<p>Frankly, I thought Esther the most balanced, and the most interesting, of the bunch.</p>
<p>But that doesn't say much.</p>
<p>(As for elitism, if you've got kids reading Kierkegaard "for fun", what would you expect? I doubt K. was writing with 17-year-old North Newtonians in mind. ;))</p>
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I don't understand why some are so protective of this girl.
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<p>Because she's a kid. Must be the parenting instinct.</p>
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The point of the article is that we (re: you) are providing an environment for our high school kids that is absolutely crazy. If you don’t have a great GPA, SAT, extracurriculars, essays, blah blah blah, and if on top of that you’re not social and athletic and good looking, you’re doing something wrong.
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<p>Personally, I think that the competitive environment in America is not that bad. I immigrated here from South Korea when I was 7 years old, and I know that I've had a much better high school experience for it. The pressure on students in Korea, China, and other asian countries is much greater than the US, not only because there's a greater number of applicants, but also because most "elite" Asian institutions emphasize test scores above everything else.</p>
<p>I've had to work really hard to get where I am now, but I know that I would have been able to do none of the things that I love doing (programming, research, jazz music) if I had stayed in Korea. In the US, at least colleges encourage their applicants to find something that they enjoy. Of course, they require you to be among the best at whatever activity that may be, but that's just the nature of selective admissions - they have to be selective about something.</p>
<p>This story should be read together with the cover story in the NYT Sunday magazine about attempts to reduce reliance on test scores in the PRC. Competition? Pressure? We ain't seen nothing like.</p>
<p>E. was the only one willing to "sacrifice" AP-mania for her passions and social service work. She got what she deserved. :eek:</p>
<p>I would like to give them all a big hug.</p>
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Because she's a kid. Must be the parenting instinct.
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<p>Too bad her parents don't have it.</p>
<p>
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The point of the article is that we (re: you) are providing an environment for our high school kids that is absolutely crazy. If you don?t have a great GPA, SAT, extracurriculars, essays, blah blah blah, and if on top of that you?re not social and athletic and good looking, you?re doing something wrong. This is all old news to you, and it probably doesn?t even sound that crazy ? I probably would have said the same thing when I was an active CC member. But it is crazy. I really don?t think that it?s a good thing that kids in high school need to be working crazy hours to keep up with their work. I don?t think that kids need to be involved in 10 different activities (and be in leadership positions in half of them) to be considered ?normal.? I don?t think that 17 year olds need to be writing perfect essays on the meaning of life and then be judged when they fail. But that?s basically what?s going on.</p>
<p>I would hope that at least some of you agree with me. I?m not saying that this environment is entirely the parents? fault and I certainly don?t have any solutions.
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<p>"The point of the article is that we (re: you) are providing an environment for our high school kids that is absolutely crazy."</p>
<p>Are you sure that's the point of the article?</p>
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When I read the Times article this morning, I had two reactions: 1) That’s exactly how it is, and 2) I feel bad for those kids.
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<p>Fwiw, while the accounts are obviously true, there are far from being universal realities for 17 years old in America. It is the America of Kavvya, the America of charlatans who operate companies with funny names such as Ivyxxx, the America of Louis and Blair Bornstine, the America of the Princeton-rejected pseudo-scientist who had his life covered by USA Today.</p>
<p>Feeling bad for those kids? Maybe when I'll stop feeling bad for the millions of kids in America who do not live a life of obsessive privilege.</p>
<p>Coming into this thread late; my thoughts: I agree with Carolyn, much needless skewering of a 17 year old for behaving like a 17 year old. I wonder what the impetus is -- is it simply most convenient to seize upon the essay as the reason for all those rejections, rather than dealing with the uncomfortable truth that grades and stats and a ritzy high school aren't enough to get a kid into name-brand colleges.</p>
<p>I think the problem with the essay is simply that it doesn't give a good reason to admit Esther. What we know: she does not take the "most challenging curriculum" at high school where it is possible to take 6 APs at once; she does not have amazing SAT scores -- and the essay adds -- she does not want to live in Kentucky. (Making the Centre acceptance the most mysterious of all). That's a lot of nots and you don't win points with negatives. The only positive we can extrapolate from the NYT treatment is the one that the Smith ad com would have seen: Mom is an alumna, Daddy really, really loves Smith -- if admitted, she will come and Daddy will probably will probably donate dollars forever. </p>
<p>Anyway: I think mini is right and mini is wrong. Bad writing won't keep a person they want out. They'll skim the essay and categorize it. (Like I did with the Colby essay: slots easily into the "my wonderful teacher" category, interchangeable with "my wonderful coach"). </p>
<p>But a good essay can make a huge difference, whether or not it is well written. The key is an essay that offers up a good reason to admit the student. If it's well written, so much the better. But it isn't a writing contest. It's a scoring points contest, and if you don't have the transcript OR the test scores OR athletics --then you had darn well better have something really special in that essay. </p>
<p>Or else the ad com says, meh. And it goes into the "who cares?" pile. </p>
<p>Which pretty much sums up how I felt after reading the NY Times piece.</p>
<p>hereshoping,
I am with you. My oldest is not even 17 yet, and I would be ashamed of him writing an essay like this, and not proud of it, as this family obviously was.</p>
<p>And the need to protect this girl from any criticism reminds me of the
push to increase the self-esteem of kids - even when they totally screw up, don't ever say anything to them about it, don't ever criticize, you might damage their self-esteem. Heaven forbid a kid is ever criticized for what she did or said or wrote, you might hurt her feelings. Even though she just skewered millions of people based on where they live. </p>
<p>Blech. I can't stand this. I must depart.</p>
<p>Ester should have written her essay about her appreciation for Bob Dylan.</p>
<p>I didn't read Esther's essay. As I read the article she seemed, to me, to be a perfectly bright, normal kid who was not well-served by the hot house environment at her school. While I expect we were supposed to feel bad that she didn't get into her favorite colleges, I was struck by the fact that, with a couple of exceptions, she applied to the same LACs that every other smart kid on the east coast applies to. I suspect she would have had better luck, with the same essay, had she applied to Grinnell, Whitman and Rhodes instead of Williams, Amherst and Middlebury.</p>
<p>I just reread the essay. While it may not have worked, I think Esther THOUGHT she was trying to be fair and balanced. She 'dissed' both Kentucky and Newton. I didn't care for it, but honestly doubt she wrote it with a sense of malice.
She didn't choose how she was raised, where she's living, or what the environment at her school is like. She's 17. People should lighten up.</p>
<p>A few people have pointed out that Esther was taking "only" 2 APs when she could have been taking six. A few things about that:</p>
<p>-At Newton North, the system is such that AP and Honors classes are of the same difficulty in most cases. So Esther may have taken "only" two APs but she probably took, over the course of her high school career, at least 9 courses (three per year for 10/11/12) which were as rigorous or more rigorous than other schools' APs, just without the tests at the end. </p>
<p>-Our classes are set up such that VERY, VERY few people take more than 3 or 4 honors/AP classes per year (and students with this workload get into top colleges on a regular basis). I have consistently taken 3 honors/AP per year and got into a top-3 LAC (although I'm a legacy, hence not a good example). Most of my friends take between 2 and 4 AP/honors and it's widely understood that 4 APs plus sanity is better than 6 APs plus no sleep. </p>
<p>-There is no GPA listed in the article because we do GPA on a nine-point system that no one would understand anyway if it were published. </p>
<p>Honestly, I think the picture of Newton North which is presented in the school is horridly one-sided and inaccurate and really exaggerates the pressure-cooker atmosphere beyond what I see on a day-to-day basis. Maybe it's just that I'm used to it, but I really don't think of NNHS as a "college-admissions factory". Also, to put it bluntly, most of the girls they chose to feature in the article are what I would consider some of the more "hot, vapid, shallow" top students that we have (Esther excluded). Not all of us are obsessed with clothes and going out with friends. Some of our college essays are (gasp) not pretentious and cliched.</p>
<p>I think the tone of the original post and many that followed were quite mean-spirited...I found that far more disturbing than anything in the article.</p>
<p>Agree, Mom 55. Good point.</p>
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Also, to put it bluntly, most of the girls they chose to feature in the article are what I would consider some of the more "hot, vapid, shallow" top students that we have (Esther excluded). Not all of us are obsessed with clothes and going out with friends. Some of our college essays are (gasp) not pretentious and cliched.
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<p>With her interest in "reading Kierkegaard for fun", Latin, Bob Dylan poetry, a lack of athletic prowess, and a religion professor father, Esther comes across as more of an "hipster" than a "prepster". The fact that she applied to three of the most jock-oriented prep LACs on the East Coast seems a little odd. I don't envision Middlebury as a notably Kierkegaard/Dylan/feeding the homeless kind of place. Maybe the college admissions process works after all.</p>
<p>Agree, Mom 55. I highly doubt the adults on this thread would say such harsh criticisms to a 17-year-old's face, and I think it's especially mean-spirited to do so in public when they are anonymous and she isn't.</p>
<p>"With her interest in "reading Kierkegaard for fun", Latin, Bob Dylan poetry, a lack of athletic prowess, and a religion professor father, Esther comes across as more of an "hipster" than a "prepster". The fact that she applied to three of the most jock-oriented prep LACs on the East Coast seems a little odd. I don't envision Middlebury as a notably Kierkegaard/Dylan/feeding the homeless kind of place. Maybe the college admissions process works after all."</p>
<p>Funny how two Williams alums think alike. ;)</p>
<p>Hmmph... Yes.. You and I-dad certainly are two peas in a pod.</p>
<p>I didn;t think Esther's essay was all that bad. She could have tightened up the ending a bit, but I'm guessing that most 17 year olds can't compose essays that read like Esther's. The again, my college essay was about throwing up, and I was accepted to many wonderful scvhools. (No I wasn't drunk I-dad)</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Esther's essay probably had nothing to do with her rejections. Modest SAT scores a two AP classes are the culprits in Esther's case.</p>
<p>Well, there's three of us. I didn't think Esther's essay was all that bad (I thought Colby's worse), and, as I noted, I don't think her essay had anything to do with her rejections, and I am confident that it got a much closer read here than it did by ANY admissions officer. And relative to rest of the lot (and the absolute nothing I know about the North Newton scene), she seems pretty good to me, and has her head sewn on pretty straight, considering....</p>
<p>(I was probably as close to any Williams student I ever met - in my day, fair enough - who read Kierkegaard for fun, and fat lot of good it did me! ;))</p>