The experience of an Ivy reject

Parent Cafe
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<p>Hye, you chose the word “waste” not me. Some on this thread had the OP drawn and quartered for a word choice. I was mild in my criticism comparatively. (Go back and read it.) And I don’t find you elitist . Far from it actually. </p>

<p>And that intellectual plane you speak of? Keep aspiring. It’s a noble goal. </p>

<p>I’d suggest opening your mind and hearing the stories of others and their children (like the OP and his kid) with a more generous ear before you start in with the criticism. And don’t always assume the worst about people. It’s not that becoming. </p>

<p>I wish you well on your journeys.</p>

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<p>Whew, I bet hyeonjlee can rest easy now that she has your permission! </p>

<p>I don’t recall hyeonjlee criticizing the OP. </p>

<p>Hey - no one criticized the OP OR his daughter – but some of us DID and do criticize “cultures” where HYP is the be-all-and-end-all and in which U of Chicago or other excellent schools are seen as settling or as OK choices. If you don’t care for that, I’m sorry.</p>

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<p>After just starting my PhD program this year I’m struck by how little undergraduate schools seem to matter. We have people from Harvard, Yale, MIT, etc. as well as state schools and a few liberal arts colleges. I don’t see any correlation between where someone went to undergrad and their academic performance, intellectual curiosity, personality, or pretty much anything except family income. Sure the field is pre-selected from the best at all places, but just think: some paid $160,000 for their education and got a “prestigious” degree, others got it for cheap/free at a non-name brand school. We all ended up in the same graduate program with a remarkably similar set of skills and even similar experiences. Intellectual curiosity happens everywhere. </p>

<p>For an interesting albeit completely unscientific comparison, take a look at the current top 25 ranking of collegiate quizbowl programs [The</a> Quizbowl Resource Center Blog Archive RESULTS: Mid-Season College Poll](<a href=“http://■■■■■■/4rjt3n]The”>http://■■■■■■/4rjt3n). You won’t find a group of more intellectually curious people at any school than those who like learning so much they decide to do it competitively. While it shouldn’t surprise too many people that Chicago’s at the top, it’s pretty obvious that there are smart, motivated people are many other schools who are more than capable of measuring up to people at the other schools. </p>

<p>And newmassdad’s OP just shows that it’s far more important what a student does than where the student goes. You can have a “life of the mind” at Chicago, Alabama (Blount Undergraduate Initiative, for instance), Cornell, Kansas, Hillsdale, wherever. The name of the school and even the average “intellectual climate” only matters if you let it matter.</p>

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<p>"And newmassdad’s OP just shows that it’s far more important what a student does than where the student goes. "</p>

<p>??? While the first part is true generically, OPs student went to one of the elite institutions in this country, actually, not a Tier 3, so that “underdog” angle plays a little thin to me.</p>

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<p>^^^Yeah, that got me as well…</p>

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<p>Nor do I. Apparently both pizzagirl and I missed that.</p>

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<p>And some of us criticize not only that (as being inaccurate, foolish, and meaningless) others of us additionally criticize the reverse as being correspondingly absurd. But there have been a huge volume of keystrokes committed to the latter effort, as if that was the point of the original post. Well, maybe in some people’s minds, this is their opportunity to stick it to those evil Ivies. Speaking of “becoming,” I don’t find that terribly in keeping with the OP, summarized in post 364:</p>

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<p>I don’t think “the story” is the institution, but several of us were condemned for daring to utter that. The story is the student, or at least I thought.</p>

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<p>No. The story is about the student not the schools. OP had a good intention, but he has mixed up his kids accomplishments, which are substantial, with the story of college admissions, which is something else.</p>

<p>Some of us were dumbfounded by the idea that a UChicago education could be viewed as “okay,” but upon hearing that it was more of a matter of Dad wanting his D closer to home, it made a lot of sense. Clearly she went to the right school; clearly she had no interest in i-banking. Clearly she is an intellectual, and probably was at a very young age, judging from the work she has already done.</p>

<p>IMHO, it’s just a story of admissions doing a really GOOD job of slotting a student in the right school, whether she or her father realized it or not. That is a part of the story, too, just how accurately she was gaged for the culture and life of the mind. Sounds like a good job all around, to me.</p>

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<p>Again with the stereotyping. </p>

<p>Nor do thousands of other students who do not attend UChicago “have an interest in i-banking.” Try not to believe the distorted “The World According to CC” that characterizes this discussion forum.</p>

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<p>H is an incredibly successful i-banker, as is my brother. Try not to think everyone considers i-banking a dirty word.</p>

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<p>What is your husband have to do with anything? You contrasted i-banking and colleges-other-than-UofChicago. You brought it up, not I. People who chose places other than Chicago are not necessarily interested in i-banking. Thousands of them are as interested in the Life of the Mind (<em>cough</em>) as are students aspiring to, matriculating to, graduating from, Chicago.</p>

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<p>This thread is the most entertainment I’ve had on CC in ages. The only problem is that my scorecard is a mess. Not only are players changing field positions, but they seem to keep switching teams, too! I don’t even *know *the notation for that! There are some rogue players who seem to be everywhere at once; I’m sure there’s been a few hidden ball plays; I can’t decide which beanballs are intentional and which are curves which sailed wide; and I think we’ve gone to replay and disputed plays so many times we’ve run out of Bud commercials.</p>

<p>Play on!</p>

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<p>Garland- let me help:</p>

<p>Intellectuals are, on balance, good people. Except if they want to be with other intellectuals, in which case they are pretentious and to be avoided.</p>

<p>Investment Bankers are by definition, bad people. Except if they are related to someone we know and like, and except if they now work at Goldman Sachs but didn’t go to Williams or Princeton or Yale (known havens for prestige seeking investment banking wannabees). If they are in Investment Banking and went to a hidden gem type of an LAC or a non-honors program of a State U. then they are to be lauded.</p>

<p>People who win Marshalls and Rhodes or Fulbrights and Gates are fantastic people. Every slight they’ve ever experienced must be vindicated given their later achievements. Didn’t win a citizenship badge in boys scouts? Cecil Rhodes would roll in his grave. Take that, troupe leader!! Your children should remember to save their rejection letters from the local Dairy Queen or Harvard so that when they become successful later in life they can rub it in the HR person or Adcom’s face.</p>

<p>Colleges need to be transparent and honest about the kind of students they seek. Except colleges who aren’t looking for full-pay preppies from Winnetka or Wellesley. Those “unique” colleges are being pretentious if they try to get the message out to students who might prefer studying there to going to Harvard, if in fact there is a single kid in America who doesn’t want to go to Harvard which is dubious.</p>

<p>Chopin and Mozart are strawmen datapoints. Everyone knows that early genius manifested itself at an early age back then because people didn’t live as long. Given our current actuarial tables, nobody can really be labeled a genius or even gifted until about age 50 give or take.</p>

<p>If you aren’t going to Europe to tour museums on vacation then just give up. Your kids are going to be losers in the game of life. Except if you’re poor and you qualify for a Pell grant in which case we, the taxpayers, would be ****ed that you can afford Europe while we subsidize your kids education.</p>

<p>Most kids want to go to a prestigious college so they can get a good high paying job when they graduate. But not my kid- he wants to go to a prestigious college for the “fit”. But your kid is just looking to get his ticket punched, so my kid is trying to avoid kids like your kid.</p>

<p>Garland, have I got it all?</p>

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<p>lol. Exactly garland. There do seem to be some shape-shifters. My only purpose in ever posting on this thread was to defend what I thought and still think was a well-meaning OP. But I seemed to get lumped in to various pro/con groupings based on what? I never figured it out. But I allowed myself to get drug into a (what appears may have been ) random discussion of “intellectuals” not related to the OP at all. My bad. </p>

<p>Very confusing to say the least.</p>

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<p>Gosh, does that mean I still have a shot? Maybe I’ll get the dang novel published after all, then they’ll see…they’ll *all *see… yeah… I can see it now…vindication is mine.
:)</p>

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<p>Blossom–I refuse on the grounds of self-incrimination to make any comment on any other summings up of all this. I resolved from the start to stay off the field. Though I definitely have some favorite players.</p>

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<p>Blossom, that was brilliant.</p>

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<p>Yay!
Another great blossom post!! Too funny!</p>

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<p>Garland, that was great, now do the summary of the “Hardest Curriculum Available” thread which seems to have taken on a life of its own as well! :)</p>

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<p>Mathmom, well, I dunno. I’m so far from those questions anymore that I’ll confess i never started reading it. Whaddaya think; could it handle a quidditch metaphor?</p>

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<p>I wish we still had the ccc awards. Blossom’s post would certainly rank high up there (oh, we do not like rankings, do we?)</p>