “fit” into their college environment. And that may separate you from a place like Harvard, as it is in Boston</p>
<p>Hey, write about clubbing baby seals, if you want. I’m just sharing my opinion.</p>
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<p>Oh, I don’t know about that. I think there’s a kind of reverse class bias implicit in these remarks, and I’m not sure it stands up to reality. Sure, some Northeasterners find hunting pretty appalling. But there’s also a long tradition of hunting in the Northeast, and a lot of affluent Northeasterners are avid hunters to this day. Think Teddy Roosevelt. Granted, that was a century ago, but you see the same thing today in, say, a John Kerry—the affluent, impeccably outfitted gentleman-hunter. Kerry was ridiculed for his hunting duds by the hook-and-bullet crowd who thought it was all phony. But the thing is, it wasn’t. Kerry really is a hunter, and he’s a type. I’ve known plenty of affluent Northeasterners to spend thousands of dollars on their fly-fishing or bird hunting or big-game hunting vacations. They may not find it great sport to bag a white-tailed deer, a “weedy” species almost as ubiquitous as tree squirrels in some parts of the Northeast, but believe me, hunting is not universally disdained in that part of the country or among the social classes that tend to predominate at places like Yale. And Yale adcoms know it.</p>
<p>My observations of people in academic settings in the Northeast are to the contrary. They are far more likely to be members of PETA than of the NRA.</p>
<p>I didn’t find any campus clubs specifically for deer hunting, but there are (or recently were) sanctioned gun clubs at Harvard and Yale:</p>
<p>[Harvard</a> Shooting Club](<a href=“http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~shooting/]Harvard”>http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~shooting/)</p>
<p>[HLS</a> : HLS Target Shooting Club](<a href=“http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/tsc/]HLS”>http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/tsc/)</p>
<p>[YALE</a> - Pistol Team](<a href=“http://www.yale.edu/pistol/pistolteam.htm]YALE”>http://www.yale.edu/pistol/pistolteam.htm)</p>
<p>[Guns</a> on campus, legally: the Yale Pistol Team The Yale Herald](<a href=“yaleherald.com”>yaleherald.com)</p>
<p>i guess the simplest thing to do is, Bay - you can encourage people to write about guns and huntin’ and I will advise the opposite.</p>
<p>QED I guess.</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, where are you from? Do you live in the northeast?</p>
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<p>No, I am from the West. I have never been deer hunting and have no desire to do so. But I know some deer hunters and something about hunting.</p>
<p>Why do you write the word “hunting” as “huntin’?”</p>
<p>im from nwe, went to college in Texas and live here now. huntin’ is the way its said if you leave the major metropolitan area, in my experience</p>
<p>very rarely hear it pronounced with a ‘g’. And i dont really say the word… dunno</p>
<p>So here’s just one example of the affluent Northeastern gentleman-hunter type I’m talking about: Yale alum and benefactor and avid sportsman Strachan Donnelly, memorialized in the magazine of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies under the title “For Strachan Donnelly, Hunting Was Being Fully Human.”</p>
<p>[In</a> Memorium: For Strachan Donnelley, Hunting Was Being Fully Human - Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies](<a href=“http://environment.yale.edu/pubs/Strachan-Donnelley/]In”>http://environment.yale.edu/pubs/Strachan-Donnelley/)</p>
<p>Really, is this so hard, Hunt? I’ll bet there are lots of major donors and probably even Trustees who are just like this guy. And John Kerry. And Teddy Roosevelt.</p>
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<p>My hs S took a SAT essay writing workshop, and in it he wrote his practice essay about a delicious steak he ordered while on a trip to Montana. Do you think Northeast adcoms would treat his application the same way they treat those of deer hunters? How about writing about fishing? Would that one fly?</p>
<p>^ the problem with these arguments is this is one example. you find ONE guy or something to make a case.</p>
<p>Now, look at the gun enforcement policies in New York for example (think Plaxico Burress), or the general voter record in Massachusetts. Or ask someone who lives there.</p>
<p>The general perception of the south, huntin’ / hunting, NASCAR and the likes is not positive. So, if you want to bet that this ONE guy you quote is reading your application, then by all means, go ahead. </p>
<p>Im betting the law of averages will work against you in that case.</p>
<p>Remember, New York State sends more kids OOS. The south has a much smaller % going out of state</p>
<p>comment was for bclintonk</p>
<p>Time to catch up. Some interesting and some off the point discussion here. Yes, the meaning of conservative would have to be worked out before any claims about bias against conservatives could be demonstrated. In fact, I probably regret using an ideological reference in the first place. My initial concern had more to do with the fact my son just
doesn’t spend a lot of time worrying about the things that show up on this board concerning admissions; volunteer hours, how will this or that look. He reminds me of the
O’Rourke (sp?) character in the Fountainhead. He is not anti-intellectual. He is more the
High Noon type; there is a job to do and I am going to do it. He does spend time worrying about the proximity of snowboarding opportunities to his college of attendance. In fact, he wouldn’t spend a second on a forum like this, which is why I jumped in. All in all, based on the comments to date, I would say certain kinds of applicants have to be careful in certain ways. I won’t say more than that.</p>
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<p>Do we know that Yale adcoms are necessarily more likely to be from relatively affluent liberal northeastern families? I don’t know that we know that one way or the other.</p>
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<p>Well, my point is it’s not “one guy.” But I do agree there’s far less tolerance in the Northeast for handguns, assault weapons, and so forth. Hunting is a different matter. Hunting participation rates in the Northeast aren’t all that much lower than the rest of the country. For people 16 and over, hunting participation rates in 2006 were 3% in New England and 5% in the Middle Atlantic States (NY, NJ, PA), according to the US Fish & Wildlife Service. These figures are very much in line with the national average of 5% and with regional figures of 4% in the South Atlantic, 6% in the Rocky Mountain, 2% in the Pacific, 7% in the West South Central, 7% in the East North Central, and 8% in the East South Central regions (as defined by FWS)—especially when you consider how urban the Northeast is, and how little hunting habitat there is per capita in that region. The West North Central region, with a whopping 12% of the 16-and-over population hunting, is the only region that’s a true outlier. </p>
<p>The number of hunters is one thing, hunter acceptance is another. But other surveys have found that public acceptance of hunting is high (approaching 80%) in all regions of the country, and public acceptance of hunting has actually been growing in recent years, not declining. In short, there’s not nearly as strong an anti-hunting attitude as you imagine. </p>
<p>There is, however, a lot of anti-handgun and anti-assault weapon sentiment in the Northeast. That’s one thing the NRA and other fervent Second Amendment-as-individual-right advocates don’t seem to understand. In the minds of many people in the Northeast and in urban centers in the Midwest and on the Pacific Coast, hunting is one thing, while handguns and assault weapons are something entirely different. By pushing the argument that you’ve got to be either for both or against both, the pro-handgun/pro-assault weapon folks have probably pushed some people who might otherwise accept hunting into a broader opposition to firearms of all kinds. But they’re still a distinct minority, even in the Northeast where many people hunt, even more know and respect hunters, and the vast majority accept hunting even if they don’t engage in it themselves—in proportions roughly comparable to those in the South and West.</p>
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<p>I think that’s a very astute observation, bclintonk.</p>
<p>Until it was mentioned upthread, I had forgotten about the association of hunting with members of the upper class, as well. </p>
<p>Bonus points for who can identify the source of this quote (ah, if I could only link to YouTube). The scene is jollie old England. </p>
<p>“If you would excuse me, I have been invited to a grouse hunting party. It’s just a few dozen men and stable boys – all of us in kilts, naturally. Taking a few yards of ale. And here’s the fun part, Jon! Whoever shoots the fewest grouse has to go through the spanking machine.”</p>
<p>And they say aristocrats don’t hunt.</p>
<p>" I would say certain kinds of applicants have to be careful in certain ways. I won’t say more than that."</p>
<p>no idea what that means. If the op is suggesting that colleges are biased against conservatives or hunters or nascar enthusiasts, I know of no evidence to back that up. It sounds like another excuse - “my son didn’t get accepted because of his political beliefs.” I have heard a lot of excuses on CC, but that is a first. Unfortunately these kind of myths get around and pretty soon we’ll have lots of people actually believing that - based on a Pat Buchannan column. Just goes to show, people will believe almost anything. What’s next, “my son didn’t get accepted because he has red hair!”</p>
<p>speedo - try writing an essay idolizing Kim Jong Il. I dont think that will get very far. Similarly worshiping Palin probably wont get you into MIT or Berkeley</p>
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<p>How do you know? Have the seen the essays they receive? Does Berkeley even look at your essay if you have the stats? This is a pretty serious charge - college are politically biased in their admissions procedures. So far not a shred of evidence to back that up. Put up your research, show me some facts before you make these kind of assertions.</p>