<p>The only thing ridiculous is that they only accept 1/3 of top prep kids. Those kids could have avoided the challenge, stayed home and took run of the mill AP classes and been first or second in their class instead of struggle to finish in the top HALF of their class. As my coach always opined “the key to looking good is weak competition”.</p>
<p>^Not all public schools are the same. I’ve known a lot of people who attended HW and other top preps in the LA area. The competition at the Asian-dominated public high schools in the LA area (Arcadia, Diamond Bar, etc.) is every bit as tough as the best prep schools, maybe even more so since you’ve got 90% of the class trying to be in the top 10%.</p>
<p>For some people, going to an expensive prep or boarding school isn’t always an option. Honestly, the smartest people I’ve met at Penn are the people who were at the top of their public school class, not the people who did okay at Phillips or St. Paul.</p>
<p>You guys realize that many of your top public school kids from LA and everywhere else for that matter apply to the top preps. Go to the CC prep pages and you will see your top Asian students particularly obsessing about their chances to be accepted to AES (Andover,Exeter,St Paul’s). The cream of the crop never make it to your local high school and occasionally transfer out early. The top LA high school students are in New England dreaming about being the next Mark Zuckerberg etc etc. Most have more social skills when they leave however :).</p>
<p>Zuckerberg if you don’t already know got a little idea at Exeter which had an album the kids called “the Facebook”.</p>
<p>Also if your family makes less than 70k a year the top preps are FREE. The old argument about preps being for the wealthy is old urban myth. The top preps are as diverse as any Ivy and often more diverse.</p>
<p>^ College freshmen directories (with photos of all of the freshmen) have been referred to as “the Facebook” for decades. That’s what we called it at Penn back in the '70s.</p>
<p>Zuckerberg may have first heard the term at Exeter, but it’s been in use for generations. :)</p>
<p>Good points 45. I also think Zuckerberg was unlikely to have known about Penn’s “facebook” as he was a prestige obsessed kid like many and is known to belittle the “lesser preps and Ivies”. Again, social skills are not his strong suit.</p>
<p>Yeah, I can confirm that at least as of the mid-70s pretty much every college, at least the private ones, had freshman directories that people called “Facebook”. They would be pored over, by everyone (including upperclassmen), to identify attractive people of the gender that most attracted the porer. As far as I know, Exeter didn’t have one that far back.</p>
<p>As a life science grad student, depending on which program that is, you won’t really have much of a life because you will be spending time in the lab and the chance to get rid of any built up stress or frustrations can be done at the local bars. I can’t speak for undergrads but the graduate student organization does a good job at organizing events where there is plenty of booze. Grad Students need booze, and anyone saying otherwise is a liar.</p>
<p>Two points:
1.) Penn is most definitely the social Ivy. As a current Princeton student who has visited Penn, Columbia, MIT, and Cornell, I can definitely say that Penn is by far the “coolest” Ivy I have been to. The kids there are really fun, and no other Ivy embodies their laid back yet simultaneously inquisitive personality. I love Princeton, but objectively, I can definitely say that Penn is way more “socially cool” than we are.
2.) @ivyrow15: your overgeneralized point about all kids from top public schools applying to prep schools is a blatantly incorrect operationalization. Many of my smartest friends at Princeton were at the top of their public high schools, and they never even thought about going to a prep school. So yes, the cream of the crop is definitely present in public high schools. Remember, paying for those schools is extremely difficult. For example, my family made just enough not to get any aid from them, but couldn’t afford to pay 150K for HIGH SCHOOL and then 200K+ for college. However, I don’t think I was disadvantaged in any way- on the contrary, coming from a large, high performing public high school, I had access to a ton of resources (20+ APs, superb ECs, etc).</p>