Kids With Good Grades — but No Hardships — Struggle to Enter College

Fox News ^ | Tuesday, August 13, 2002 | Trace Gallagher

[RonF]

If parents work hard, stay together, and provide a nice childhood for their children...the kids will be punished. On the other hand, if you are a parent who is abusive, neglectful, or who abandons your children for some younger babe....then your kids have an inside track for admission to a top notch school.

Yes, but on the other hand one reason why we work hard, stay together, and provide a nice childhood for our kids is that if are abusive and neglectful of our kids they probably won't achieve well enough to qualify for the top notch school academically. The top schools do bend their admissions criteria some for such circumstances, but not much. They don't like to bring in kids who can't hack it and then leave. It messes up the financing and class size planning. And once admitted, grading is the same for all students, regardless of race or economic status.

My daughter applied to 6 schools, all top-rated, and got into one. I spoke to the admissions office there, and one of the officials told me this:

"We admit 1000 freshman. I could toss out the applications of all the 1000 kids we admit, take the next 1000, and they'd all be perfectly successful here. It's a numbers game."

Grades alone don't do it anymore at the top schools. Harvard actually refused admission to some kids who scored 1600 on the SAT's and were their class validictorians. It was because academics was all they did. They were on no teams or clubs, and seemed to have no other civic endeavors. They're looking for kids who have something to contribute to the school community besides their academic side. If you kid isn't into music, or art, or athletics, or some kinds of clubs or other organizations, or some kind of civic activity, they won't get into the top schools. I am quite sure that if my daughter hadn't been a strong athlete (softball, tennis, hockey), she wouldn't have been considered at the school she got into; not because the school values athletes particularly, but because it showed that she was a strong achiever outside the classroom as well as inside it.

[dennisw]

They've been trying to keep Asians out too.
________________

Then who are they trying to get in? Blacks? Hispanics? Gays? Even more women?

I'll bet "gay youth" can swing a better deal. How they suffered in high school from insults.

[Kozak]

no other civic endeavors

And here is the "commisar" factor in admission. Your child must of course participate in the "correct" civic activity. Environmentalism, progressive community organizing, recycling etc etc. Being say a leader in the junior NRA or a Young Republican is not gonna be "helpful".

[CatoRenasci]

You are absolutely correct that this is an attempt to keep Asian numbers down and black and hispanic numbers up. UC was never a pure numbers game once you met UC minimum standards (under the 1960 California Master Plan for Higher Education in effect in my day you needed a B average in UC-required college prep courses, and had to be in the top 12-1/2% of your high school class) -- each campus had slots for recruited athletes, legacies of prominent alumni, kids with special talents, and kids from schools like Lowell in San Francisco where the 12-1/2% requirement didn't apply ('cause you needed a 135IQ to get into Lowell) and so forth.

[Dakmar]

Then who are they trying to get in? Blacks? Hispanics? Gays? Even more women?

Bingo. You would be given a full scholorship and guaranteed a degree if you were a comatose black lesbian with AIDS, a history of alcoholism and domestic violence, and were a hispanic man prior to the operation.

[4America]

"Let's face it. Life is not fair. But most of us get over it and carry on with what life has dealt us -- and succeed."

ABSOLUTELY!!! VERY WELL SAID!

[dennisw]

This is only the beginning of the fallout from this low down scheme. Can imagine you make big bucks and pay big California taxes. Then your child is kept out of the elite university he deserves to get into?

You paid all those taxes to the state of California only to see your family get RIPPED OFF when it comes time to attend university. This is theivery!

[RonF]

Your child must of course participate in the "correct" civic activity. Environmentalism, progressive community organizing, recycling etc etc. Being say a leader in the junior NRA or a Young Republican is not gonna be "helpful".

That may well be, depending on the school. Some are better than others about this. A key is to see what kind of clubs are on campus and what their membership is. If there is a conservative group or two on campus, and they have any kind of sizable membership, then it won't be so bad.

[Dakmar]

This is theivery!

Name one hare-brained liberal scheme that isn't.

[Sam Cree]

"UC officials say the policy levels the playing field"

Translate: "UC officials say the policy is a step towards socialism"

Makes you think that colleges should have to operate at a profit or at least break even, just like Amtrak. Giving them public funds allows them to escape accountability.

[RonF]

Full scholarship, probably. Degree guarantee, that another story. Getting in and getting out, are two different things. During some recent scandals about athletes at NCAA Division I schools, it was revealed that only 50% of the scholarship athletes graduate. What I found scandalous, though, was that the general student body wasn't much better: as I recall, about 60%. So graduation is hardly guaranteed for matriculated students.

Of course, this included many instances of Enormous State University, as well as other schools. And note that most of the most exclusive schools are NCAA Division III, not Division I. But I still think that this number would change if the schools would concentrate more on an academic basis for admission.

[Frohickey]

Whatever happened to getting a job to pay for school?!!!

[Stand Watch Listen]

How are life challenges verifiable? Can't these kids make some up?

As more and more students learn to 'play the system'...they will. Even the diligent, scholarly, deserving students now 'know' the rules.

[Sam Cree]

You know, it sounds like what they are doing is giving preference to kids that had fouled up childhoods. My opinion is that the results of doing that could be very unpredictable in a negative way.

[Harrison Bergeron]

In 1972, a college classmate of mine created a ficticious infant son, for whom he was the sole support and care provider. It got him delays and make-ups for lots of assignments and exams, and a pretty steep sympathy curve on his grades. He was thirty years ahead of his time.

[Dakmar]

I went a little overboard with the degree part, but what the heck, it was just a rant anyway.

[CatoRenasci]

I think you're right, from what we're hearing. Schools want kids who are involved beyond just academics. Sports still seems to be the most desired area of achievement, followed by (really serious) music and then community service and 'leadership' activities.

Has your daughter done any varsity sport(s) in college, or has she just done club/intramural sports? We're looking at a mix of schools, some of which offer our daughter's sports as varsity sports, others where they're club sports. We are a little nervous, I confess, about the demands of NCAA Div. I sports, even sailing and fencing.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Then who are they trying to get in?

Anyone who won't demonstrate racist behavior (i.e., raise the curve) by achieving objectively quantifiable success.

[eniapmot]

What is 4.5 out of ? 5? How does that relate to letter grades?

[Harrison Bergeron]

"You would be given a full scholorship and guaranteed a degree if you were a comatose black lesbian with AIDS, a history of alcoholism and domestic violence, and were a hispanic man prior to the operation."

Sadly, if said comotose black HIV positive alcoholic abused lesbian hispanic transexual were a veteran, the liberal overseers would shave points from the admission score. It isn't fair I tell ya.