<p>^You are correct in your observation. If you noticed, the majority of those posting such end of life diatribe are either foreign students, or internationals who attend a school in the USA. When you read statements like the OP’s, </p>
<p>"Yet, HYP didn’t want me. Not even a waitlist, but outright rejection.</p>
<p>As I read the acceptance threads on the HYP forums, I’m losing my mind. Applicants as good as me and better who were rejected from one of these schools were accepted to the others. Or perhaps MIT or Stanford, which are just as good. I have Penn CAS, Cornell, and Dartmouth acceptances in my hand…but after HYP, they just don’t mean much."</p>
<p>A US student understands that there are many great colleges that one can attend but that just by graduating from a top/prestigious school will not magically open all the doors for you. As more countries have increased affluent middle class, they attempt to attain social prestige by attending a “famous” US institution because they regard it as their ticket to move up the social ladder. I am using “famous” because NYU for example has a higher cache overseas than other top schools. Williams for example is a non-entity in prestige overseas, even though it is the top LAC here. Abroad they only know of large, research universities, with many graduate schools, because in previous years, many internationals middle class students graduated from their national university undergrad and then came to the USA for graduate school. Social status is extremely important outside the USA. Note that when the IMF head was arrested, the discusion in Europe was not about the crime and the circumstances but how a simple police dept (policemen overseas are considered low social class) dare to go and arrest such an important man. And handcuffed him! Going back to my reference to policemen, that’s another reason that outside the USA people have this assumption that she is the land of of extreme wealth for all her citizens. In the cop shows, the average policemen have large houses with swimming pools, yards, etc, and enjoy the good life. Then they compare that with the standard of living for the police in their country and say, wow, think what I can achieve if I go to the USA. Similarly, immigrants who might be dead poor and living in small apartments with 10 other people while in the USA, when they return home for vacations they spend large sums of money to impress the community because they want to gain social acceptance. Some even take loans so they can spend “lavishly” during vacations back in the motherland.</p>
<p>Of course it is sad that they do not realize that among the ~10% that the top US undergraduate schools accept, the factor of legacy/social status/prestigious private school is extremely prevalent than the US/permanent resident admitted student pool. More savvy foreign parents understand this and that’s why we have birth tourism. Others, especially in Asian countries, (not the subcontinent) middle families think that if their child comes and attends a US public high school it will increase their chance to be accepted by a top school. It won’t because they will still be send through the international stream, even if examined by the regional coordinator for the US as well. If one checks the high school-not whether they are on FA vs paying in full- for internationasl, they will see that the majority has graduated from specific feeder schools in their country, the equivalent of the local Andover/Exeter (or the actual Andover/Exeter). Do not forget, that the adcom do not want just the best student who has the best scores, but also someone who will have the skills to survive in a rigorous environment (not only academic) and has leadership abilities (this encompasses not only natural abilities but social capital as well) to successfully utilise a degree from that institution. Another issue is that they read CC or the various how to be accepted in a top school book and assume that they need the same qualifications to be accepted by a US school. The cold reality is that these statistics are for the US pool. For example, being the first generation to go to college does not have the same impact as it does for a US student. ECs are also evaluated differently. Being the president of the X student club will not gain them the same brownie points that will be attributed to the US student. </p>
<p>Returning to the OP’s comments, “Proudly being the first in my family to go to Harvard. Moving up the social ladder. Networking. My mind spins.”</p>