<p>
[quote]
What is BWRK?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It's everyone's worst nightmare.</p>
<p>midmo -- I have a S who's a math major and dances -- but the dancing was NOT on the college apps, for the same reason your S stated!</p>
<p>At this rate, not having any adversities to overcome for the sake of college admission will become a true, debilitating adversity, and therefore worthy of special consideration. Then we will have a full circle, wouldn't we?</p>
<p>My son wrote in his essay how truly happy he is, having been able to explore endless possibilities without any external pressure and to have finally found his passion through what may appear to be aimless intellectual wandering....</p>
<p>I hope there is a quota for a few truly happy ones among hyper competitive and angst filled souls in the nation's top schools ;-) (I read somewhere that 30% -50% of the kids in Harvard are either seeing or should see mental health professionals - maybe a total bogus, another urban myth)</p>
<p>Haha, wishful thinking. His "aimless intellectual wandering" cost him big time in terms of ECs that can be easily documented and proven through institutional competitions, awards, etc.</p>
<p>We are expecting a slaughter on March 31, when HYPW (wharton) decisions are coming in. He will probably go to the school that gave him EA. I am almost ready to order a T shirt from that school to show my solidarity with my son, who will be doubtlessly disappointed, more because of the bruised ego than anything else. I truly believe the school that gave him EA is the most perfect school for him given who he is.</p>
<p>"I truly believe the school that gave him EA is the most perfect school for him given who he is."</p>
<p>It only takes one acceptance, as long as it's the right acceptance. All the rest is just keeping score and won't matter one tiny bit come September.</p>
<p>Of course, the college that recognizes my son's genius is the right college!</p>
<p>The Matriculation 2008 profile for Tufts can be very frightening to read if you have a D like mine who does not have anything unusual about her. She has not faced adversity, and comes from an intact family. Frankly, after reading the profile when she was in the process of applying, I truly thought that there was nothing distinguishing about her - she had great grades in challenging courses, good test scores, fair ECs, but no hook. She applied ED II and was accepted and I think her essays are what made the difference for her. The essays caused her to really dig deep and find out what makes her who she is. Once she was able to do that, her compassion and selfless nature came through in her writing. She did not find the supplement to be pretentious - it was truly a great way for her to express who she really is, which may not be something you can easily put a label on.
As far as rejecting the straight A ballet dancer, who knows what she wrote on her essays. And whether she challenged herself in school by taking hard courses. My D's school is one of the so-called elite public high schools with national recognition and several years ago, the valedictorian was not accepted to any schools, except one (and was even rejected by the state university) because even though he also had good SATs, he had not challenged himself at all. He got bragging rights to being number 1 in his class, but without pushing himself. And the schools saw right through it.
I am glad that my D will be attending Tufts which resembles her high school in terms of its diversity - socioeconomically and ethnically. The students she currently goes to school with sound much like the ones in the Boston Globe article who the Tufts adcoms were voting to admit.</p>
<p>stny-- I think you're right about the emphasis on essays. Despite S's refusal to do an overly personal or "touchy-feely" one, he definitely put a lot of work into them, and after admission even received a nice note from Tufts about one in particular. Surprisingly, it was the one essay he'd spent (by far) the least time on, but after all that effort it was nice to get the feedback.</p>
<p>Slaughter... yikes! now that's one brutal word to describe college admissions.</p>
<p>My son APPEARS optimistic. Not naive, as he says he doesn't think he'll get into at least two of the schools to which he applied, but optimistic enough. And this is what is so worrisome. If it's a slaughter coming his way, I thnk he will be totally unprepared. And if I try to prepare him in any way, shape or form, then I am seen as the "ye of little faith." He goes to a great school currently.. and matriculation is always impressive. However, every year there is always that one kid where everyone is shocked that he/she didn't get into some school or another (or several). I just HOPE that this year's kid isn't mine!!</p>
<p>Keep your spirits up, Modadunn. The end is, indeed, in sight. If your son's high school does do well in matriculation and your son has a good variety of carefully-researched safeties/matches/reaches, then the outcome will be good. Keep the faith!! You will feel less pressure when he gets that first acceptance. I guarantee it. Hopefully, by the end of next week, he will have some wonderful choices (always a good thing) and then the fun begins-decision time!!</p>
<p>S is at Dartmouth, which is one Ivy that seems to like BRWKs, if I can generalize based on who we know who has gotten in there (which I probably can't).</p>
<p>BWRKs are like Asian math/science kids. It's not that elite colleges dislike them; far from it. It's just that there are more of them out there and applying than any one college wants to take. I've seen BWRKs in my kids' cohorts go to ALL the Ivies, and Stanford, and Chicago, Northwestern, Duke, wherever. All of the colleges have lots of them. But all of the colleges reject lots more than they accept. It's not the world's greatest tragedy, because most of them have tons going for them, are attractive to and accepted by a number of colleges that are pretty much as good as the ones that rejected them, and go on to have great lives.</p>
<p>JHS.. not to nitpick..but wouldn't Asian math/science kid be the opposite of well-rounded, which more or less emphasizes the lack of academic specialty? However, I agree fully that being rejected from your number one school is hardly the most devastating of all life's disappointments. And perspective to the grand scheme is key.</p>
<p>CollegeMom.. I know! I absolutely know what you say is true. But as I've said elsewhere, we left the whole 'where to apply' and the process itself mostly to S's college counselor and him. It was my concern way back in December that he was perhaps more reach heavy than safety-laden (although we call them possible and probables). But one of those "safeties" he'd be perfectly thrilled to attend and is not a safety for many. Like I said, he seems nonplussed which makes me worried for when the ax starts falling.</p>
<p>His counselor points out, however, that it won't be nearly as disappointing as ED rejection (the Dartmouth love wasn't reciprocated) because in the same day or the next, the kid will hopefully have answers that mitigate the bad news somewhat. I am so counting on that!! Plus.. new kitchen counters arrive today. It's been 15 years, it's way overdue and I am thrilled to have the distraction!!!</p>
<p>Good luck, Modadunn! I didn't realize D-Day was almost upon us. I guess I'd forgotten how stressful this can be (though we get to do it all over again next year). Keeping fingers crossed for him!</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>but wouldn't Asian math/science kid be the opposite of well-rounded<<</p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>I think JHS's point was not that Asian math/science kids were necessarily well rounded, but that they were another group (like BWRKs) of which there are many more applying to the same super selective colleges than those colleges could possibly want to accept.</p>
<p>Can someone translate BWRK. I think that I have the last 3 letters but am stumped as to the meaning of the first.</p>
<p>it think is something like: Bright Well Rounded Kid</p>
<p>Inside Higher Ed: The</a> Admissions Lottery:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Students will soon be receiving word from their chosen colleges and universities, but as more students apply to more colleges than ever before, the joy of acceptance or the agony of rejection are increasingly random. It's time to stop treating the college admissions process as we have in the past, and start treating it as it's become: a lottery. </p>
<p>A friend of mine worked for two different college admissions departments. The first was a traditional liberal arts college in the Northeast, an institution that prided itself on the character of its class. Admissions officers there more or less knew the high schools of applicants, had time to read the students' personal statements and letters of recommendation, and truly thought about whether the applicants would be a good fit for this particular institution. It was a relatively sane process.</p>
<p>Mainly because of the sheer size of the applicant pool, my friend's second institution operated differently. This competitive institution in the greater Washington area relied much more heavily on the all-important numbers -- high school grade point average and SAT score -- rather than some holistic determination of student quality. </p>
<p>Each year, thousands of qualified applicants bombarded the admissions office, and, even after setting a relatively high standard, the admissions office had far too many qualified applicants to choose from, and very little time to do so. During admissions season, each officer was expected to sort through 50 distinct applications per day, five days a week. At eight hours a day, not counting breaks, meetings, visitors, and phone calls, the admissions officer had roughly 10 minutes to devote to each applicant (eight hours a day times 60 minutes per hour divided by 50 applicants). Ten minutes, unless, as my friend points out, they were athletes or legacies. </p>
<p>At many institutions, in other words, it is a far more random process than colleges would like students to believe. The myth of a meritocracy, on which the selective admissions system is built, is substantially a lie...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Jdjaguar - If that is the translation then I really was off. I only got "kid" correct.</p>
<p>I suspect that there is a lot more randonmness than admissions officers would like to believe. Moreover, although there is some assessment of fit, the holistic approach lends itself to faddishness and discrimination (in this case, for URMs and against Asians and Jews, but in times past, against URMs and before that against Jews).</p>
<p>Some of this randomness comes from students response to apparent incentives. As I mentioned above, students rationally over-invest in whatever students perceive, correctly or incorrectly, that admissions officers are looking for. As a consequence, it is hard for adcom officers to assess the underlying traits they think they are looking for and it becomes fairly arbitrary. As a former adcom officer told me, if you are a highly qualified kid with good grades, board scores, ECs, developed passion, angularity etc. applying to Brown, there are 7 others who look essentially identical. At that point, the randomness or arbitrariness comes from how the adcoms pick among the 8 identical kids.</p>
<p>GFG, If you are going to retell my story, at least get the details right. </p>
<p>The kid applied to Harvard--not Princeton. The step-dancing class is the elective he chose for gym. He thought it would be easy. He came close to flunking. Here he was --this really smart kid who could grasp AP physics and differential equations with ease, struggling to do something that kids he had looked down at academically did with ease. </p>
<p>He wrote the essay about that experience. I don't know if it's what got him into Harvard, but I suspect it helped. But it wasn't taking the class that made him stand out, it was the ability to laugh at himself and the fact he revealed it had taught him a much needed lesson in humility.</p>
<p>After reading through a couple hundred essays bragging about how wonderful the author is, his essay was probably a welcome break.</p>
<p>As I've posted a gazillion times, college admissions is like casting a high school musical. The director is never going to pick a cast based solely on how talented the kids who audition are. There are parts to play. The girls with soprano voices are going to have a much harder time getting parts than much less talented males with bass voices. If the show is "Guys and Dolls," the chubby boy who applies for the role in which he sings "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat," may well be a lot less talented then half the sopranos who tried out. That doesn't mean it's an unfair process if he gets a part and they don't. </p>
<p>The biggest favor you can do for your kids is to make them understand that top colleges do not even PURPORT to choose a class made up of the best students or those who are most deserving. Instead, just like the director of the musical they need people who can fill certain roles. In college admissions, the white or Asian kid with two college-educated parents who lives in the Boston to DC corridor is like the soprano trying out the high school musical.</p>
<p>Does any one have any wind for my sail? The air was just sucked right out of it. :)</p>
<p>Kidding kinda. </p>
<p>And yes.. The acronym for Bright Well-Rounded Kid is BWRK. And I also get the Asian math science kid being an AMSK.. as in same story different letters.</p>