<p>Countless complaints have I heard over the years about "unreasonable" admission decisions. But my son was a NMSF! How can my daughter, who took 13 APs and scored 5s in all of them, not to mention being valedictorian and varsity athlete, be waitlisted?</p>
<p>Before hating on the seemingly-less-qualified salutatorian who got into Princeton and claiming that the entire admissions system is a randomized crapshoot, it's important to understand three realities:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Personality. There are many subtle subjective factors in play, and it's easy to underestimate their crucial role. They are nothing short of essential. In elite colleges' admissions, personality is as important - if not more important - in a candidate's acceptance as academic achievement and the sheer number of extracurriculars. When thousands of students score over the 99th percentile, this is where individual uniqueness stands out. Why should we accept another SAT 2300er when we already have 126 of them? How can we be so sure that the 127th SAT 2300er will revolutionize the world? Given a blind sample of people, trying to find which one will be the next Barack Obama or Jesus Christ using such measures as GPA is as ridiculous and meaningless as ranking rockstars by their license plate numbers. Sorry it may not seem meritocratic and rewarding of hard work, but life is not fair, and diversity is far more important to institutions on a grand scale. Imagine if every flower, every building, and every person in the world were painted the same, single shade of gray. How boring would that be?</p></li>
<li><p>Hidden factors. Not all people are eager to brag to others about their personal achievements or how they saved a life. Have you ever read any one else's common app and compared it to your own?</p></li>
<li><p>Orders of prestige. Let's say your son is the best at math in his school. So what? Every year, there are hundreds of applicants who've participated in the International Math Olympiad, and thousands of other prodigies who have by high school reached the professional level in their respective fields - nationally ranked virtuosic musicians, champion debaters, artists, athletes, and student leaders who've founded international organizations. These people all deserve their places, too. What makes you more special than them?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I am not saying these things to make people feel bad about themselves, but rather to encourage people to reflect more deeply before jealously attacking their neighbor next door who got accepted at their top-choice college. It is hard to avoid generalizing, but before jumping to conclusions about anyone else's results, we ought to ask how much we understand about college admissions as a whole and whether we truly know what other people have experienced.</p>
<p>(By the way, if you were accepted Early Decision or receive a likeable offer of admissions in Regular Decision, congratulations! =)</p>
<p>You are looking it from a perspective biased by your position as their mother. Not to sound like a dick, but, did you read their essays? Do they convey attributes nothing short of extraordinary and revolutionary? These schools really do demand that spark. A spark many of us seem to self-diagnose ourselves with. They don’t want kids who will attend and then fall into the cracks into normality as graduates. They need glorious beings who will continue to add gravity to the name “Ivy.” Someone who will be in the papers and a reader will say, “Uff, of course he went to Harvard.” After narrowing it down to kids with that level of potential, the task is now to decipher who will best acclimate to the environment of that school. For that reason alone, scores are not the main source of admissions review. </p>
<p>(I was deferred this year and got this talk from my seemingly endless lineage of Ivy-league family members - Yay for being the black sheep.)</p>
<p>My response to people who complain that they didn’t get in to one of the very top colleges is “It’s ________.” For instance, “little suzy didn’t get into Harvard… SHE’S SO PERFECT, HOW COULD SHE NOT GET IN???” “Because it’s Harvard.”</p>
<p>@rand0276: I am not a parent, though I agree with your point about having a spark. And best of luck on your RD!</p>
<p>@lilmelonred: The figure of speech, “rejected by Harvard”, is an umbrella term for waitlist/rejection from any highly selective institute (including MIT, Stanford, West Point, Juilliard, Chicago, etc). See Crimsonstained7’s comment</p>
<p>I’m sorry, but the OP totally lost me when they started talking about looking for the next Jesus Christ. Really?! I don’t think Harvard is spending one moment combing through its applications each year wondering if they somehow missed the rapture and He’s applying for undergrad. Can you imagine if you were the one that denied Him and those perceptive AOs over at Yale snagged Him?! Awkward.</p>
<p>IDK. My experience reading applications for an honors program at a large university has convinced me the weakest link in most applications, and the one that separates students from each other, is the letters. If students spent a fraction of the time they do obsessing over the number and right ECs and the essay “grooming” and informing their referees they would be better off. too many read cold and impersonal. Geesh, some of these real “superstars” come off as arrogant and cut-troat to the letter writers. This is usually supported by some comments in the applicant’s essays as well.
Oh, and that great teacher you think likes you a lot, be sure they have the experience and dedication to write an effective essay.</p>
<p>It’s kind of disappointing to read that letters of reference carry so much weight. Just one additional way kids at inferior schools aren’t on a level playing field in the ap process. "Grooming and “informing” their ref writers? We had seen the writing of S1’s teachers through misc correspondence and emails. He picked his references solely on the basis of the 2 teachers who could write the most coherent letters with the fewest grammar and spelling errors.</p>
<p>I don’t want to sound bitter. He did just fine. I am going to guess how “polished” the ref letters are corresponds highly to the income, ranking, and prestige of the HS. I figured the majority of the letters said the same types of things.</p>
<p>yes, that’s true. The best crafted and polished letters come from private/prep schools. Many of the teachers at these places are expected to work on letters of rec as part of their job over the summer. On the other hand, public school teachers do this on their own time.
Fret not over the last example. Experienced letter readers know this and try not to let overly crafted, well written letter trump genuine advocacy (I don’t want to imply all letters from private school lack sincerity).</p>