<p>I saw this article and the following quote from the article is in regard to a conversation among adcoms at Middlebury. </p>
<p>"The committee's longest discussion was about a math genius with weak social skills. The young man's tests scores were impressive -- a perfect 800 on the math SAT II and scores nearly as high on verbals. He'd earned straight A's in his school's most challenging math and science courses and dominated math competitions with outstandingly good computation skills.
However, there were problems in his file. The boy had flunked at least one class and consistently drew low ratings on PQs -- personal qualities. A school recommendation suggested that the student might need support, socially. An alumni interviewer noted that the boy came across as unenthusiastic during their meeting.
The low PQs prompted numerous questions from the application readers and admissions officers. They wondered: Would the student be better off at a place like MIT? Would a little extra hand-holding -- a carefully matched roommate, say -- be enough to help the student adjust at Middlebury?
And while the applicant won admiration for what the committee agreed was an extraordinary math talent, they seemed to worry that he was academically lopsided. One of the readers was disappointed that both his essays were about math.
In the end, the applicant made the cut. The committee recommended admission"
I find it sort of arrogant on the part of the Middlebury College adcoms to think they could pawn their rejects off on a school of MIT's stature. It seems that the adcoms at this school are perpetuating a stereotype about MIT that is undeserved. It is impossible to believe that this applicant had any chance at all at MIT. Kids with perfect SAT's are a dime a dozen in the application pool for MIT, they don't need to take those with "issues", and they don't.</p>
<p>i'm not sure "pawning off" is the right phraseology in this instance. i think that middlebury was really thinking of the kid's best interests in thinking of a school that is stronger in math than middlebury which is reknowned for just the opposite, languages.</p>