<p>Sorry, my comment was not finished…</p>
<p>PumpkinPi, I want to thank you for your respectful and well written post. I agree with everything that you have written. For the record–my agreement is not because my daughter is receiving “freebies” from Stanford, or anything of the sort. To the best of my knowledge, EVERY student who attends Stanford is expected to contribute something to their education. My daughter has NOT received a full ride, and like your son she also received a National Merit Scholarship among a few other merit-based awards. She also will be contributing work-study income, and her earnings from summer work towards the costs of attending Stanford. While my daughter was accepted to other selective schools, including Columbia and Pomona, we love both the obvious economic and cultural diversity of the students that attend Stanford. I am also happy for her to attend Stanford because she is just 16 years old, and I appreciate the fact that “the Farm” is just 500 miles away from home instead of 3000. Stanford has been my daughter’s dream school ever since she first talked about going to college. I personally believe that Stanford is the best university in the world whether she was accepted there or not. Regarding futureinfinance’s comments about her attending a private school, she would have been just as successful in her school academics had she attended a good public school. She was recognized at an early age for special abilities–particularly writing–and skipped a grade. High school has never been a challenge for her; she thought her AP BC Calculus class, (one of just a few AP’s her school offers), was easy and fun, LOL! Also of note–a higher percentage of applicants accepted to Stanford attend public school as opposed to private school. My stepson attended a very good southern California public school, went to the University of Michigan for his undergraduate degree, attended Brooklyn Law School, and he is now a practicing lawyer in NY. I have 4 children–my 10 year old attends public school, my 5 year old attends a public Mandarin immersion charter school, and my 3 year old will attend the same charter school. Interestingly, a whopping 40% of applicants are admitted from the state of California. Furthermore, admissions to the school she does attend is highly selective; she was accepted into the 6th grade for one of approximately 6 available slots with more than 60 applicants. Her school gives preference to the privileged, those who can afford for their children to attend without any financial aid, enroll their children in preschool when financial aid is not available, and admissions is not based on a child’s academic merits and test scores. My daughter was one of only 3 students from her school who was accepted to Stanford, (her school’s trend is 3 students every year, for some reason); the other 2 students were accepted as athletic recruits. Probably the smaller class size has something to do with it.</p>
<p>That said, I do believe that it is important on these threads to be respectful and mindful that everyone’s situation is understandably unique. If Stanford and other selective schools only admitted students whose family’s are financially well-off, upper middle class, and/or middle class, they would lack both the diversity and exceptional talent that makes these schools the very best, in my opinion.</p>