<p>:o </p>
<p>Thanks Periwinkle! Loved your post above, by the way.</p>
<p>muf123 said:</p>
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<p>The community will certainly need garbage collectors. Having said that, I am starting to wonder if that’s what the schools had in mind when they accepted me :/)</p>
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<p>Since we are all test takers ourselves at one point or another, I think your issue is not with “test takers” but those bright ones:/) Could people stop insulting me for once? I am in eighth grade, and I scored a 121 in AMC10 even without trying, and it is not my fault if you think it is not cool. </p>
<p>I hope people not using the “well-rounded” buzz to prevent them from reaching the next level. “Well-rounded” should not mean a little bit of everything. I am a USA swimmer on a national 97% percentile, and I could have stopped at “well-rounded” level and called it quit many years ago. I didn’t and I am still painstakingly trying to reach my next level. So next time you see some “bright test takers”, cut them some slacks, will you?</p>
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Ouch, that hurts, but that’s actually my point too, except I don’t think that’s something worth celebrating is it? Anyway, thanks everyone for your input. I actually don’t have as strong an opinion on the “issue” I raised as I sound. It occured to me and I wanted to know others’ thoughts.</p>
<p>Schools are trying to build a community. They’re private institutions that are entitled to take whoever they want regardless of resume. It doesn’t mean someone is better or lesser than someone else. In 99.9% of the cases, the kids are all equally qualified within a range of specs.</p>
<p>The reality is - that people who post these kinds of questions are really looking for answers to explain why their own child was bypassed. And it’s cruel. Because it diminishes the celebrations of students on here who were accepted (for whatever reason or stats).</p>
<p>So my suggestion is take the angst and discussions up with an Adcom who can (but probably won’t) tell you the truth. And even then you won’t believe it.</p>
<p>Let’s be a bit more empathetic about what’s going on with the board’s these days and stop the pathetic diversity speculation shall we.</p>
<p>It got old year’s ago.</p>
<p>But - for your edification DAndrew, schools don’t fill every bed. So on the oft chance some kid who is an awesome hockey player, or plays tuba and the orchestra needs one, gets in with a 70% and B’s, they didn’t take a slot from some kid with better stat. The school made room for them.</p>
<p>And - while we’re on the tired subject - there are a lot of kids who get easy A’s who will get to HADES and flounder because they are bright “coasters”. There are kids from academically rigorous schools who have hard earned “B’s” but got lower SSAT scores because they’re not “wired” to take timed standardized tests.</p>
<p>There are kids with perfect stats who have been coached for years. There are kids with perfect essays who memorized pre-written essays prepared by consultants.</p>
<p>There are a lot of reasons why schools look beyond scores to find the best community of kids they can build.</p>
<p>If it makes you feel better to think someone with lesser stats took a spot they didn’t deserve, go ahead and live with the delusion. Clearly none of us is going to change your mind.</p>
<p>But for goodness sake, there’s a lot of soul searching and hand wrenching going on right now. The stats for acceptance versus wait list versus declines is really hard on parents and students this year. There is jubilation and humility from those who found a spot. There is anger, fear and disappointment for those who didn’t or are still waiting. The process feels personal. They don’t need more “bovine fertilizer” heaped on to the pile right now.</p>
<p>Could you take your useless diversity speculations and stick it somewhere where the rest of us with some sense of decency don’t have to deal with it?</p>
<p>Alright, don’t you talk to me with that condecending tone!!! Wake up, no one takes you as an expert on anything. You yourself have in this one post made countless baseless speculations and stupid verbal attacks. I don’t have time and patience to deal with you, so just give it a rest, will you PLEASE?!</p>
<p>“There are kids from academically rigorous schools who have hard earned “B’s” but got lower SSAT scores because they’re not “wired” to take timed standardized tests.”</p>
<p>I’ve got one of those. Was just admitted to all 3 schools to which they applied with a B+ average and SSATs considerably below the norm. In one case, at a school that admits fewer than 25% of those who apply, DC’s SSATs were a full 30 percentage points below the school’s median SSATs. Not a recruited athlete, just a nice, hard working, engaging, white kid from the suburbs.</p>
<p>I don’t like the idea that if my child were AA or Hispanic someone would be pointing to DC’s acceptance as evidence that schools lower their standards for “diversity cases”.</p>
<p>You must have a hook like building the science wing. There are a whole bunch of nice, hard working kids out there that didn’t get in. Btw, I didn’t kick the puppy during the interview. :D</p>
<p>Can the conversations be polite? Hello?</p>
<p>@pulsar…“I didn’t kick the puppy during the interview.”</p>
<p>…and I see you got into some very fine schools. (IMHO puppy kicking is overrated. :))</p>
<p>I may have to thank my parents for that. Fat wallets = positive admission decisions. (Pulsar’s law of Boading School admissions, circa 2011).</p>
<p>Wow! </p>
<p>What should we talk about next? Politics? Religion?</p>
<p>i just want to point something out that everyone will encounter in a few years - grades and testing and college admission. If you’re “not wired” for taking tests in a timely manner, it behooves you to prove it by getting “tested” for whatever cognitive issue you may have and get time and a half or double time to even the field. If you’re bright but “dont test well” - thats the absolutely worst thing that a college wants to hear. It translates as lazy. No one in college will be figuring how brilliant the student is who is below a standard for admission, in the 7 minutes allotted to an Adcom for initial app review.
and GemmaV - shame on you for adding fuel to the fire with that “appalling” comment. As an adcom you know extremely well that the majority of diversity candidates dont come from the type of schools/families that are able to provide the education/skills necessary to achieve high scores/write perfect essays. What the schools look for in those candidates is the ability to reach the absolute top in whatever environment they are in. Thus obviously they will have lower scores. Nothing wrong with that, and pretty much why the boards of these schools “opened” them up - to provide better opportunities.</p>
<p>typed a post but this thread should die so I removed it.</p>
<p>^^While the trend of sat optional colleges had been steady its not as prevalent anymore thanks in part to incredible grade inflation in High Schools with the weighted gpas that allow for 20-80 valedictorians per grade. Colleges rely more and more on the standardized scores to weed this situation out. Especially the SAT Subject Tests. While even 3/4 years ago the standardized scores were probably number 5 on the list of how colleges evaluated students, they are now in the number 2 slot.
No doubt that out of the “many prep school kids” you know, the “majority of the students of color are very very capable kids with great scores and writing ability”. How could it be otherwise? They are prep school kids!!! I didnt refer to those kids. I referred to kids applying to prep schools from less than ideal schools in their neighborhoods, or else to colleges from less than ideal schools. And nowhere in my post will you find an idea that the schools provide opportunities for URMs over other candidates.</p>
<p>@ExieMIT,Thank you for your posts and for standing up to the sour grapes bully.
I am saddened by the unkind remarks made by the OP. This forum is viewed by young people and it is unthinkable, as an adult ,not to be anything less than a positive role model.
The rule I give my children concerning web chats: If you wouldn’t say it to ones face then it’s not correct to print it.
A rule my grandparents taught us: If you don’t have anything nice to say then don’t say it.</p>
<p>Wow, thought cc would be quieter while I was away. Guess not, and I see Exie still bounces around with short fuses doing what she does the best :-)</p>
<p>My d – the “partner in crime”, was accepted to hogwarts and other sister schools, and she is very very happy. </p>
<p>BS is a very welcoming place. One school even wrote her a note saying “Despite the fact that your dad was called a racist by some on cc, we think those generalization and accusations are wrong, and we have high …”.</p>
<p>Wish everybody the best of all as life rolls on.</p>
<p>Not touching the original theme again. </p>
<p>@mhm–I’m just a mom, no inside info about admissions for schools, boarding or college, but…My understanding is the opposite, colleges see high SAT scores and low GPA as kids who are “lazy,” not the other way around. I’m wondering where you got those stats about the importance of SATs moving up, I’d be very interested to see this research. BTW, my oldest just did college interviews, and all of them were much longer than 7 minutes. </p>
<p>Also, not all kids are great standardized test takers. How/why does this automatically equal a learning disability that requires diagnosis and accommodations? I’m not thinking about a hypothetical kid who bombs these types of tests, but one who does “fine,” but not fantastic, though has very strong stats in every other portion of his/her resume. Why would anyone want to give their child the message that if they aren’t perfect in every single area, there’s something wrong with them? Not to mention how this type of manipulation could harm kids who have real learning disabilities, making it more difficult for them to get necessary accommodations.</p>
<p>I started the thread but now will leave it (for my vacation) to you to take it wherever you like. A disclaimer: I don’t have a student applying this year and I have no "vested interest "in this issue whatsoever.</p>
<p>Don’t let the door hit you on the way out 
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<p>@maddog15: 
btw, congrats on you Choate acceptance!!! great job.</p>