i'm not talking lower than hyp because lower ivies really aren't very selective or prestigious and admission is extremely random for them, not hard for random "kind of smart" kids to get into lower ivies if they have some side shit going for them (other than legacy/AA/serious athlete)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3716178&forum_id=2#34098931)

they could've copped Spelman, got a 3.9 there, felt smart the whole time, HYS admit / AA recruit to tech/finance

instead they'll be 20th percentile at Harvard, probably get a 3.2, then what

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3716178&forum_id=2#34098932)

I know a black guy with a 3.2/166 from a shirty big 10 state school and nothing special (parents were UMC professionals so he didnt even have the poor black raised in the ghetto son story) who got into Harvard and Stanford (and everywhere down except Yale).

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3716178&forum_id=2#34099601)

probably from pretty plain umc jobs actually

happens all the time bro

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3716178&forum_id=2#34098947)

these are people who happen to have a lot of ancestors who went to wherever they ended up going but aren't necessarily from highly influential families e.g. biglaw partners, doctors, ID MDs, fund managers, etc.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3716178&forum_id=2#34098950)

if everyone was smart as fuck it would be miserable like Caltech

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3716178&forum_id=2#34098957)

the people I am talking about are B students at private schools with subpar SAT scores but have a father, grandather, and great grandfather that went to these schools--all of which donated

to an extent I think these people are admitted because they literally help contribute to the general concept of prestige at these schools because it gives the A student with perfect SAT scores and 10 "leadership positions" at clubs in high schools (who now consist of the vast majority of the people at these places) a sense that they are at a place that is based off of connections and old money bullshit so they can LARP like an extra in a 1920s period piece--that's still very much still a part of what gives these kind of places a sense of extremely high exclusivity

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3716178&forum_id=2#34098990)

except for having to donate heavily, or at all really

hyp ug still has its old country club orientation. there are smart people there but there are also a ton of people whose backgrounds just make them part of that society. could be b/c of being a legacy, could be b/c parent has some interesting position (not necessarily even "powerful" but something interesting or kind of notable) and makes a decent amount of $, could be b/c they went to a prep school, etc.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3716178&forum_id=2#34098995)

donating/demonstrating a commitment to the school is very important--lots of kids fit this mold but there are a lot of parents who just sort of say "fuck it" and assume their kid will get in anyway

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3716178&forum_id=2#34099009)

maybe it fulfills the adcom's wishes to have this general concept of prestige

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3716178&forum_id=2#34099005)

the whole "elite college" industry or sham or however you want to frame it very much depends on fulfilling a variety of different public perceptions and stereotypes of who goes to these schools and the exact manner of how they exist--you need not only the kids who worked really hard and checked off all of their boxes correctly, but you need the hardscrabble kids who didn't have a whole lot, the minorities, the athletes, the children of celebrities, politicians, etc., the wunderkind who already has multiple patents to his/her name at 17 years old, as well as the old money donothings who seem to bring nothing to the table beyond stories from their relative who attended the school nearly a century ago when not even Jews were allowed to go there--every single person in the country believes it is one or more of these types of people who go to this school and as a result you have to keep this perception up for anyone who ends up going there so that the image is consistent with any variety of public perceptions that make people think it is elite/prestigious. it seems to me you are a bit too optimistic with regard to how honest these institutions work and how perfect of a meritocracy we live in but I know a lot of types of these people, I am good friends with them, have hung out with them on weekends at these schools, and that seems to be the overarching goal of how these sort of systems operate to my at least.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3716178&forum_id=2#34099024)

the point is to give spots to people who've done something to earn it. kid doesn't have to be a putnam finalist to get in but i'd rather give a 200 sat point bump to a kid who's published some shit on the side or done some kind of project than to a legacy just for the sake of letting in some dumbs.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3716178&forum_id=2#34098970)

Even so this reminds me to marry a Yale man.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3716178&forum_id=2#34099583)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3716178&forum_id=2#34099602)