not to depress anyone but .

<p><a href="http://www.meehawl.dyndns.org:1080/Webstore/Education/Getting%20Inside%20the%20Ivy%20Gates.html#top100%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.meehawl.dyndns.org:1080/Webstore/Education/Getting%20Inside%20the%20Ivy%20Gates.html#top100&lt;/a> the site says it alll</p>

<p>That list is really out of date...my school is on there and has gone up significantly in the last 3 years...</p>

<p>good for u, u elitist lol</p>

<p>the list should include more schools. my school is sorta in the middle, but we have about 50% acceptance rate to UPenn and Stanford</p>

<p>i don't want to be an elitist prick when i say that i go to school number 3...</p>

<p>but that list is sh**. keep in mind that these places school the most priveliged kids in the nation. what puts these schools above the national average are things that no high schooler can affect: legacy, college relations, etc. (no one at our school doubts the effect that legacy has on the college success of our students) true, we have incredible teachers, but we definitely have our share of unintelligent people. our college guidance counselor also thinks the data is inaccurate.</p>

<p>don't look at that list. when i meet talented kids from other schools, i have no idea how we (our school) can say that we're better at all. things like this are only there to fuel our arrogance.</p>

<p>ALSO that list doesn't apply to any colleges other than harvard, yale, and princeton. i don't know why you should be worrying people on the columbia forum.</p>

<p>well said eternity. the list is indeed very very limited</p>

<p>wow how some people didnt pick up the message of the article it makes me question human intelligence the point wasnt to say o well this doesnt apply to columbia because its not on the list or der der its just they used those three examples (hyp) for elite skools in that area i bet new york area private schools have those same connections with cc lolz it's funny how some people didn't pick it up
i am not like bitter or anything you can't blame anyone for being fortunate but they should remember when they get in april or december depending on when they applied to colleges that when they hit a homerun its because they are in the lucky sperm club in that they began life on third base and they think hit the triple....<br>
in summation the sad thing is not the admissions office's fault most of the people working there are decent middle class people like me but they are forced to make concessions because of what the top offices in the school dictate</p>

<p>ALSO that list doesn't apply to any colleges other than harvard, yale, and princeton. i don't know why you should be worrying people on the columbia forum.-Ofeternity</p>

<p>by no means i would want to worry anyone i just want to enlighten people on how the process works so when poorer or "average" people who deserve to get in dont get in but their academic but not financial equals get in they dont question their own credentials, but the meritocracy that we thought we lived in</p>

<p>Meritocracy doesn't exist anywhere, (unfortunately); if that were the case, race and sex would be irrelevant when it comes to college and job applications.</p>

<p>columbia2006, i totally agree with you. there are kids in/from my school that i totally don't think should go to hyp schools, but... for some of our seniors, their checks are in the mail, what can you do? </p>

<p>but then, slightly in defense of my school, we're better known with the colleges (by the way it applies to all colleges) because the kids from our school who matriculate there do so well academically. so it's not always a favoring-rich-people-with-connections kind of system. (most of the kids who do really well at our school do not necessarily come from wealthy families.) i guess for colleges taking kids from "famous" high schools is a little more reliable than taking kids from the standard suburban high school. meaning that, money aside, the only difference that going to one of those high schools makes is that you're less likely to be eliminated right off the bat before your application reaches the committee table. which, if you're a decent candidate, that shouldn't be a real problem anyway. </p>

<p>i don't think most of the kids from schools like mine who make it big in the application process were a part of the "lucky sperm club". i'll just tell you that here you have to work really damn hard to get straight a's. in terms of good grades at this school, all socio-economic barriers are pretty much worth nothing. </p>

<p>i guess the thing you should be complaining about is the number of opportunities that a person gets offered in life in general, which goes up if you're rich and priveliged, which goes up if you're in a city like new york, which goes up if you seek them tirelessly. and i agree, sometimes it's not fair, but our kids are definitely as qualified.</p>

<p>God that is depressing. I go to a pretty normal, boring, middle class, suburban high school in Maryland. It's like a shock when one person gets in to Columbia, UPenn, or Cornell. I think my aunt was the only person from my school ever to get into harvard and that was like... 30 years ago. It's completely unfair, because it's not as if the kids at my school aren't bright. They are. We just aren't handfed the opportunities that prep school kids are and no one encourages us to have any ambition or has any sort of knowledge or experience that can help us get in or even know how to try.</p>

<p>at the same exact time though i can't attack any private school that does this because they have institutional priorities, and they have to bring in the money because they aren't heavily subsidized by the government like state schools,</p>

<p>hehe i think elite colleges should all create some kind of system that allows them to accept the check then reject the applicant. :)</p>

<p>oh and in response to ofeternity, well spoken argument for the most part the only thing i want to say is of course there are middle class people in your school that i am sure do wonderful, but the message i was trying to send is thats its terrible that people should even be forced to pay 20k a year for high school to get noticed! 20k a year thas how much ucberkeley costs for room and board and tuition per year
i live in los angeles and the closest school on that list is an hour drive from me, but personally i wouldn't go there if it was next door because i prefer that everything that i do i earn myself, and i hope that universities who get applications( which they probably already know) differentiate between those applicants</p>

<p>no haah that wouldnt be fair i am just saying maybe that should be a platform for one of the parties, end private skools and make all school state run wow i could make such a good socialist lol not communist thas too hardcore</p>

<p>oh totally, 20k is an absurd thing to pay for high school. middle class ppl, though, (like me) can apply for financial aid. the kids here on financial aid usually don't have to pay anywhere close to a quarter of that. but still, the price is worth it consider the alternative is new york city public schools. (the public schools here are atrociously bad, from personal experience.)</p>

<p>well, private education comes in where public education falls short.</p>

<p>location effects potential oppurtunities a lot more than what kind of school you attend. if you live on the east coast or in california, take advantage of it. i live in seattle, "the gateway to alaska", and it sucks.</p>

<p>Hahaha what a dumb list. My school is ten times better than Peddie (a private school close to mine). And the only reason why Princeton HS has so many people in Ivies is because half the people there have parents who work at Princeton! They have like 30 people get in each year!</p>