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What, if anything, do these people do at these Ivy League Schools?? Do they flunk out or do their professors just give them good grades or what??
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<p>She will probably either a) flunk out, b) drop out, or c) meet a professor who does not curve grades under any circumstances and has little tolerance for crap, therefore possibly giving her a reality check.</p>
<p>why is it that when they or someone they know are not admitted someplace they automatically assumed that others are unqualified?</p>
<p>bitterness. </p>
<p>bluealien01, have you ever thought, that she just might succeed? some of you are really green with envy and are very quick to jump on the "this person is not as qualified as me"-"i am entitled to this" bandwagon</p>
<p>kids of the politically connected give the school good publicity as well as possibly other perks. Maybe she's also a real sweetheart and that came through on her recs?</p>
<p>There's a lot of factors that matter. Like I said, our val who speaks five languages and was good enough for Harvard SCEA didn't get into Cornell. Why? Well, he applied to engineering at Cornell, a rather tough program, and Cornell was probably fourth or fifth on his list. On the other hand, a girl who's out of the top 10% (might be lower than top 20%) and who certainly did not have the SATs of our val got in. Why? Well, it was her dream school, and her desire to matriculate probably shone through in her essays, and I think she's majoring in something more in the English/Social Sciences area. Although she's significantly lower in both test scores and GPA, is she less desirable for Cornell? I would contend not.</p>
<p>heh, AA is total *******<em>. I agree with another poster on this thread -- it should be based on income, not race. I know plenty of URMs who are very well off and a lot of white and Asian kids who come from poor families. screw the system. of course, I understand that if they didn't have race based AA, colleges would be less "diverse" and they're *all</em> about diversity, aren't they? </p>
<p>and as for your question, well, like other people have said in reply: a) she'll drop out, b) her GPA will suck, c) she'll get a reality check in her junior year or d) her daddy will pay off her professors, if that's possible (god, I hope it's not).</p>
<p>A lot of you are giving parallel situations involving people getting into these schools who are good students (by this humble public-school goer's standards, at least), but simply not great (depending on your standards, they could also be thought of as great students, simply not AMAZING, since so many people on this website are). Look, I don't have the bare statistics, but this girl isn't really even that good. Were it not for her connections, I'd call her your run of the mill not-bad-but-nonetheless-mediocre-state-college material. She's ranked about 40th-ish out of 189 seniors in a public high school.</p>
<p>Well, colleges are just unfair like that. I have to admit, I was pretty upset when my friend (even though i was supposed to be happy for her) got into Georgetown. She has a 3.8/5.0 WEIGHTED GPA (she only took 2 APs i think), 1800 SAT, is an officer in one club (which is not very good), and did swimming (but was very bad at it and won no awards). She got in the 500-600s range on her SAT IIs and is just so lazy, and incredibly unremarkable. She's always had everything handed to her on a freaking silver platter and is incredibly spoiled.</p>
<p>I just feel really bad for those who have worked hard ALL THROUGH high school, spent those summers studying for SATs and SAT IIs, and have pulled all-nighters for all those horrible AP classes. My other good friend (whose stats fit georgetown PERFECTLY) didn't get into Georgetown, and it was her first choice.</p>
<p>Just shows how incredibly unpredictable this is</p>
<p>speaking of unqualified people getting attending ivies.....</p>
<p>did anyone watch the O.C? summer with her amazingly high SAT scores and lacking in everything else but social life and personality (from what i can remember), got into Brown.</p>
<p>her boyfriend Seth who had the uberhigh grades and stats, was rejected.</p>
<p>she only wanted to go there because he wanted to go. </p>
<p>now look at them. to those who were rejected by brown---she has your spot. win it back.</p>
<p>just thought i'd humor myself.</p>
<p>WOW the OC was amazing hahaha I felt so bad for Seth.</p>
<p>I can't believe Marissa got into Berkeley. She wasn't exactly very smart</p>
<p>Granfallooner:</p>
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Look, I don't have the bare statistics, but this girl isn't really even that good.
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<p>Real character shows itself when things dont go well. That you have shown such poor character in a situation that does not even concern you suggests to me you are too angry and bitter to make trustworthy assessments of other peoples worth. You have shown me little that would support my taking your word that the girl you continually condemn here has nothing legitimate that the ivies might want.</p>
<p>I am seeing on CC too many kids whose friends have gotten rejected from a dream school who, rather than trying to figure out how they can make the best of it, get on public forums to trash the reputations people who did not get rejected. It is a terribly small and immature thing to do. I understand your concern with AA. I have problems with AA myself. But son, what you are doing here is just mean.</p>
<p>If your friend is like this, then it could be his immaturity, sense of entitlement, lack of humbleness, youthful stupidity or some other of myriad undesirable traits, found their way into his application and ended his chances. We need to keep in mind that for every black kid you condemn as unqualified, Mr. Admissions Expert, thousands upon thousands of white kids are getting in too. Of these whites, PLENTY are getting into elite schools with stats similar to the black kid youve condemned. So maybe those whites have something your friend doesnt have. One thing I have noticed in watching kids who are really special, is that when they suffer setbacks, they do not seek scapegoats. They certainly dont seek excuse their failures by dumping on one little kid when literally thousands of others are getting in despite that kid. Really special kids re-evaluate, dry their tears, stand up, and then come back out swinging harder than they did the last time.</p>
<p>Your friend may have been able to pull down good numbers. But look around, its petty easy to do. Lots of other kids are doing it so that the numbers probably dont mean as much as you think. Maybe your friend needed to project himself into the minds of admissions officers in the way I am projecting myself into your mind so that he grips his audience by its little throat and makes him sit up and take note. Maybe your friend failed to do this, instead relying too much on his increasingly ineffective numbers. Maybe the condemned black girl presented herself, at least in her application, quite powerfully.</p>
<p>Im not overly impressed with numbers. Im not overly impressed with rank. And I suspect the same is true of many admissions committees. They probably see big numbers and cookie cutter applications all the time. Undoubtedly the numbers are useful, but I suspect their use is limited. The issue is probably this: when the chips are down, I mean REALLY down, so that you have only ONE shot to make your mark, can you do it? Can you do it in a unique way, not relying on cookie cutter things like 2400, and 800 x 3 and President of the Sit Around Club? Can you do it in such a way that out of 20,000 applications, your application sizzles? If you cant do this, and if your friend cant, then your numbers probably will mean squat in the eyes of many people. Whining against one kid will not help you. In fact, it only shows you are still not ready, still too weak, too immature, to get out there and do what you need to do to make your mark no matter what happens to an absolutely miniscule number of URMs.</p>
<p>My "friend" (who has been very quiet about the whole thing) also had a lot more going on personality and character wise... this other girl really did few extracurrix, and didn't really put much into them. I think I know the scenario here: lacking any acquaintance with this girl, you're forumulating your own image based on my description, or lack thereof.</p>
<p>So, what does she look like? What kind of person are you imagining? Modest and demure about the redeeming qualities that make up for her low numbers? Sedately tucking a lock of dark hair over her ear while primly holding a bio book under her arm, outwardly humble, but a worthy fire burning within? I guess you don't know her, do you? Not your fault.</p>
<p>Are you imagining someone sitting in an AP class, day in and out, with a blank look on her face, and a bare desk, while the rest of the kids are hurriedly scratching notes and working for their grades? Are you imagining her in the corner fiddling on her laptop and cell phone while a few unfortunate schmos toil on a project to get her an A? You know what? Don't say you are.</p>
<p>I guess I've failed to clarify what really irks me. See, those of us who know her are maddest for this reason: not that she's lacking smarts, not that she's lacking good numbers, but that she has no attitude. She's a loafer in class and a showoff at the pep rallies. You'd have to know her. I'd love to just post a link to her myspace and bring up the obnoxious hip-hop music; the pics of her in these rehearsed little ostentatious Cosmopolitan Magazine poses; her friends and her with the Backstreet Boys on her birthday. I'd love to invite you to spend a day, a week, a year at my school. But I can't.</p>
<p>What I'm seeing from most of her defenders is a clear case of what I call "Ivy League Validation Syndrome." Columbia accepted her, so she must have some sort of virtue. Is this the case? Does everyone who gets accepted by an Ivy necessarily have some redeeming, validating characteristic? Is their admissions hook not only explainable, but always rightfully defendable along with their character, too? Are the Ivy Leagues the be-all-end-all of human worth?</p>
<p>You don't even know her. She's annoying. The situation is annoying. She hasn't taken school seriously, or her classes, and no, she's not smart. She's royalty, for lack of a better word. That's why she got in. I know. And if I don't, well... I certainly know better than you.</p>
<p>I'm not antagonizing those who get in with low numbers. I'm antagonizing those who get in with no attitude or work ethic. They exist, too.</p>
<p>I can accept it, but I won't defend it, and you're wasting your breath when you try to hypothesize about this young lady's redeeming qualities. Perhaps you could try to imagine--lacking that empirical data--that where I'm coming from might just be more than simple envy.</p>
<p>Dude...</p>
<p>I think it's time you give it a rest. **** happens, that's all I can say. You're not going to change anything by ranting, and I doubt that you're making yourself feel better either.</p>
<p>Go do something constructive.</p>
<p>Actually, this is very cathartic.</p>
<p>myspace link
now
or pm</p>
<p>Sorry, I just won't do that. I doubt I have to explain why.</p>
<p>Breathe. do YOUR best. Don't care about other people</p>
<p>breathe. do your best. don't care about other people</p>
<p>I just sort of skimmed through the last four pages or so...but once again, I saw the argument that someone was just not good enough and that they shouldn't be upset about AA. I believe that AA should exist but let's not pretend that the white or asian kid who didn't get AA was just not good enough. Race is still a hook in Ivy admissions pools and that's more than enough to trump the 2400, the valedictorian or the Intel semi-finalist. It's upsetting to granfallooner and justifiably so that this was the daughter of a senator who benefitted from AA. That's where the flaws of AA lie. This is not a girl who will contribute to the diversity of the class at all in terms of experience, which is part of the goal of AA and where the supposed benefits of AA lie for the supposed sheltered non-URM suburbanites applying to these schools. Similar situations at my high school occurred where people used 1/16th Native American status to gain admission to programs such as Georgetown SFS, Harvard and CMU on half-scholarship with test scores, courseload and grades that were worse than their non-URM counterparts. It's pretty sad, seeing as how they were about as Native American as their Chinese counterparts in any other way.</p>
<p>As for the post concerning how someone could be mad about AA and not angry at legacies or athletes, every legacy or athlete could potentially benefit the college through the insititutional aims that legacy and athlete admissions target. Legacies have much higher donation rates and build brand loyalty, thus increasing yield. Athletes enhance college life through spectator sports, building school spirit which leads to the later legacy donations, etc. AA allows many wealthy kids to game a system that should be benefitting a very different group of kids. I just wonder why AA does not account for socioeconomic status. Does anyone have further info on this?</p>
<p>if you look at the paltry number of black faces admitted to the dream schools and then eliminate them, realize there will then be another 1000 superachieving white kids just like you ready in an instant to pounce on those spots and damn everyone who gets in the way,..you never had a place reserved. There would always be someone less qualified in your eyes to materialize in the chair once the music stopped,.</p>