The "Dear Sir" and "Mr." built into the form letter on page 7 caught my eye. That's not something you see anymore.
JFK's Application to Harvard
61–70 of 90 posts
Re: JFK's Application to Harvard
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are other abilities that are not measured by tests, such as the ability to get on with people, humility, courage, willingness to learn from mistakes, insight, etc. According to Robert McNamara, JFK's ability to empathise with the Russians' position was very important in resolving the cuban missile crisis. As was his courage in facing down the military who wanted to attack cuba. Presumably he had also learnt fro…
George W. Bush wasn't a one dimensional idiot either. He had a lot of charisma and people skills and is probably one of the highest Presidents of all time on the 'would like to have a beer with him' barometer, even now. I always thought of JFK as more like Obama (or rather, I thought of Obama as like JFK). As in, a genius. It is pretty clear from this application that a genius he was not.
> George W. Bush wasn't a one dimensional idiot either. He had a lot of charisma and people skills and is probably one of the highest Presidents of all time on the 'would like to have a beer with him' barometer, even now.
I would have thought the beer thing was a colloquialism for approval rating. If that's so, you're incorrect: at 22% his final approval rating was the worst in history, since they began recording such things in the thirties.
Re: JFK's Application to Harvard
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does his application make him out to be unworthy? I'm having a difficult time reading bits.
He would barely qualify for a state directional school with those grades at that time. Had he not been the son of Joe Kennedy, his school counselors almost certainly would have tried to steer him towards manual labor.
What do you base that on? Do you have the historical college admission records from the other 109 kids in his class? All 110 kids in his class at Choate are likely to be Ivy League material. I base this off of their current stats posted at http://www.choate.edu/admission/25greatreasons.aspx
The most popular colleges from 2008-2012: Georgetown University, 48; New York University, 40; Yale University, 38; Boston University, 32; Columbia University, The George Washington University, 31; Boston College, 30; Wesleyan University, 29; Cornell University, 24; Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, 21; Brown University, Trinity College, 20.
Re: JFK's Application to Harvard
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't speak for Harvard in particular, but back in the '30s, grade inflation hadn't yet taken hold, so it was quite normal for there to be many students with Cs, rather than 90% As like today. http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/the-history-of-...
That doesn't explain his middle-of-the-pack class ranking. Even at a prestigious boarding school that's not exactly "Harvard material". (Well, I guess it is...) Clearly he got in because of family connections.
Straight C's at Andover/Exeter are more impressive to a dean of admissions than a 4.0 at a public school.
(Not saying that one is more difficult than another, as I honestly have no clue.)
Re: JFK's Application to Harvard
#65Its easy to be critical of JFK's admission to Harvard as a result of priviledge. I think it natural and correct.
Lots of people go to Harvard, ordinary (my niece) and priviledged. Those with money and power, use it to get good things for their progeny.
Else why gain money and power? Its not just scorekeeping. If I can't work hard to get better things for my children, then its all a game.
In a free market things are for sale, and good things cost more. Harvard is a private institution. They use legacy, money, ability about equally as admission standards. And it has served them well.
Re: JFK's Application to Harvard
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
His comment doesn't really seem partisan in any way to me. It's just a statement that it would be interesting to see the current president's college applications too, as it would be interesting to see any president's college applications.
Then why not change the subject to Coolidge?
Now you're being disingenuous. It is quite simple:
People have many interests. Interest is not a binary term - One can be interested in varying degrees.
Perhaps he is interested in all presidents' admission records, but more interested in the current president because it is more relevant to his life than others. Just because there is relevance, does NOT imply partisanship.
By analogy I find operating system internals interesting. I am interested in how many of them do things. However I find discussions about Windows more interesting than those about multics. Not because I am a fan of windows (I am not) nor because I hate windows (I don't, it is a decent OS these days, I just prefer others), but because it is relevant to my life as a person living in the era where it is actually being used.
Note, this won't stop me from reading an interesting new article about the multics way, just that when offered a source with new (to me) insights on windows or multics, I would choose windows.
Re: JFK's Application to Harvard
#67Its easy to be critical of JFK's admission to Harvard as a result of priviledge. I think it natural and correct. Lots of people go to Harvard, ordinary (my niece) and priviledged. Those with money and power, use it to get good things for their progeny. Else why gain money and power? Its not just scorekeeping. If I can't work hard to get better things for my children, then its all a game. In a free market things are f…
>They use legacy, money, ability about equally as admission standards.
No they don't. Harvard, like just about every university these days, has need-blind admissions.
http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/financial_aid/inde...
As a middle-class high school senior, I would like to point at that Harvard's net price per year for me would be ~$13,000, or roughly half the in-state price of my local state school, the University of Wisconsin (~$24,000). The notion that Harvard favors the rich is BS as far as I can tell. I think it's a bit more likely the rich more consistently pressure and enable their children to prepare.
Re: JFK's Application to Harvard
#68They should put up Obama's application to Harvard...or Occidental and Columbia for that matter.
Do we really need every thread that mentions the keyword 'President' to contain this kind of partisan rubbish? I don't see you calling for Reagan's, Bush's or Romney's applications.
The reason people don't seem to be calling for those applications is because of family ties and connections, there was certainly never speculation that any of those men attended college on a Foreign Exchange scholarship.
I am not a fan of all the political hogwash about Obama not being American etc. I have plenty of gripes with just about every president on their politics alone and he is certainly no different, so for me if I am going to complain it will not be about where he is from or speculation about his birthplace but about his Senate voting record or the fact that his healthcare bill has little to do with Healthcare for the majority of the 2,600+ pages.
But honestly there is no reason to get upset that people are asking. The entire time Bush was in office people were speculating he was a C student and wanting his transcripts, they talked about how he only got in because of being a Legacy etc.
The only real difference was that apparently it was ok to pick on Bush, just do not do it to Obama since that somehow is not fair?
When you take the highest office in the land you open yourself up to scrutiny if you or your supporters cannot handle that then simply do not run.
President Obama was one of the MOST critical people of Geroge W Bush as a sitting president, he of all people should understand people reserve the right to be critical of him as well.
Re: JFK's Application to Harvard
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are other abilities that are not measured by tests, such as the ability to get on with people, humility, courage, willingness to learn from mistakes, insight, etc. According to Robert McNamara, JFK's ability to empathise with the Russians' position was very important in resolving the cuban missile crisis. As was his courage in facing down the military who wanted to attack cuba. Presumably he had also learnt fro…
George W. Bush wasn't a one dimensional idiot either. He had a lot of charisma and people skills and is probably one of the highest Presidents of all time on the 'would like to have a beer with him' barometer, even now. I always thought of JFK as more like Obama (or rather, I thought of Obama as like JFK). As in, a genius. It is pretty clear from this application that a genius he was not.
You have a mistaken idea of genius as someone who is good at everything. They just have to be exceptionally gifted in one or more things to get noticed in history books.
Re: JFK's Application to Harvard
#70Its easy to be critical of JFK's admission to Harvard as a result of priviledge. I think it natural and correct. Lots of people go to Harvard, ordinary (my niece) and priviledged. Those with money and power, use it to get good things for their progeny. Else why gain money and power? Its not just scorekeeping. If I can't work hard to get better things for my children, then its all a game. In a free market things are f…
>They use legacy, money, ability about equally as admission standards. No they don't. Harvard, like just about every university these days, has need-blind admissions. http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/financial_aid/inde... As a middle-class high school senior, I would like to point at that Harvard's net price per year for me would be ~$13,000, or roughly half the in-state price of my local state school, the U…
> >They use legacy, money, ability about equally as admission standards.
> No they don't. Harvard, like just about every university these days, has need-blind admissions.
"Need blind" doesn't imply "legacy blind" or "blind to the political connections of the applicant's family". Harvard may not distinguish between someone who can pay and someone who can't, but I would be surprised if they didn't distinguish between someone who can pay for tuition and someone who can pay for a new wing of the library.