The Horrendous American College Admissions

Finally, I am fed up with American college admissions.  And I decided to write about it. 

The following story is about my second son (two sons actually but mainly about the 2nd), who is graduating from high school this year.

A WARNING: What I will write here is not going to be pleasant to some readers.  It is opinionated and maybe even offensive to some but at least I promise everything I said here is as truthful as I can be.  My personal opinions aside, the facts are facts.

First, my son’s qualification including academic performance summarized by stats and extracurriculars is below, along with his college application outcome.  Everything provided in this section is written by him, only with some minor formatting changes by me.

Academics (attending a top 20 Massachusetts public high school, according to U.S. News 2020)

·       GPA: 4.92/5.0 weighted; 3.96/4.0 unweighted (school does not rank)

·       SAT: 1580 superscore (780 ERW, 800M); 1540 single-sitting (780 ERW, 760M)

·       SAT II: 800 Math II; 800 Biology-E; 770 U.S. History; 760 Physics

·       APs (4 in 2019, 6 in 2020): Computer Science A – 5; U.S. History – 5; Statistics – 5; Biology – 4; Physics C Mechanics; Physics C Electricity & Magnetism; Calculus BC; Chemistry; Psychology; Spanish

Extracurriculars

·       Boy Scouts (2013-present) - Currently a Life Scout on track to obtaining Eagle Scout Rank. Have held numerous leadership positions like Junior Assistant Scoutmaster, Senior Patrol Leader, and Patrol Leader

·       Congressional Debate (2016-present) - Have competed at local, state, and national level. As a varsity member, I aid in coaching novices at practice on content and presentation

·       Learning Lab (2019-present) - Tutoring students in academic support at the nearby middle schools. As Vice President I am responsible for organizing tutoring sessions at a middle school, recruiting new tutors, and spreading the word about our services

·       Indoor Track (2017, 2018) - Junior varsity

Awards/Distinctions

·       Life Scout Rank

·       AP Scholar with Honor

·       National Speech and Debate Association Honor Society Member with Distinction

·       3rd in Congressional Debate at 2020 NSHS Winter Festival Speech Tournament

College Application & Major Decision

Rejected

·       Stanford University (Restrictive Early Action)

·       University of California, Berkeley

·       University of Texas at Austin

·       University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

·       Harvey Mudd College

Waitlisted

·       University of Chicago

·       Tulane University

·       Carnegie Mellon University

·       Georgia Institute of Technology

·       University of California, Los Angeles

Accepted

·       University of Massachusetts, Amherst

·       Northeastern University

·       Trinity University

·       University of California, San Diego

Now, the bottom line is even with some good understanding of how American college admissions process is notorious for its unnecessary opaqueness, complexity and subjectivity, I am still quite shocked that the best colleges he, despite having a very successful high school career, can manage getting into do not include some top public universities of his choice, let alone highly selective private schools.

A few more background points and thoughts:

1. Both my wife and I are first generation immigrants from China and we are naturalized U.S. citizens. When I came to this country in 1993, I was dirt poor and had to work all sorts of odd jobs – cleaning restrooms and toilets, working 12 hours a day in restaurants as dishwasher and waiter, mopping floors, bartending at nightclubs, mowing lawns and landscaping during summer - while putting myself through graduate school.  
2. After graduating with a master’s in computer science, I’ve been working for several Fortune 500 companies since 1997.  Also starting from a humble background, my entrepreneurial wife is running her own business now.  After more than twenty years of hard work, we are middle class with a comfortable life style, and based on our family income, sometimes in the top 5%.
3. Both of us believe in public education. Although we can afford sending our children to private schools, we never seriously consider it.  But in retrospect, maybe a mistake.  The high school my son’s attending is ranked #20 in the state by U.S. News and has a reputation for rigorous and high academic standards.  So we thought, as one of top students, he should have a very good chance at some top universities and colleges.
4. Most public high schools in Massachusetts don’t rank officially, on purpose.  But unofficially, according to what we learned, he is ranked academically in top 5 (not top 5%) in his class, which is more than 480 students.
5. We never hired any college admission counselors, private tutors, or anything in that nature to help my son. Frankly, it’s not that we never consider it but rather he would outrightly reject such assistance from us.  He wants to be totally independent and he is down to earth.  So every time when someone makes the argument that the reason kids like my son who are academically successful is because they are privileged and get extra “help” from their affluent families, it exasperates me. Not only it diminishes a student’s hard work and achievements but also this sort of blanket argument is condescending and hurtful, and more importantly, antithetical to fundamental American values of personal liberty, self-empowerment, fairness and equality.  Unfortunately, it’s a prevalent argument in this country nowadays and a belief widely held even by many educators.
6. From things I could gather, such as some known cases around me and a deluge of YouTube videos where college applicants ecstatically revealed their qualifications and application outcomes, I am even more confused and puzzled because many seemingly less qualified than my son got into their dream schools, the same ones from which he was rejected.
7. Five years ago when my first son applied colleges, we had high hopes for him. Academically outstanding albeit less stellar than his younger brother but more active in extracurriculars, he had a passion for debate and led his school clubs in many debates and STEM tournaments countless times and won many nationwide and state wide awards.  He was rejected by almost all ivies or equivalent top schools. Based on that experience, my wife and I advised our second son not to apply any ivy schools.
8. Both my sons are Eagle Scouts and they are proud of it.  Both have dedicated a lot of time and energy in scouting, helping other kids, serving the organization as well as their community wholeheartedly with passion.  But honestly, I don’t know whether it actually helps more than hurts their chances at applying colleges, especially given the ideological direction most schools are going towards these days.
9. Also based on what I can gather, I believe the American educational system is against kids with similar family background like mine - high income but not so high in social status.  I hate to think this way but evidence reveals a reality regardless of our personal feelings.  Somehow because we are more successful than most, at least economically, and living in a good life, our kids are penalized by approaches such as the ill-conceived "diversity score" (in fact, colleges don't even need such score and still could have the same info from other sources) or subject to much higher college admission standards as if we have “Original sin.”  I reject such notion.  The very success we had as first generation Americans in this country confirms American dream is alive and well.  Social mobility is within reach in one generation.  Is this not something every American should cherish instead of bickering about how we’ve lost social mobility to the point where a revolution or wealth redistribution or some sort of class warfare must be called for and carried out to progress? 
10. My sons’ college application experiences and results have been a disappointment to me. Of course, don’t get me wrong as I truly believe where one goes to college doesn’t define the person, nor one's success or worth.  But from a different point of view, it is without any doubt in my mind that they didn’t get into the best colleges they could get into.
11. Two years ago, when Harvard was forced to reveal its despicable and outrageous low personality scores for Asian American applicants during a lawsuit, it seems to me all the speculations and suspicions about discriminatory practices and racial quotas against Asian Americans, especially those from families of high income but somewhat dubious social status, are corroborated and confirmed.
12. At this point, I am totally at a loss in terms of how to evaluate American college admissions as a whole.  I don’t understand the system.  Neither do I think anyone with good rationale and clear conscience does. I don’t know what top American colleges are looking for.  Reading recent news such that University of California system is eliminating SAT/ACT scores, I am deeply concerned about the future of American higher education and the future of my third son who will apply colleges in 4 years.