Rant on College Admissions and Applications - Page 3

On October 15 2013 22:24 babylon wrote:

Depends on the type of affirmative action. I agree that the current system's a wash though.

There were a lot of great students at my school who got into great places, then some mediocre students who got into great places, and then some some great students who didn't get into great places. It did seem like kind of a crapshoot to me, results all across the board. No glaring example of affirmative action really affecting much though.

If a Harvard athletic team is recruiting me, do I have to go through the same admissions process as other applicants?

Yes. All prospective student-athletes must be accepted by the Harvard Admissions Office in order to play for a Harvard athletic team. Since all Ivy League schools do not award athletic scholarships, there are no signing dates for the National Letter of Intent. You will be notified of your acceptance into Harvard at the same time as all other applicants. To learn more about the application process, visit http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/.

On October 16 2013 15:32 Elegy wrote:
Hey OP, you're wrong.

Look:



Yeah.

This blog is full of unsupported evidence and reeks of little but bitterness.

And what the heck? You say if we read your application, we'd think your Asian? How does that not reek of racial profiling and racism on behalf of the OP?

Moreover, your point about student athletes is wrong. Look up evidence of student athlete GPA at top schools. Also, prove to me that starting some little club on campus where you solve chemistry problems is more worthy of admission than leading a champion water polo team. University is about fostering a lot more than just how good you are at solving something on paper. You're forgetting leadership, motivation, inspiration, and a host of other traits that student athletes tend to embody.

On October 16 2013 11:04 iamho wrote:
Sorry but this blog is laughable. Nobody gives a shit about where you go to college, not in the real world. And lol if you think investment banking analysts are people to be envied. They work 80 hours a week writing reports and presentations that nobody reads.

By the way, most people, even in this country, are lucky to be able to go to college at all. Most people wouldn't even dream of having the money to go to any of those "elite" private schools. Amazing how you entitled brats can be so oblivious to the world outside your gated communities.

On October 17 2013 03:35 Chocolate wrote:
If your family makes 180,000 or less then they don't like to charge more than 20k. It doesn't take money to go to those schools.

On October 17 2013 03:55 Vegetarian Wolf wrote:


Yeah...about that...

On October 17 2013 04:37 Smurfett3 wrote:

family income 100k before taxes, and providing financial support to my father's parents. College tuition was 50 a year, but financial aid slashed it to 26, so no. your views are completely scewed and this is only going to come up in the form of more problems throughout the years

edit: with this mindset, I wouldn't be suprised if you didn't get into any ivy league schools or the equivalent of that after this is all said and done

On October 17 2013 03:20 Chocolate wrote:

You are technically right, but ivies and schools like stanford are able to say this because they don't officially offer admissions before the normal letters go out. They actually send out these things called likely letters that are basically unofficial offers of admission with the caveat that students don't do anything stupid like get straight Ds or get arrested. Also, coaches are given a rough allotment of people they can accept each year as long as their mean (or median, I don't remember) is within one standard deviation of the academic index of the college as a whole (AI is a way to combine grades, scores, etc. into one. see this article).

And I think it was pretty stereotypical for me to think my application would make it appear I was a member of a certain race, but I did really well in this competition called the US National Chemistry Olympiad that would suggest that I was Asian, just from past results. If I did just a bit better I would have ben invited to their camp. You can see their names here. There have also been years where the entire camp was Asian. And I fit the stereotype with a lot of my after school activities like math team, academic teams, etc. Sorry if I offended you.

If you can find average gpas of athletes at top colleges then I'd like to see it. But I honestly think that a lot of those colleges would probably not willingly release that information.

On October 17 2013 07:09 babylon wrote:
If you go to the campus of a top school and ask students there if they think the athletes are dumber than they are, you won't receive a resounding, "Yes." In fact, you'll probably receive a resounding, "No."

Actually, if you go to the campuses of a top school and ask students there if they can list off anyone who they think don't deserve to be there, I'd be surprised if you get more than five names (and I'd be doubly surprised if they are all people who got preferential treatment during the admissions process).

On October 17 2013 06:44 Elegy wrote:


Well, look it up then.

New York Times says that the average math athlete (recruited) has 0.2 less points on his gpa (3.04 to 2.84).

Good luck trying to prove your statement here: "but their admission effectively locks out other people who are smarter and more likely to actually put a university education to good use (or better use)."

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/15/grading-college-athletes/?_r=0

A small decline in the average GPA means that that non-athletes are putting their college education to better use? Do you realize how silly that sounds?

Considering that the admissions process is NOT only about GPA and test scores, your points are both unfounded and ridiculous.

Again, there is more to college than what score you got on a test, or your overall GPA. You need to understand this.

You are also trapped in the naive belief that the specific ranking of your undergraduate education has some important, practical benefit later in life. In all seriousness, it really doesn't.

On October 17 2013 07:48 Elegy wrote:
Right, but you're missing the point.

You have no ability, right, or evidence that student athletes are, in any way, dumber than the rest of the student body. Moreover, since the admission process is holistic and includes things other than grades, you have no right to say that student athletes deserve their college education any less, nor do they value it any less than non athlete students.

You need to understand that schools want more then just booksmarts. Again, your blog stinks of jealousy or bitterness against student athletes. You go as far as to say that they don't value their education as much as other students, for God's sake...