<p>Well done, collegealum, well done!</p>
<p>mini thinks he is witty. I think there is time and place for everything.</p>
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I have that sense too.</p>
<p>lol, collegealum314, #60.</p>
<p>Sorry, Pizzagirl, while I don’t doubt that your son’s essay in particular demonstrated an interesting mode of thinking, I’m still not buying the argument in the general case. I spent two full years at Stanford (on different sabbaticals) and have some vague acquaintance with some of the undergrad students.</p>
<p>There are impressive students who are accepted by Stanford, and there are impressive students who are rejected by Stanford.</p>
<p>And then there are some who you wondered “how in the world did you get into this school?!”</p>
<p>Xiggi…was it a roommate essay or an essay about shopping with your dad?</p>
<p>I am a Christian pastor. I’d tell your daughter what I tell my parish members. You are entitled to a pity party, because your heart is broken. But parties have beginning times, and ending times when you pack up and go home. Give yourself permission to feel sorry for yourself. Cry for a couple of hours or whatever, and then tell yourself to move on and concentrate on something else.</p>
<p>Both of my daughters ended up at their second choice school. Daughter #1 ended up marrying someone who graduated from her first choice school (which was in WI, and she flew out every summer from PA to work at a camp there). Daughter #2 thanks God every day that she did not get into her first choice school.</p>
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<p>mini is being a total *putz *in this thread.</p>
<p>KKmama is giving good advice–as are many others.</p>
<p>And my wife (who went to Harvard) wrote her essay about wanting to be on Johnny Carson.</p>
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<p>That’s what my Dad said!</p>
<p>Does the OP really exist or is she too afraid to come back? She should trust God’s Will and come back.</p>
<p>OP started a good thread. This is relevant to a lot of parents now. There are many disappointed students and I am sure their parents feel a bit helpless in how to help them.</p>
<p>"I could see an essay about shopping illustrating “vitality.” It would not fit my idea of what’s “intellectual,” though. "</p>
<p>There are 3 other essays for Stanford. </p>
<p>However, if Stanford admissions were only based on essays, there would be no one at Stanford. They have a bunch of supergenious kids attending while many other supergenious kids are being rejected. OP’s kid might win Nobel prize in 30 years and she would still be saying she got rejected by Stanford like Buffett says he was rejected by Harvard.</p>
<p>“I don’t doubt that many fine qualities can be demonstrated in an essay about shopping, as xiggi’s example of his sister’s essay indicates. I just don’t think that “intellectual vitality” is one of them. Not referring to xiggi’s sister, the Stanford admissions staffer didn’t say that the entire application holistically indicated intellectual vitality–rather, specifically that an essay about shopping indicated intellectual vitality. I could see an essay about shopping illustrating “vitality.” It would not fit my idea of what’s “intellectual,” though.”</p>
<p>Off topic, but, Quant, do you realize how highly mathematical this statement is, structurally? Given that I am analyzing syncopated expressions of late.</p>
<p>OP, there are over 24,000 high schools in the US. That means over 24,000 valedictorians… even for a val, the odds are small at the very top schools. I assume she has some other backup schools she is considering – not sure what she wants to study, but she might want to consider Rice, Vanderbilt, or Claremont McKenna as matches if she hasn’t carefully considered schools where her changes of admission are more likely.</p>
<p>Even God can’t get everyone into Stanford apparently.</p>
<p>So someone asserted without evidence that Christians are accepted and rejected at the same rate at Stanford as everyone else. I asked for the evidence. I do know there are differential rates for just about everything, from race to income to athletes to international students. Chinese-Ameircan families (often Buddhist, I guess) complain that they are discriminated against at prestige schools all the time, which, if true, means Buddhists get in at a lower rate. (I have no idea if that’s true - if someone asserted it, I’d ask for the evidence.) I imagine there are denominational schools where folks from that denomination get in at a higher rate (hence lower for others.) At my alma mater, being from Montana is a good hook, I’m told, which means folks from some other states get in at a lower rate. If you’re a connected Quaker, your odds will increase at Earlham, and likely Swarthmore and Haverford (which means others will get in at a lower rate.) I went to college at a time that there was a Jewish quota at many schools, including my own (which means Christians might have gotten in at a higher rate, though I have no idea how many were atheists or agnostics.)</p>
<p>I didn’t make the assertion; someone else did. If they’ve got evidence, they should post it. Otherwise, withdraw the assertion.</p>
<p>As a non-believer, I try mightily to avoid making remarks about the–in my view-- irrational nature of religious beliefs. I am really quite shocked that people have chosen to mock the OP on this thread. Since the OP–if real–is not using a religious justification to limit the civil rights of others, or something of that nature, I think it appropriate to bite one’s tongue.</p>
<p>Folks…we have NO idea how competitive this applicant actually was. The OP said the student seemed to fit the bill, but really…what does that mean specifically? </p>
<p>I do find it odd that this poster logged onto this site for ONE post about the kid’s college rejection…at a place where the vast majority of ED applicants were not accepted.</p>
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Stanford’s CDS mentions that they don’t consider religious affiliation. Nevertheless, I’d be very surprised if grouping applicants by religions backgrounds showed a similar acceptance rate for all religious affiliations since religion is correlated with a variety of other characteristics that do influence admission. An obvious one is race.</p>
<p>PolarBearVsShark, #73: I just write like that. At one point, I remarked semi-jokingly that my native language is mathematics.</p>