I agree with xiggi that it’s not really in this kid’s interests to have this news story about him published. My advice to similar students in the future is to leave one Ivy off the list (he could have substituted Stanford). Then the results won’t be so newsworthy.
Hope you are jk because he goes on to say he ultimately got a perfect score on his AP History exam. This is the kind of thing that adcoms want to see. He came to this country clueless and within a few years was “acing” the very classes he could not understand a few short years before.
On another note, I am not going into my rant about applying to all 8 Ivies and how that shows more college hunting based on name that trying to find “fit”. The 8 Ivies are so different from each other. I wish him luck and hope he ultimately finds the one that suits him best.
Perhaps we’ll hear great things from the Val at the same school:
http://liherald.com/elmont/stories/Elmont-names-its-top-scholars-of-2015,63416
I’m the parent of a dime-a-dozen upper-middle-class white kid, and I say bravo to this immigrant boy for applying to all eight Ivies. It’s obvious to me that he knew he was something special and had the goods to get into these top colleges but was unsure exactly what kind of environment would be the right fit for him. Why SHOULDN’T he apply to all of them? He’s going to visit and make his decision based on what feels right. Then he’ll take himself out of the running at the other seven and maybe some spots will open on the waitlists.
“He came to this country clueless and within a few years was “acing” the very classes he could not understand a few short years before.”
It’s quite impressive to move to a country, new language, new culture and school system, and then become a top student. These are the qualities- being able to adapt, learn new ways, and then through this, excel that are indicative of ability and future success.
I’m with xiggy on the idea that I wish it didn’t come to so much media attention. It is good news for certain, but he is still a kid,( at least from a parent’s perspective) and IMHO, I don’t like to see a lot of media attention into kids’ personal information.
Do you really believe that the differences among the schools would not have appeared from an earlier selection? Do you really believe this student will visit more than a dozen schools, and if he did, do you think it would bring substantial new elements in such a whirlwind tour?
Again, there are two ways to look at stories about applying to each one of the Ivy League school and almost every supposed peer school.
And I’m the mom of a Chinese kid and I say bravo! For what it’s worth, Elmont is on the border with Queens. Its high school is unranked and unawarded on the USNEWS high school list. His parents are both not-very-well-paid blue collar workers. He knew nothing about American history before he was 8 because his earlier years were in Nigeria, duh! I am sure he had an overworked guidance counselor who didn’t know the fine points of the colleges he applied to. All of them are within a round-trip drive from home, which may be why he didn’t apply to Stanford and did apply to all the Ivy League schools.
Good for him!
Are you sure you should be … sure?
Just one statistic says a lot: Elmont is on track to see 99.2 percent of its students graduate, about half of them with an advanced diploma.
And then there are google searches that might reveal that a number of schools are belying the low expectations placed upon them.
Maybe his number one criteria was an Ivy League degree, any Ivy League degree? Or maybe he challenged himself to see if he could get into all Ivies – a kind of a far fetched goal to keep him going? I don’t understand the undercurrent of criticism. He’s certainly not the first nor the last student to try this.
I am very leery of the claims that the Ivy League schools are SO different that no kid could possibly be interested in them all. SO different? Columbia and Dartmouth are probably the furthest apart-- and I have no trouble seeing that a kid could be interested in both.
A poster has started a thread asking if her D should go to Northeastern or William and Mary. Nobody is bashing the kid for having applied to both (and I think the difference between that pair is significantly greater than the difference between Brown and Princeton or Penn and Cornell). A kid who wants to be close to skiing will prefer Dartmouth over Yale. But what about the kids who don’t ski?
Applying to Bard and Babson… THAT’s an odd pair. Apply to Columbia (especially if you live a subway ride away) plus the others, not knowing what your aid is going to be? For a top student that seems quite rational to me.
@xiggi, I believe that this kid wanted to go to the most prestigious, well-known school that he could. If his goal was to get a degree from a top school, then no, I don’t believe he would have been cognizant of nor cared about any supposed differences between them. And frankly I don’t understand why people care so much that he applied to all eight Ivies. My D’s best friend applied to, among others, Colgate and the University of Maryland. Now those are two schools that are different. She wanted options. She now has them. As does this young man.
What’s so strange about a highly talented immigrant kid who wants to do well and whose parents want him to do well? It’s not like he can pay $$ for a college advisor to go over the finer points of “best fit”. He’s highly motivated and should do well at any of these schools. I can’t understand why anyone would dump on this kid or his family. This is the American immigrant success story. Good for him!
Agree completely with the last few posters. There is a lot of kids who apply to all 8 who may see something in each school that could be a fit for them. When I was looking for colleges, I had a list of things that would appeal to me. Halfway through my search I realized that there were a number of schools I could see myself in even if they did not match everything on my list He probably did the same. To assume that he applied to all Ivies because he is only after prestige minimizes his great accomplishments. He applied, got in so good for him!
To quote myself:
Legitimate and totally understandable approach or trophy hunting? Who is there to judge the way anyone reacts to the story? And the perception by outsiders does NOT minimize the accomplishments. Perceptions cannot alter facts.
Would a successful ED application to Johns Hopkins diminished his … accomplishments? Is multiplying admissions’ offers really an accomplishment? Again, that goes to perception versus facts. Would he be a lesser accomplished student with one single early application?
The real question remains … why even place yourself in a vortex of scrutiny?
@xiggi, do you really think that this kid believed he’d get into all 8 Ivies plus the other schools he applied to?
^ Is that a sequitur to the point I made about the vortex of scrutiny?
By the way, have you noticed any common denominator in similar stories and threads on CC?
What I wish is that immigrants would put as much effort as this fine young man did into learning and adapting to being American. To me, I don’t see a Nigerian when I see him, I see an American. He didn’t expect society to conform to him; he gave his best to become American. He’s not some foreigner with tiger parents sweeping in and taking spots from American kids. He is a hardworking AMERICAN student who was accepted to all 8 Ivies and MIT. Sure, maybe being an immigrant from Nigeria helped with the diversity factor, but that is just a testament to the type of diversity American should have. He deserves nothing but congratulations and admiration.
@albert69. Completely agree. There should not be second guessing why he applied to all 8. He most likely did not think he will get into all 8. Good for him for trying! Looking at the Ivy day forums, it is clear he was not the only one who tried.
@nickster12 And he can only go to one. Once he decides, a spot will open up on the waitlist at all the others for another deserving student to get.
If his school does have a good guidance dept, he may have been advised about which colleges are most likely to give him a full scholarship. I imagine that looms larger than “fit.”
I couldn’t agree more that the publicity is not in his interest.