<p>Re: <a href=“http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/SAT-Percentile-Ranks-by-Gender-Ethnicity-2012.pdf”>http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/SAT-Percentile-Ranks-by-Gender-Ethnicity-2012.pdf</a></p>
<p>It would be interesting to see how they break down based on number of generations since immigration, and perhaps also the type of immigration of the ancestors (e.g. PhD student, skilled worker, etc.).</p>
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<p>Although the poverty rate among African American people is higher than that of the US population overall, most African American people are not in poverty.
<a href=“POVERTY - BlackDemographics.com”>http://blackdemographics.com/households/poverty/</a></p>
<p>Honestly, does anyone really think there is a really significant difference between getting a 750 or a 770 per section or getting 1 A - in high school versus 3 (which is probably what the difference between being ranked 12 and being ranked 3 or 4 comes down to)? And, for what it is worth, I went to a “top Ivy” with a somewhat higher SAT, but ranked 12 out of 360 or so. Yes, that was a number of years ago, but not in quite the ancient past, even in the abbreviated generations of admissions cycles. </p>
<p>I completely agree that this student would likely not have had these results if not for AA - although he almost certainly would have wound up at an elite school, and would have had a shot at any school in the country. To me, that’s precisely how non-academic hooks should work - you don’t accept kids who are underqualified for a school, you accept kids who are totally qualified, but might not stick out as much if not for race or region or interesting story.</p>
<p>The issue I have is when you start dipping lower than that, and really strain the definition of “qualified” to mean “well, I suppose we might have admitted one non-hooked kid with those stats…maybe…a couple of admissions cycles ago.”</p>
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Harvard says they don’t consider class rank, and the CDS indicates that most of the entering class at the others colleges did not submit class rank. Why do you need to be in the top 0.5% class rank when the college says they don’t consider class rank, unhooked posters on this site get in with far lower rankings, and Parchment members show relatively high acceptance rates at lower ranks (top 5% has more than half of the admit rate of top 1%)? Stanford indicates that their class of 2015 had a 7% admit rate for top 10% vs a 3% admit rate for top 11-20%, so roughly 2x the rate in that year. The difference between top 10% and top 11-20% has decreased further over the past couple years, but nothing to suggest only top 2% or top 0.5% or whatever.</p>
<p>Sure you could assume that all the admits who were not top 10% had hooks, or top 5%, or top 2% or top 0.5%, and decide that everyone who is admitted without stats at your arbitrary limit has some type of unfair advantage. Or you could think of it as a very holistic decision where they are not searching for the pinnacle of top stats among the tens of thousands of high-stat applicants, and are searching for students who are likely to make a positive impression on the college and world beyond, rather than the ones who are most likely to graduate with the highest possible GPA. When I applied to colleges several years ago, my stats were quite low by CC standards. I wasn’t even in the top 10% of my basic public HS class. Nevertheless, I was admitted unhooked to 2 of the 3 HYPSM schools I applied to. Yes, there were other positive aspects of my application that showed I could handle the coursework, including having a 4.0 average in university classes taken outside of HS (HS only offered 3 AP classes, so could not take many advanced classes at the HS).</p>
<p>I think the real news here is that boys only constitute 43% of college matriculants.</p>
<p>I think it is unfortunate that the article mentions negotiating for a better financial aid package.</p>
<p>To mitigate that, they could have released a companion article discussing that if he had applied to slightly less competitive schools, he could have been offered merit awards.</p>
<p>Not to take anything away from his achievements, but can we also have more articles on first gen college students, including African & Native Americans?
For his high school counselor to say that it was rare for a student to even apply to an ivy makes me think he has a booster network many kids don’t have.</p>
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<p>He is first generation American, but not first generation to go to college. His immigrant parents attended local colleges and work as nurses, according to the article.</p>
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I completely agree. That article actually tells us about Lloyd’s character. It gives undeniable evidence that he is the kind of person who, when faced with a situation that works against him, makes it work in his favor.</p>
<p>All the [USA</a> Today article](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/31/ivy-league-admissions-college-university/7119531/]USA”>He's all-Ivy — accepted to all 8 Ivy League colleges) tells us is that Kwasi has done the things that Ivy applicants typically do, and that he also happens to be a first-generation immigrant and that he also happens to be black. No indication of how his background affected his situation.</p>
<p>Re the California kid. His mother drove him to school everyday and sat in the car reading the newspaper till he was done?</p>
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<p>If his HS is strong in Long Island, it’s definitely possible even if he didn’t have all those hooks (i.e. Aspiring physician & violinist*). </p>
<p>Sounds similar to the profiles I’ve seen in my relatives’ well-off NNJ suburban public HS in years when they had academically strong graduating classes* and moreso, the norm at public magnets like the one I attended. </p>
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<li>His profile is similar to a college classmate and friend who was a chemistry & viola double degree student at my LAC who ended up pursuing a Chem PhD at an HYPSM.<br></li>
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<p>** Had 4 relatives go through that school in two periods. One was in the late '70s-early '80s and another was early '90s. </p>
<p>Many of the posts above are confirming my suspicions; the expected norm of studying hard, great character and decency are being heralded as extraordinary. </p>
<p>I think the student is a great candidate for any school. He most likely had awesome essays. But (and it is a big but) is what he has done is out of the ordinary for Ivys or elite schools? No.</p>
<p>All kids, regardless of race, first generation, from ultra rural area, etc., should be expected to have the same high standards for such schools and having the norm should not be treated as over the top - doing as much is defacto lowering the standards. Plus, it is condescending when done. If I were in that kid’s shoes, I would be wondering why kids with stronger sats, same high character and better ECs did not get an article. </p>
<p>In short, he is exactly what I expect at the Ivys and top schools. Worthy of praise yes, but not presented as some anomaly to be gawked at.</p>
<p>I agree with EK : “I think it is unfortunate that the article mentions negotiating for a better financial aid package.” I wish that they had kept the financial aspect of this confidential. </p>
<p>I also don’t think it was necessary to publish his stats and scores as one can imply he is in the top percentile of students from his acceptance to an Ivy. In a way, publishing them diminished him to the standard descriptors of grades, stats, race, but a student is much more than that. Perhaps he had exceptional letters, interesting essays. Maybe he’s an outstanding person, admired by peers and teachers. We don’t know the whole story.</p>
<p>Statistically, getting accepted into even one Ivy is remarkable these days, and all eight is like winning the lottery. I’m all for celebrating achievement, and am happy for this young man’s success, but I would have preferred that the article celebrate him without stating the stats or financial discussion. It’s enough for me to know that he did it and to say “Congratulations on a job well done”. </p>
<p>We must also keep in mind that the article reflects the journalist and may not be what the family would have written. </p>
<p>Well done! </p>
<p>I was surprised this was so extraordinary, maybe other kids who have this occur don’t publicize it, or a lot of kids don’t feel it is necessary to apply to all eight Ivies.</p>
<p>@PennyLane2011 stated. “I would have preferred that the article celebrate him without stating the stats or financial discussion.” </p>
<p>You nailed exactly what bugs me. </p>
<p>I would have loved an article about him in his community, and that he is great student and citizen and deserves to be in the Ivy league, which I would say is the case it seems. However, the unmentioned hush-hush under the table conversation is that students (and their parents) in the Ivys and elite schools know the stats and ECs are not special and thus there is an overtone that diminishes his accomplishments. </p>
<p>Plus, it gives the wrong message to all kids that those stats and ECs get you in. No, they get him in. Recreating those means nothing for another student if everything else is not in synch. I want to celebrate him, not look at his Ivy League normalcy as something special because that is not true and rather fake to do that.</p>
<p>I think this is exactly what most Ivies do. I get a chuckle from people claiming he is not qualified and that his rank this and his score that. Admission into most colleges is not a simple math formula where bigger is better. They are only looking for stats (rank, GPA, test scores) that meet their preferred categories. Once those thresholds are crossed, the focus completely shifts to other factors. This is especially true with Ivies and similarly tough schools from an admissions standpoint.</p>
<p>This makes me feel sad for the thousands of highly intelligent kids who had good test scores and kept taking tests over and over again thinking that the extra few points were going to make the difference. It has never been about that. In a rather circular argument, the fact that many of these same students do get in due to other factors and the overwhelmingly high caliber of the typical candidate at the Ivies, the ‘data’ seems to indicate that higher is better. However, if you really study their admissions, it is not the case. This is a great lesson for soon-to-be HS seniors. If you have high test scores, don’t spend your senior year going after ‘perfect’ because it does not matter. Unless it is simply a personal goal, use your time to broaden your portfolio.</p>
<p>@Muffy333 - Yes, most kids do not feel the need to apply to all Ivys. My GC 30 years ago would not even allow that. And there are tons of kids that apply to 3 and 4 Ivys and a couple of top LACs and get into all. I do not see any difference between 3, 4, and 8 at that point given you can only go to one school.</p>
<p>@Torveaux - He is definitely qualified, no doubt about that. And great point about test scores. I told my kids, “Blow by 2200 and after that it is all about you.” My kids hate tests (who doesn’t?) so they were content to cross a threshold and stop, which they did. The test only gets you into the party, whether you are liked after that is another story and all that is in relation to the applicant pool that year, which no one can predict.</p>
<p>This story is prominent on google news this morning. Time has picked it up, as well as some TV stations. They give you a “real-time” option to see more stories!!! The stories are contradictory. One says he wants to be a doctor, and another says he wants to work on Wall Street. They also contradict each other on which school he is favoring.</p>
<p>This must be the work of a naive local counselor or principal. I hope for his sake this dies down quickly. It is probably too much to ask. </p>
<p>I will permit myself to quote a post I made in another thread in response to all the snide remarks about this guy’s so-called qualifications:</p>
<p>"Some high school students struggle with the idea that college admissions at selective private colleges aren’t about your ‘qualifications’ but about whether your application presents a person the admission people would want to have on their campus. But that’s exactly what it is about. Your scores mean nothing by themselves. They are important because, when taken together with the rest of your application, they paint a fuller picture of who you are: smart, rich, dedicated, scatterbrained, disadvantaged, hyperambitious, well-read, unprepared, stand-out, blend-in, self-directed, over-tutored, whatever. They corroborate, flesh out or contradict the story told in the rest of your application materials. They do not ‘qualify’ you for anything.</p>
<p>Conversely, your test score alone cannot make you unworthy of or underqualified for acceptance [unless they are really quite quite low]. Again, that’s not what admissions is about. It’s a subjective process and the only box you need to tick in the end is “desirable candidate.”</p>
<p>Same goes for grades and school rank.</p>