<p>many, Never said my son’s SAT was godly. For NC State it’s VERY good. My son wasn’t offered to apply for Honors at UNC. I did not complain, since there is a greater percentage of students with higher scores/gpa than my son. These students deserve the Honors opportunity. Political to me, in relation to NC State’s Honors, is when a school lowers it’s criteria in order to attract a certain race, gender, or individual, in order to meet a certain goal or please a certain alum. I’m not suggesting that NC State should lower it’s criteria in order to accept my son into Honors. As stated above, a student’s SAT and GPA are pretty much black & white. The essay gives the decision maker the ability to overlook the black & white criteria. Also as mentioned above, who knows who wrote the essay? My son was offered Honors at Pitt which is an AAU school. He didn’t have to write an essay. If he decided to attend Pitt, he would have looked at what was expected of Honors students and made a decision if he could meet those expectations.</p>
<p>Yet you seem to be at issue that the criteria involves an essay. It’s an additional requirement, so isn’t it feasible the essay portion actually raises the criteria?</p>
<p>“Yet you seem to be at issue that the criteria involves an essay. It’s an additional requirement, so isn’t it feasible the essay portion actually raises the criteria?”</p>
<p>No. It’s subjective. I have been involved with the essay contest for my civic club. The 3 judges that were chosen came up with different winners even though they were given a set of guidelines to follow. The essay entries were blind. I don’t know if NC State’s essay entries are blind. If not, it certainly allows for politics to enter the process. Also, not knowing if the candidate actually wrote the essay certainly doesn’t raise the criteria.</p>
<p>The biggest problem I am stating Sanford Dad is that 1st. You assume that because corruption CAN exist, it must exist. 2nd. You still to my post didn’t state anything about your son’s extracurricular achievements or abilities, which often are often just as if not more predictive of success in college than pure SAT/GPA (and for the most part can be judged pretty objectively), and 3rd. You assume that because their is an essay, that is the ONLY thing they will judge you on. (not only that, but the assumption that what they can politically perceive from your essay is the only thing).</p>
<p>By your logic, any school expecting an essay for admittance would be just as flawed, which to my knowledge is almost every respectable school in America. The school is flawed not because writing is bad, but because writing allows politics to enter the agenda. You cannot go ONLY on black and white, because if so, then circumstances would never come to play. We don’t condemn every killer to prison, because what of the circumstance of self defense? Even though, black and white, the attacker is dead at their hands.</p>
<p>I feel like I’m being judgmental here, but you sound like the type of parent who has driven his son to excel in academics as best as he possibly could, but forget that the majority of the high school and college experience is not based purely on SAT/GPA. You’re son is probably very smart, and a great kid, but i’m just guessing that you gave him every opportunity to succeed academically, while many other individuals where not given the same opportunities for growth as him. While having a black and white statistic such as SAT/GPA is great for normalization, the circumstances under which someone achieved them is definitely important. I would rather have the student who works 40 hours a week during high school to pay bills and gets a 1200 cold, than the student who attended hours upon hours of prep classes in order to get a 1400. The same goes for GPA.</p>
<p>Out of college, someone with a great GPA and no work/research experience will do much worse than the equivalent student with a good GPA and internships, REU, etc. The Honors Program at State doesn’t want the kids who just are booksmart, but rather are the types of ambitious leaders that are going to grow to change the world.</p>
<p>I think all that SanfordDad is saying is that it would have been nice for his son to have the opportunity if he wanted, to write an essay given his achievements. That he was accepted at UNC… honors or not …says a lot about the student as a whole. That a lot of schools of the same caliber go by the initial essay submitted at the time of application. This has turned very nast about a father who has pushed his son, etc. Very unnecessary in my opinion.</p>
<p>manyman, You sure are making a lot of assumptions about me and my son. My son is pretty smart, 141 IQ according the the local school system. My son was accepted by some pretty good schools, so you can bet that he has some pretty good extracurricular achievements. Other than dropping him off at school and telling him “I love him and to do his best”, I didn’t put pressure on him. I have encouraged him to enjoy college and to get out of his room and meet people. I have told him not to put too much pressure on himself and if medical school didn’t work out, I would still be proud of him. Anyway, I get what you are saying about people from certain backgrounds having an opportunity. If that was part of the criteria outlined by NC State, (25% minority, 25% female, 25% male, & 25% gay for example), in relation to it’s Honors program, I wouldn’t have a problem with my son not making the cut. The main problem I have is with NC State using a very subjective and flawed means to separate one student from another. It’s just my opinion, and I certainly could be wrong, but I think one of the reasons NC State uses the essay is to meet certain unpublished criteria and please certain alums.</p>
<p>proudmom, I have thick skin. I enjoy the different points of view and I certainly may not be right. I also might have offended someone that now think they might have gotten in the Honors program due to their essay or for some political reason. If so, I certainly don’t want anyone to feel that they didn’t earn their accomplishment. NC State is a fine school and I would have been proud of my son if he would have chosen NC State, Honors or not.</p>