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SAT scores matter but they are not the only thing. Good GPA, extracurriculars & sometimes having a story like overcoming cancer or facing adversity factor into the decision as well
Does race matter too? In other words does a black kid with a two-parent middle class background get bonus points on admissions for being black? How much does it matter?
I have heard that, for white and Asian kids, SAT's/ACT's and AP scores are paramount because they are objective measures whereas there is vast subjectivity in GPAs and extra curriculars from high school to high school across the US. (This is not to say geography, wealth, legacies, cancer-fights, etc when and where applicable in the white/Asian pool do not play a role). Race does not help this pool.
Does race matter too? In other words does a black kid with a two-parent middle class background get bonus points on admissions for being black? How much does it matter?
Actutally yes I think minorities do have an advantage but its not the sole determining factor
For anyone truly interested in learning more on the topic of how admission decisions are made, I'd highly recommend the book "The Gatekeepers" by Jacques Steinberg - it was a pretty compelling and informative read, if you're interested in this sort of thing.
What I am saying is everyone seems to want to put their kid in the top districts yet WF is far from being one of the best districts on the island and yet look how well this kid did.
People want to put their kids in top districts because not every kid is Kwasi - that is, not every kid has major internal motivation, a compelling personal story, music & athletic talent, and strong study skills. For kids like Kwasi, district doesn't matter - these kids are going to be who they're going to be regardless of their surroundings. But for Joe Smith, middle class kid with an average intellect and a standard middle-class-kid life story who just wants to hang out with his friends and text on his phone all day, a district like WF won't produce the same results as, say, Three Village.
A school like WF (or CI, or Brentwood, etc.) is faced with so many crisis-level problems compared with a Three Village that it doesn't have the resources to devote to taking Joe and pulling him up from being a C student to a B student. As far as a place like WF is concerned, if Joe is passing all of his classes and isn't in immediate crisis, he's doing A-OK; in a better district, he'd be pushed (both by teachers/counselors and through social pressure from peers) to do better than Cs. That won't happen in the worst districts on LI.
So yes, if your kid is gifted and self-motivated and academically inclined and able to brush off peer pressure to slack at school, WF will likely be fine. But if your kid is average, you're better off busting your butt to afford a better district.
For anyone truly interested in learning more on the topic of how admission decisions are made, I'd highly recommend the book "The Gatekeepers" by Jacques Steinberg - it was a pretty compelling and informative read, if you're interested in this sort of thing.
Looks like a pretty interesting read. The publication date is 2003, though. I wonder how much things are different now as compared to when it was written? The entire landscape seems to have changed dramatically in the last 10-15 years. I was lucky to have attended a very well-regarded, competitive college and I'm fairly sure that if I applied now, I would not get in.
People want to put their kids in top districts because not every kid is Kwasi - that is, not every kid has major internal motivation, a compelling personal story, music & athletic talent, and strong study skills. For kids like Kwasi, district doesn't matter - these kids are going to be who they're going to be regardless of their surroundings. But for Joe Smith, middle class kid with an average intellect and a standard middle-class-kid life story who just wants to hang out with his friends and text on his phone all day, a district like WF won't produce the same results as, say, Three Village.
A school like WF (or CI, or Brentwood, etc.) is faced with so many crisis-level problems compared with a Three Village that it doesn't have the resources to devote to taking Joe and pulling him up from being a C student to a B student. As far as a place like WF is concerned, if Joe is passing all of his classes and isn't in immediate crisis, he's doing A-OK; in a better district, he'd be pushed (both by teachers/counselors and through social pressure from peers) to do better than Cs. That won't happen in the worst districts on LI.
So yes, if your kid is gifted and self-motivated and academically inclined and able to brush off peer pressure to slack at school, WF will likely be fine. But if your kid is average, you're better off busting your butt to afford a better district.
Looks like a pretty interesting read. The publication date is 2003, though. I wonder how much things are different now as compared to when it was written? The entire landscape seems to have changed dramatically in the last 10-15 years. I was lucky to have attended a very well-regarded, competitive college and I'm fairly sure that if I applied now, I would not get in.
I found it to still be pretty informative - it was written about the class of 2004, which was well after the beginning of the college admissions boom, so there's definitely a lot of discussion about how the pressure of increased applications is affecting selective colleges. The missing element, of course, is the effect of the internet, since most colleges were still on a paper application system at that point, but all in all, I think it was a pretty useful and still-relevant read.
I found it to still be pretty informative - it was written about the class of 2004, which was well after the beginning of the college admissions boom, so there's definitely a lot of discussion about how the pressure of increased applications is affecting selective colleges. The missing element, of course, is the effect of the internet, since most colleges were still on a paper application system at that point, but all in all, I think it was a pretty useful and still-relevant read.
Also just interesting to go behind the scenes of an extremely opaque, still-mysterious process! Bet they come out with an updated edition at some point.
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