This article is offensive to many groups on many levels. For a minute, forget about the URMs, the legacies, the developmental admits, anyone who is ostensibly “less qualified.” Now, without these groups, does anyone deny that there is still room for the asians/poor/whites/middle class/etc? However diminished the space may be, there is still space. And as long as there is space, there are kids competing for and winning the space. The author trivializes the efforts of everyone who earns their spot. Where some would say “I will work harder next time” she says “omg I wish I was lesbian so I would get into college ughhhhhhhh.”</p>
<p>Sincerely,
a middle class white girl from an over-represented state</p>
<p>If you are offended and you are a middle class white girl (which I have been?) then you are being too sensitive.</p>
<p>I’m not a URM. If you tell me it is racist in a way I didn’t notice, then that is simply something I must accept and look into until I see better.</p>
<p>Nobody who got into the schools you did, uni, ought to be taking this seriously. She admits up front she’s jealous of you. You have to learn to laugh at it at least a little bit.</p>
<p>You got the prize. That’s what happens when you get the prize.</p>
<p>But how many of these students’ parents essentially bought their spots through repeated test prep classes, special tutors, college admissions consultants, essay-writing strategists, and family connections to land impressive research positions or internships?</p>
<p>
Makes me think of George Carlin. I certainly didn’t agree with every one of his rants, but boy was he funny!</p>
<p>Well dartmouth and brown aren’t HYPSM so a white middle class student can easily get in with top stats. for HYPSM, where it’s a crapshoot, it’s all of the top white students hoping to get lucky, where as all of the top URM’s or LGBTQ’s with 4.0’s and 2350+ SAT’s can feel pretty confident that they’ll be accepted</p>
Fine. Maybe it’s just me, but I find the jealousy distasteful. She has sour grapes; she says it right up front. I can’t stand sour grapes. Fine.</p>
<p>
That’s what I meant when I said “anyone who is ostensibly ‘less qualified.’” Are you arguing that there is no one admitted to HYPSM without the above listed things?</p>
<p>Well, sour grapes is a healthy response in her case. She is, quite frankly, laughing mostly at herself. (Now, if she still has sour grapes in a year? she has issues)</p>
<p>Don’t worry about the haters, uni. Nothing you can do about that. </p>
<p>You got into at least one school from which 94% of the applicants were rejected. Even the administration’s gonna tell you you were lucky that day. Enjoy it, but there are literally tens of thousands of kids out there who think they ought to be you. It is what it is.</p>
<p>You really are on the better end of that calculus, imho.</p>
<p>Well, I have to side with poetgrl and I’m the parent of a URM that got into all his schools. I’m also the parent of two non-URMs that will most undoubtedly not be applying to top schools because I don’t see that they’re capable of the work required at a school like my oldest’s (MIT). And my oldest and I didn’t have any expectations that he would get into any of his schools. True, he was a pretty tippy-top student, but I would guess his URM status helped him. I’m not bitter that my other children won’t have that “hook”. I’m sure I’ll work hard on helping them tell their unique stories, too, and find their “hooks”, too. (Or not…) :-)</p>
<h1>69, it’s people like you (who have internalized all of the negative association of affirmative action) who aren’t helpful–think clarence thomas and ward connerly.</h1>
<p>anyway, i miss george carlin (though he did get a tad bitter in his latter years, poor guy). intelligent comedians like him and richard pryor and dave chappelle are missing in action right now.</p>
<p>I guess I’m not going to get much traction on this thread because of my acceptances. Before I bow out I will say that it is one thing to have “sour grapes” in private with a few close friends in the same situation, but it is entirely another to publish these thoughts. </p>
<p>Jealousy is human nature. Flaunting it is bad taste.</p>
<p>The child of a famous person or a billionaire donor is less often less qualified. The students with heavily-tailored applications are not necessarily less qualified to do the work once accepted, just better packaged to meet the specs of successful candidates in previous years.</p>
<p>Of the rest? Sure, a few “unpackaged” students will get in – the most qualified applicant from Wyoming, the immigrant from a war-torn country, the kid who learned to juggle chainsaws. But not too many, maybe 3-4% of the applicants. These kids mostly don’t have strong advocates like guidance counselors at feeder schools who will complain, nor do they often meet a checklist tally – URM, first generation in college, Pell Grant recipient – which colleges compile for the government.</p>
<p>Huh? What makes you say that I have internalized all the negative associations of affirmative action? (Though I like Clarence Thomas and George Carlin so maybe I better bow out of this conversation)</p>
<p>Ah, I see your post below mine referring to the WSJ. Now I understand!</p>
<p>unica: i understand your point. it’s tacky to publicize sourgrapes. there was an agenda here. not very hidden. again, consider the venue where she was published and that’ll tell you all you need to know.</p>
<p>Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and a humorous essay is just a humorous essay – and a portfolio piece. If the essay had not raised eyebrows, it never would have been published.</p>
<p>Regardless of whether these complaints are true, and regardless of whether the situation is fair, anybody who has even a passing acquaintance with what is written on this website (and plenty of other places on the internet) has heard all this before. Yet unhooked, unpackaged students continue to apply to these schools. In record numbers in fact.</p>
<p>That’s what I don’t get. Either these applicants don’t really believe the bellyaches, or they enjoy throwing application fees down the drain.</p>
<p>Or maybe they are like Tiger Woods’ or Jessie James’ latest girlfriends and just believe that history doesn’t repeat itself, at least not for them.</p>
<p>@loremipsum- So basically you think that a 2400 SAT and #1 rank should trump everything? When I said stellar stats, I was referring to the 25-75% range. I personally don’t see much difference between a 2300 or a 2400. My son is ranked 16th in his class of 600 kids and he has never had a B. Does that make him less qualified than the student who is ranked 1st. Don’t think so. He just happened to take unweighted language and speech classes his freshman and sophomore year. So, go take a look at post #35 in the Yale RD thread. While it is only one person, I think that it proves my point. She is right in there with the rest of the kids who were rejected. Not accepted at one single Ivy.</p>
<p>Also, I vaguely remember reading a thread earlier where someone mentioned that the 2400 SAT kids were five times more likely to be accepted than the kids who scored lower than them.</p>