a request

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:i've also heard that often recommendation letters from high school teachers often trip up asian applicants who are always described as "diligent", "hard working" but never in terms like "creative", or "strong intellectual bent".

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:i've also heard that often recommendation letters from high school teachers often trip up asian applicants who are always described as "diligent", "hard working" but never in terms like "creative", or "strong intellectual bent".

School teacher and counselor letters COUNT a LOT. They go strictly by the grades, and what they observe, and of course teacher-student personal equations do matter. I have sometimes wondered why national merit scholars from this open land fail to get into IVY/Berkeley while above avg go to the same Elite schools. I am sure the "letters" must be it. A guy aced every test and grades and ended up as high as you can imagine at the #1 ranked school in the field in the entire world. But, his sister went to the same school - also a national merit scholar - studied under the same teachers, ended up being rejected everywhere and finally went to KU.

Proof that there is more to college admission than simply numbers and grades and tests - at least in the US.

bw wrote:

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:i've also heard that often recommendation letters from high school teachers often trip up asian applicants who are always described as "diligent", "hard working" but never in terms like "creative", or "strong intellectual bent".

School teacher and counselor letters COUNT a LOT. They go strictly by the grades, and what they observe, and of course teacher-student personal equations do matter. I have sometimes wondered why national merit scholars from this open land fail to get into IVY/Berkeley while above avg go to the same Elite schools. I am sure the "letters" must be it. A guy aced every test and grades and ended up as high as you can imagine at the #1 ranked school in the field in the entire world. But, his sister went to the same school - also a national merit scholar - studied under the same teachers, ended up being rejected everywhere and finally went to KU.

Proof that there is more to college admission than simply numbers and grades and tests - at least in the US.

don't these kids also have to do some "community service" just to pad their resumes?

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

lady...you need to live in the US as a school going kid to realize the torture...community service...yeah...

Of course, the kids can get good scores and class rank/GPA and settle for in-state schools. That is not at all bad if one is living in Texas, NY, NC, VA, MD, IL and many other states. Except GA, where I was told that GT accepts only the top 3% of the class (also Berkeley and UCLA accept top 5%). Most flagship state schools will accept the top 25% of the class ranks READILY (which means most desis). Rutgers, PA State, UVa, VT, UNC, UT-Austin, UMD, UIUC, UIC, Purdue are all fine with tests/GPA and not much else.

confuzzled dude wrote:

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

lady...you need to live in the US as a school going kid to realize the torture...community service...yeah...

Of course, the kids can get good scores and class rank/GPA and settle for in-state schools. That is not at all bad if one is living in Texas, NY, NC, VA, MD, IL and many other states. Except GA, where I was told that GT accepts only the top 3% of the class (also Berkeley and UCLA accept top 5%). Most flagship state schools will accept the top 25% of the class ranks READILY (which means most desis). Rutgers, PA State, UVa, VT, UNC, UT-Austin, UMD, UIUC, UIC, Purdue are all fine with tests/GPA and not much else.

Not really, for example, your said criteria is not enough to get into Uva, if you live in northern virginia area because of high competition plus state schools put a cap by region as they want to make sure they've (reasonably) equal representation from all regions of the state.

b_A wrote:The trend in high schools nowadays is doing away with the ranking system because of Political correctness. What will the bottom 10% of the class feel when they are identified as such? Who cares about the elite top 1 %'ers.

So , if your kid is in top 1 - 3% but the high school doesn't give out ranks , how will this affect the chances at ivy league admissions?