I am not well networked, am middle class and have a child in elementary school and don't really go looking for info like this - so, if even I heard about this, chances are that there are more of these things happening all around me!
Money speaks, sometimes crassly, sometimes subtly and meritocracy sometimes takes a backseat. But, I am an optimist and believe that there are enough good college seats for all of our kids!
This, exactly.
I'm no longer very convinced that good college seats are necessarily to be found exclusively in the so-called elite schools, however. I've shifted my opinion on this even in the time since my daughter entered high school five years ago.
It seems more and more to be a system which is about token diversity accompanied by an overwhelming culture of extreme privilege. No, thank you. While that makes me sad, because I
do believe that at one time, those institutions
were about quality in education and commitment to their mission statements, I strongly suspect that those days are long since vanished.
I'm increasingly of the opinion-- and I'm not alone-- that the better bet for highly capable students is to get out of undergraduate studies without debt, and not to worry over-much about the branding of one's diploma.
My child isn't a daughter of the 1%, and therefore, an elite college isn't a part of meeting that particular goal. A full-service research institution can be, however, because she is easily a standout among that cohort. Interestingly, she's met quite a number of other students who have opted for this same approach.
Also interesting-- no Common App, and no letters of recommendation from anyone. Wasn't part of the application at all. They cared about EC's, sure-- but more as a way of seeing who has the ability to handle academics
with ease, as opposed to those working 50-70 hours a week to pull A's in a few AP courses, if that makes sense.
