College applications discussion

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zovall

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A father posted this last week and recently the Reddit mods deleted the post - can't have people openly discussing these things I guess??
Fortunately I had an old tab open. There were some good comments here though many have been deleted around how the kid had applied to only top schools and UCs (which apparently aren't easy for out of state students to get acceptance?). Anyways, I'm curious to get TI thoughts/comments on this.

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are kids going to college because they are truly intellectually curious? Is it for prestige? What is motivating our kids these days? Is it all a competition?
 
That is pretty crazy. But you read stories like that all of the time. When my kids were first born I always hoped they would go to prestigious colleges but given how competitive it I am now ok o they just go the JC route and transfer in as juniors. What is the point of kids becoming adults at 13-14 and not enjoying their your if they are not going to get into college anyway??

May as well let them enjoy being a kid. Adult life is hard enough as it is, no need to rush them into it at age 13.

Besides, there are very successful people that didn’t go to college or the best colleges.

I teach them the basics:

- be healthy. I teach them the benefits of eating well and the downside of eating unhealthy like I did for 30+ years. My parents never taught me about nutrition and let me develop bad habits that I’m paying the price for now (blood pressure, cholesterol etc)
- Treat people with respect
- whatever you do, try your hardest
- financial literacy and responsibility


After that, the chips will fall where they may. Relative to the rest of the country/world these kids were born on third base, I tell them all the time they can keep it going for their kids or they can fuck it up and their kids will lose all of the advantages we created for them.
 
qwerty said:
That is pretty crazy. But you read stories like that all of the time. When my kids were first born I always hoped they would go to prestigious colleges but given how competitive it I am now ok o they just go the JC route and transfer in as juniors. What is the point of kids becoming adults at 13-14 and not enjoying their your if they are not going to get into college anyway??

May as well let them enjoy being a kid. Adult life is hard enough as it is, no need to rush them into it at age 13.

Besides, there are very successful people that didn’t go to college or the best colleges.

I teach them the basics:

- be healthy. I teach them the benefits of eating well and the downside of eating unhealthy like I did for 30+ years. My parents never taught me about nutrition and let me develop bad habits that I’m paying the price for now (blood pressure, cholesterol etc)
- Treat people with respect
- whatever you do, try your hardest
- financial literacy and responsibility


After that, the chips will fall where they may. Relative to the rest of the country/world these kids were born on third base, I tell them all the time they can keep it going for their kids or they can fuck it up and their kids will lose all of the advantages we created for them.
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honestly your kids has the last names that they don't have to worry too much.
 
zovall said:
A father posted this last week and recently the Reddit mods deleted the post - can't have people openly discussing these things I guess??
Fortunately I had an old tab open. There were some good comments here though many have been deleted around how the kid had applied to only top schools and UCs (which apparently aren't easy for out of state students to get acceptance?). Anyways, I'm curious to get TI thoughts/comments on this.

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Hilarious - UMass Amherst is one of the top CSCI depts in the country - which dad probably doesn’t even know because in New England it’s still known as Zoo Mass given it used to be a huge party school. And the kid played no sports! Kids like this are a dime a dozen in the Bay Area. 4 years of any sport would have transformed his profile.
 
Going to a mediocre school seems to put you at an advantage for getting a job with the current administration. That being said, it’s insane you can be valedictorian and not get accepted to a public university.
 
Loco_local said:
Going to a mediocre school seems to put you at an advantage for getting a job with the current administration. That being said, it’s insane you can be valedictorian and not get accepted to a public university.
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He got accepted to UMass
 
OCtoSV said:
Hilarious - UMass Amherst is one of the top CSCI depts in the country - which dad probably doesn’t even know because in New England it’s still known as Zoo Mass given it used to be a huge party school. And the kid played no sports! Kids like this are a dime a dozen in the Bay Area. 4 years of any sport would have transformed his profile.
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Should sports really play a part in getting into college? Especially with an already stellar resume? I know sports teach team building etc, but so do a lot of other things kids already do
 
qwerty said:
Should sports really play a part in getting into college? Especially with an already stellar resume? I know sports teach team building etc, but so do a lot of other things kids already do
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When my son applied for the Naval Academy it was mandatory that they had a sports background. They loved him (4 year letterman and captain of the football and baseball teams) Other parents were concerned bc their kids were in band or just clubs…the officers encouraged them to enroll in sports instead if they wanted any chance of acceptance. Sports suggested leadership, commitment and teamwork on top of the GPA and test scores.👍🏽🇺🇸
 
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morekaos said:
When my son applied for the Naval Academy it was mandatory that they had a sports background. They loved him (4 year letterman and captain of the football and baseball teams) Other parents were concerned bc their kids were in band or just clubs…the officers encouraged them to enroll in sports instead if they wanted any chance of acceptance. Sports suggested leadership, commitment and teamwork on top of the GPA and test scores.👍🏽🇺🇸
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This is still the case for the Naval Academy (my nephew will do the monument climb next month). They seek excellence in both academics and athletics.

I'm not sure - is that the case for other universities?
 
I wonder whether the list of universities was super-competitive, without a range of schools. One might imagine only Cal-tech, MIT, the top Ivies, Cal, UCLA. (and yes, getting into the top UCs is difficult from out of state). What about Illinois, Michigan, etc ?
 
I studied fencing back in college. There's an on-going joke today that when you visit local fencing school for kids, the coaches look Russian and the students look East Asian, with tiger moms looking to build college applications.
 
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morekaos said:
When my son applied for the Naval Academy it was mandatory that they had a sports background. They loved him (4 year letterman and captain of the football and baseball teams) Other parents were concerned bc their kids were in band or just clubs…the officers encouraged them to enroll in sports instead if they wanted any chance of acceptance. Sports suggested leadership, commitment and teamwork on top of the GPA and test scores.👍🏽🇺🇸
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4 year letterman is a crucial box to check - any good private college counselor would have told him that. Congrats on USNA! A huge sacrifice for your kid but will definitely pay off. Ours graduated from Marine OCS last summer (Marine PLC program) and is set to commission upon graduation in Dec.
 
morekaos said:
When my son applied for the Naval Academy it was mandatory that they had a sports background. They loved him (4 year letterman and captain of the football and baseball teams) Other parents were concerned bc their kids were in band or just clubs…the officers encouraged them to enroll in sports instead if they wanted any chance of acceptance. Sports suggested leadership, commitment and teamwork on top of the GPA and test scores.👍🏽🇺🇸
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For service academies I can see why they would like the sports since physical fitness is more important there. But still not sure why it would/should matter for a normal school. None of the best leaders I’ve worked with in the corporate world played sports.
 
Having a team sports background means you're physically fit and a team player. The military recruiter is less likely to receive an email like this:

"SGT Volkin, I work out every day and I get straight A's in school. My fear about basic training isn't about my capabilities to fail; my fear is that I will get booted for being too tough. If the drill sergeants try bossing me around, I fear my subconscious fighting skills in karate [I'm a black belt] will take over, and I will strike and injure a drill sergeant. How can I control the fighting force that has been instilled in me? Since I have straight A's and am already a fighting force, can I get a waiver from my recruiter so I don't have to attend basic training?"

(Actual email received by US Army Sergeant Michael Volkin)
 
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momopi said:
Having a team sports background means you're physically fit and a team player. The military recruiter is less likely to receive an email like this:

"SGT Volkin, I work out every day and I get straight A's in school. My fear about basic training isn't about my capabilities to fail; my fear is that I will get booted for being too tough. If the drill sergeants try bossing me around, I fear my subconscious fighting skills in karate [I'm a black belt] will take over, and I will strike and injure a drill sergeant. How can I control the fighting force that has been instilled in me? Since I have straight A's and am already a fighting force, can I get a waiver from my recruiter so I don't have to attend basic training?"

(Actual email received by US Army Sergeant Michael Volkin)
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Hilarious
 
momopi said:
I studied fencing back in college. There's an on-going joke today that when you visit local fencing school for kids, the coaches look Russian and the students look East Asian, with tiger moms looking to build college applications.
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My first manager was Swiss and a competitive fencer. Phenomenal engineering manager.
 
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