> Also, he's not getting into Stanford with the B grade that the parents are suing for anyway. You can't even get into Stanford with all A's these days.
None of this is true.
Grades are just one part of the picture.
The folks who think a B is what kept them out of an elite school are just engaging in wishful thinking.
The number of people who get into elite schools like Harvard or Stanford with multiple Bs would surprise you.
I think you might get in with multiple Bs and a good story about your interest in the subject you're pursuing (or suitably connected family)
"good story" probably doesn't include being too uninterested to write your own answers despite parents so committed to you going to Stanford they're prepared to litigate to get you a B...
> "good story" probably doesn't include being too uninterested to write your own answers despite parents so committed to you going to Stanford they're prepared to litigate to get you a B...
So true.
This kid is a persona non grata for elite schools at this point.
As I said in the other thread, his best bet is to go to a JuCo that feeds into a decent state school, and just lay low for two years.
He can go to an elite school for a graduate degree if he wants the club membership.
Of course it's possible, but you have to have something truly extraordinary to make up for it (or be a legacy admit, rich parents who donated to the school, etc.). The B will certainly work against you.
> but you have to have something truly extraordinary to make up for it
Flip that, and you’re closer to correct for everyone.
You have to do something truly extraordinary to get in, with the things you listed as being some of the least common types.
Grades just need to be directionally correct rather than perfect.
Also, a side note about legacy admits…
While the admission rate of legacies is about 33% at Harvard (12% at Yale, 30% at Princeton, and 14% at Stanford), that doesn’t mean that being a legacy was the primary reason they got in.
First, 67% of legacies still get denied — that’s quite a bit.
Second, the folks who get into elite schools often know how to raise their kids in a way that increases their chances to get into an elite school. It’s an advantage, but much more often than not, the applicant put in the effort to make themselves a strong applicant.
The legacy “advantage” comes into play almost purely at the margin, when someone is borderline admit/waitlist or waitlist/deny, and the legacy status will push them to the favorable side. You’re not going to see a substantial difference in the folks who were rated comparably.
People seem to want it to be that legacies are freeloading off of their parents and aren’t really qualified admits, and that largely isn’t true. The exceptions are examples like z-list applicants (which you mentioned) or recruited athletes who also happen to be legacies.
I wanna see how many Asian men get in with B's
> I wanna see how many Asian men get in with B's
Please stop perpetuating this myth.
Asians are not held to a different standard.
Anecdotally (with truck load of anecdotes), Asian-Americans (to be specific) frequently seem to be held to a widely-known standard that either they aren’t aware of or don’t believe in.
Note that this is not exclusive to Asian-Americans — plenty of upper-middle class white people fall into this category as well — but that was the group you mentioned.
I have made an open offer to HN, and it still holds:
If you show me the application of an Asian that you felt was held to a different standard for elite school admissions, then I will give you the reason why they most likely didn’t get in.
that’s not much of an offer. one can easily always find (especially when specifically looking for it to prove a point) whatever it is they are looking for :)
I personally know there is asian-american bias (not just asian-american…) in admissions at least one elite school via one of my best friends who works in admissions office.
> I personally know there is asian-american bias (not just asian-american…) in admissions at least one elite school via one of my best friends who works in admissions office.
Oh, interesting.
What is the specific bias they claim exists?
Fwiw, they did a fully body cavity search on Harvard admissions, and the best that they could come up with was describing an applicant (accurately) using race-based shorthand — something like “standard Asian reach applicant”, which (iirc) meant something like high grades, high standardized test scores… and almost nothing else. This is a complete nothing burger.
Note that this stereotype exists for a reason. It’s not exclusive to Asians, but it’s much more common with Asian applicants than other races.
Edited to add:
> that’s not much of an offer. one can easily always find (especially when specifically looking for it to prove a point) whatever it is they are looking for :)
Almost every time I’ve done this face-to-face, it wasn’t some subtle oversight — it was a glaring omission or weakness in the application.
The times that it wasn’t obvious, the person got into an elite school, just didn’t get into their elite school of choice, and that’s a different issue.