Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

To (All) the Colleges That Rejected Me (Excellent Piece on Warped College Admissions!)
The Wall Street Journal ^ | March 29, 2013, 6:31 p.m. ET | SUZY LEE WEISS

Posted on 04/03/2013 8:09:12 AM PDT by TSgt

Like me, millions of high-school seniors with sour grapes are asking themselves this week how they failed to get into the colleges of their dreams. It's simple: For years, they—we—were lied to.

Colleges tell you, "Just be yourself." That is great advice, as long as yourself has nine extracurriculars, six leadership positions, three varsity sports, killer SAT scores and two moms. Then by all means, be yourself! If you work at a local pizza shop and are the slowest person on the cross-country team, consider taking your business elsewhere.

What could I have done differently over the past years?

For starters, had I known two years ago what I know now, I would have gladly worn a headdress to school. Show me to any closet, and I would've happily come out of it. "Diversity!" I offer about as much diversity as a saltine cracker. If it were up to me, I would've been any of the diversities: Navajo, Pacific Islander, anything. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, I salute you and your 1/32 Cherokee heritage.

I also probably should have started a fake charity. Providing veterinary services for homeless people's pets. Collecting donations for the underprivileged chimpanzees of the Congo. Raising awareness for Chapped-Lips-in-the-Winter Syndrome. Fun-runs, dance-a-thons, bake sales—as long as you're using someone else's misfortunes to try to propel yourself into the Ivy League, you're golden.

...

Then there was summer camp. I should've done what I knew was best—go to Africa, scoop up some suffering child, take a few pictures, and write my essays about how spending that afternoon with Kinto changed my life. Because everyone knows that if you don't have anything difficult going on in your own life, you should just hop on a plane so you're able to talk about what other people have to deal with.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News
KEYWORDS: academia; diversity; highereducation
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120121-125 next last
To: ImaGraftedBranch
If you haven’t put a smile on someone’s face, gave them hope, fed or provided for those less fortunate, you are missing out on one of the greatest joys you can have in life.

There are people starving in Kentucky.
101 posted on 04/03/2013 11:33:13 AM PDT by TSgt (The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 87 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator
66 posted on 4/3/2013 11:32:40 AM by dfwgator: “SATs are everything.”

Obviously SATs and grades are important, but I can't agree completely.

America's top educational institutions view themselves as having a product — a way of thinking about the world through education — that can influence society for good. They want to admit students with promise who can use that education for the best purposes possible.

Let's forget liberal arts or social science careers for a minute.

Let's say you are an admission officer making a decision on admitting students to a business degree program. You have two applicants:

1) a brainy kid from an upper-class family in an east coast state who loves video games and has high SAT scores but never did anything in his high school life to indicate any particular ambitions in life beyond going back to work for and eventually inherit his father's small business, or

2) a smart but non-genius kid with somewhat lower test scores who is from an inner-city background, worked in high school in his immigrant father's small restaurant, and has a goal in life of starting his own business and then serving as a model helping inner-city residents learn to start their own businesses.

Many conservatives, even those who would never support racial preferences, will say they'd work extra hard to get the second student to enroll in a good conservative college with a solid business program and a philosophy of free enterprise, and they'd be right to do so. The first student is probably going to do okay no matter what school he goes to. The second student might very well get sucked into a liberal college that would harm him, or at least not help him.

Liberal admissions officers at elite schools also work harder with some students than others, and that is entirely appropriate when dealing with the upper levels of education where not every good student who wants to get in can realistically be admitted.

102 posted on 04/03/2013 11:34:37 AM PDT by darrellmaurina
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: darrellmaurina

“Princeton can use a guy like Joel.” LOL!


103 posted on 04/03/2013 11:37:29 AM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 102 | View Replies]

To: sitetest
great grades and test scores are still required. It's just that at this point, they’re just the prerequisites.

Of course. But my point was, kids with lower grades and test scores can still get admitted over kids who are native-born traditional Americans of European extraction and outstanding credentials and accomplishments. I responded to someone who implied that some kids just don't work hard enough. In my experience, hard work is a turn-off to today's liberal power elites.

104 posted on 04/03/2013 12:27:46 PM PDT by Albion Wilde ("Commies out of D.C.!" --Raoul Deming, 1954-2013)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 89 | View Replies]

To: TSgt

The current message of college admissions personnel: “You may have a genius IQ and straight A’s, but if you’re White and not utterly PC, don’t bother to apply.”


105 posted on 04/03/2013 1:07:00 PM PDT by Jack Hammer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Sergio
Manhole covers are round so they cannot fall into the hole they are covering.

They are also easier to move, being round you can roll them to a different location.

106 posted on 04/03/2013 1:36:07 PM PDT by verga (A nation divided by Zero!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 82 | View Replies]

To: MrB
IIRC, there was no “he” as a author.

This was done as a group project for a college class and each chapter was written by a different person.

Amazon Credits Max Brooks (sone of Mel Brooks):

The New York Times bestselling author of The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z, Max Brooks has been called "the Studs Terkel of zombie journalism." He lives in New York City but is ready to move to a more remote and defensible location at a moment's notice.

Max Brooks's The Zombie Survival Guide formed the core of the world's civilian survival manuals during the Zombie War.

Mr. Brooks subsequently spent years traveling to every part of the globe in order to conduct the face-to-face interviews that have been incorporated into World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War.

107 posted on 04/03/2013 1:49:58 PM PDT by verga (A nation divided by Zero!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 98 | View Replies]

To: verga

Fictitious author in a conjectured future?


108 posted on 04/03/2013 1:52:18 PM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 107 | View Replies]

To: MrB

Link to his authors page on amazon http://www.amazon.com/Max-Brooks/e/B001IGLRRU/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1


109 posted on 04/03/2013 1:54:30 PM PDT by verga (A nation divided by Zero!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 108 | View Replies]

To: Hemingway's Ghost
You were lucky. You missed the first class of womyn. Fundamental change for the worse.
110 posted on 04/03/2013 3:55:51 PM PDT by Jacquerie ('77 Sir!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: ken in texas

Applicants to all service academies, except the United States Coast Guard Academy, are required to obtain a nomination to the schools. Nominations may be made by Congressional Representatives, Senators, the Vice President and the President. Applicants to the Coast Guard Academy compete in a direct nationwide competitive process that has no by-state quotas.

Friends or family of the above have a pretty good head start.


111 posted on 04/03/2013 3:57:30 PM PDT by Graybeard58 (_.. ._. .. _. _._ __ ___ ._. . ___ ..._ ._ ._.. _ .. _. .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 88 | View Replies]

To: Graybeard58

You are correct. It hasn’t changed since I attended USAFA.


112 posted on 04/03/2013 4:02:26 PM PDT by ken in texas (I was taught to respect my elders but it keeps getting harder to find any.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 111 | View Replies]

To: ken in texas
You are correct. It hasn’t changed since I attended USAFA.

I served 4 years in the U.S.A.F. that's where the similarities end.

113 posted on 04/03/2013 6:41:35 PM PDT by Graybeard58 (_.. ._. .. _. _._ __ ___ ._. . ___ ..._ ._ ._.. _ .. _. .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 112 | View Replies]

To: Jacquerie
Fundamental change for the worse.

Great subjects for comedic derision, though.

114 posted on 04/04/2013 5:39:03 AM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost (Spirit of '75)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 110 | View Replies]

To: verga

OK, I got a couple of my “zombie” projects mixed up.

“A History of the Great Zombie Wars” was a collaborative writing college project.


115 posted on 04/04/2013 5:43:14 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 109 | View Replies]

To: napscoordinator

She has a 4.5 GPA, and decent SAT.

I saw her on TV this morning, and she rubbed me the wrong way..but she had the creds for IVY league.


116 posted on 04/04/2013 6:00:07 AM PDT by Vermont Lt (Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Gaffer

Ahhh....that would be “person hole.” Jeez....//sarcasm


117 posted on 04/04/2013 6:02:11 AM PDT by Vermont Lt (Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: napscoordinator

While I would agree with you on that assessment, many universities are working hard to marginalize the SAT as an admissions criterion.

I’m glad to hear that the USNA is not. Or at least, I inferred that from your post.


118 posted on 04/04/2013 6:12:38 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: TSgt

Acceptance into the Poison Ivy League is not an honor,but a vice


119 posted on 04/04/2013 6:21:19 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 .....History is a process, not an event)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TSgt
I see her future.

A-Team editorial writer.

120 posted on 04/04/2013 6:25:38 AM PDT by Lazamataz ("AP" clearly stands for American Pravda. Our news media has become completely and proudly Soviet.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120121-125 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson