3 ms·

Your knowledge is out of date, I'm afraid. Simply being a geek is no longer sufficient. Teenagers today are competing in a much larger pool of increasingly soph

Your knowledge is out of date, I'm afraid. Simply being a geek is no longer sufficient. Teenagers today are competing in a much larger pool of increasingly sophisticated candidates; there's an entire class of businesses dedicated to getting students into colleges.

morgante 11y ago
That's not true. I just went through the college admissions process a few years ago and being a smart and geeky teenager without obsessive parents is still a valid strategy.
- turar 11y ago
  What college did you get into?
  - morgante 11y ago
    Many. Dartmouth, Brown, Williams, etc.
    - MagnumOpus 11y ago
      Not to be a dick, but none of these are top ten schools, and you don't get the same connections or the same signalling power of being in the top 0.5% of the bell curve by going there. Yes, they do have some prestige, but for good or bad, when an HR rep has to choose between the average Stanford/MIT/Harvard/Yale/Princeton grad and the average Dartmouth/Brown/Williams grad, you know the outcome.
      - morgante 11y ago
        Wow, way to be an asshole. First of all, I didn't apply to larger universities but I'm pretty sure I would have gotten in. Secondly, Williams is literally the #1 liberal arts college. LACs are ranked separately from large universities. [0] Thirdly, if you think acceptance rate is the most important indicator (which I'd argue it is for this thread), Brown is #7 and Dartmouth is #12. [1] I'm not really sure why you think they're somehow second-tier. Do you really think the 80 basis point difference in the acceptance rates of MIT and Brown (for example) means that MIT requires intensive prep but Brown will just accept anyone? Give me a break. > when an HR rep has to choose between the average Stanford/MIT/Harvard/Yale/Princeton grad and the average Dartmouth/Brown/Williams grad, you know the outcome. No, I really don't. They're pretty much equally competitive and are recruited to the same prestigious companies. [0] http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/... [1] http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/data/sort+r_c_accept_rate/sortdir+asc http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/...
      - snowwrestler 11y ago
        You don't need to get into a top-10 school to succeed at life--and succeed wildly by any measure. This is part and parcel of the helicopter parent mentality: that if my kid doesn't get into a top-10 school, they are a failure. It's just not true. To name just one example: http://qz.com/180247/why-google-doesnt-care-about-hiring-top-college-graduates/ http://qz.com/180247/why-google-doesnt-care-about-hiring-top...

morgante 11y ago

That's not true. I just went through the college admissions process a few years ago and being a smart and geeky teenager without obsessive parents is still a valid strategy.

turar 11y ago
What college did you get into?
- morgante 11y ago
  Many. Dartmouth, Brown, Williams, etc.
  - MagnumOpus 11y ago
    Not to be a dick, but none of these are top ten schools, and you don't get the same connections or the same signalling power of being in the top 0.5% of the bell curve by going there. Yes, they do have some prestige, but for good or bad, when an HR rep has to choose between the average Stanford/MIT/Harvard/Yale/Princeton grad and the average Dartmouth/Brown/Williams grad, you know the outcome.
    - morgante 11y ago
      Wow, way to be an asshole. First of all, I didn't apply to larger universities but I'm pretty sure I would have gotten in. Secondly, Williams is literally the #1 liberal arts college. LACs are ranked separately from large universities. [0] Thirdly, if you think acceptance rate is the most important indicator (which I'd argue it is for this thread), Brown is #7 and Dartmouth is #12. [1] I'm not really sure why you think they're somehow second-tier. Do you really think the 80 basis point difference in the acceptance rates of MIT and Brown (for example) means that MIT requires intensive prep but Brown will just accept anyone? Give me a break. > when an HR rep has to choose between the average Stanford/MIT/Harvard/Yale/Princeton grad and the average Dartmouth/Brown/Williams grad, you know the outcome. No, I really don't. They're pretty much equally competitive and are recruited to the same prestigious companies. [0] http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/... [1] http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/data/sort+r_c_accept_rate/sortdir+asc http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/...
    - snowwrestler 11y ago
      You don't need to get into a top-10 school to succeed at life--and succeed wildly by any measure. This is part and parcel of the helicopter parent mentality: that if my kid doesn't get into a top-10 school, they are a failure. It's just not true. To name just one example: http://qz.com/180247/why-google-doesnt-care-about-hiring-top-college-graduates/ http://qz.com/180247/why-google-doesnt-care-about-hiring-top...