The spike in applicants is a combo of more foreign applicants + the colleges marketing themselves so they get more low quality applicants. This makes the acceptance rate look lower. The odds of getting in as a great student have decreased a bit but not all that much.
The test scores optional is also for legacies. Most kids of alumni are too stupid to get good SAT scores. Harder to accept them then. So just make it about something easier to fudge and then you can justify having the dim children of your alumni.
I spoke to head of admissions at a top school. The non legacy students who get in are all submitting test scores.
Enjoyed the read. One reason for the sudden spike in applicants is also the concept of need blind financial aid. If you think about it a lot of kids from lower income families now have a good shot at getting an Ivy League education. In short, they apply to an Ivy League as an option and if they do not get in then they go to their state college.
At this point the whole thing is a crazy lottery, and unless they have some serious AI systems I fail to believe that these colleges do a good job in reviewing so many more applications. What really kills me is the unrealistic pressure being put on teenagers to have perfect (and completely unrealistic) resumes.
I think more people should read Frank Bruni's book: "Where You Go (to college) Is Not Who You'll Be." And more important than having an Ivy League degree is the idea that kids have resilience, balance, passion, integrity and a desire to make this a better world.
Lastly, I think that many of these schools should focus less on the brand and more on educating more people to solve important world problems. Malcolm Gladwell pokes fun at how the likes of Harvard love to sit on their billions of endowment money like Smaug the Dragon. I went to Penn and feel that if Ben Franklin where alive today he would take issue with this state of affairs.
The spike in applicants is a combo of more foreign applicants + the colleges marketing themselves so they get more low quality applicants. This makes the acceptance rate look lower. The odds of getting in as a great student have decreased a bit but not all that much.
The test scores optional is also for legacies. Most kids of alumni are too stupid to get good SAT scores. Harder to accept them then. So just make it about something easier to fudge and then you can justify having the dim children of your alumni.
I spoke to head of admissions at a top school. The non legacy students who get in are all submitting test scores.
Eric,
Enjoyed the read. One reason for the sudden spike in applicants is also the concept of need blind financial aid. If you think about it a lot of kids from lower income families now have a good shot at getting an Ivy League education. In short, they apply to an Ivy League as an option and if they do not get in then they go to their state college.
At this point the whole thing is a crazy lottery, and unless they have some serious AI systems I fail to believe that these colleges do a good job in reviewing so many more applications. What really kills me is the unrealistic pressure being put on teenagers to have perfect (and completely unrealistic) resumes.
I think more people should read Frank Bruni's book: "Where You Go (to college) Is Not Who You'll Be." And more important than having an Ivy League degree is the idea that kids have resilience, balance, passion, integrity and a desire to make this a better world.
Lastly, I think that many of these schools should focus less on the brand and more on educating more people to solve important world problems. Malcolm Gladwell pokes fun at how the likes of Harvard love to sit on their billions of endowment money like Smaug the Dragon. I went to Penn and feel that if Ben Franklin where alive today he would take issue with this state of affairs.
David
'
Eric , how do you feel
About Robert F Kennedy’s chances beating biden ?