Sorry Sonya Green, but in the piece you offered no coherent defense of affirmative action in your statements; judging people based on the color of one’s skin is discriminatory no matter whom it benefits.
Sorry Sonya Green, but in the piece you offered no coherent defense of affirmative action in your statements; judging people based on the color of one’s skin is discriminatory no matter whom it benefits.
In this case they used a name, right? What’s their plan if the kid changes his name to L-a (“ladsaha”) and then applies as a lesbian trapped in a man’s body?
Well, a man claiming to be a woman is higher on the progressive org chart than an actual lesbian. The name change however could end up being seen as cultural appropriation, since you are allowed to gender swap but not race swap (yet).
I am sorry, but they didn't teach intersectional math back when I was in school, so I don't think I can solve this one.
So true because colleges no longer even CARE about the interview. I was stunned to learn this. My kid - despite having to overcome a father who didn’t want to be in her life and being raised by a single mother (she’s spent only a few days in her father’s presence) - refuses to deal with the “oppression Olympics.” She will not talk about that difficulty nor her learning differences, which make her achievements even more profound. Pretty sure we won’t mention we are Jewish since that actually might be met with discrimination (the number of Jews at prominent colleges has also fallen as a result of the “holistic” approach. Her grades are amazing except in math and her ACT in the 30s, president of a club to help those with intellectual and developmental disabilities at her school. She’s a wonderful speaker and she gets things done. She’s become demoralized about her chances to get into a school she wants to attend- and there are zero Ivys on her list. College admissions are now just racist and everyone knows it, especially high school seniors.
A balanced article. I also appreciated many of the comments. I do believe that university admission criteria have gone too far, and are as racist as the criteria used 100 years ago.
Please, let’s not make cruel, personal attacks against the interviewees. Surely those viewpoints one strongly disagrees with can be disputed using arguments that do not do so.
Hang on, back up. Her family situation and religion should be irrelevant to admissions, but to not mention her learning differences is to not give colleges a full picture of her accomplishments. It’s not about trying for “pity points” or “special treatment,” it’s about something extremely relevant.
She will not do that. What I meant by adding that information is that people must tailor themselves to what the admissions offers want. They WANT to hear the pity sob stories of single mothers, parental neglect. We jokingly talked about calling her “non binary” to get attention. I keep telling her that her abilities, work ethic and personality will win out in the end, no matter what college she goes. That’s all we can do in a system that doesn’t currently make sense and is rife with corruption and lacks transparency.
I think it's like someone trying to win a competition in which each person submits a recording of themselves playing the piano. If they flawlessly perform a difficult piece, that's wonderful - but if they flawlessly perform a difficult piece and only have nine fingers, that's out of the ordinary.
I don't know what her learning differences are, but you realize that a lot of people with those issues just drop out of high school, right? For example, thirty-something percent of teenagers with ADHD quit high school, compared to 15% of the general population. Your daughter's accomplishments, in light of her learning differences, show that she's particularly persistent when it comes to academic success. And that's an accomplishment in and of itself.
Of course it is but I have only heard of discrimination in that area. One is more likely to gain admission by claiming to be non-binary than to have overcome learning differences.. and, so many these days claim to be diagnosed with variants in order to get extra time on tests etc. ironically, the same tests that now have little impact on acceptance.
"Oppression Olympics"is a great description for college applications because every student needs to overcome adversity and discrimination. It has got to be a whinge fest reading through applications. Why can't a student meet the challenge of slope formula and dangling prepositions with the sparkle of outside interest and call it good?
The ugly irony that Jewish kids—often the grandchildren of immigrant and first-generation Jews who were excluded by universities (as well as in many white-collar occupations and industries) because of well-known quotas—have for many years now been discriminated against by a quota system imposed under the cloak of more acceptable names (“affirmative action;” “diversity;” etc.) remains a sadly-overlooked injustice.
See David L. Bernstein’s book, “Woke Antisemitism.”
I’ve been encouraging her broaden her field more but even then, so many of these colleges are employing the same devices and have single digit percentage acceptance rates. Also, now it seems that as many as a third of kids get in via early admission, so you must pick ONE school - that if it accepted you - you would attend. Schools want to even more easily fill their slots. The result of this is that competition is super fierce for the non-black kids and they must narrow their choices. And we wonder why depression rates in teens are so high?
To clarify one point, you’re talking about early decision, not early admission. Kids can still apply to schools other than their early decision school, but must withdraw other applications if accepted. Early admissions lets kids apply very early in the year, but doesn’t lock them into the school the way ED does.
Your daughter sounds like an amazing and level-headed young woman. I wish her the very best.
yes, she is amazing but it takes a toll on kids who are in many ways exceptional to not be supported but diminished in this process. And these kids have experienced the efforts of DEI in high school and barely survived COVID.
Similar situation with my daughter- top student, 35 on ACT, national merit, competitive ballet dancer, Torah reader at our synagogue… AND she is hearing impaired.
All the college counselors told her to minimize the Jewish stuff and emphasize the disability. Well she wasn’t having it, and now I couldn’t be more proud. The hell with the rejections/waitlists (looking at you Duke, UNC, Vanderbilt, Penn, Princeton, and Emory) and hello Ga Tech!
But my daughter was caught up in the elite school race and we (foolishly) enabled it, even while knowing we’d be going into debt in exchange for woke indoctrination. The rejections- while devastating to her- were a gift. While there are glimmers of woke nonsense, our overall sense is that Tech sticks to its mission of educating its students. Full stop. Incidentally, her (mostly Jewish) group of exceptionally bright friends also shot for the stars, lost, but got into Tech so the Ivies’ loss is Tech’s gain!
Hold you daughter tight and support her. We just went through this and it is real. The toll it takes on students is real. We teach our children that hard work will prevail but then this BS smacks them in the face. Some advice: Focus on a great list of target schools. Pick schools that still require the SAT/ACT. BTW, you are correct. We were told to take off our sons job at the temple from his application for fear of discrimination.
Yep. Our kid is not happy that our state schools won’t even look at SAT scores. Not that those schools would be her first choice, but it would be good to have them in the mix. It’ll be interesting to see how she (and her academically-excellent friend group, all of whom are white and/or Asian) do in admissions.
Sorry Sonya Green, but in the piece you offered no coherent defense of affirmative action in your statements; judging people based on the color of one’s skin is discriminatory no matter whom it benefits.
...less “likable, courageous, kind, and respectable.”
Judged by people they never met.
So they just made that up.
And that pattern is everywhere right now.
How in the world do you judge that?.. it’s so preposterous.
Right?! Those criteria are completely subjective! Not surprising, since everything has become about "feelings" now. This country is so F'd.
She didn't need to meet them. She knows their race/skin color, which tells you everything you need to know about a person.
In this case they used a name, right? What’s their plan if the kid changes his name to L-a (“ladsaha”) and then applies as a lesbian trapped in a man’s body?
I wonder if the name "Ladasha" would ever be a negative.
Well, a man claiming to be a woman is higher on the progressive org chart than an actual lesbian. The name change however could end up being seen as cultural appropriation, since you are allowed to gender swap but not race swap (yet).
I am sorry, but they didn't teach intersectional math back when I was in school, so I don't think I can solve this one.
Based on a review of their Facebook and Twitter post histories which many colleges want to see these days.
Any sane kid would follow my youngest’s example and have zero social media accounts.
So true because colleges no longer even CARE about the interview. I was stunned to learn this. My kid - despite having to overcome a father who didn’t want to be in her life and being raised by a single mother (she’s spent only a few days in her father’s presence) - refuses to deal with the “oppression Olympics.” She will not talk about that difficulty nor her learning differences, which make her achievements even more profound. Pretty sure we won’t mention we are Jewish since that actually might be met with discrimination (the number of Jews at prominent colleges has also fallen as a result of the “holistic” approach. Her grades are amazing except in math and her ACT in the 30s, president of a club to help those with intellectual and developmental disabilities at her school. She’s a wonderful speaker and she gets things done. She’s become demoralized about her chances to get into a school she wants to attend- and there are zero Ivys on her list. College admissions are now just racist and everyone knows it, especially high school seniors.
A balanced article. I also appreciated many of the comments. I do believe that university admission criteria have gone too far, and are as racist as the criteria used 100 years ago.
Please, let’s not make cruel, personal attacks against the interviewees. Surely those viewpoints one strongly disagrees with can be disputed using arguments that do not do so.
Hang on, back up. Her family situation and religion should be irrelevant to admissions, but to not mention her learning differences is to not give colleges a full picture of her accomplishments. It’s not about trying for “pity points” or “special treatment,” it’s about something extremely relevant.
I wish there weren’t bias against Jews - but all evidence points otherwise.
No, I'm saying, "Her family situation and religion should - ideally - be irrelevant, so I understand why you're not including those things."
She will not do that. What I meant by adding that information is that people must tailor themselves to what the admissions offers want. They WANT to hear the pity sob stories of single mothers, parental neglect. We jokingly talked about calling her “non binary” to get attention. I keep telling her that her abilities, work ethic and personality will win out in the end, no matter what college she goes. That’s all we can do in a system that doesn’t currently make sense and is rife with corruption and lacks transparency.
I think it's like someone trying to win a competition in which each person submits a recording of themselves playing the piano. If they flawlessly perform a difficult piece, that's wonderful - but if they flawlessly perform a difficult piece and only have nine fingers, that's out of the ordinary.
I don't know what her learning differences are, but you realize that a lot of people with those issues just drop out of high school, right? For example, thirty-something percent of teenagers with ADHD quit high school, compared to 15% of the general population. Your daughter's accomplishments, in light of her learning differences, show that she's particularly persistent when it comes to academic success. And that's an accomplishment in and of itself.
Edit: typo
Of course it is but I have only heard of discrimination in that area. One is more likely to gain admission by claiming to be non-binary than to have overcome learning differences.. and, so many these days claim to be diagnosed with variants in order to get extra time on tests etc. ironically, the same tests that now have little impact on acceptance.
"Oppression Olympics"is a great description for college applications because every student needs to overcome adversity and discrimination. It has got to be a whinge fest reading through applications. Why can't a student meet the challenge of slope formula and dangling prepositions with the sparkle of outside interest and call it good?
The ugly irony that Jewish kids—often the grandchildren of immigrant and first-generation Jews who were excluded by universities (as well as in many white-collar occupations and industries) because of well-known quotas—have for many years now been discriminated against by a quota system imposed under the cloak of more acceptable names (“affirmative action;” “diversity;” etc.) remains a sadly-overlooked injustice.
See David L. Bernstein’s book, “Woke Antisemitism.”
Curry College. That’s their specialty.
There are many alternative - and probably better - universities at which your daughter will prosper and thrive. Don't let her become demoralized.
I’ve been encouraging her broaden her field more but even then, so many of these colleges are employing the same devices and have single digit percentage acceptance rates. Also, now it seems that as many as a third of kids get in via early admission, so you must pick ONE school - that if it accepted you - you would attend. Schools want to even more easily fill their slots. The result of this is that competition is super fierce for the non-black kids and they must narrow their choices. And we wonder why depression rates in teens are so high?
To clarify one point, you’re talking about early decision, not early admission. Kids can still apply to schools other than their early decision school, but must withdraw other applications if accepted. Early admissions lets kids apply very early in the year, but doesn’t lock them into the school the way ED does.
Your daughter sounds like an amazing and level-headed young woman. I wish her the very best.
yes, she is amazing but it takes a toll on kids who are in many ways exceptional to not be supported but diminished in this process. And these kids have experienced the efforts of DEI in high school and barely survived COVID.
Similar situation with my daughter- top student, 35 on ACT, national merit, competitive ballet dancer, Torah reader at our synagogue… AND she is hearing impaired.
All the college counselors told her to minimize the Jewish stuff and emphasize the disability. Well she wasn’t having it, and now I couldn’t be more proud. The hell with the rejections/waitlists (looking at you Duke, UNC, Vanderbilt, Penn, Princeton, and Emory) and hello Ga Tech!
Ga Tech is #1 in career placement for public schools...almost 90% of grads leave with job offers in hand.
Yes- and we live in Georgia!
But my daughter was caught up in the elite school race and we (foolishly) enabled it, even while knowing we’d be going into debt in exchange for woke indoctrination. The rejections- while devastating to her- were a gift. While there are glimmers of woke nonsense, our overall sense is that Tech sticks to its mission of educating its students. Full stop. Incidentally, her (mostly Jewish) group of exceptionally bright friends also shot for the stars, lost, but got into Tech so the Ivies’ loss is Tech’s gain!
MAZEL TOV!
Hold you daughter tight and support her. We just went through this and it is real. The toll it takes on students is real. We teach our children that hard work will prevail but then this BS smacks them in the face. Some advice: Focus on a great list of target schools. Pick schools that still require the SAT/ACT. BTW, you are correct. We were told to take off our sons job at the temple from his application for fear of discrimination.
Yep. Our kid is not happy that our state schools won’t even look at SAT scores. Not that those schools would be her first choice, but it would be good to have them in the mix. It’ll be interesting to see how she (and her academically-excellent friend group, all of whom are white and/or Asian) do in admissions.
From this admission cycle - that group did not fair well.