<ol>
<li><p>That student sitting next to you in class? Has so far raised $1.8 million for an orphanage in a remote mountain village. Last summer, traveled there to direct the construction crew for the solar-powered school and residence, for which he/she served as the architect. Works in the off-season doing movie stunts. Best one: moving from horse to horse to horse, all at full gallop. Has lent a personal collection of 15th century incunabula to the Library of Congress for display. Plays the flugelphone. Professionally. Speaks seven languages. Has the Grail already.</p></li>
<li><p>You, however, know none of the above, because the student is “flying under the radar.” This is true even though you have had lunch at school together every day since 4th grade, have been in the majority of your classes together, and have spent 2000+ hours in each other’s homes over the years.</p></li>
<li><p>Your parents have no points of reference for talented students outside of the local high school. But of course, they don’t know anything about your friend’s accomplishments either, because knowing anything about them would be morally suspect. </p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li> If you plan to go on for a Ph.D. at the time you enter college, you are an intellectual poseur at best. Little do you know that you will change majors six times and take seven years to complete your B.A., after which you will change your name to Rama Boppa Rama and move to Idaho.</li>
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<ol>
<li> Winning the World Championship in Rutabaga Curling is <em>so</em> 2012. People in the know have moved on from that EC, which is all too common these days, to the next super-secret EC that still ensures Harvard admission. (Hint: It’s not the oboe anymore.)</li>
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<p>Bahaha #59. That’s the “typical” cc kid in a nutshell!</p>
<ol>
<li> That visiting seven colleges across five states in six days is a typical family vacation.<br></li>
</ol>
<p>If you haven’t discovered a galaxy or founded an orphanage by tenth grade, a directional school for you! </p>
<p>^^If I hadn’t joined CC at the end of 2012, I would have had no idea what a directional school was. I would have assumed it was a school for all high school miscreants to help them find direction in life! :)</p>
<ol>
<li> Middle Class means you earn too much for need based aid, but can’t swing full pay tuition unless you sell the beach cottage, give up your ski vacation in Vail, or have the stay at home parent go back to work now that the “baby” is 17 years old. Why are colleges so biased against the middle class and only make it feasible for the rich and poor to attend?</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>The correct reason for wanting to go to an ivy league college is a high degree of “fit”.</p></li>
<li><p>“Fit” is synonymous with prestige.</p></li>
<li><p>Everybody will be unhappy with you if you are not overjoyed to get into a top 20 college, because all top 20 colleges are equally good.</p></li>
<li><p>Roughly 50 colleges are in the “top 20.”</p></li>
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<p>^^ I disagree. “Top 20” is way more than 50. There are top 20 nationally ranked LACs and 20 more Universities and then there are a different top 20 LACs and Unis for each region of the country. </p>
<p>And college alum- don’t forget the second part of your excellent #69- roughly 100% of kids in America are in the top half of the class of any college they apply to, and will graduate with a 3.8, magna cum laude.</p>
<ol>
<li>There are many high schoolers who won Siemens and Intel, won multiple Scholastics Art and Writing awards, raised millions for charity, ran and won all school offices, captained all varsity teams while playing all positions, won every state and national competitions every year, including multiple academic olympiads, aced both SAT and ACT multiple times since 8th grade, played in an all-state honors orchestra of one, held several full-time jobs simultaneously while taking advanced college classes, and became valedictorians without EVEN STUDYING (verified by postings in the CC Parents Forum). Sadly, most of them will be knocked out of admissions by URMs and cheating internationals, and the rest will be denied due to lack of interest.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>First year college classes are where you go to impress professors with your passion and expertise. Really, they are more like conversations between equals. They are in no way introductory.</p></li>
<li><p>That Bill Gates is not a college graduate outweighs all the statistics about the relative earnings power of graduates of different universities.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Keep it to yourself- don’t forget Ted Turner. Obviously, it pays to drop out of college.</p>
<p>Being at the 99.2 percentile in your SAT’s (2250) is mediocre. There are 25,000 other kids who are smarter than you (assuming no retests). </p>
<ol>
<li>Someone who can’t figure out their own chances of getting in to Boston College is nonetheless qualified to look into their crystal ball and divine my chances of getting into Tulane.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>In order to drive up applications from mediocre students, elite colleges will randomly accept a couple underserving kids every other year and see to it that these acceptances show up on Naviance.</p></li>
<li><p>US Census forecast on decreasing high school graduates is just a gimmick to spawn false hope to drive up even more applications. </p></li>
<li><p>I have no chance to get into a school that matches my caliber, even though I proved that triangle is actually square back in middle school.</p></li>
<li><p>HYPS are for kids who effortlessly cruised to perfect stats AND are social beasts! If people caught you studying more than once, you’re a nerd and need not apply.</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>Chance is a verb. Doing this to someone is the best thing you could possibly do.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li> Doing porn to pay your way in college is a slightly better, less offensive idea than doing research in high school.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li> Middle class also includes families that can afford to send kids to private secondary schools and graduate programs, but not undergraduate colleges.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>No it’s not the Ivy League, it’s the IVY League.</p></li>
<li><p>If a company doesn’t recruit from your school, you’ll never get a job with that firm. </p></li>
</ol>