<p>o_0 Is the salu-whatever (sorry, don't have those at my school; only valedictorians) a URM?</p>
<p>I know you guys feel bitter now, but keep in mind that where you go to school doesn't determine your future so much, per se. It's your ... how do I say this... tendency to excel that will. If you've always been a person who excels at that level, where-ever you go, you will excel that much. If you're average, then where-ever you go, whether to Yale or community college, you will be average. Don't worry. Just keep working as you would, and you will find yourself at where you would be had you gone to Ivies or not.</p>
<p>I feel like my teacher saying this. o_0 Am I getting old?</p>
<p>I knew what this post was coming to... I took 7 APs throughout highschool, scored 2150 on my SATs, and didn't get into schools far below the ivies. For every story you hear about a URM getting into a school with less-than-average scores, there are plenty or URMs with decent scores getting rejected, or legacies/recruited athletes with low scores getting into the same schools.</p>
<p>Yeah, I certainly agree that the college has a minor bearing on your future. But which would you rather do... excel in your career, or excel in your career and enjoy the next four years a lot? This is what makes these things so hard.</p>
<p>Major choice probably has something to do with a lot of these, I imagine. If you're trying to apply to the most popular major at a school (e.g. Engineering at Cornell, business at Penn, etc) you are up against much stiffer competition than other, less popular majors.</p>
<p>Precisely. Our valedictorian got into Harvard, but waitlisted at Cornell. Why? Well, he got into Harvard, and as a result really didn't put a lot of effort into his application. A girl ranked much lower (out of top 10%, I believe) got into Cornell. Why? Well, she certainly didn't apply to engineering (don't know her exact major), and Cornell was her dream school so I imagine that shone through in her application.</p>
<p>My sister was on an Ivy's adcom for a while, and I can tell you right now that the process for accepting students is only a small step away from completely arbitrary! I applied to three Ivies this year, and I got into all three. I'm qualified, YES, but I'm turning down two of them to go to Yale, and what about those poor kids who really wanted to go and got rejected? My point? The whole process, from application to matriculation, is unfair. Like life. But, Mr. Granfallooner or whatever, I think you're right to say the girl got in b/c she's black and has political connections (no matter how lame). Ivies love that stuff.</p>
<p>A kid at my school got into the university of michigan with a sub-3.0 GPA and like a 20 on the act. It kind of bums me out because my stats are a lot higher than his and I would have had little to no shot (had i applied).</p>
<p>The fact is that no matter what, there are always going to be problems with applications. As my physics teacher has said to my class: "You're nothing but paper piles to colleges". And that's the sad fact. Sure we can write essays and get involved in afterschool activities. But how much does that really say about our personality? If a student checks off both the white and male boxes of the application, right away the Adcoms get an idea of what the student looks like. But what does that make of individuals?</p>
<p>Colleges are businneses. They are out there to making a profit like any other company. The people you're all mentioning are all bringing profits to the schools that picked them. An athletic recruit can bring in money through championships and ticket sales. Someone with political connections can have access to important people willing to speakers at the college. Please, let's not blame AA for this. The college is screwing bright, qualified kids over, not the acceptee.</p>
<p>lol. In the last sentence I meant to say this: Stop attacking the person that got in. Let's look beyond that and perhaps place some of that anger on the colleges that picks that athlete or that girl with political connections.</p>
<p>I don't have a problem with URMs, recruited athletes, the sons of oil barons, or legacies. I just don't like that people are willing to look the other way for some of these guys but not others.</p>