Arcadia Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 Nice article from San Jose Mercury News posted on Jan 5th, "WATSONVILLE -- The Ivy League is a long way from Michoacan, Mexico, but brothers Edgar and Cesar Garcia Lopez charted the course. Cesar, 17, graduated from Watsonville High School in June and just wrapped up his first semester at Yale. Edgar, 20, was Watsonville's valedictorian in 2012, and is in his junior year at Brown University. "It's not about being smart," Edgar said. "It's about being driven. That's how I got where I am. That's how my brother got where he is." ... Cesar, who will turn 18 in February and is one the youngest if not the youngest Yale freshman, skipped first grade and was among the first students to attend Ceiba College Preparatory Academy, a Pajaro Valley charter school that stresses higher education. ... At Brown, Edgar, winner of a Gates Millennium Scholarship, is studying bioengineering with the goal of becoming a doctor. He has been guaranteed admission to Brown's medical school, and an interest in sports has him leaning toward a specialty in orthopedic surgery. Cesar is majoring in ecology and evolutionary biology with an eye toward a career in research and sustainable development .... But growing up in Watsonville didn't always show him what he could become, he added. If it weren't for a program that takes a small group of high-achieving Watsonville students on a tour of Ivy League schools each year, he wouldn't be at Yale and Edgar wouldn't be at Brown. ... Edgar said having a vision is critical, as is setting goals and working hard to achieve them. He recalled joining track and cross-country teams as a freshman at Watsonville. "I wasn't the fastest, but I saw other people running out there, and I wanted to go out there and be like them," he said. By his junior year, he was the Monterey Bay League champion." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarahW Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 Re: Aid and admission - I remember reading an article years ago where UNC-CH admitted that when the stock market tanked and their endowment fund stopped paying out so much money, they looked more favorably on cash-paying students, and admitted cash-paying students with lower stats over prospectives with higher stat who needed aid. That was about 10 years ago, so I'm blanking on specific search terms to bring up the article again, but I did find this. During my stint as a TA at a large-ish private LAC, I believe the only reason why some of the students were still students and not expelled (think multiple egregious cheating violations) was because they were foreign cash-paying students. Colleges are bottom-line aware, and money talks. Especially when the stock market is down. It's just one of those things. :shrug: As for having to be totally awesome to get into MIT or Harvard - sure, why not. Kids who make new discoveries in the study of DNA in their spare time under their loft bed should go somewhere challenging. And that's not the college down the road from me turning out nurse techs and medical transcriptionists, kwim? Good fits go both ways. And fit is very complex, and so on and so forth.... The world is shrinking, and knowledge is flattening. Back in the day....a local library bought the book Basic from the Ground Up. My 12yo brother checked it out, and renewed it over and over and over and kept programming in a time dial-up email was new. These days, if I'm interested in learning to program I can just find some tutorials on the internet, the only thing stopping me is my own disinterest in doing so. The same goes for any number of other subjects. I try to remember that for my kid, the world is his oyster and the sky's the limit aren't just trite cliches, they're pretty much the truth. Except for paid outside tutoring, yeah, we don't have the money for that, but for basic knowledge, it's there, and if you have the interest and a bit of talent, you can go get it. ^ I'll admit I find that exhausting and overwhelming. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanetC Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 ??? How would the college even know whether parents can pay full tuition? The application does not include financial information. They guess. Zip codes and high schools tell a lot (as in rich zip code plus high-cost private school). Also, many applications have a check box: Check here if the student will be applying for financial aid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Re: Aid and admission - I remember reading an article years ago where UNC-CH admitted that when the stock market tanked and their endowment fund stopped paying out so much money, they looked more favorably on cash-paying students, and admitted cash-paying students with lower stats over prospectives with higher stat who needed aid. That was about 10 years ago, so I'm blanking on specific search terms to bring up the article again, but I did find this. During my stint as a TA at a large-ish private LAC, I believe the only reason why some of the students were still students and not expelled (think multiple egregious cheating violations) was because they were foreign cash-paying students. , I can relate to this. One of the individuals I graduated with was the son of a trustee of the institution. His GPA from high school, 1.8. He had been on disciplinary probation as well and though the application process for the school was heavily essay laden, the guy could not write a coherent sentence much less a paragraph. He was a legend as a lazy individual and never passed a single course at the college but he sure did party hard. When I say not one, I am stating a fact. He did not turn in any assignments his entire four years at the college nor did he pass any final exams (by his own admission). Professors were openly angry over the situation. But, two weeks before graduation his father made a very handsome donation to the school and suddenly he had passed all of his coursework and was issued a degree. He was not the only student there that was entirely unwilling to work or incapable of the demands, but who graduated based upon the parental ability to pay. I think it's a dirty little secret of fundraising that most institutions probably will not admit to though actively engaging in the practice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serenade Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 I don't think the point of the article is that there are not college options for students with fewer "accomplishments." Rather, the point seems to be that the standards have changed from when the author went to college. For elite colleges and universities, that is true. So, the piece is not nonsense. Admissions at these top schools have become so competitive that they have fostered a admissions culture that expects a very multi-faceted applicant with virtually no history of failure. You must be really good at everything you do, and you must do many, many things. This process selects for a certain type of student, and misses many others who would not only benefit from the education, but also enrich the college itself. Students who have never failed are different than students who have struggled. That's not to say that there is no where for these students to go, but rather that they are no longer part of the population of the institutions that pave the way to power and influence in this country. I think that is a loss for those institutions and for the larger society. Very good post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serenade Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 If a family's financial situation truly didn't factor into admissions decisions why are the admissions offices asking the student to provide his parents' occupations and whether or not he will be applying for financial aid? Very good point! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serenade Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 I applied to one school when I was a senior -- UNC-Chapel Hill, NC's flagship public university. I didn't even bother applying anywhere else, because I could reasonably expect to be accepted. I was a good student, probably in the top 10% of my glass, but I wasn't one of the shining stars, and my parents weren't alumni. Today, nobody can make the sort of assumption I did. I grew up in a very middle class family, and didn't get one lick of scholarship money or financial aid, like most of the people I went to school with. Back then, though, I think admissions were more purely based on academics, and not on extra-curriculars, demographics or hooks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingiguana Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 You don't have to be accomplished to get in to most colleges. And being accomplished won't get most students into the big name "top ranked" colleges. Most kids I know get into a place that they're perfectly happy with, with ok financial aid. Fear mongering sells papers, though. And many Ivy League alumni may not have been exposed to the idea that life can be lived perfectly well without ever having heard of Yale or Harvard (present company excepted, of course) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 You don't have to be accomplished to get in to most colleges. And being accomplished won't get most students into the big name "top ranked" colleges. Most kids I know get into a place that they're perfectly happy with, with ok financial aid. Fear mongering sells papers, though. And many Ivy League alumni may not have been exposed to the idea that life can be lived perfectly well without ever having heard of Yale or Harvard (present company excepted, of course) I just couldn't like this enough!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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