Not rich enough to buy way in, not poor enough for poverty-related affirmative action, and competing with too many sames.
Kids of parents making $158.2-222.4k/yr have worst odds of Ivy League acceptance
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Re: Kids of parents making $158.2-222.4k/yr have worst odds of Ivy League acceptance
#32But i don't want my kids going to ivy League. I want them to study what they need to know, have fun, and explore. We aren't rich, and they know that, and that level of stuffy education would be better in graduate or post grad, when they pay you to study there.
That was my conclusion as teen too. I went to in-state to a Big-10 school with one of the automatic merit scholarships based on ACT/SAT scores. Still got a great job out of college and moved out west to work at a FAANG (they recruited at my university). Pretty much a top outcome money wise I would've gotten at MIT (where I did get in).
This is classic survivorship bias. For every student that did make it out of those schools and did make it to FAANG, there are many many many more. A much higher % of university recruiting happens at MIT/Berkeley/CMU and as you mentioned, many of the in-state schools barely get recruited.
It definitely makes things easier IF you get in and IF you use the resources of the school to their full potential. Lot of ifs, but let's not discount the objective value of those schools in making the next set of decisions easier just because they didn't benefit you.
Re: Kids of parents making $158.2-222.4k/yr have worst odds of Ivy League acceptance
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
That was my conclusion as teen too. I went to in-state to a Big-10 school with one of the automatic merit scholarships based on ACT/SAT scores. Still got a great job out of college and moved out west to work at a FAANG (they recruited at my university). Pretty much a top outcome money wise I would've gotten at MIT (where I did get in).
This is classic survivorship bias. For every student that did make it out of those schools and did make it to FAANG, there are many many many more. A much higher % of university recruiting happens at MIT/Berkeley/CMU and as you mentioned, many of the in-state schools barely get recruited. It definitely makes things easier IF you get in and IF you use the resources of the school to their full potential. Lot of ifs, bu…
I think this is definitely the case for certain classes of jobs but I am skeptical about the value of those jobs.
For example, I think that consulting firm McKinsey does some kind of recruitment and job interview on campus during spring and then they announce who they are hiring for the next summer internship in Autumn. A lot of people try to get in and then there is kind of a weird thing on campus where people talk about who made it in. (I never applied so idk all the specifics just observed this.)
So is working at McKinsey or being a Google director or whatever, working at the other big consulting firms/Goldman Sachs really worth it? I don't know. It seems like they pay higher but I don't feel like there is a big value play for these firms. So really you just have people who play every trick in the book to make themselves appear impressive to get in to the school, then use that to get a job at McKinsey, then they do nothing useful there but at least they can say they were in a special club?? Is this really what's considered desirable? It just feels very artificial all the way down.
On the other hand if you didn't go to an Ivy+ I think there isn't really a barrier to doing interesting and useful things which aren't involved in this weird status game. That's not to say all students at those schools are like that but the places where degree matters the most seem questionable to me. I don't like speaking in generalities either but I think it's worth questioning this economic system we have set up with admissions and the job availability after graduation.
Re: Kids of parents making $158.2-222.4k/yr have worst odds of Ivy League acceptance
#34I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, affirmative action was a red herring meant to distract from the real barrier to multigenerational economic-growth. It’s always been about money/class. Diversity matters, but would politicians have voted against the interests of their own progeny? I think not.
Re: Kids of parents making $158.2-222.4k/yr have worst odds of Ivy League acceptance
#35> Amanda’s daughter Marie attended private school, speaks Mandarin, had an unweighted GPA of 4.1, and earned a 1560 on the SAT… Marie currently attends a university that did not make the U.S. News & World Report list of top-50 public schools How is it possible not to get into a state flagship with a 1500+ SAT? If I was white or Asian with college aged kids I’d move to Texas or Georgia.
Perhaps she's from California?
UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, UC Davis UC Irvine have insane freshmen profile and it's possible that she went to school that might not be nationally ranked but is a good school on its own right (i.e. Cal Poly).
Re: Kids of parents making $158.2-222.4k/yr have worst odds of Ivy League acceptance
#36But i don't want my kids going to ivy League. I want them to study what they need to know, have fun, and explore. We aren't rich, and they know that, and that level of stuffy education would be better in graduate or post grad, when they pay you to study there.
That was my conclusion as teen too. I went to in-state to a Big-10 school with one of the automatic merit scholarships based on ACT/SAT scores. Still got a great job out of college and moved out west to work at a FAANG (they recruited at my university). Pretty much a top outcome money wise I would've gotten at MIT (where I did get in).
> I would've gotten at MIT (where I did get in).
Not sure I follow. You got admitted at MIT and decided to go to a Big-10 school? Is Big-10 the Big Ten Conference, with Ohio State and U Michigan?
You really did that?
Have you ever seen this ?
https://sfs.mit.edu/undergraduate-students/the-cost-of-atten...
> 58% of full-time undergraduates received an MIT Scholarship during the 2022–2023 academic year. Among those, the median family contribution after student term-time work was $9,926.Re: Kids of parents making $158.2-222.4k/yr have worst odds of Ivy League acceptance
#37> Amanda’s daughter Marie attended private school, speaks Mandarin, had an unweighted GPA of 4.1, and earned a 1560 on the SAT… Marie currently attends a university that did not make the U.S. News & World Report list of top-50 public schools How is it possible not to get into a state flagship with a 1500+ SAT? If I was white or Asian with college aged kids I’d move to Texas or Georgia.
In which states can't you? California? You're a mortal lock for Illinois with those stats.
Re: Kids of parents making $158.2-222.4k/yr have worst odds of Ivy League acceptance
#38But i don't want my kids going to ivy League. I want them to study what they need to know, have fun, and explore. We aren't rich, and they know that, and that level of stuffy education would be better in graduate or post grad, when they pay you to study there.
I want my kids to go where they want to go. If that happens to be Ivy, so be it. If that happens to be MIT/Caltech/Stanford, so be it.
When parents lament or worry about their kids not being able to get into Ivy League schools, I think it's less about those specific eight institutions and more about whatever selective college they might want to attend.
Re: Kids of parents making $158.2-222.4k/yr have worst odds of Ivy League acceptance
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not intended as so (and anyway I am not a likely donor). I was just surprised that they didn't waste a moment and got right down to it.
They’re no less transactional than a used car dealership, they just hide it better
I can only assume you mean the used car dealership hides it better.
Re: Kids of parents making $158.2-222.4k/yr have worst odds of Ivy League acceptance
#40> Amanda’s daughter Marie attended private school, speaks Mandarin, had an unweighted GPA of 4.1, and earned a 1560 on the SAT… Marie currently attends a university that did not make the U.S. News & World Report list of top-50 public schools How is it possible not to get into a state flagship with a 1500+ SAT? If I was white or Asian with college aged kids I’d move to Texas or Georgia.
In which states can't you? California? You're a mortal lock for Illinois with those stats.
I don’t know, I’m asking. Have state flagships become that competitive? I got into UIUC, Perdue, and GT (all top 50) with a similar SAT and much worse GPA. But that was 22 years ago. I think GT had a 60% acceptance rate my year. But University of Maryland, which wasn’t even on my radar back then, somehow has an SAT median of 1450 now. That used to near-Ivy range back when I was applying.