<p>To DianeR: I'm so sorry if you misunderstood some of my post. I meant that I wish that the parents/reporter could've talked to the Groton grad's list of schools that he applied to and were rejected from. </p>
<p>The article seems to inadvertantly imply that the Groton grad didn't get in because he wasn't a legacy, URM, or athlete, but if we knew the real reason for why he was rejected then parents and students can learn from his mistakes or lack of mistakes. I wouldn't want to find out the reason for a rejection (for the same reasons as your in-laws), but obviously the parents of the Groton grad felt comfortable enough to take it to a newspaper and try to blame the rejection on the fact of not having a "hook". It is the responsibility of the reporter to find out the facts rather than to make assumptions on why a certain applicant did not get in and try to pass it on as the truth. For all we know the reporter could be right in his assumptions, but we don't know for sure, that is what really bothers me about the article, even though it was pretty informative.</p>
<p>I am sorry that I wasn't really clear in my earlier post. The Groton grad wanted to major in pre-med, he could've been rejected for the same reasons as your niece (can study their field in a number of places), but both ended up at good schools and seem to be successful (the Groton grad seemed to be successful in the article). You did not imply at all that your niece didn't have a good personality, and I didn't view it in that way at all. </p>
<p>tsdad: Thank you so much!! Yeah, I remember reading debates about the quality of USC between you and TheDad, both of you offered good, but drastically different views. Earlier in the thread TheDad mentioned that "oddly enough, reading between the OP's lines, I think she might be very successful at USC on terms with which even I could not quibble". I am just trying to remain neutral, and take in everyone's opinions about certain schools. By the time I'm finished visiting the schools on my list and on my dad's list, I will hopefully have an idea of how I view each school in terms of what I saw during the visits.</p>