re: #646 LudwigVanQuixote

Getting into any of the ivy’s is a crap shoot. Assuming a student is good enough and would by all metrics be likely to do fabulously, there are still five applicants for each slot. I didn’t say ten or twenty because I am pointing out that even amongst the kids who designed reactors in the second grade, it is a crap shoot.

re: #647 Obdicut

I had a high school transcript that was very, um, odd. I had Cs and As. I had an entire year almost missing, when I was in England— they only do three classes per year in England.

I got into Cornell and University of Chicago. Because schools are often looking for people who are a little on the different style, and I wrote a hell of an essay.

When someone gets into Harvard, the appropriate response is ‘congrats’, not “Affirmative action blargh”.

I think that what gets a lot of even well-meaning folks pissed off is that, even though they went to good schools (albeit a while ago), as an undergraduate and even a graduate student you don’t really have much of a clue of how colleges select their student bodies.

Then when their kids and friends’ kids are applying, they couple this extremely hazy notion of the selection process with a generally inflated view of their kids’ abilities (which is of course natural - we all have that).

Cue disappointment.