<p>Suzy Lee Weis, a high school senior, wrote a controversial piece on her frustration with the college application process after being rejected from several of her top choice schools. The article, which was published in the Wall Street Journal, has commanded quite a bit of attention, good and bad, landing her a spot on The Today Show. </p>
<p>I think they both make good points, and I tend to side more with the rebuttal. It’s more well-supported and the sentiment is one I can agree with.</p>
<p>Also, as a sidenote: Weiss’ stats include a 2120 SAT score and a below perfect unweighted GPA. From the sound of it, she didn’t exactly have phenomenal extra curriculars. I don’t understand why she thought her chances of acceptance at those schools would be anywhere near good to begin with.</p>
<p>I must admit, I did find it a little bit irritating that she rationalized her rejections by suggesting it is “a rat race” and acted as though it had less to do with her stats and more to do with her being a white girl. There are plenty of white girls with 2250-2300 SAT scores, excellence extracurriculars, and equally strong GPAs who are being rejected by those very same schools. These days a 2100 SAT score barely cracks the top 30 schools, let alone the schools she was pursuing. </p>
<p>In her defense, however, I don’t think her article was really about how she deserved to be admitted or even about how affirmative action is unfair. No, I interpreted it more as a playful piece, poking fun satirically at the college application process. </p>
<p>That rebuttal article is valid, too, and more politically correct.</p>
<p>I do not see what all the fuss is about. I am sure hundreds, if not thousands, of high school students write similar articles each April/May! While there are thousands of students Weiss’ profile that will be headed to schools like the Ivy League, Cal, Chicago, Duke, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Michigan, Northwestern, Stanford, UCLA, UNC, UVa, Vanderbilt, WUSTL and a multitude of LACs too numerous to name etc…, there are more who will be rejected by those institutions. </p>
<p>The question I often ask is why do many of those universities remain so small. I can understand LACs remaining tiny. But why are so many of those elite universities still only enrolling freshman classes of 1,000-2,000 students? Why are they not expanding to 3,000 or 4,000 freshmen? They certainly have the resources to do so, and given the quality and size of their applicant pools, can do so without altering the quality of their undergraduate student population.</p>
<p>Please stay the hell away from ann arbor. Such sense of entitlement! but i guess that’s what you expect in a entitlement driven society we are in these days. </p>
<p>The only valid point she made was the one about race. Everyone knows affirmative action is BS. But even then, it’s not like white people do not get into top schools, albeit unfairly harder than the black and hispanic counterparts by objective measures.</p>
<p>Until this girl understands and accepts the fact that life isn’t fair wherever you go, she won’t get anywhere.</p>
<p>I think these schools don’t want to increase their class size because they take pride in being so exclusive. Northwestern, Duke and Vandy are all verging on 10% acceptance rates.</p>
<p>Being so selective makes them look very desirable and prestigious.</p>
<p>I’m one of those who didn’t see the humor. I didn’t find it offensive (even being one of those pesky biracial non-straight people who founded a charity and could’ve taken her spot :rolleyes:) but I thought it completely fell flat of whatever it was aiming for. If it was satire, it was bland. If it was humor, it wasn’t funny. Whatever she was going for, she came off as a stereotypical middle class white kid who’s never been told “no”. </p>
<p>She sounded like a whiny teenager who says something horribly offensive to an acquaintance and tries to play it off with a “JK!! LOVE YOU!!”. </p>
<p>I think she’ll be in for a real surprise when she starts at Michigan next year.</p>
<p>Oh god she’s coming here? I can think of the groups here she’d fit in with perfectly…</p>
<p>She wants to complain about being a white female? At least she can pimp that female part. I’m looking through the engineering scholarships right now and I don’t see the special “White Male” scholarships anywhere…</p>
<p>Race shouldn’t be taken into consideration when applying to college. Maybe financial status, but not race. Its funny she is complaining about schools pushing diversity and she is going to a school that does that a ton too.</p>
<p>She is kind of right in a way though, under all of her whining. It is a system where little diversity things like that will help. Milk whatever you can. Or apply to something where they might care less about all that feel good stuff.</p>
<p>Either way it doesn’t sound like she had amazing stats and a rejection was reasonable. Like that Texas chick. She needs to stop complaining moaning.</p>
<p>While I understand her frustrations, as my son also did not get into any of the Ivy League schools, we need to get away from this notion that the Ivy League is the golden ticket. I am a physician, and I have seen physicians from Ivy League programs really didn’t impress me whatsoever. As my mentor in medicine used to say, “oh yes, Harvard, the school where no one does anything wrong”.</p>
<p>Jeez. Lighten up. It was a JOKE. Does anyone think that she would really trade her parents for that gawd-awful Tiger mom. I read the piece and I thought it was funny, not true. But she did hi-light the absurdity of the college admission “rat-race.” And the fact that colleges can be snookered. There was a kid in D’s high school, who did fall crew so he could check off the box for athlete. What Yale didn’t know was that fall crew is basically just practice for spring crew, which is where all actual meets take place. Spring crew requires vast amounts of dedication and this kid wasn’t interested in that, so he never even tried out for Spring crew, he just needed to be able to check off the athleter box. But Yale was happy because it thought he was “well-rounded” and admitted him.</p>
<p>The ugly irony is that the kid is claiming to be a victim of preference. Yet, someone (parents maybe) built a PR machine that got her published in the WSJ, including TV appearances. Her career in Journalism is off and running thanks to family/friends/nepotism, which is the ultimate form of preference.</p>
<p>At least, her article led to an interesting discussion. Disregarding her mediocre scores and GPA for those schools, she brought up some interesting points about the impact of EC on school applications. Many students (or their parents) spend far more effort in shaping their profile than really getting them ready for college (in terms of knowledge and mentality). I’ve seen students got private tutors in order to have more AP on the list. I have also seen a student that found a charity foundation solely for making it looks good on school application. I have also encountered a bunch of high school kids that signed up for volunteering community services simply for the hour counts without a heart for the work at all. I always wonder if a high school student is a president or VP of several clubs simultaneously, what would be his/her contribution in any of them. Nevertheless, I do admire those who got awards here and there. When you see people competing in the length of the list on EC, there is obviously a mentality problem both in the applicants and the admission boards.</p>
<p>I also thought the article was tongue-in-cheek with a dash or irony and brought the over-the-top college application process into focus. As the competition intensifies, kids do everything possible to become the perfectly well-rounded applicant-I see this in kids who apply to medical school who make sure they do all the right things to convince the school that they have what it takes, but the motivation is pretty obvious when you interview the applicant. Unfortunately but understandably, few if any colleges require an interview so it’s easy to be duped by what is on paper. I agree with billscho that kids should spend more time learning how to grow up and prepare for college and find their own uniqueness and passion/excitement. This of course may be a naive and unrealistic and we all help our sons/daughters play the game but a little perspective and humor can’t hurt.</p>
<p>for me college admissions came down to the fact that I was always a goofball compared to the harvard acceptances. When I was done with getting a 4.0 or 2300 whatever sat and the random ec’s here and there I wanted to go chill and play video games or hoop it with my friends. The personality difference of being a lot more laid back made the difference.</p>
<p>At 16 I was just a kid compared to these peers I guess, just wanted chill and goof around. Now I am more ambitious and more aggressive but that took 4 years of college. I had no clue about different ec’s needed to be done or whatever. I am fine with the way things worked out though. Mich allowed me to still get a good job.</p>
<p>I was like that too, hylyfe. In high school I just remained committed to one leadership position I had as far as ECs go, and I was satisfied with that. I didn’t have Ivy League aspirations at any point, anyway. The idea of going to a Harvard or a Yale never appealed to me. My parents raised me and my sister well by telling us to do only what we wanted and what would make us happy, and we’re both glad about how it’s turned out. I think the author of this article will soon realize that as well. In her 20s, she’ll look back on this with a sort of, “Why on Earth did I even do that?” attitude.</p>
<p>The point is, if she really wanted to go Ivy, then she should have known ahead of time that, especially with her mediocre stats, she would need to go over the top with extra curriculars and she just didn’t do that. It’s just the way it is. Hell, even I got better stats than her and I didn’t even consider applying to Ivies. It’s just unfortunate that she seems to think the only way to achieve a top notch education is by going to Princeton.</p>
<p>FlyMeToTheMoon: The article itself won’t be a handicap. If anything, it’ll only be a boost to her resume and to her internship prospects. However, the attitude expressed will be a major handicap if she doesn’t get rid of it fast.</p>
<p>Fly, I agree with enten… I’ll also add that I think she’ll come to regret this letter. We all do stupid things when we’re 17-ish, but most of them don’t blow up like this.</p>