<p>ambitiousteen,</p>
<p>You sound like a great person. Wow, that's great that you have been able to keep your grades up and play sports at the same time. Best of luck to you! You are the exact type of student that should have the opportunity.</p>
<p>Also, yah i kind of do not like the whole idea of, "OOO, we kind of enslaved this race, and demeaned this race etc... lets give them an auto acceptance"... and this would be between 2 strong candidates who probably are very similar in stats, and convey different styles that are relatable to the panel of admissions officers... so they'll probably (in my theory) take the more lower race... so i kind of saw that with certain universities... it all comes down to essays in the end... and recommendations... but it does seem weird how some of these schools accept hispanics with 1800 SATs and etc... and African Americans to... that is kind of a little bias.... thats just my opinion and from my observations... im sure they worked hard... but there does seem to be a racial factor... </p>
<p>AGAIN my 2 cents, please no one comment its my opinion, and observations lol... im not gettin into an argument over the internet...</p>
<p>Thank you very much guitar, considering i do come from a family history of mom being a singaporean- recruited athlete but couldnt go... and my dads a pure book nerd earning his M.Econ at 18 (dont ask how ima live up to this)... but yah, its hard... especially when your only 16 competing with 17-18 year olds...</p>
<p>Congrats on your acceptances guitars101 to harvard and stanford :P i saw them... piccolojunior is my friend... ill be seeing you hopefully at campus visits lol :P this september.</p>
<p>not looking for arguments, but did you read my post about high school "school profile" reports. If everyone knew the facts you would see that it really is fair. You can't judge unless you have ALL the facts on a particular high school (programs offered, median income, etc.)</p>
<p>It's really easy to see the surface and make an opinion, but you really need to dig into each school and get all the facts</p>
<p>wow, your school must have great students for acceptance at stanford and harvard. Keep up the hard work, it's obviously going to pay off for you. Some day you will be famous and we'll be able to say I talked to ambiousteen
on CC :)</p>
<p>p.s. I'm the mom of a student</p>
<p>Ahh, mother of the student, i see. My apologies, congrats on your SON's acceptances, and partially yours seeing as you live through your son (thats kind of what my dad does with me lol... he says... after your 30, your lifes done, you live through your children (or if you dont have any, nephews, nieces etc) lmfao).. Actually, im in canada, ottawa to be specific... and im only one applying to USA from my school :P </p>
<p>thank you very much for the compliment again.</p>
<p>OO no, i understand that admissions is Fair... im just saying that it seems a little weird to me from where i have been... as a canadian student with american citizenship... My high school is quite new to the USA Uni admissions so ya... ill be the first of this school year to apply...</p>
<p>guitars: you said "Students should not be penalized simply because the school does not have the funds to provide these programs." but this student goes to a prestigious IB Diploma school and doesnt take any IB/Ap classes and is a C student getting a full ride b/c of his sport...</p>
<p>you also said "All people get finacial aid based on FAFSA guidelines that document income and assets they are not based on being hispanic or black."
but the girl w/ all of the vacation homes DID GET A FULL RIDE....she didnt get any money through FAFSA obviously but the college gave her grants she even admits its b/c she said she was hispanic. she even thinks its ridiculous and shouldnt have put down she was hispanic.and wrote essays about how her "race" affects her and all that jazz when shes more white than me...no joke. The college even wrote a note back saying how moving her essay was and that they wanted to help her out w/ grants. BUT SHE LIED. How do you think the Harvards are able to give out such huge grants - through their endownments, not FAFSA. That money could be given to URMs who actually need it though..so I NEVER SAID AA WAS HORRIBLE, i think its a great and crucial thing colleges have, don't get me wrong, i agree w/ all of you about the need for diversity and the need to fill classes such as musicians and athletes too...all i meant was I hate how people can too easily cheat the system and take the spot and/or grants that another person could have benefited from though AA. And I know this is an uncommon circumstance, its not like everyone cheats the system...all I'm doing is venting about 1 girl...not about AA specifically....I love the concept of AA and would rather let URMs get money than me (a white middle class girl) so don't think I'm misinformed about the finaid process..its the college endownments that help go toward Afirmative Action...and some of that $ has been wasted on A REALLY RICH GIRL when it could have been shared w/ other URMs to make college costs even more manageable for them...</p>
<p>Ambitiousteen: I never said athletes aren't better than bookworms, all I said was that athletes normally do have to keep grades up a bit and I'm just shocked that this one kid got the full ride aready to this school...and hes only a junior but already made a contract w/ the school...(our whole school can;t believe it, including the guy himself)</p>
<p>So to put an end to this rant,</p>
<p>I don't HATE afirmative action or athletic recruitment, just those who abuse it</p>
<p>Well, each high school is treated differently... since you stated the idea of "high school profile"... if i could not attend a prestigious prep school or academic+athletic conditioning school, would it come down to high school profiling between 2 similar candidates... that would not be from my case i think.... i, to be honest, hate high school... its a great social environment a good way to practice the other aspects as a human being, but the nurtured environment is way to slow academically... and my school is not that great in sports... so i think "school profiles" is kind of out of hand... especially in my situation... </p>
<p>Im kind of psyched, cuz ive heard of things called hooks... and hooks usually mean like doing something ridiculously amazing... ill see if i can find another 16 year old who will be performing an endarterectomy under the head of neurosurgery staff in SMS Medical College.... not trying to boast, but it seems stuff like that might get you noticed... especially when you competed for that position amongst other qualified applicants.</p>
<p>Well if he gets a fullride/ she gets a fullride, that is there problem... they'll be useless once they hit the university environment... so you have to think of it in 2 ways... if shes getting a C in high school... her chances of improvement in UNI are slim to none... the university itself probably knows this and will use her... and as for the junior year athlete... lets hope he wont burn out as fast either... like i said... athletics will only get you so far... it is the combo of both academics and athletics that will get you somewhere... all i can say to them is congrats, dont blow it, or else youd be just like the other millions of recruited athletes who dont really get anywhere. Hence why i chose to stick with academics now, though i can do both at any time but i want to be a neurosurgeon, not a prospective basketball player...</p>
<p>You want to hear a good life of a 1 and over 500000 basketball players who get recruited for the starter position in the NBA... 3/4 of the 500000 players who dont get recruited lose everything... and if they dont have stellar academics, well then what are they going to do... My coach was one of these people.... luckily for him, he had a good enough grade to enter teachers college and teach Phys.Ed.... and coach us... there you go...</p>
<p>im not pulling stats out of my ass, those numbers were quoted by my coach, who still has his forms for recruitment for NBA teams...</p>
<p>Colleges have the option to accept anyone they want to "round" out their class. I would bet that their is something in these two students that you are not aware of. There are two students at my son's school and everyone thought the same thing that you're thinking then at senior awards they listed their profiles (accomplishments) because they got full rides to nice colleges and we were all shocked at all they had accomplished. One of the students did indeed have a 4.0 gpa, but bragged to everyone about having fun and hanging out with the party people. He was a recruited athlete. Then the other student had a 3.75 gpa but had to overcome great adversity when his dad became cripled and he had to help earn $ for the family. No one new these things because people only tell you what they want you to know. </p>
<p>There are going to be cases where things are unfair because we live in a broken society and things aren't fair. People get shot and robbed daily and that's not fair, but it's life. For the most part college admissions is very fair (once you understand the system). </p>
<p>don't focus on the tiny tiny percentage of unfairness. Do your best in what you know to be right and fair and let the rest happen. Don't get bitter because it's a very very small percentage</p>
<p>abmitious: I don't get your point. ??? I think athletic recruitings good..this one kid is just insanely ..well.. lazy and stupid (which he admitted when he told others of his contract) and was wondering why some other schools dont seem to have any real standards for grades and whatnot like the Ivys do...</p>
<p>guitars: I know, i shouldnt be bitter and im over it..i just had to vent about these two extreme circumstances and thought I could do it here...</p>
<p>and in regards to the whole not really knowing their gpa and stuff..this guy has ONLY his sport...hes shown me his report card every quarter since frosh year believe it or not...hes always been in my homeroom when we received them and would always share our grades just because...and hes only gotten As in gym class/weight flex and got B's in religion classes...all the rest are cs cuz he says he never tries....thats all I was mad about...most people prob. would be when there are similar athletes who are just as good and have better grades, but he gets a spot over them b/c he was lucky enough to have scouts see him....im just a bit baffled....he has said he has no awards, community service, etc, etc, etc....thats why im a bit surprised.</p>
<p>Thanks for the discussion guys....I really am on the same page as you though...just needed to vent a bit... ;)</p>
<p>Well the reason you got some vicious reactions was because of the title of this thread. You should have been a little more diplomatic in the beginning so we could hold a rational debate.</p>
<p>I know I should have...i guess it was the heat of the moment....plus it prob. got more attention that way....</p>
<p>Why is everybody bashing the OP? Some of the stuff he is saying is true.</p>
<p>Last fall a representative from Wesleyan came to speak to the juniors (us) about the college admissions process. He BLATANTLY stated that minority students don't need to achieve the same grades/test scores as their white counterparts to be considered. He specifically states that a black student with a 1300/1600 is about the equivalent of a white student with a 1500/1600. </p>
<p>This IS racism, and the OP is correct. This means colleges assume that either a) all minority students are less intelligent or b) that all minority students are disadvantaged.
This is CLEARLY not the case. There are plenty of affluent black students with college educated parents who have the resources needed for success. Should these students also be given the leeway of lower grades/scores as well? What about very poor white kids from very disadvantaged areas who have high school drop outs as parents (those exist too y'know) </p>
<p>The OP isn't bashing AA, he just thinks it needs tweaking, which it obviously does. I know Wesleyan isn't representative of all top colleges, but I'm sure its not the only one that does this.</p>
<p>Thanks Hippo. (and I'm a girl btw)</p>
<p>I have heard these complaints about reverse racism so many times. Right now without doing what they do, the most selective colleges would not have URMs. That is why there is a URM category.</p>
<p>coffeeaddict, are you saying your friend got a non need based full ride to Stanford? What year?</p>