Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

YC at Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, UPenn

blog.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 98 posts

Re: YC at Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, UPenn

#51

Post by nitrogen »

paulsmith34 wrote: post #41
morgante wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, it's hardly impossible. My parents have qualified for food stamps at times yet I still had a pretty decent education.

Being the exception doesn't exclude the fact that poor kids are at disadvantage of gaining admissions to Ivies. A student from Phillips Exeter Academy has a much higher chance of being accepted vs a very smart but poor kid from a rural America high school.

As an example of this comment's point, one of the problems where I grew up is that when you told the guidance counselor you wanted to go to MIT she said, basically, don't bother.

Re: YC at Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, UPenn

#52

Post by John23832 »

paulsmith34 wrote: post #37
morgante wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These schools are actually some of the most affordable in the country due to their extremely generous financial aid. Poor families pay nothing and even middle class families have minimal contributions. (For example, all of the elite universities I was accepted to cost less than my state school would have.)

>These schools are actually some of the most affordable in the country due to their extremely generous financial aid. Poor families pay nothing and even middle class families have minimal contributions. Except they do not lower the admissions requirements for poor kid that attended sub-par secondary schools. These are the exact kids that would be excluded admissions (in most cases) because third rate secondary school…

I don't know if we should advocate lowering standards of admissions.

Re: YC at Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, UPenn

#53

Post by John23832 »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #27
aleeds wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's really the problem. Sure, its cheap and they have great financial aid, but they don't pay for the tutors and the "life changing" experiences in Africa the rich kids have.

This just ain't reality. Most kids don't get in because they took a trip to Africa. Parents that pay a ton of money on making their kids the perfect college applicant generally get a bad deal and are a small minority.

It's not about paying to pad the application. There are legit methods of expanding your kid's world/mind. Those method generally cost more money than sitting in the house all summer watching tv.

Re: YC at Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, UPenn

#54

Post by morgante »

pitt1980 wrote: post #44
morgante wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Top schools attract a disproportionate of intelligent young people. Ignoring that would be stupid.

Columbia has 8,410 undergraduates University of Illinois has 32,878 undergraduates the 75% SAT score for the college of engineering at University of Illinois was 1530 (no writing, so out of 1600) https://admissions.illinois.edu/Apply/Freshman/profile the 75% SAT score at Columbia was 2330 (including writing so 2330 * 2/3 = 1553.33333333 https://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/classprofile/2019 ----------------- the…

> University of Illinois has 32,878 undergraduates

That's a fair point. It'd be interesting if YC could do some sort of data analysis on attendance for their events at a big state school vs. an elite school.

> Illinois students aren't filtered by exactly how generous a discount the financial aid office

Most elite universities are need-blind.

Spreading these myths does a disservice to smart, poor kids. Thinking they can't possibly get in, or afford it if they do, dissuades many of the underrepresented students from applying. That's part of why I push back so hard when people try to spread bullshit or the notion that you can only go to Harvard if you're rich.

> I suspect the top 25% does pretty well scholarship money wise at Illinois too

I can tell you that elite universities were a lot more generous with scholarships for me (smart, poor kid) than any lower tier schools.

Re: YC at Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, UPenn

#55

Post by nitrogen »

Kephael wrote: post #47
sotojuan wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stanford takes care of tuition for families under $125k of assets, but even that means the upper middle classes will spend tons because they'll fall out of that range.

Exactly, less than 125k in assets is absolutely nothing. The reality is that a married couple consisting of two working professionals will not qualify for any of these reduced tuition schemes.

It would help if they also considered whether that income was from one or two people, and divided it by the number of kids so larger families with parents working multiple jobs aren't penalized.

Re: YC at Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, UPenn

#56

Post by morgante »

nitrogen wrote: post #51
paulsmith34 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being the exception doesn't exclude the fact that poor kids are at disadvantage of gaining admissions to Ivies. A student from Phillips Exeter Academy has a much higher chance of being accepted vs a very smart but poor kid from a rural America high school.

As an example of this comment's point, one of the problems where I grew up is that when you told the guidance counselor you wanted to go to MIT she said, basically, don't bother.

She probably said that because of all the people pushing the narrative that elite schools are only for rich kids. Spreading this myth dissuades thousands of qualified students from applying to top schools where they would get a great education for free.

Re: YC at Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, UPenn

#57

Post by anotherarray »

morgante wrote: post #20
anotherarray wrote: post #7

What about the other 99% of talented students that couldn't afford these schools?

These schools are actually some of the most affordable in the country due to their extremely generous financial aid. Poor families pay nothing and even middle class families have minimal contributions. (For example, all of the elite universities I was accepted to cost less than my state school would have.)

You're also forgetting there are also talented students outside of the United States.

Re: YC at Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, UPenn

#59

Post by [deleted] »

katm wrote: post #23
ilamont wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When YC posts about visiting the top-tier schools, it gives the impression that they are the only schools that matter. And I have to ask: If the Ivies/MIT/Stanford aren't the only schools that matter, why call them out in a post that's distinct from the winter tour post?

I'm calling out the schools this time because when I submitted a post titled "YC Winter Tour 2016" last year, this is how it performed on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10881402 .

[deleted]

Re: YC at Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, UPenn

#60

Post by grmarcil »

pitt1980 wrote: post #44
morgante wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Top schools attract a disproportionate of intelligent young people. Ignoring that would be stupid.

Columbia has 8,410 undergraduates University of Illinois has 32,878 undergraduates the 75% SAT score for the college of engineering at University of Illinois was 1530 (no writing, so out of 1600) https://admissions.illinois.edu/Apply/Freshman/profile the 75% SAT score at Columbia was 2330 (including writing so 2330 * 2/3 = 1553.33333333 https://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/classprofile/2019 ----------------- the…

Is Illinois really a good choice for contrast with Columbia? Yes it is a state school, so it has less elite-sounding brand than Columbia, but UI actually outranks Columbia in most STEM fields.
Post reply on HN