Hey y’all.
I’m a college student, and recently I’ve noticed that college admissions (at the high school I graduated from, at least), are extremely messed up. Maybe this just happens in affluent communities? I’ve heard of students “writing” Intel/Siemens stuff, “founding” their own nonprofits, and more. Paying their way into college? Board of Trustees connections? To me, it seems like morals are virtually nonexistent in college admissions, especially elite college admissions (lol money gets people places I guess, that’s how the world works). (I mean, I know I can’t CONFIRM these things I’ve heard, but I dunno…people are desperate here. And these rumors I have heard wayyy too many times from across local communities/friends who attend other schools)
I’m extremely disturbed. Posting this to see if anyone else has experienced this…
I would imagine that the admissions counselors see this a LOT. And that any kid who claims something like that has the info to back it up. They get the lists of Siemens winners, they can access the internet to check into those non profits— they’re not quite as stupid as a bunch of teenagers would like to imagine.
So, yeah, I’m sure there’s a lot of lying going on. But I’m not sure it’s getting anyone anywhere.
What do you mean by “writing” Intel/Siemens? The award list is published and widely available. On “founding” Non-profits, yup, very easy to do and cheap, and meaningless, unless they have real results and consistencies to show. As for backdoor contacts and stuff, you bet on it BUT whoever is using these are likely very wealthy, very well-connected, so nothing you can do about it. On a slightly different angle, I see the value of Intel-Siemens on the decline for Ivy admissions - 60% of winners are either Chinese or Indians, so unless the applicant has some other interesting things, these awards mean less and less for tippy top elite Ivies. Also, most public high schoolers will have little to none supportive resources (teachers, mentors) to assist them to join those competitions and admission officers know this fact well and take all things into consideration. Founding a non-profit, unless it is real and has sustainable, multi-yr results to show, is fast becoming the - gee. let’s have an expensive daddy/mommy funded mission trip to go to Central America to build some homes during summer - filler activities that sound fake, feel fake and could well backfire in tippy top school admissions. I can’t count the number of times parents, esp. Asian parents asked me how come their kiddos with perfect SATs, Intel/Siemens/ Mission trips blah blah were not enough to get the kid into Princeton, Harvard, MIT and Stanford. I said - show me something other Asian kids don’t have - for example - working at McDonald’s for 20 hrs a week, doing sports EC (non-tennis, badminton), great SAT/academics, and genuinely compassionate/wanting to serve the community - then we can talk. So while some people may be trying to game the system by padding/claiming those activities, these things are counting less and less (based on my observation) when it comes to elite college admissions (esp if the applicant is an Asian coming from an affluent background and the classic non-diverse competitive high schools - public or private - common in the NorthEast). JMHO
For adults with real jobs, the tales on CC of what a HS student did starting/running a nonprofit while taking 6 APs and president of 3 clubs are easy to see through. Folks claim things that in the real world or. 60+ hour per week jobs. ADCOMS aren’t that dumb.
Do your best and let the rest take care of itself.
If an applicant’s ECs sound too good to be true, they probably are.
Agree there is a lot of fluff out there but AdComs will see through some of it.
@123Mom456 but if adcoms can see through that fluff, why are people like these still being admitted 
ok to be fair I don’t know each students’ full history, but still
Ah whatever. It’s hard to change this system as it is…just very disheartened by what I heard these past couple of months from my high school friends. Thanks for the responses everyone 
@premedhopeful1 - they will see through “some” of it. It’s not a perfect system.
Kids that do research in high school commonly have mentors at local universities. It’s really tough to do high-quality research on your own, or even with a high school teacher.
The research projects that wins science competitions are generally this kind of collaborative work done in a university environment. One can’t enter these competitions without the knowledge and approval of the mentor. Given the ethics involved, I really don’t think that professors sign off on science competitions, if the kid didn’t contribute significantly in the research effort.
Moreover, the kids that enter such competitions must personally present the work, and they get peppered with questions by a panel of judges in Q&A sessions after the presentation. Phonies would be exposed by this process.
So, I really don’t think that it makes any sense to “dis” kids that win science competitions.
You’re from an affluent community? I would guess that the students from your school who are getting into elite colleges have excellent test scores and grades, access to interesting ECs, and the money to cover tuition. You’re already attending a top 30 college, right? Most students commute to college, so you also have advantages that others don’t.
I think all of you are making assumptions about why certain kids got accepted to particular schools. It doesn’t mean any of you are right. The frequency of a rumor doesn’t add to its credibility. It’s still just a rumor.
@whatisyourquest I see. I don’t know much about the science comp stuff, so thanks for the clarification!
@austinmshauri Point taken. but it would be weird to assume things about me when telling me not to make assumptions
@premedhopeful1, I didn’t make assumptions. I read your previous comments.
My point is that just because your classmates are saying that somebody got into school x because of y, or that *they[/] got into school x because of y, there’s really no way of knowing if that’s true. Colleges don’t tell students why they were accepted.
I completely believe morally questionable things happen in elite admissions. To pretend that this is not happening is ignorant…Daniel Golden’s book: The Price of Admission: How America’s Ruling Class Buys its way into Elite Colleges and Who Gets Left Outside, is a meticulously researched book that lays out the case in stomach-turning detail.
@Mariposa2 I didn’t read that book, but is one of the points that there is wealth signaling (i.e. those parent-funded “mission trips” that are one week long and supposed to have changed the students’ lives/perspectives) so that adcoms know the applicant is probably full pay?
@JenJenJenJen FWIW, I’ve gone to a bunch of free lectures by different college consultants, and I’ve heard over and over again NOT to put mission trips on your resume because the students come off as the wealthy great ones who, in their noblesse oblige, visit the poor to feel good about themselves.