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<p>… :p</p>
<p>Actually, I think it’s a side-effect of entertainment industry anorexia. If O’Brien had the weight his body-type seems to want, his head might not look so weirdly big by contrast.</p>
<p>(Not that the Harvard joke wasn’t funny . . . .)</p>
<p>As for the video, don’t forget that this isn’t some waif from the boonies. Harriton High School may not quite be Gossip Girl territory, but it’s every bit the equivalent of Scarsdale High, Bronxville, Pacific Palisades. It is not terribly surprising that she and her family have friends who own a recording studio . . . or friends who work on the Yale Daily News and the Philadelphia Inquirer.</p>
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Jonri, that was my first thought also. Jeez, several hundred $$$ spent on Yale tees alone (tees for her dogs - waaay over the top) …. and if she is accepted some kid next year will be buying and decorating and driving around a 20ft float with Harvard or Princeton or Duke or ??? Paraphernalia. * YouTube video to follow*</p>
<p>She can always sell the tees on Ebay, signed!</p>
<p>What a world we find ourselves in! Our kids’ world, I should say.</p>
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No, that’s how you get into Harvard. That’s what the interview is really for.</p>
<p>She says that she borrowed most of those t shirts(some were vintage from her father’s time there).</p>
<p>Yes, that has been my friends’ main reaction to it: It’s so great to see those t-shirts again! Her father’s class had a really talented graphic designer in it, and her father apparently conserved a bunch of the t-shirts his classmate made.</p>
<p>Oh PLEASE! The level of $$ that it takes to do a lot of the EC’s discussed frequently on CC is far above whatever it might have taken to record her video. </p>
<p>Being a dancer, musician, or athlete at high, compete-worthy, award-winning levels takes a good deal of parental money in terms of private lessons, an available parent at home to do the chauffeuring or a car for the student to get around by him or herself, and the freedom of not having to work an afterschool job to put food on the family’s table. I find it more than a little disingenuous to claim that this is evidence of some over-the-top-family-spending here, in the entire context of CC. BTW, how many of those who think it’s over the top send their kids to private high schools at $20 or $30K a year? Look, the girl is upper middle class. No reason she should try to pretend that she’s not, and no reason she should have to feel that she should apologize for it. You know, there’s nothing actually <em>wrong</em> with being upper middle class.</p>
<p>Little modesty doesn’t hurt anyone. You don’t need to show what you have. If it is to send a kid to dance lessons for the kid to learn and develop, it’s money well spent. To produce 5 min clip with minimal learning value, not so much imo.</p>
<p>With all due respect, Iglooo, it took a lot of skill and effort to produce this video. I’m going to give this young woman the benefit of the doubt and assume she did a lot of the work to organize the production team, scout the locations, acquire/borrow the props, wrangle the dog, and so on, even if she didn’t do every job herself (it seems she properly credits her collaborators). The video is a bit slick for my taste, but that’s neither here nor there. I prefer an edgier feel, myself, but then I’m not a guitar-strumming 18-year-old going to high school on the Philadelphia Main Line.</p>
<p>The skill was obtained before producing the clip, I would think. Money spent to acquire the skill is good; money spent to produce the clip itself not good if excessive.</p>
<p>The truth is, the expectations of kids WITH access is a heck of a lot more than for a kid without access. It is assumed if you live in a certain zip or attend a certain school, that ECs will be more, standardized test scores should be higher (as it’s presumed you’ve had access to tutoring), etc. </p>
<p>But I too think Conan has a big head. Although I think he agrees he does as well!</p>
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<p>What’s the difference between that, and the dance clips that dancers put together to showcase their ballroom dancing or jazz dancing or whatever? You seem resentful to her upper-middle-class-ness.</p>
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<p>The clip wasn’t MEANT to have learning value. It was to be the “performance.” Do you feel the same way about a dancer or ice skater who spends money on hair and costumes and makeup for a performance?</p>
<p>I think it really seemed to bug you that she lived / filmed in a nice neighborhood. Sure, that’s not her doing - that’s her parents’ doing. But so what? Does that make her less worthy of wanting to be considered by Yale? Sorry. I find this completely disingenuous when there are sports and EC’s that are far, far more expensive to compete in or pursue.</p>
<p>Wow, pizza, what did you eat for breakfast?</p>
<p>Nothing - I’m quite happy! I’m just curious - would you have felt differently if she was cavorting in front of a house or in a neighborhood that was much more middle or working class? (in which case she would have been subject to the “what a waste of money, she has college to pay for”)</p>
<p>Sounds like maybe she had you for breakfast, igloo ;)</p>
<p>JK!!</p>
<p>PG - No, you got me wrong. I live in a slow world where I feel more comfortable if people are like an iceberg; they have far more than what they show.</p>
<p>jym - Ha ha…:)</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I have no problem with this girl being upper middle-class, but I disagree with your equating, spending time and money to make a gimmicky video with a child spending years playing a sport or taking dance classes. The kids I know who play baseball or basketball or whatever - do so because they love the game NOT to get into a certain college. Sure if they are skilled enough and happen to be good enough to obtain a place on a collegiate team, all the better, but that is not the reason they have spent hours, days, years practicing. And my daughter is a dancer – starting at age 4. Always having musicality, the love of movement and the good fortune to be very good at it. </p>
<p>JMO, but that video was $$$ spent on a gimmick. Again JMO</p>
<p>The video reminds me of an experience we had at Northern Virginia Liberal Public School. The music teacher asked who would like to perform at the next music class, and my son volunteered. He performed a Beethoven Sonata on the viola. He practices several hours a day, gets up early on Saturdays to take a music theory class, and as a family we spend a lot of time taking him to activities. A classmate got up and sang along to a song she heard on the radio. Someone else ‘drummed’ by pounding on a bucket with two sticks. At the end, the music teacher announced “We are so lucky to have SO MANY talented musicians in our class. EVERYONE HERE is a very talented musician.” </p>
<p>The thing is, she was wrong. The kid who has put years of his life into learning to play music, or compose music, or paint is NOT the same as the kid who throws together a video of herself “singing”. What she “sang” did not indicate that she had ever studied voice, nor studied music composition, and it clearly wasn’t the equivalent of someone’s Westinghouse Science competition project. Do you really think the admissions committee is going to say “Oh, let’s see. We could reject the USABO winner, or the science competition winner, or the winner of the National Spelling Bee – in order to make room for a girl who spent a week making a ‘music video’”. I certainly hope not.</p>