<p>Apparently she ( Marilee Jones) was on National Public Radio today and yesterday talking about college admissions and how much pressure they put on the kids, since its a seven part series I assume they will have this topic on for the next 5 days, but I dont know if she will be back on. Still, pretty interesting, even more so since its actually a Director of Admissions who is complaining about the Admission process.</p>
<p>well, I didn't hear her on the radio. but i believe i have read that article before. actually, that was one of the reasons i decided to apply to mit. i figured if they are trying to make the admissions process more people friendly, they're probably trying to make the rest of the school more people friendly. and what ive seen so far seems to support this.</p>
<p>I heard two parts and she was quoted in both. </p>
<p>I for one think MIT is trying to get "back to their roots." Traditionally, they picked the kids who were most capable of benefiting from an MIT education. I know a handful of alums in their '40s. None were particularly well prepared by today's standards, because schools just didn't offer the advanced curriculum that is standard today. They had all done the best they could with what they had to work with, and had occupied themselves constructively with things like music because they simply weren't challenged in school. Most were what we would call "nerds." </p>
<p>I think it's harder to find kids today that have enough free time on their hands to explore things that interest them free of structure. Instead of noodling with the piano, you have kids who are in two youth symphonies. Instead of a kid putting a band together with his friends, you have one that has a private instructor and is in two youth chamber groups. You don't see kids who build a darkroom in the basement and get good at photography on their own; they are too busy with the Robotics team or getting ready for Intel. </p>
<p>It's like as parents we are afraid to let our kids spend time on an activity that is not adult-organized and adult-mediated because on paper that kid's accomplishments are going to "look" less impressive than the Intel medal or whateveryoucallit.</p>
<p>What would most parents think of a high school student who decided to build a treehouse, designed it, built it, then had to grapple with an overzealous city building inspector who wanted him to build it to code? What if the treehouse project was more important to the kid than practicing and auditioning for a more prestigious music group? </p>
<p>I think what Marilee is saying is that MIT would probably "value" the treehouse-builder, where most conventional college applications wouldn't even consider that activity worthy of mention.</p>
<p>I heard her, she was saying the same stuff she's been saying for the last year. I'll be very interested to see who if anyone gets accepted from our high school in light of what she's been saying. (All three kids who applied EA were deferred, I don't know who is applying regular.)</p>
<p>Two kids from D's high school applied; one got in EA. He's a smart kid but definitely could use some development in the people skills department.</p>