<p>I think you're safe, Owlice. :)</p>
<p>Has anybody besides me thought that maybe these ad-coms are not looking for 'perfect' kids? Perhaps they want a well-rounded student body that might include a few kids who gotten a C here or there (and NO I'm not referring to student athletes so don't even go there)? Personally, I think I'd rather go back to college with a wide variety of kids than with a bunch of 'stepford kids' wouldn't you?</p>
<p>I dunno, Consolation; I've posted his PSAT AND his SAT scores!</p>
<p>Off to go sit in the bad bad overinvolved parent corner..... ~~ sigh ~~</p>
<p>And he'll have to walk home from school today; see if I ever give him a ride after a meeting again!!!!!</p>
<p>^^RE: post 182</p>
<p>yes, of course, they need diversity of all kinds--even intelligence level.</p>
<p>I read articles about kids like this Ghosh kid and I think surely this kid is going to crash at some point. Who can keep up that sort of pace?</p>
<p>lol @ owlice.</p>
<p>Well the thing is why would colleges know that his father quit his job to shuffle him around and get him into an ivy, etc?</p>
<p>Oaksmom, there are tons of kids out there who can keep up a pace probably higher than that of the Ghosh kid without breaking a sweat. HS just doesn't challenge them.</p>
<p>Owlice, I'd condemn you, but I have to go drag my kid out of bed and make him apply for summer jobs...:)</p>
<p>collegealum, I hope S knows the way; it's a looooong walk, and goodness knows he doesn't pay attention to the route when I've had to drive him to/from school. </p>
<p>Yes, I'm going, I'm going.... back to the corner for me!</p>
<p>(At least the kid has already gotten a C on his report card; there may be hope for him yet!)</p>
<p>Consolation, research or retail? </p>
<p>Oh, I don't know what to think anymore!!!!</p>
<p>"There's a difference between doing research and being smart enough to be one of the leading minds of the field. That's what you don't seem to get."</p>
<p>I don't see indication that the student in question is on track to be one of the leading minds in the field. There's every evidence that the student has been following the guidance of an overbearing father who arranged a research opportunity with a family friend.</p>
<p>I come to that conclusion because by Googling, I've found indications that the father was a biochemist who worked in Dallas. In addition, the father has posted on an Internet board that his son had a supplementary recommendation from a person who'd known the son since he was a child. I would bet money that recommendation was from the person who supervised the research, and that person agreed to do that because the student was smart and was a friend.</p>
<p>The people whom I know who are among the top minds in their fields are people whose parents were running after them to keep up. I don't see that with this student. He seems very smart and capable, but I don't see indications that he's got the intellectual passion, creativity or self direction to be, for instance, the next Marie Curie.</p>
<p>Seems like someone with the capability of getting a doctorate from a highly respected university, and continuing to do research, however.</p>
<p>"Well the thing is why would colleges know that his father quit his job to shuffle him around and get him into an ivy, etc."</p>
<p>The father could have told them this himself in calling the colleges or in information he field as an addendum to financial aid application.</p>
<p>The student could have revealed this info during an interview or in his essay.</p>
<p>GCs or teachers also could have revealed the info as could the person who did the additional recommendation.</p>
<p>None may have revealed the info to hurt the student. They may have erroneously thought that the info would help the student.</p>
<p>Well, he was a finalist of the USA chemistry olympiad. That is fairly exclusive.</p>
<p>I doubt that this student is boring, as some posters seem to assume. Why heap scorn on a seventeen year old? Why assume he took the SAT many times? Or that his family came from another country?</p>
<p>I am thinking the Ivy rejections might have something to do with the demonstrated interest in particular school area. Or leadership in community involvment. l</p>
<p>
[quote]
Well, he was a finalist of the USA chemistry olympiad. That is fairly exclusive.
[/quote]
where does it say that? i doubt many usnco finalists get rejected from harvard</p>
<p>^^someone put a link to Ghosh's profile pages back--his dad put his profile on cc.</p>
<p>then im really surprised that he got rejected...perhaps his dad bragged A LOT about his helicoptering...
also caltech is a great school that i think he will fit most into among his other choices</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>Interesting that although the dad quit his job 3 years ago to help the student get into Harvard, the student was applying for financial aid.>></p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>Not surprising at all. I figured this was the case. My guess is that by not working, the family income was at least half of what it would have been if Dad had been working. </p>
<p>This whole scenerio is very odd to me.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Adcoms are not gods; they sometimes (often) make mistakes. They're not diviners; they can't always figure out who's packaged, who's not or who has passion and who doesn't. Harvard may look for certain things above and beyond GPAs and scores, but it's far from certain that its adcoms always know where to look or to interpret correctly what they do see.</p>
<p>ETA: 10,000 posts
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Let's focus on what is important: the milestone of 10,000 posts. Does that make it 16,093 in kilometerstones? </p>
<p>Regarding the adcoms errors, it is obvious that they do mistake. Who doesn't. However, Harvard's adcoms do have the benefit of having their pulse and eyes on what is happening in many high schools in 2008 and have the benefit of being able to compare 27,000. They also have the benefit in KNOWING what THEY want from a certain pool of applicants. We all know the theory: need soccer players and oboists (what so special about an oboe and college admissions, by the way?) as much as potential Nobel winners. </p>
<p>We, in contrast, are left to speculate idly about what makes those famous adcoms tick. We really can't tell why someone was chosen or why he or she was rejected (with another 25,000 unlucky ones.) None of us has the complete file (except for the few adcoms who haunt these sacred grounds of wisdom) as we just rely on newspapers' articles or sanitized/embellished stories. </p>
<p>This story, however, is not a story of a Yale student who was rejected by Princeton, or a student accepted everywhere by left out at his first choice. This story gives hints of clear patterns that seem to contradict what we see as the vagaries of admissions. The story probably tells a lot more about the different value of a perfect score at a school such as Duke than at an Ivy League school. </p>
<p>Again, from my vantage point, the system worked well. A great kid will attend a wonderful school and an utterly misguided individual will have to find another pet project to fulfill his vicarious ambitions. Unless, his new job is to shadow the kid in college and work on those graduate school applications. After all, he must have gained a lot of experience by filling all those forms and signing his kid's name.</p>
<p>
[quote]
what so special about an oboe and college admissions, by the way?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>There aren't a lot of oboe players. Clarinetists and violinists are a dime a dozen, but double-reed players (oboe, bassoon, contrabassoon) aren't. </p>
<p>Double-reed players cut their own reeds, which is difficult and exacting work and makes them a little neurotic. (Yeah, yeah, find me an oboe player who disagrees with me, then snap one of his/her reeds and see what happens!) Clarinetists generally buy their reeds, as they are relatively inexpensive, whereas purchased double-reeds aren't. </p>
<p>Violinists do okay, even though there are a lot of them, because an orchestra needs a lot of violins. Even not-very-good violinists can stay busy. Clarinetists, not so much. Orchestras need two or three, and that's it. Maybe for a huge work, they will use four, and even so, one is likely doubling on the Eb, leaving one free to play bass clarinet.</p>
<p>Oboe players are always in demand. There's many a woodwind group that could form if only they could find an oboe player.</p>