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How I Snuck Into The Ivy League. And You Can Too.

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Re: How I Snuck Into The Ivy League. And You Can Too.

#51

Post by idm »

kyro wrote: post #50

A physician on the admissions board for a top 40 medical school told me the secret to their process. They separate each applicant into their respective ethnic background, take the top 5% of each pile, and then take a closer look at the individual applications. His words, verbatim, were "So if you're a black guy with a 3.2 gpa, you're good. But an Asian dude with a 3.9? You see that all the time; so good luck." The ar…

This is different at every school, and I've never heard of the system you described.

The two grad schools I've gotten a 'behind-the-scenes' look at work like this:

- a team of 3 will review applications

- the applications are split into 3 piles, one pile each

- they rank their pile in order

- the group reconvenes, and they make an argument for their favorites

The one prejudice I've heard of involves the reputation of your undergraduate school. If you weren't from a top-tier place, it would be tough to get onto the top of certain professors' piles.

That part sucks, but I can't corroborate your account of race-based admissions at all. I should also mention that I'm specifically talking about admissions to a graduate research program.

Re: How I Snuck Into The Ivy League. And You Can Too.

#52

Post by linhir »

If your resume says that you went to Columbia College (the undergraduate college of Columbia University) when you actually went to the School of General studies then you are lying, pure and simple. Now maybe you can get away with it and maybe many employers do not know the difference, but many do and the two do not look the same. College education at the elite level falls in line with the signaling model of education. If you get into Columbia College as an undergraduate it doesn't matter to many employers what you actually learned, its merely a signal for other things--like that you can learn reasonably easily, that you value education, that you're a relatively smart person, etc. If you go to a general studies program that signal, at least to those who know, is greatly diminished. I can earn an online BA from the Continuing Education School of Harvard University, does that seem the same to you as attending Harvard College?

Re: How I Snuck Into The Ivy League. And You Can Too.

#53

Post by [deleted] »

idm wrote: post #51
kyro wrote: post #50

A physician on the admissions board for a top 40 medical school told me the secret to their process. They separate each applicant into their respective ethnic background, take the top 5% of each pile, and then take a closer look at the individual applications. His words, verbatim, were "So if you're a black guy with a 3.2 gpa, you're good. But an Asian dude with a 3.9? You see that all the time; so good luck." The ar…

This is different at every school, and I've never heard of the system you described. The two grad schools I've gotten a 'behind-the-scenes' look at work like this: - a team of 3 will review applications - the applications are split into 3 piles, one pile each - they rank their pile in order - the group reconvenes, and they make an argument for their favorites The one prejudice I've heard of involves the reputation of…

[deleted]

Re: How I Snuck Into The Ivy League. And You Can Too.

#54

Post by eli »

csallen wrote: post #14
milkshakes wrote: post #10

Or you could just start "dropping in" on classes.. That's the first thing that came to mind when I read the title.

Really. I went to MIT for undergrad, and my experience there was nobody questions who you are in classes with 40+ people. (The one exception was an AI class I took senior year with Patrick Winston. There were almost 100 students, but he quite impressively memorized the names and faces of every student before the first day of class.)

I suspect most professors would be happy to have an extra student who really wants to be there, even if that student isn't actually a student.

Re: How I Snuck Into The Ivy League. And You Can Too.

#55

Post by justin »

InfinityX0 wrote: post #19
terryjsmith wrote: post #12

Let me just say that as the PHP developer at B5Media, which owns Crushable and other blogs, this is the last place I expected to see one of our articles. Please let me know if you have thoughts or feedback on the design or site itself.

Like the design, but I absolutely hate the brand name. You will forever be a Mashable-ripoff because of it. Nothing you can do now but ick, that was not a good decision.

I actually like the name. Not sure why, probably because I like crushing things.

Re: How I Snuck Into The Ivy League. And You Can Too.

#56

Post by bobf »

linhir wrote: post #52

If your resume says that you went to Columbia College (the undergraduate college of Columbia University) when you actually went to the School of General studies then you are lying, pure and simple. Now maybe you can get away with it and maybe many employers do not know the difference, but many do and the two do not look the same. College education at the elite level falls in line with the signaling model of education…

Doesn't it just depend on what is printed on your degree? You put whatever that says on your resume, simple enough.

Re: How I Snuck Into The Ivy League. And You Can Too.

#57

Post by dpritchett »

rubyrescue wrote: post #46

Quoting from a friend who went to a similar school: Wow, that is total misinformation. Yes, all the Ivy League schools have General Studies programs but they are looked at as an adult/evening education program. For example, Penn's General Studies program doesn't even require standardized test scores: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/lps/undergraduate/ba/ I'm sure a person can put on their resume that they have a Bachelor's f…

I fail to see the distinction. The Penn LPS FAQ (http://www.sas.upenn.edu/lps/faq/general) suggests that their night school students get the same degree and in some cases study with the same professors as the day students. Is there a reason to suspect the quality of the education would be dramatically different?

Re: How I Snuck Into The Ivy League. And You Can Too.

#58

Post by rubyrescue »

dpritchett wrote: post #57
rubyrescue wrote: post #46

Quoting from a friend who went to a similar school: Wow, that is total misinformation. Yes, all the Ivy League schools have General Studies programs but they are looked at as an adult/evening education program. For example, Penn's General Studies program doesn't even require standardized test scores: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/lps/undergraduate/ba/ I'm sure a person can put on their resume that they have a Bachelor's f…

I fail to see the distinction. The Penn LPS FAQ ( http://www.sas.upenn.edu/lps/faq/general ) suggests that their night school students get the same degree and in some cases study with the same professors as the day students. Is there a reason to suspect the quality of the education would be dramatically different?

He wasn't making a comment on the quality of the education; just the fact that it's dishonest to say that the General Studies degree is equivalent in terms of prestige, which the article implies.

Re: How I Snuck Into The Ivy League. And You Can Too.

#59

Post by dpritchett »

rubyrescue wrote: post #58
dpritchett wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fail to see the distinction. The Penn LPS FAQ ( http://www.sas.upenn.edu/lps/faq/general ) suggests that their night school students get the same degree and in some cases study with the same professors as the day students. Is there a reason to suspect the quality of the education would be dramatically different?

He wasn't making a comment on the quality of the education; just the fact that it's dishonest to say that the General Studies degree is equivalent in terms of prestige, which the article implies.

Ah. I would've thought them equivalent in terms of prestige, but I attended a state school in the southeast and don't spend too much time thinking about these things.

It really seems like you've managed to secure the top-tier education while sidestepping the selective admissions process. Quite the hack, no?

Re: How I Snuck Into The Ivy League. And You Can Too.

#60

Post by hyperbovine »

Once, at UC Berkeley, I attended an informational seminar on applying, where one of the admissions ladies got up and proceeded to tell a story about somebody who appealed her rejection five times, each time to a progressively higher authority on campus. IIRC she appealed all the way to the chancellor. When she got rejected, she would just fire off another letter of appeal. Finally they got tired of dealing with her and admitted her. She (the admission lady) closed by saying something like, "If you complain enough, you will eventually get your way here."

To this day that speech baffles me; I have no earthly idea why any self-interested admissions officer would tell that to a room full of prospective students and their parents.

OTOH the advice did turn out to be good; the squeaky wheels definitely get the grease at a large public university.

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