As a rising senior, I would just like to express my extreme hatred of the SAT essay section. It makes me mad to just think about it. Writing is one of my greatest passions; I’ve gotten consistent honors grades in English at an elite prep school, I’ve won or been honored in numerous contests, and I spend a good amount of my free time creative writing.
The first time I took the SAT, I got a 660 writing.
The second time? 790.
I didn’t study or practice at all for the second one. The ONLY difference was that on the first test I focused on quality, and on the second I focused on quantity. My second essay was significantly worse. It’s almost certainly the worst thing I have written since elementary school, and the fact that it got me a great score genuinely disgusts me. The fact that many schools are going to require the essay even after collegeboard makes it optional disgusts me even more. Do these admissions officers not realize how pointless it is?
It makes me so mad that schools that don’t require testing (like Bryn Mawr) have moved up higher on my list, even though my test scores would help me, because schools putting value on tests like these make me question their priorities.
Not having enough money to be able to attend some top private school where you get so much educational opportunity. I say this because I applied to the Asheville School and was told I was good enough to get in, but they were unable to offer up enough financial aid so now I’m stuck at my same public school of 1100 where most people go to Western Carolina and nobody has been to HYPSM or any other Ivy for over 10 years. I guarantee that If i would have gone there my educational life would have been SOO much better.
CollegeBoard and Pearson ruining my life with there stupid, ridiculous and expensive tests. My freshman year they switched over from having teacher exams to state run exams, probably written by Pearson. I was in Geometry and up until the point I took the test, I had a solid A. I took the test and didn’t even have time to finish. We found out later that there was a 40 point curve on the test. If there wasn’t a curve I would have gotten a 48 and there would have gone my chance at attending any top college.
The fact that the applications, the tests, the forms, sending the tests and everything else costs a TON of money. Just to apply to the 3 early action schools I’m looking at is going to cost about $400. How am I supposed to afford anything else when it costs that much. Forget things that I may actually want to do. Forget private clarinet lessons. Forget test prep so I can improve my ACT score. Forget having some fun every once and awhile.
Admissions rates below 10%. They make me so depressed. These schools obviously have the money to accommodate WAY more students. Hell Harvard has an endowment more than some small COUNTRIES!! I saw all how great all these school were on my college tours and having to face the fact that I probably wont be accepted into any one of them just makes me sad.
How colleges treat biracial students. Since I am both Caucasian AND Asian I have to compete in BOTH categories of applicants. How is that fair? I have to beat all the Asians with 2400 SATs and crazy math awards and the Caucasians with there crazy ECs and private schools. I am not Asian. I am not Caucasian. I am both!!! Why can’t colleges understand that!!!
How LAZY, STUPID people who don’t work hard at all can have higher class ranks and GPA than me. There was a guy in my Pre-Calculus class who NEVER did a SINGLE homework assignment and got and A, whereas I worked my ass off, did my homework EVERY night and still got a B. Or the guy who literally does NO work and still has a higher GPA. He got to be a Junior Marshall (top 15 juniors in the class) this year and I didn’t.
The fact that people who are really, really good at throwing something, hitting a ball with a stick or knocking someone down get into the Ivies with considerably lower grades/scores than non-athletic recruits.
That the price of college has gone up so much for those that have worked and saved for years to pay for it because they have to cover the COA of those that haven’t saved or worked for it to attend.
When people assume that being a URM means you don’t have to work to get into university, or say really stupid things like “I’d rather be black/hispanic” without even understanding that statistically speaking were they black or hispanic it’s highly likely they would not even be applying to college, let alone be a competitive applicant for HYP.
When people who have no clue how competitive a school is say things like “Oh! I’m sure you’ll get in”. I know they mean well but it just annoys me to no end cause I feel like if I don’t get in then I would be just a massive failure.
Parents. Parents on this site. Frequently. Sometimes it’s downright scary how quick they are to jump to conclusions about situations and ridicule without even really understanding a situation or the pressure that some of these kids are under.
Students. Students on this site. Frequently. Particularly when they ask “Chance me?” To which I say, there is not an adcomm among us who can give you an accurate answer let alone a fellow student.
Cheating. More specifically, students who make comments about having knowledge or proof of another students academic dishonesty or application padding and then choose not to say anything. You’re part of the problem. If you know about it and do nothing, you are doing a great disservice towards other students, colleges, yourself and ultimately the cheater. Be part of the solution. Be honest in your classes and on your applications and expect the same of everyone else.
That you lovely higher tiers get to pick on my low tier / behind the back judge low tier students
That people choose their school based on the tier / ranking.
Ooh, your school is so pretty. I have the right to fend myself and take pride in my university. Slash slash slash, beat me at something real and then we can talk.
agree. We are going to try some schools in Canada, which seem to be more achievement minded. I think you have to find the schools that look for what you have to offer. BTW, if a school values achievement, I would like the school to show it with a merit scholarship, not just an acceptance letter and a bill I can’t pay.
That some schools use the ACT/SAT as a bar. So below a certain score, the kid’s application is simply not read. We now believe that happened to my math major son who had a perfect math, science and writing score on the Act but a lower reading score. He got five rejects, based on his READING score. The math and science scores, they simply did not care! (Columbia, U of Penn, Swarthmore, Rice and Vanderbilt, all in the Arts and Sciences programs ) It was astounding as he is a math major but arts and sciences have very high admissions standards at elite schools for the READING portion of the test, which is a speed reading test of reading comprehension. If he had applied in engineering, he might have gotten in, but he is a MATH AND PHYSICS major, which is always located in the arts and sciences college of any school. It was maddening. What we found out , at elite colleges, math majors needed all perfect scores and the national math exam, which my son did not take in high school. Math and science scores guarantee nothing is what we found out. A writing score of 35/36 means nothing. Its the overall ACT or SAT that is a bar at most elite schools.
affirmative action, that someone of a particular race who is less qualified can get accepted over someone who is significantly more qualified just because of their race. it diminishes the accomplishments of minorities and undermines the integrity of a merit based admissions process. if colleges really want to engage in a bit of social engineering, do it by economic class at least, not by race. like as if there aren’t poor white kids in america, anyone who’s been to rural west virginia or sumthin knows what i’m talking about. like why do sasha and malia obama deserve a boost based on race when there are plenty of poor and more disadvantaged people out there from other backgrounds
Privleged people of the most common race in America who dominate elite schools, while complaining about other classes and races getting a chance at an education which was previously denied to certain people, while certain people were being killed almost every week, heck even in a church, just for being a certain race. Oh the entitelment of these kiddos and their parents. But I digress.
Nothing made me ridiculously mad last year. D had a surprisingly low-stress senior year and college application season. We had to work hard to find the right schools for her; once the list was done, everything fell into place. But the following made me very sad:
the intense pressure students place on themselves for the sake of “prestige” I wish they would focus on the quality of education and opportunity rather than the name. This leads to many more potential schools.
Finding students in activities, sometimes in leadership roles, because their parents forced them to join. One farther admitted to me his daughter would never have joined one activity but he made her join. Then he made sure she got a leadership position. All for her college resume. She quit both in the spring.
Finances - not so much the cost of private colleges but the way some parents ignore this aspect until the spring because they “want to consider all options” or just didn’t want to share their financial info with their children. That’s fine but run the numbers on the college list and tell the child which colleges are affordable and which are not. I saw so many kids without options this spring. I always wondered why the local high school sent so many kids, including top 10% students, to the community college. Now I know.
The students who say they “wasted” their high school years because they didn’t get into the single or teen digit acceptance school of choice and now they have to attend the same (safety) university as the lesser students. Rigorous high school classes are never wasted.
OTOH, it makes me very sad that so many students feel they have to trade sleep and health for grades. Health always comes first.
Actually what made me angry was the way our local high school bragged on our children’s accomplishments but they did very little to help. No one received any college counseling. Students were not told about the importance or role of the PSAT. No one spoke about possible need for SAT II subject exams. Several excellent students couldn’t even apply to top schools because they just didn’t have time to fulfill the test requirements. No one was told about high merit schools like Alabama. I got lucky and found CC when D was a sophomore in high school.
As a parent, my main beef is with the way FA is computed. Specifically, it doesn’t account for the geographical differences in cost of living. A typical, expensive elite/major university will recruit from all 50 states and they would offer the same FA package to two identically qualified students, regardless of where they come from. That’s just wrong!
There is a significant difference in cost of living and therefore disposalble family income between a student from New York and one from Mississippi. I offer this link as evidence: http://taxfoundation.org/blog/real-value-100-each-state-0
FA calculations need to account for geographical cost of living, not just income and assets!
Too many tests. You should be able to submit an A.P. in place of any subject SAT. (Maybe just abolish the subject SAT’s completely.)
Also, some schools require specific subject SAT’s for certain colleges. We just found out about this accelerated medical program at Northwestern. You need to submit a subject SAT in chemistry. So, my kid took chemistry as a sophomore and will again as a senior. She just looked at Northwestern (this summer between Junior/Senior year). She won’t have time to study and take the subject SAT in chemistry before November. So, she now won’t even consider that program when thinking about applying to Northwestern. Kids are expected to know what they want way too far in advance!!!
I am fine with passion essays because you need to be a top applicant to be considered for top school, and in order to do so, you need to have something that drives your life.
Only thing I really don’t like is that race is a factor; all my hard works are downplayed just because there are other Asians who work hard like me. What others do shouldn’t affect me, right?
On the flip side of what another member said, the fact that some colleges (coughUMass Amherstcough) do NOT look at SAT writing scores. I got a 790 on the writing and a 10 on the essay, which I feel was definitely well-written. Without that section, I only had a 1210/1600 (660 CR, 550 M). And because of the fact that my GPA was disproportionate to my SAT score, the fact that UMass decided to ignore the writing section screwed me over.
The worst part about college admissions is that if you decide you want to play the game of “Get admitted to a top 10 school.” you should probably decide to do so at around age 12-13. If you decide any later you are pretty late to the game.
I think it’s absolutely ridiculous how your race is a factor of whether you get into a school or not. Although affirmative action has been banned in various states and schools, there’s no doubt that certain races have a harder time getting into a school. I’m all for diversity, and I understand not wanting a school to be filled with one race, more specifically Asian, but what in the world happened to merit? What happened to earning your way into something? Accepting less qualified applicants to have more diversity will, in the end, bring more detriments to our society rather than benefits. Professions will be filled with those who did not truly deserve those jobs, while the deserving people who were rejected from their dream school will be unfairly given a future that is not as good as what they could have had. I wish things such as race were not revealed to those who accept applicants.