I wish more of these college discussions were in the
College forum, rather than
General Discussion, to aid future readers in finding them.
That said, I agree with several points in the
posts on the Gifted Girls thread: that students get accepted into selective colleges to make a well-rounded class, that such students may be well-rounded or pointy, and that stories are anecdotal.
Rather than share more anecdotes, possibly a list of a few of the books with input from selective college admissions and/or based on research, will be helpful:
1)
Getting In: Inside College Admissions (1997) Princeton
2)
The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College (2003) Wesleyan
3)
What it Really Takes to Get Into Harvard and Other Highly Selective Colleges (2003) Harvard
4)
The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton (2006)
5)
The Price of Admission: How America's Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges--And Who Gets Left Outside the Gates (2007)
6)
A is for Admission (2009) Dartmouth
7)
The Best Book on Elite Admissions: Uncovered (2011) Stanford (Also see Erinn Andrews' video case studies
here)
