Dirty Secrets of College Admissions

Parents Forum
541

<p>
[quote]
Well, I think there are lovely, sensitive women in all walks of life and the other type there too.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I am in complete and total agreement with you!</p>

542

<p>zoosermom, not so many firefighters and policemen, but plenty of blue collar workers, and children of Italian and Irish immigrants. Our school in particular drew from all parts of town - so it had a big mix, professional types and recent immigrants as well. We have a lot of doctors here too - many of their partners had the part time or work at home work.</p>

<p>So funny the desciption of the active baby vs. the sweet passive one. I got a lot more done with Mathson who took naps till the week before kindergarten started than the younger one who never slept.</p>

543

<p>My only solace with my son was when the pediatrician told me that not many adults are still scaling the cabinets as they did when they were toddlers. I have come to find that he was right, but that didn't make my son any less "busy" at the time. Thankfully, he was very much like the energizer bunny in that once he wore out, he slept like a rock. And still does. :)</p>

544

<p>Bringing this back around to the top.</p>

<p>At the Admissions form, a student is asking if it is a good thing if the ad office sent a note complimenting his essay. Since we discussed that topic back at posts 258 and others I thought the kids might want to see this.</p>

545

<p>


</p>

<p>Okay this is silly (and outdated, since the quoted post is from Jan 14) but i feel obligated to reply because the person directly addressed (attacked?) me.</p>

<p>First of all, let me make this clear, the "special helps from counselor" was just a 10-minute talk about US universities in general. He left my Singapore school (which is a public school) for a private, higher-ranked place a week after our chat and was warning me about applying to HYPS as an international. He didn't help me with ANYTHING, not college list (okay he recommended WashU and Northwestern, and I ended up only applying to the former), not forms, certainly not essays or resume. I received no substantial help whatsoever with the college admission process since after the original GC is gone, his replacement knows squad about US admissions. She didn't even have a form for the fee waiver, so I had to write my own which she then used to give other students. </p>

<p>I do realize that four years in Singapore gave me a much more competitive profile than the typical Vietnamese student who went to school in Vietnam, but to suggest that I got there by special helps by anybody at all is unwarranted. In many way, a poor Vietnamese student in Singapore is still in many ways disadvantaged compared to the typical local students. Everybody attended tuition classes here and I had none. Hell, everybody has their family here with them to help them with schoolwork or just to be there for them, and I had none. I didn't even go home in the summer because there's always some research project or some competition that i had to go through. Please don't even start by insinuating that I got where I am thanks to my family's wealth. We have none to speak of. My annual family income is 8,000USD and I went to Singapore on a full scholarship awarded by the Singapore government. I didn't go for any SAT prep classes which, let's face it, a good number of students go for including those in Vietnam. Sometimes I lived on 10 dollars a week, and of course private consulting is unheard of.</p>

<p>Yes, I had a high school education in English which surely helped my command of the foreign language. I had more opportunities to "diversify" my portfolio. But I had to slave around for four years with virtually no support system. The stress level was insane and my days sometimes start at 5:30AM and end at 12AM. Let me outline a day in the life of a Vietnamese student in Hanoi for you: School from 7:30 until 12PM, then tuition classes from 2-5PM and another shift from 7-9. Boring, but a lot less stressful and a lot more time to actually study. I left home since i was fourteen and had to deal with all the puberty crap and school drama by myself. I became someone who's cynical, but with a maturity of thought that not many students in my home country have. I think that shows in my essays and during interviews, and was viewed favorably by Yale. If people like me (international students who went to school elsewhere) have a slight edge over others in our country, it's because colleges recognize the added hardship that we withstand, the colorful life experiences we had, and the signs of maturity that some of us might exhibit. </p>

<p>Remember that before Singapore i was in public schools in Hanoi (Vietnam) all the way. And remember again that wherever I am, English to me is still foreign language and it didn't just magically improve after I was thrown into an English-speaking country. Everything I have achieved is by my effort, and mine alone. I don't know how you can think that I got it better than the rest, or that the Yale admission process is unfair/unwarranted. I'm not saying that I'm better than the other applicants or that I deserve a place at an elite institution, but I did give them sound reasons to admit me.</p>

<p>Fyi, if anybody wants to see my full updated stats just to have an idea of what an international kid who got into Yale looks like:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/616404-official-yale-2013-scea-results-thread-post1061468720.html#post1061468720%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/616404-official-yale-2013-scea-results-thread-post1061468720.html#post1061468720&lt;/a>
(there's a typo. My composite SAT is 2330, not 2350)</p>

546

<p>
[quote]
I don't know how you can think that I got it better than the rest, or that the Yale admission process is unfair/unwarranted. I'm not saying that I'm better than the other applicants or that I deserve a place at an elite institution, but I did give them sound reasons to admit me.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Those last 10 words ... yes you did. It is abundantly obvious.</p>