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> Many of the incoming students I speak with are overachievers who spent a lot of time in high school thinking about how to get into a great college. They strat

> Many of the incoming students I speak with are overachievers who spent a lot of time in high school thinking about how to get into a great college. They strategized their extracurriculars and optimized their grades. (To an extent, that was me.) It really is a different world for the well-connected.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
alephnerd 3y ago
I went to a Stanford comparable school for my undergrad. I was not connected, being the child of first generation immigrant parents who never heard of schools like "Princeton" or "Duke" until I was in 10th grade. I had to make my own path and optimize for admissions, as a top tier program helped open doors that my parents could only dream of. This story is common for most kids at these programs.
- bannedbybros 3y ago
  [dead]
- p00dles 3y ago
  By "this story", are you referring to your story, or the story described in the parent post "> Many of the incoming students I speak with are overachievers who spent a lot of time in high school thinking about how to get into a great college. They strategized their extracurriculars and optimized their grades. (To an extent, that was me.)"?
  - alephnerd 3y ago
    Referring to thelastparadise saying "It really is a different world for the well-connected." It is, but plenty of us at these programs went to average High Schools but had great grades, extracurriculars, and an actual goal we wanted to achieve.
- laidoffamazon 3y ago
  > as a top tier program helped open doors that my parents could only dream of. What’s an example?
  - mathisfun123 3y ago
    On OCIs for quantfi and consulting.
    - laidoffamazon 3y ago
      What is an OCI? This is not a term I’m familiar with.
      - mathisfun123 3y ago
        on campus interviews
  - alephnerd 3y ago
    HFT, Consulting, Politics, Venture Capital, Investment Banking, Entrepreneurship, Well paying entry level tech jobs (this is achievable at most decent programs though)
    - laidoffamazon 3y ago
      What do you think of people that couldn’t get into Princeton or Duke and don’t have these opportunities? Are we just inferior? I worked at Amazon as my first job out of college - I don’t think you count that as a “well paying tech job” though. Not seeing much reflection on your part of the fairness of this “meritocracy” either. What should people like me do if we are going to be considered inferior for the rest of our lives?
      - skulk 3y ago
        They seem to think that there wasn't 10 other equally qualified students that could have had their spot had the dice fallen slightly differently. Anyways, to answer your question: just live your life man. If you wake up in the morning with a roof over your head (and no odious debt) and have a nice cup of coffee and can say "what a nice day it is," you win. How do these silly status games even matter? Who cares if you make $300k more than you can spend in a year?
- sokoloff 3y ago
  I also went to a similar level non-Stanford school. My family was "not at all connected" (my parents' generation was the first on either side to attend college) and we spent a fair amount of time doing things that were (in retrospect to me, less sure about my parents' knowledge) optimizing for admissions. For every kid whose parents bought the university a building there are hundreds who did nothing more than follow the cookbook process to optimize their transcript, extracurriculars, and then won the admissions lottery.
extra88 3y ago
I agree but I don't understand how your statement relates to what you quoted. You don't have to be well-connected to plan your high school years with getting into a highly selective college in mind. Your family probably does have to be not poor, which is more common than being well-connected. If you're not poor, you're more likely to have good extracurricular opportunities available and to have time for them and for studying (vs. having to work an unimpressive job to help support the family and/or spend long hours commuting from home to a better high school).

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

alephnerd 3y ago

I went to a Stanford comparable school for my undergrad. I was not connected, being the child of first generation immigrant parents who never heard of schools like "Princeton" or "Duke" until I was in 10th grade. I had to make my own path and optimize for admissions, as a top tier program helped open doors that my parents could only dream of. This story is common for most kids at these programs.

bannedbybros 3y ago
[dead]
p00dles 3y ago
By "this story", are you referring to your story, or the story described in the parent post "> Many of the incoming students I speak with are overachievers who spent a lot of time in high school thinking about how to get into a great college. They strategized their extracurriculars and optimized their grades. (To an extent, that was me.)"?
- alephnerd 3y ago
  Referring to thelastparadise saying "It really is a different world for the well-connected." It is, but plenty of us at these programs went to average High Schools but had great grades, extracurriculars, and an actual goal we wanted to achieve.
laidoffamazon 3y ago
> as a top tier program helped open doors that my parents could only dream of. What’s an example?
- mathisfun123 3y ago
  On OCIs for quantfi and consulting.
  - laidoffamazon 3y ago
    What is an OCI? This is not a term I’m familiar with.
    - mathisfun123 3y ago
      on campus interviews
- alephnerd 3y ago
  HFT, Consulting, Politics, Venture Capital, Investment Banking, Entrepreneurship, Well paying entry level tech jobs (this is achievable at most decent programs though)
  - laidoffamazon 3y ago
    What do you think of people that couldn’t get into Princeton or Duke and don’t have these opportunities? Are we just inferior? I worked at Amazon as my first job out of college - I don’t think you count that as a “well paying tech job” though. Not seeing much reflection on your part of the fairness of this “meritocracy” either. What should people like me do if we are going to be considered inferior for the rest of our lives?
    - skulk 3y ago
      They seem to think that there wasn't 10 other equally qualified students that could have had their spot had the dice fallen slightly differently. Anyways, to answer your question: just live your life man. If you wake up in the morning with a roof over your head (and no odious debt) and have a nice cup of coffee and can say "what a nice day it is," you win. How do these silly status games even matter? Who cares if you make $300k more than you can spend in a year?
sokoloff 3y ago
I also went to a similar level non-Stanford school. My family was "not at all connected" (my parents' generation was the first on either side to attend college) and we spent a fair amount of time doing things that were (in retrospect to me, less sure about my parents' knowledge) optimizing for admissions. For every kid whose parents bought the university a building there are hundreds who did nothing more than follow the cookbook process to optimize their transcript, extracurriculars, and then won the admissions lottery.

extra88 3y ago

I agree but I don't understand how your statement relates to what you quoted. You don't have to be well-connected to plan your high school years with getting into a highly selective college in mind. Your family probably does have to be not poor, which is more common than being well-connected. If you're not poor, you're more likely to have good extracurricular opportunities available and to have time for them and for studying (vs. having to work an unimpressive job to help support the family and/or spend long hours commuting from home to a better high school).