Seems all I am reading is that applicants have research experience. We had no idea how widespread this was.
Anyone without Research Experience, Internships or shadowing applying to selective colleges? What about the kids who were student athletes and involved in other ECs that took up much of their time? Any forgiveness in the Admissions process for this?
Of course research isn’t a prerequisite for acceptance to elite colleges. A lack of it will not hurt your chances unless you are applying to a program that heavily emphasizes or highly recommends research (ex. some BSMD programs).
Research experience is definitely not the norm. What you are seeing here on CC is not reflective of the general applicant pool. The students who frequent CC tend to be high achievers, so its not surprising that many of them do research.