Schadenfreude Is A Good Word
You know how the world is sort of going to pieces, what with expensive gas and rice, and related famines and genocides? As it so happens, even Manhattanites living the kind of charmed existence familiar to fans of Gossip Girl are not immune to tragedy. There's a terrible affliction plaguing prep schools far and wide (from the Upper East Side to, um, the Upper West Side): “Harvard drought." This year -- for the first time ever -- not a single student from the elite Dalton School was admitted to Harvard.
It's no Darfur, but you wouldn't know it by the way some of these parents are acting. They are unhappy indeed.
At Dalton’s graduation earlier this month, one mom was heard muttering, "I won’t send my grandchildren here, that’s for sure."
Oh, snap.
A Dalton graduate told another sad tale:
My best friend had his heart set on Duke, but got rejected. He’s going to Johns Hopkins, but people going to their backup schools, like Wesleyan or Hopkins, are acting like it’s a fate worse than death.
The trash talking continues: “A lot of my friends who expected Ivies are ending up at Tulane and Vanderbilt instead.”
Even worse, some guidance counselors appear to be "lowballing" students, recommending that they apply to less prestigious schools to reduce the chance that some won't be admitted anywhere. One upset parent said, “They encouraged one girl who later got into Brown to shoot for Syracuse University." The indignity!
We'd be mad too if we paid $30,000 a year, plus $46,000 for "independent college admissions counseling" starting in seventh grade.
Wait, how much? Joke's on them now that some Ivies are actively recruiting from public schools in the name of economic diversity. We posted the other day about Lukasz Zbylut, the son of Polish immigrants and graduate of Brooklyn's New Utrecht High School, who was accepted by every Ivy to which he applied, and is going to Harvard (which only admitted 7.1% of applicants) in the fall. Congrats, Lukasz. Represent.
A ONE-MAN IVY LEAGUE [New York Post]
Private School Rejects [Page Six]
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June 30th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Haha my tiny 50-kid/graduating class Jewish day school rocks Dalton: kids in at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and every Ivy with a sizable jewish community (sorry dartmouth, you suck anyway).
June 30th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
[...] Virginia University Schadenfreude Is A Good Word » This Summary is from an article posted at IvyGate on Monday, June 30, 2008 You know how the [...]
June 30th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
“But “most people I know are not going to their first-choice schools,” says one Horace Mann grad who was admitted to Cornell University only as a guaranteed transfer sophomore year, and will attend Syracuse in the fall. ”
What? Guaranteed admission for sophomore year? Is that a real thing?
June 30th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Who the fuck has heard of Dalton anyway? Is it even in New England?
June 30th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
To Columbia ‘09:
Yea, the Sophomore admission thing has become relatively common at Cornell. Something that has gotten much more frequent in that I know a few ‘09ers and beyond who got that option. Apparently, Cornell doesn’t have enough room or something, so they let these kids in for the second year after some of the wankers fail out. It is kind of a sweet deal, but like you end up going somewhere for a year and then peace out.
July 1st, 2008 at 3:05 am
It’s funny how the article first makes you feel bad for the private school kids who seem to be at this “disadvantage” because schools want to diversify and then it has a paragraph about other New York schools and how many top schools they got their kids into making you spite the private school kids all over again for their still blatantly existent advantage in the admissions process.
July 1st, 2008 at 3:08 am
The times article that is–not the ivy gate one.
July 1st, 2008 at 8:08 am
I think Cornell also gives guaranteed transfer junior year if I remember what a couple friends in high school were offered… of course I went to one of those public schools so that might be why they didn’t get in first round.
& @Eds. - Nice use of the GG picture. I always support that.
July 1st, 2008 at 9:07 am
Woe unto those who have to attend non-Ivies! Johns Hopkins? *scoff* I blame the ridiculous parents. “You mean my child has to be intelligent, driven, and interesting to get into a good school? I thought all I had to do was send him to an expensive school and they would raise him.”
Jokes on them. I’m sure many of you are in the same boat:
-Public School
-Money spent on SAT prep: $0
-Money spent on college essay tutor: $0
-Actual fun had in high school: more than these people
July 1st, 2008 at 9:15 am
Interesting to note: Eliot Spitzer’s daughter going to Harvard this fall. (Further snooping reveals that her facebook is not private.) How awkward would it be on move-in day to have her as a roommate? Parents start introducing themselves… “So what do you do? Oh…I’m the former gov. of New York…..*cough cough*”
July 1st, 2008 at 2:25 pm
@Cool-umbia08: couldn’t agree more. I know I’m as qualified (if not more) than any of those kids to be going to Princeton, and if they were only admitting kids who paid tens of thousands of dollars for college counseling, I sure as hell wouldn’t be going to Princeton.
That said, it also wasn’t my first choice to go to an Ivy. Some people need to realize that there are other very good schools out there.
July 2nd, 2008 at 2:11 am
@jazzarini:
Are you THAT stupid? Princeton has a sizable Jewish community? Perhaps you missed the fact that it is Princeton, and not Dartmouth, that has the lowest Jewish population (by percent). And maybe you missed the past 100 years of popular perception - and quotes by famous Jews, even at Princeton - that Princeton is not a good place for Jews. Not to mention, all easily accessible stats of Dartmouth’s Jewish population come from before it started a (popular) Kosher dining option, and before the Hillel had time to really take root. Either way, Dartmouth’s Jewish population (and Princeton’s for that matter) is over four times the national level (10-11% vs. 1.5-2.5%). Maybe no one from your school goes to Dartmouth because you’re elitist pricks who brag on message boards about their “HYP” acceptance rate. And yes, I’m Jewish.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Listen, hon: Princeton has a CJL, and a larger orthodox population. That was what I meant. A lot of the kids at my HS were ortho. Dartmouth has very few orthodox Jews in comparison.
Also, I’m just kidding, Dartmouth obviously doesn’t suck.