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It has at least as much to do with how wealthy your family is as it does with how well you do on standardized testing. I was accepted to MIT, but my family was
by atmavatar 1y ago
It has at least as much to do with how wealthy your family is as it does with how well you do on standardized testing.
I was accepted to MIT, but my family wasn't poor enough to receive need-based aid, and we certainly weren't wealthy enough for me to go without aid (especially because it would have been out-of-state tuition), so I ultimately went elsewhere. I expect a fair number of others here have similar stories.
A big part of the reason ivy-league and other elite schools are selected for is that they are a strong signal for family wealth.
- hn_throwaway_99 1y ago> especially because it would have been out-of-state tuition I'm calling bullshit on this story because MIT is not a public school - there is no in-state vs. out-of-state tuition, and as someone who did a ton of cost comparisons on the private vs. public schools where I was accepted, I have difficulty believing someone who was accepted to MIT would confuse this fact.
- atmavatar 1y agoThis was 25-ish years ago, so apologies if I got that detail wrong. In vs. out-of-state tuition was a big deal for nearly every school I was looking at, but I no longer remember them on a case by case basis. What I do remember was that MIT was so incredibly expensive that I didn't have to give it much thought -- it was never a viable option due to cost and lack of financial aid possibilities.