Harvard Admissions Employee: Ivy League Admissions Are a Scam

[AuH20]

Really really interesting..

http://gawker.com/ivy-league-admissi...arv-1690402410

This is stupid and wrong. The "self" of the average 18-year-old comes out the best in things like GPAs and SATs and extracurricular tests: it's easiest to measure how sharp someone is, how quickly they will respond to new ideas, and how much of a work ethic they have in calculated, standardized measures.

But the vast majority of elite school applicants are a long way from becoming a whole, self-actualized person. It's not their fault; only they've never faced real threats to their existence, had people depending on them for food and shelter, or lived in actual poverty for any amount of time.

Yet for the last few years, it's felt like the normal, inquisitive, relatively unfiltered teenager of the early 2000's has been replaced by dozens of little Russell Wilsons. Gone are the hard edges and the unintentional flashes of personality that made it seem like I was actually getting something accomplished in the course of (most) of these interviews. Nowadays, I've gotten layers of carefully-constructed defenses, designed to reveal only the most admission-friendly parts of the student.

Just once I would have loved to get an applicant who called out a stupid, predictable question for being what it is instead of dutifully reciting an impossibly trite, hand-wavingly general answer that cannot apply to all that many people. Someone who didn't sound like Mitt Romney when trying to relate to the challenges faced by people without blue blood.

Instead, I've seen a boringly predictable, on-trend parade of general excellence, like eating a dozen cronuts for dinner. It's interesting in the abstract, but the palate needs cleansing after a while. Hearing the liberal-upper-middle-class consensus view of the world (but with a twist, like backpacking through Southeast Asia!) certainly does not hurt an applicant. On the other hand, if I wanted that I would just sit on the toilet and listen to NPR.

[devil21]

It was interesting to see what Harvard's logo is for the first time while watching the tourney earlier.

An 'H' on a red shield. Not that it surprised me really but it's right out in the open.

[willwash]

This is just like the Pickup Artist thread. You could compare a man trying to get laid to a high school student applying to college. In both cases the "applicants" do what they do because it works, but then the gatekeepers complain about it being trite and impersonal.

The parallels are actually pretty astonishing.

[PaulConventionWV]

It was interesting to see what Harvard's logo is for the first time while watching the tourney earlier.

An 'H' on a red shield. Not that it surprised me really but it's right out in the open.

I assume this is because you are aware of the German translation of 'Rothschild', correct?

Roth (old spelling) = red, Schild = shield

[devil21]

I assume this is because you are aware of the German translation of 'Rothschild', correct?

Roth (old spelling) = red, Schild = shield

Of course.

[dannno]

This is just like the Pickup Artist thread. You could compare a man trying to get laid to a high school student applying to college. In both cases the "applicants" do what they do because it works, but then the gatekeepers complain about it being trite and impersonal.

The parallels are actually pretty astonishing.

Astute observation.

[otherone]

OP:
A liberal complaining about liberal white privilege. A just god would have the whole institution implode upon itself.

if I wanted that I would just sit on the toilet and listen to NPR.

Drinking from the toilet, more appropriately .