<p>@lookingforward,</p>
<p>Why could I change my opinion? I think that 1) holistic approach is fundamentally unfair, and 2) admission process to top colleges is so screwed up, that parents (or hired professionals) should participate. </p>
<p>āvarious countries, not just China or Indiaā</p>
<p>BTW, China and India - are multinational countries. With a diverse population. Moreover, China and India - 2/5 th of world population. </p>
<p>If you are per quota, international students from China and India should take 2/5th of all college spaces. </p>
<p>Geez calā¦of your supposed hooks, only 2 areā¦race and athlete, and that would be recuited athlete. Parent in prison???really, sorry for your kid.</p>
<p>@GA2012MOMā </p>
<p>Which hook did I get wrong? Please, let me know. </p>
<p>I hate stupid.</p>
<p>"I hate stupid. " I thought that you enjoy diversity.</p>
<p>parents in prison is certainly a hook. There are lots of priorities for foster children. Stable, 2 parent family is un-hook. </p>
<p>Athlete is a hook, even if it is a varsity team in HS. </p>
<p>Uneducated parents - hook. Parents with college degrees - un-hook. </p>
<p>Sexual orientation is a very popular hook, lately. </p>
<p>What I mind is her misinfo. Ad the tsunami of posts. It alters the exchange.</p>
<p>Regarding Why Stanford?</p>
<p>Because I love Taco Bell and Southwest architecture and the sublime environs of Palo Alto. :D</p>
<p>Why Princeton?</p>
<p>Because I love tigers, the color orange, love the preppy upper-class accents, and the eating clubs seem a great way to ensure I get enough to eat as a growing boy. :D</p>
<p>@mathyone ,</p>
<p>I donāt know how to explain it ā¦ but it is embarrassing to stress in an admission assay your race and gender. It is like writing about the fact that you have 2 arms and 2 legs. She was born this way, there is nothing to be proud about, there is nothing to be ashamed about. </p>
<p>Somehow, I wish we would live in a color-blind, gender-blind, diversity-blind, achievement-valued society. </p>
<p>Are admissions to med school, law school, business school, and other grad schools based on achievement or āholisticsā? Why?</p>
<p>I am not being obtuse, I really do not know, would be interested in the answer, and I think it is relevant to where this thread is going</p>
<p>"Correct me. Which hook did I get wrong? "
ESL is NOT a hook. </p>
<p>@californiaaaā Iām not sure why you addressed your post to me on page 30 of this thread. But you are sadly mistaken if you think Caltech and MIT donāt practice holistic admissions. They may weight academics a bit more than some other selective schools, but they care very much about the whole picture. (And my kid who didnāt get into MIT or Caltech wasnāt Asian - there were just too many kids like him. Iām not crying about it, he had good choices even if they werenāt his first choice.)</p>
<p>Cal, why would you have to explain your race in an essay? My daughter got into a tippy top lac and multiple medschools, didnāt have to explain her race. Given, medschools had interviews but ug not. Stillā¦why do you think it is such a big deal?</p>
<p>OP- ātipsā -which are always PLUSES - MIGHT be a deciding factor when comparing 2 equally qualified students.
for instance- being a national award winner or a famous movie star. </p>
<p>Having a parent in prison is not a PLUS.</p>
<p>An essay about how a student has OVERCOME the hardship of having a parent in prison can ātipā the scales in one students favor. Or not. </p>
<p>Hooks are far stronger determining factors-
Being a highly RECRUITED athlete, not just an athlete, can be a HOOK.
Having Alumni parents who have donated MILLIONS of $$ to a college can be a Hook.
Having a parent who is a professor at the college can be a hook. </p>
<p>Not sure about ESL.</p>
<p>I know that ESL was a hook, when my D applied to magnet HS. Because in California, school funding depends on the number of ESL students (if I understand in correctly).</p>
<p>To my surprise, ESL status is based on the language that is spoken at home. We speak Spanish at home, and my D. is labeled as ESL ā¦ although she speaks English better than Spanish. Wonderland. I donāt understand this strange logic and I am not even trying to understand it.</p>
<p>College application asks students what language their parents speak at home and what was their first language in childhood. Why do they need it?</p>
<p>As far as I know, Caltech and MIT do not practice diversity driven holistic approach. </p>
<p>"Somehow, I wish we would live in a color-blind, gender-blind, diversity-blind, achievement-valued society.
That would be nice, but we donāt. And since there are FAR more academically qualified applicants than spots available at the most competitive colleges, decisions have to be made by the admins based on the enrollment goals of each college. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>/applaud Menloparkmom!</p>
<p>Every so often, there comes a poster who comes here to debate and (I believe) persuade the group (and him or herself) to have all the answers. The result is ofen a dialogue of deaf people. A few years ago, there was this poster named Laserbrother who reinvented himself as DadII. About everything he told us about his approach (not sure he truly believed it) was wrong. Not until his daughter decided to pretty much ignore him and not until he started LISTENING, did things improve. His daughter choose to work at a school play as a light person (an obscure job, no pun intended) instead of chasing some additional academic star. It did cost her an unplugged computer, but the girl was right. And ā¦ Stanford agreed! </p>
<p>I really think that you ought to hire someone who will be given the reins to guide your kids, and this without much involvement on your part. And no matter how many faculty members you know at Stanford (as many know, their input is quite minimal, if any at all) and how much you learned from past experiences. </p>
<p>Frankly, the school you describe (including the OHS) does not sound at all like the one I believe to know. I am not sure if you are pulling our collective chain, but I do not think that many CCers who have kids at Stanford or attend the school at this time would recognize Stanford as you see it. </p>
<p>In the end, although it might not be apparent, people here are trying to help, and especially when sharing things we learned in the past. The hardest part of this is to change the arrested opinions of others. </p>
<p>If you really are convinced to know all the answers, you really should not have to waste much time here. On the other hand, if you really want to see your daughter obtain results commensurate to her abilities and drive, I believe that you could do worse than ā¦ paying attention to what plenty of people have been trying to tell you. </p>
<p>Regardless, I wish you and your D all the best! Seriously. </p>
<p>@menloparkmomā
- āthere are FAR more academically qualified applicants than spots available at the most competitive collegesā - take the best of the best, academically. In the former USSR they used to have proctored entrance exams, subject oriented. For example - math exam for math major. </p>
<ol>
<li>ādecisions have to be made by the admins based on the enrollment goals of each college.ā
And the enrollment goal is ??? ā¦ khmā¦khmā¦khmā¦</li>
</ol>