<p>A gripping account of the reality for many in overrepresented geographical areas such as Long Island in New York and the way some of these affluent school guidance offices have had to ramp up to handle the competition. Also of note, the contrasting experiences of students in the less affluent school districts just a few miles away.</p>
<p>The article had some interesting stats, quotes and tidbits ie the degree to which some popular former safety schools are getting much more selective, and the statistic that Harvard rejects one out of four students with perfect SATs (I was actually surprised to hear they accept 75% based strictly on this criteria).</p>
<p>Also, parents of twins take note - GWU discounts the tuition 50% for the second twin - I never knew this!</p>
<p>Before I read this entire article - and it may be an excellent article - I just want to point out that we once again have an article that fuels the hysteria. The headline does not say that it is tough to get into ELITE colleges, it simply screams, Seniors face tough odds trying to get into college and we know there are plenty of colleges out there for everyone. But I guess if you live on Long Island "college" = Ivy League University?</p>
<p>With all due respect to Newsday, there isn't exactly a noticeable lack of Long Islanders at Cornell, and there never has been. They aren't all getting rejected.</p>
<p>mathmom, I should have said "selecting out for this factor" - obviously other things go into the evaluation process at Harvard, as one would expect!</p>
<p>The part of the article that I noticed most was the discussion of where elite college representatives recruit at the wealthy schools, not the poor ones. This is exactly what I saw last year when my son was inundated with meet the college rep mailings. Consequently, I find it hypocritical of top colleges to insist they want students from non-wealthy backgrounds. If they want those students, the representatives ought to be visiting those schools. If I want Italian food, I dont go to a Japanese restaurant.</p>
<p>I didn't finish the whole article (I have no knowledge of the various Long Island towns...made for sort of dry reading), but all I can say is when everyone wants to go to the same colleges - yeah, it gets crowded. </p>
<p>If some of these whiners and overly competitive families would look around the country a little they'd find great schools out there that would more than welcome a LI kid. But for too many of them, the thought of being down south -- or worse yet, the midwest -- is akin to being banished to Siberia.</p>
<p>Speaking as someone who attended a college that seemed to be about 99% LI/NJ kids, I think a little diversity would be a big improvement for some of these schools...</p>
<p>EllenF...my kids attended a rural public HS. For D1, who was applying to selective colleges, only ONE school on her list, visited her HS: Smith. I just looked at the HS newsletter (which they still email me and must think my kids still go?) and on tap for visits this month are just the following schools: Mt. Allison University (New Brunswick, Canada), Syracuse, Wheaton College, Castleton State, Paul Smith, VT Technical College, and Springfield College. When my older D went to the big college fair in our state (an hour from us, but in a city), I recall there were no reps from at least three of her schools: Princeton, Yale, and Penn. As well, when it came time for alumni interviews, Penn had none to offer for this region and so she did not get an interview. She was admitted to Penn by the way and also a girl from our HS had been accepted a year or two before she was. I don't think anyone from our HS has ever gotten into Princeton, though my D who was val was waitlisted there and so was the sal the year before.</p>
<p>OK- Enough with bashing L.I. families. Did anyone ever think that our kids too want to be a bit closer to home?? How many times have we read on these boards that kids do get homesick- and realize that they do not want to be 10 hours from home. Some seriously consider transferring back to dear old State U to be closer to their friends and family. Our Long Island kids are no different than your kids.
It seems though when the metro NY kids want to stay on the east coast, maybe within a 6 to 7 hour trip from home, it's interpreted as being elitist or worse.<br>
Maybe proximity to home is a factor as to why so may NYC/LI kids (in the past) applied to the same group of schools as these schools were within that 6 to 7 hour drive.
The current crop of LI kids have been applying to such schools as Grinnell- Emory-U Mich because of the realization that they are going to have to travel out of their "comfort zone" as they may not get into that Northeast school that they were hoping to go into.
Another factor in wanting to stay in the NE is that there is extreme diversity with our NYC and Long Island kids- be it religion, race, or national origin. As areas in the south or midwest may not be as tolerant towards Jews- Catholics- Pakistanis or other minorities, we know that our kids may be facing social pressures that other kids from those regions may not encounter.<br>
And Marion- yes my d is just one more Jewish Long Island kid at Cornell-- but three of her classmates who had equally stellar backgrounds and were rejected, are now at schools in Iowa- N. Carolina and Mass. They too may have wanted to stay a bit closer to home, but 2 of them had to travel a bit further from home than expected.</p>
<p>I looked over the college acceptances at my S's NW public HS. Though a good chunk went to the local state flagship U, most were spread out across the US. Many attend top tier schools east of the Mississippi (38 to the Ivy's), though Stanford took 16, and UC Berkeley 6, which is a little closer to home. That means many kids (including mine) are 2 or 3 thousand miles away from home. If these kids wanted to stay only in our region, their choices would be greatly limited. Given that they are willing to go just about anywhere, they seem to have a world of choice.</p>
<p>NJres and originaloog, yes - no argument on these points and so we can safely add this article to the list of admissions hot spot articles out there - yet within the context of so many of the other media hype pieces on college admission out there sporting basically the same message this one does seem to me to have more to offer and so I do agree with Roshke's basic assessment of "gripping" mainly because the article has great potential. I will be interested to read the further installments to see how this hot spot story unfolds as the seven seniors go through the admissions process.</p>
<p>Just to add a clearer picture of the "typical Long Island student", a good chunk of them (I'd say well over 60% from our district) do stay local. That includes SUNY and private schools in the metro NY region including Fordham, St. Johns, Hofstra etc. My district academically and financially falls somewhere in the top 1/2 of LI districts. We may not be Jericho but we are not Hicksville either ( and yes there is a Hicksville on LI- actually Hicksville is a relatively decent district too!!)</p>
<p>I think the rest of the country is catching up to the experiences that we in Metro New york learned years ago- You have to look beyond your geographical comfort zone. I find that NY parents are actually more realistic and saner through the college admission process as we have learned our lesson. The process was more difficult about 5-6 years ago as families were truly surprised by the admissions outcomes that happened. We are much more prepared today. I was lucky that my older d graduated HS in 2004 as I truly learned alot from my friends whose kids graduated prior to d's. That is why more NY kids apply to schools like Grinnell-Carlton-Wisconsin etc. As we have to look beyond the usual group of schools in the NE.</p>
<p>I welcome the rest of the country to the "NY competitive Rat Race" of college admissions!!</p>
<p>As a Long Islander whose son is leaning towards Wisconsin, I agree with weenie that those LIers who are willing to cast their net just a little wider can find colleges that will actually welcome them. A lot of schools out there in the middle of the country actively seek out a big contingent from the NY area each year, for whatever reason. Sometimes you can get in with borderline stats.</p>
<p>And as a Long Islander whose older son who went to Cornell, I agree with Marian that that school takes an absolute ton of LIers and obviously isn't discriminating against the area -- and I'm sure there are many other "elite" schools about which we could say the same. Our HS has sent a mob of kids to Penn, Dartmouth and Duke in recent years, for example.</p>
<p>Now that I've sent my first through the college admissions process and law school admissions process, and my second is right in the middle of college apps, I feel on balance that being from LI has been a plus in admissions, not a minus.</p>
<p>I am so grateful that the process is over for my family- just one nephew left to get into college and he will find a good fit.
As my son not-so-graciously said on Saturday as we passed several large groups of touring high school students on his college campus, "It sucks to be them." Not sure I could go through it all again.</p>