<p>I te how working super hard and having amazing scores doesn’t at all guarantee you admission into a top college.</p>
<p>I do not like this model of education. Society tells kids from an early age to pursue “success” that is measured by materialistic worth. That is compounded by the fact that most students’ motivation derives from trying to get that number one rank in school, that perfect GPA or to get into that college. Even from an early age, that mentality is drilled into the minds of children; elementary teachers reward kids with stickers or points to gauge their performance. While that positive reinforcement does encourage students to excel, it also promotes materialism in the long run. Students don’t experience the pleasure of finding things out because it is not their focus. I believe that society has lost sight of what education truly is. It is not a means to get a better paying job, or to get a degree. Education is liberation from ignorance. Most students students stop short of truly understanding a concept and just regurgitate it on the test. Those concepts were never fully digested and engraved into their minds. That is why believe tests are counterproductive. All a typical student cares for is that “A” on the test, and to get that “A:, all he need to do is memorize. One can know all the equations, but without imagination, it is impossible to grasp the subject. Long term projects, on the other hand, induce a deeper learning experience than tests and lectures. It is human nature to learn from failures; that is how the institution of science was founded. Some philosophers had false preconceived notions and another philosopher comes along refuting the formers’ ideas. Then the new ideas are verified through experimentation. Tests do not give the students the opportunity to confirm or modify their ideas. Most students just take the information as is and never challenge or confirm them. The teacher moves onto a different topic after the test. We should teach students to embrace knowledge in its purest form and to always question.</p>
<p>Yes, that is a modified version of my personal statement.</p>
<p>What annoys the crap out of me is the fact that I am ranked like below number 10 in my high school (lower because I am about to get a B in math) and all of the people above me are the children of professors who have been forcing them to have A’s since birth. NOT to be intelligent and informed about the issues of the world or humanity, but to have A’s. and I hate the fact that they will all probably get into better colleges because their parents decided to have them start studying for the PSAT, ACT, SAT, AP tests, and SAT Subject Tests since they were Freshman, and they are just the kind of competitive jerks as to not tell anyone, so that when it comes time to take the tests they can chill while all of the other kids of average normal working class folk can sweat it.</p>
<p>and they still cannot grasp deeper concepts in any work of literature beyond “the author was trying to convey that anti-feminism is…bad.” in any type of discussion we have on things that are important to our society. </p>
<p>and i especially hate that i tried to befriend these people, and one of them, the daughter of a former college admissions officer turned professor, told me she didnt like Harvard and preferred Yale or Princeton after taking tours of all three campuses and knowwwws that harvard is my dream school and applied early to…guess what…HARVARD. not Yale or Princeton, and never even bothered to tell me anything about it while all along I was play venting to her and she just laughed and when i said are you applying early anywhere, she said “I don’t know”. and i am sure if i confront her about it now she will say its because her parents wanted her to pick good ol’ harvard. she didnt even WANT to go thereeee!!! </p>
<p>ugh. i could vent for a year. this sucks.</p>
<p>@T26E4</p>
<p>lol, idk if you were sarcastic or not but:</p>
<p>Its been my experience, that everyone in my region that has been accepted to ivies have all cheated, are rich, and the majority of the student body dislikes them. But they have 4.0 g.p.a, 2300+ SAT’s and either fake/ or very poor EC’s. An example of a very poor ec that I am speaking of would be:
- bring the J.E.T.S. team to my school
- become captain and founder
- don’t do anything after that and lie about the hours</p>
<p>The smartest, nicest, and most passionate people that I know went to UCLA and UC Berk. Of course this is just my experience, I know this does not account for the entire nation. =P</p>
<p>physicsboy: I don’t doubt you at all. But I worked my tail off and was universally popular in my HS. And while I’m sure a good number of tools get admitted, my experience with my friends (living with them daily, seeing them work, seeing their dedication) would lead me to believe that they weren’t that type of person either. While some came from wealthy backgrounds, many did not. As a matter of fact a good number of us went into major non-get-rich type professions (teaching, run a NFP, ministry, Fed govt work, theater). I attended one of the HYPs, BTW.</p>
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<p>Except for the cheating part and the faking of EC’s, this post actually reassures me. I was beginning to worry that my test scores and grades might still not make up for my ECs. However, the cheating and faking part is very bad; these students do not seem to have good character so I wonder how they still wrote “moving” essays good enough to get them in.</p>
<p>Things that **** me off…
-people from other schools with 4.0 GPAs that are valedictorians at their schools, but have such bad SAT scores. Why couldn’t I have gone to one of those schools…
-people applying to schools they don’t even want to go to just because “it has an easy application”
-people who act very cocky and brag about how “awesome” they are and how they’re definitely getting into top schools
-people claiming they’re a part of something like math team or track when they only went to a few meetings
-how my parents were really lax with me (they were strict with my brother and he got into Ivy Leagues) and didn’t really push me academically or tell me what a GPA was until the end of sophomore year</p>
<p>Okay I’m done.</p>
<p>How I have worked my butt off all of high school, losing countless hours of free time and sleep to maintain my grades, clubs, responsibilities, and life and stand at a 10/580 rank while our valedictorian has gotten 3 Bs so far as a sophomore, has never gotten above a b on calculus tests which I help tutor him for, and is not half as hardworking as me and still keeps a a perfect rank! I hate to be so petty, but it isn’t fair.</p>
<p>i really hate how, throughout high school, no one really cares what i do. It’s all about the valedictorian. I mean he IS one of my best friends, but im just tired of not being appreciated. Im 3rd in my class, got a lot better SAT score(2310), and im applying to top colleges too. hes applying to harvard, and many people already think he got in. Thats all people talk about. Im applying to yale, and almost no one knows. Granted, i dont tell people like he does, and i dont do every single EC like he does, but i still feel like my accomplishments should be recognized. its not that im jealous, just that i kind of feel unappreciated. no one expects me to go to great schools, but they expect him to. i just dont get it.</p>
<p>^I only wish you could grasp how your world view will change in nine months. I can see how you wish you didn’t care about what others thought. Come the Fall, you won’t think about them – likely ever again. Really. All that HS drama and BS? It all goes away. </p>
<p>And I think you need to get some security in your own accomplishments – not from the praise of others. I think I was 10th or 12th in my class. 3 others got into UPenn, I got into an HYP. I never worried about the people around me – I was very confident about my own abilities. I don’t think anyone knows the Ivies I got into either – never told anyone. This is all part of maturation.</p>
<p>I hate how released rejection letters and press releases about HYPMS’s astronomically low admission rates always try to be so nice and say stuff like, “we had so many qualified applicants” and “We completely value your hard work” in order to sugar-coat rejection. I also hate how having the lowest admission rates possible is a huge accomplishment for elite colleges, even though the colleges always try to say that it’s not.</p>
<p>“I also hate how having the lowest admission rates possible is a huge accomplishment for elite colleges, even though the colleges always try to say that it’s not.”</p>
<p>And your assumption is based on what?</p>
<p>Also, if you were tasked with writing a rejection letter, what would you insert as to not generate a slew of cynical accusations? You speak as a dejected applicant but don’t seem to grasp how an institution should approach the problem.</p>
<p>yeah, i know. i have self-confidence issues. sighhh.</p>
<p>In my personal situation, restrictive early action ****es me off. I know this is likely for the purpose of ensuring student interest and maintaining high yield rates, but since I’ve applied ED somewhere, REA restricts me from applying early to some other schools that I’m really interested in…which in turn just gives me less presence of mind (it wouldn’t hurt to have a couple acceptance letters before going into the RD process if I’m rejected from my ED school).</p>
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<p>How did you not figure out what a GPA was before then?</p>
<p>@Global Dolphin- if perfect grades guarenteed your spot at a top school 20,000 people would be accepted to harvard every year.</p>
<p>I hate how no one notices all of the obstacles I’ve overcome just because I’m smart. I have ADD and no one picked it out because I still can score high. Last year my best friend when into a downward spiral that culminated in a suicide attempt and some hospital stays for depression, one of my friends got picked up by ICE and he may yet be deported, my family is falling apart, and I have other things I’m fighting within myself, and my classmates, teachers, and school admins treat me like a number. And I hate that this all happens at the worst possible times.</p>
<p>I want to get into a top out of state school yet I’m a white male from a terrible high school that barely passes state regulations. I still think I have a chance, but I just wish the tide wasn’t against me so much. I’ve taken advantage of everything around me just as much as any other applicant has but there’s just so much less here than in other places.</p>
<p>I only read like the first page, a page in the middle, and the end. I agree with a lot of points, especially how this whole process is built into this giant cultural beast (I mean we’re on CC for crying out loud). Though a lot of the time I feel a need to vent, a more reasonable approach seems to be to just chill out and take the cliche advice of enjoying your senior year. Worrying about it is inevitable, but it’s not gonna get you into college now. Of course I sometimes feel a need to vent that the very advice I’m trying to give somewhat frustrates me too because we’re all stuck in this huge mess of hopes and statistics. Breathe.</p>
<p>Wow, reading this thread has really made me feel stupid…
First of all,
I understand majority of the people who have posted on this thread are aiming for ivies, but what about us kids with “decent” (which is arbitrary at this point) creds are struggling to get into STATE schools? Come on, you all have excellent credentials. Say whatever about not being good enough for ivies, but the majority of you have many schools, opportunities, scholarships and MORE available that the average American high schooler can only dream of. I’M struggling with state schools such as the University of Illinois and University of Wisconsin-Madison for the general programs. So look at the opportunities in front of you before you complain about what you wish would be. I understand that the grass is always greener on the other side, but be realistic and just based reading this thread, most of you will adapt to thrive in any university environment and be successful in whatever you do, because at the end of the day, all the books are the same and prestige seems to outshine this.</p>