Colleges do not want the most intelligent students, but the most obedient ones.

Applying to College Admission Stories
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WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD

So… after an arduous process, all my results are in.

Background:

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): 1450 (730 EBRW/720 Math, 5/3/5 Essay) - did not send to reaches/schools that didn’t let me self-report scores
ACT (breakdown): 34 (35E/33M/35R/33S, 8/8/8/9 Essay) - sent to all schools
SAT II: 730 Lit, 700 US History, 690 Math II - did not send anywhere
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): N/A
Weighted GPA: 89.46
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): N/A (School profile says valedictorian has a 100.65)
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP World (5), APUSH (5), AP Spanish (3)
IB (place score in parenthesis): English HL (N/A)
Senior Year Course Load: DE at local CC honors program, very prestigious. Got a 2.1 GPA though - Colgate, Lehigh, Grinnell and Brandeis all asked for these grades.
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP Scholar (lol), Time Person of the Year 2006 (I actually put this on my Common Application.)

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):

  • Academic Team (9-12, captain senior year, super-involved, 3 hrs./wk)
  • Debate (11-12, was going to be captain but could not participate due to being on vacation during mandatory tryouts, 2 hrs./wk)
  • Model Congress/JSA (9-11) - pretty involved but it conflicted with academic team so like 1 hr./wk, presented a bill at YMC junior year
  • Coaching basketball team this year with my dad + played rec leagues for basketball and baseball all throughout HS.
    Job/Work Experience:
  • 30 hrs./month part-time job as a cater waiter starting this year
  • Paid job canvassing for a local senator before the midterm elections.
    Volunteer/Community service:
  • Volunteered at freshman orientation the last two years, had a lot of fun with that… not much else
    Summer Activities:
  • Spent the summer at a sleepaway camp from before 9th grade-jr. year. I did about 18 hrs./wk of work there last year which included coaching, watching younger kids, and cleaning the camp.
    Essays (rating 1-10, details): Good? Wrote about being an identical twin. Supplements varied in quality depending on how much I cared about the school.
    Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): 10/10

Teacher Rec #1: SS teacher from 9th/10th grade, went from a B student to getting a 96 in her class with a 5 on the AP World Exam
Teacher Rec #2: English teacher from 11th, said my rec was really good
Counselor Rec:11/10, my GC says I’m a “rockstar” academically and I honored him at an award ceremony last year as well - I can’t imagine a better rec tbh haha
Additional Rec: N/A
Interview: Kenyon and Brandeis - I thought they were good.

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Political Science/Neuroscience
State (if domestic applicant): NY
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public feeder, this year we have kids who got into Penn, Dartmouth, Cornell (3+), Tufts (3+), Duke, Caltech, Brown, WashU, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, UChicago, Northeastern (3+), and Colgate… with no overlaps. Almost half our school still hasn’t committed, so there will probably be more schools.
Ethnicity:White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: 200k (2017 income, 270k this year, my parents didn’t save for college though so we qualify for hundreds of thousands of dollars in need-based aid at many top schools)
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Legacy at Wesleyan through father, legacy at Brandeis through grandfather and aunt with the latter having connections to the admissions board, cousin attends Lehigh.

Reflection

Strengths: Recs, course rigor, test scores, essays
Weaknesses: GRADES, EC’s to an extent, and having the fun antihooks of being a HCOL white kid in a vastly overrepresented area

Where were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Binghamton EA (Admitted)
FSU PRI (Conditional admit, then canceled)
Alabama (Admitted with $26k a year, recalculated my GPA as a 3.65 W)
U of SC (Admitted with $21k a year, rejected from HC, in at capstone)
Tulane EA (Deferred, Waitlisted, pursued w/ LOCI)

Lehigh RD (Rejected)
WUSTL RD (Rejected)
Kenyon RD (Rejected)
Claremont McKenna RD (Rejected)
Colgate RD (Rejected)
Wesleyan RD (Rejected, legacy)
Grinnell RD (Waitlisted, pursued w/ LOCI)
Brandeis RD (Waitlisted, pursued w/ LOCI)

General Comments:
Here comes my diatribe. Buckle up.

It is generally known that GPA > SAT in terms of importance in college admissions. Now, I don’t think it’s simply because four years of work beats 3 hours on a Saturday morning. To answer this question and prove why intelligence is NOT the most important thing in college decisions, we have to analyze what college is for.
Noam Chomsky seems to have an answer.

Among other quotes, he says that “The whole educational and professional training system is a very elaborate filter, which just weeds out people who are too independent, and who think for themselves, and who don’t know how to be submissive, and so on — because they’re dysfunctional to the institutions.”

Basically, education is not about searching for intellectual answers. It is about hoop-jumping and obedience. Regurgitation is the name of the game. GPA measures obedience, ability to regurgitate information, ability to follow directions, and stay on task. SAT/ACT exams measure intelligence. You may disagree, but a study, while a bit dated (2008) shows that the ACT has a .6-.8 correlation to IQ, and the SAT has shown a correlation of about .7-.8 to IQ, even with the redesigned SAT and the 2400 version. In contrast, factors such as self-discipline, motivation and socioeconomic status correlate far more to HS GPA, according to research. This summary of the aforementioned study noted a .32 correlation between IQ and GPA, which is statistically quite weak.

Knowing this, I believe one can infer that the reason GPA is seen as more important has nothing to do with socioeconomic status, accommodating poor test-takers, or even bumping up US News ranking through getting kids with the top 10% ranking (that does happen, but GPA =/= correlate with rank and it is completely contextual). The real reason this occurs is that selective universities want the best worker bees to go to Goldman/Accenture/Skadden & Arps, etc. so that the elites of the world will have diligent people to make them wealthier.

Get yer GPA’s up. Low GPA/high ACT kids like me get slaughtered in admissions, and there is a very good reason for this.

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{Getting out the popcorn}

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(I’m melting the butter)

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I don’t know how admissions committees view this but it makes me wonder if you did not have anything more meaningful to put on your application. How old were you in 2006? Were you contributing to Wikipedia, YouTube, etc. at 5 years old?

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I understand how you are dissapointed but you have three acceptances all of which will provide you an excellent education and opportunities. I do agree grades are important and they were the weak part of my kids applications but substantilly higher than yours. I also agree with you that grades do not neccessarily correlate with intelligence as many bright students tend to be bored and skip homework or miss easy problems as much of it is regurgitation. Many of them excel in college when challenged so do not fret.

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Having great scores and a great GPA does not make you a sheep but having lower GPA and good scores doesn’t make you a genius either. There will be sheep and independent thinkers and geniuses in both groups. Colleges can’t tell though so they go with the high gpa and high score. A well chosen ED application might have made a difference at some schools. You have good options though and can look into a transfer if you want.

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Sorry about your results. Based on your flippant answers shouldn’t be a surprise. Applicants, admissions officers etc all take this process seriously, while your Time “Man of the Year” award suggested you had a false sense of wit or little else to add.

Regrettably you are missing an opportunity to be introspective and recognize that your college ambitions were inconsistent with the effort you put in. Recalling you had initially aspired to top 20s.

In almost every aspect of life work ethic does matter! GPA represents effort juxtaposed against intelligence relative to peers. Unfortunately your current mind set will destine you to similar future disappointment so be forewarned .

New flash…colleges seek to produce intellectually curious, informed, ambitious people who have the ability to compete and succeed in an ever more competitive global economy… not the worlds smartest barista.

FYI If you had gotten in would your title apply?

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OP - I’m sorry for your disappointment but you have great options on the table. Bing is fantastic! I have a friend who did her undergrad at Bing, went on to get her PhD from UPenn, and is now a prof at an Ivy. You can get a great education at any of the schools where you have been accepted.

For younger students reading this post - craft your reach, match, and safety schools around the weakest part of your application, not your strongest. My D had a close friend with super high ACT/SAT/SAT II tests but a weak GPA (higher standardized scores than OP but slightly lower GPA) and he had a horrible admission cycle (much worse than OP). He and his mother was shocked and angry, but frankly, they underestimated the importance of GPA, and way overshot with their college list.

IMO, high test scores and low GPAs are a big red flag to colleges. Not because colleges want “obedient hoop jumpers,” but because colleges want students who are ready for college level work, and be successful contributors to enrich their communities. In my D’s friend’s case - he felt HS was beneath him, he only worked in classes he liked, and I’m positive his LORs reflected his poor attitude and work ethic. These things come through on college applications.

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There is no human endeavor where intelligence alone matters. Even in pure science there is a lot of boring repetitive work, and discipline and ability to stay on task are necessary - not even talking about teaching and/or administrative load that usually comes with a research position. People who think they’re so smart they can look down on others who just “obediently follow directions” usually make terrible coworkers. So unless you’re planning to live your live as a recluse living off the land, or have a huge inheritance, you need to seriously question your worldview.

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It’s “You”.

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ED is impossible with my family’s high income and low contribution.

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Colleges aren’t looking for more Musks. They are looking for obedient workers. No one who wants to buck convention is getting in. Following orders is the name of the game.

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LOL imagine thinking letters on a piece of paper are more important than objective measures of knowledge in determining success. Some of the B’s on my transcript were in classes I learned a lot in. Many of the classes with A’s/A+'s were those in which I learned nothing. Grades don’t reflect work ethic, content mastery, critical thinking or effort. Simply the ability to suck up to a teacher. This is well known, which is why the power elite doesn’t have to deal smart people who ask questions, but can get “useful idiots” who play the game well.

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New flash…colleges seek to produce intellectually curious, informed, ambitious people who have the ability to compete and succeed in an ever more competitive global economy… not the worlds smartest barista.

Yeah, so not people who are actually intelligent. The intellectually curious people aren’t going to Harvard. Most likely they’re at a state school with a 2.0 GPA/dropped out after being unable to handle the BS.

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Not because colleges want “obedient hoop jumpers,”

That is literally exactly what they want. There is a reason many top universities have turned into liberal echo-chambers. I am a leftist and I don’t like Ben Shapiro, but he is correct in his viewpoint that they are devolving into places of complete debauchery and intellectual dishonesty. And we all should know why.

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You have created a false narrative in which hard work and intelligence are mutually exclusive. Regrettable.

So once again if you had gotten accepted at your colleges of choice would that have invalidated your title? Otherwise what data besides your rejections led you to this fallacious conclusion. You wanted to go to school with “obedient” followers? The catalyst was rejection, just own it.

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I’m assuming you are going to turn down all of your acceptances to not feed the “obedient followers” machine?

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Unfortunately, @apost12, you are rationalizing your rejection which is a common human attribute.

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I don’t agree with your conclusions at all. A lot of rabble rousers accepted to college. Actually, for the colleges listed, a top gpa not necessary if test scores way high. My kids, other than the youngest did not have great gpas. My one B students (3.0 even but with top difficulty curriculum backed up with junior year AP test scores and SAT2s) got into Cornell, for example. Also snagged some heavy duty merit awards. I think he would have gotten into all of your schools but two, looking at his accepted list

My youngest with the top grades and with test scores close to yours applied to 8? or so schools early. He was accepted to them all, half with substantial merit money. His ED school was a top 25, single digit accept rate school, and though accepted, he did not get any merit money. He was not eligible for financial aid. He did have some good hooks, and interviewed at all of his schools, took time to get to know the admissions office and had great recs. ECs not amazing. From an oversubscribed area, probably close to where you are, as Binghamton was one of his EA accepts, and his state school choice

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See http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/2136518-the-blame-game-p1.html