# Was your college acceptance "deserved"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 3, 2012, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694 "2012-02-03T23:04:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![markdash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@markdash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdash)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694/21 "2012-02-04T09:36:41Z")
When I was applying to schools in the mid-90s, there was a brochure sent out by the state U that featured a grid with SAT/GPA and percentage of those applicants who were admitted. I was in the 99th percentile, so yeah, I would say I got in on merit. It certainly wasn’t my looks! ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694/22 "2012-02-04T09:59:32Z")
I’m the only white European in my department and by far the least academically accomplished. Yes, I strongly suspect positive discrimination helped me get in, but it didn’t stop me from getting swamped by the high-level work ---
**Author:** ![nikonikosuru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f8ce5/32.png) [@nikonikosuru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikonikosuru)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694/23 "2012-02-04T11:17:00Z")
Yes, I definitely met at least the minimum required to get into my undergrad college. I would say I was smack dab in the middle. My best friend at the time got accepted to an Ivy league college because of AA. It was very frustrating to see our valedvictorian get rejected from the same school despite the fact she had a much higher GPA, was in more clubs/organizations, and was financially worse off than my best friend. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694/24 "2012-02-04T13:42:24Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > How do you think you measured up to the admission standards at your college/university? Did you hit the “average”, exceed it, or sneak in beneath it? And how do you think the experience affected you? Standards for mine were: - students must have passed the College Admissions Exam (it was country-wide, not from the school). No specific average needed, since the first year is selective and experience shows that the students with the highest grades aren’t necessarily the ones who perform best in that school. Results: - 1/3 of students never reach the second year; about 2% of those who do do not need to repeat the first. I repeated the first with one subject, putting me already in the top 5%. - The immense majority of students who reach the second year graduate. The theoretical perfect time was 7 years, under a program approved in 1954. In 50 years, only one student hit that perfect time; the usual time was 9 years. I got it in 8, earning my nickname of “lightning” once again. How did it affect me? - It allowed me to go to college in a place distant enough to avoid coming home to the ironing every weekend. - That town’s cultural life (from Comicons to free concerts to cineclubs) was and is superb, and while I was broke and spent a lot of time studying, I still was able to find an afternoon for it each week (except in 4th, which was the heaviest year for coursework - in 4th I went to the movies 3 times, no theater, concerts, or even walks). - It put me in direct reach of the Grandparents from Hell :smack:; I knew Gramps wasn’t my nicest relative but didn’t know how big the problem was, since Mom was (and remains) heavily dedicated to hiding it. - It allowed me to study in a superb school, in the company of people with interests and mindsets much more similar to mine than if I’d been in one of the schools my parents wanted. - That repeat year made my first trip to the US, to work in a summer camp, possible. - And those posters advertising MITs grad programs brought me to the US again when I finished. There were downs as well as ups, but all in all I’m sooooooo happy I went there. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694/25 "2012-02-04T14:51:36Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Why? I can think of a few reasons why a business would hire restrictively\* but it just seems very wasteful of opportunities. Do they have the gall of saying they like diversity? > > - The prestige of being able to say "We have X% of Ivy league graduates’. The fact that recruiting from the Ivy league cuts out the bottom, to an imperfect but large extent. It depends what sort of business you are in. If you want to do investment banking for Goldman Sachs or strategy consulting for Mckinsey or Bain, you sort of have to graduate from a top school. The argument is they are providing professional services by some of the top minds in the business world. Well, if you are one of the top minds, theoretically you should have graduated from one of the top schools. That said, those are very specific career paths. There are other paths to success and other good schools besides the Ivy League. Smart, hard working people always tend to find those paths to success. Besides, I think Harvard looks for the sort of student who is obviously qualified to go there while at the same time pretentious enough to leave off their race when they have a name like “quan” or “chan” and actually believe they are “proving” they aren’t a beneficiary of the “brainy Asian” stereotype. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694/26 "2012-02-04T15:37:48Z")
Wanna know a secret? I never took SAT’s. I started Higher Ed in a technical college (electronics) that was accredited. That school didn’t require SAT scores. From there I transferred my credits to a two year junior college and then to a university. I didn’t plan it this way. SAT’s just never came up when I was 17. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694/27 "2012-02-06T04:26:26Z")
I think I was. Started college in 1990, at UT-Austin. I was a National Achievement (that sub-section for Black folks) Scholar, had a few merit scholarships, plus I was from a underresourced school and a first-generation college student. I was a “diamond in the rough.” I had very competitive SAT scores and GPA. My full-ride scholarship was definitely an AA deal. It was offered to high-achieving Black and Hispanic kids and ended after the _Hopwood_ case was decided. I’m now a professor at my undergrad institution. I figure that scholarship was a good investment on their part. Though I know some people used the scholarship to leverage other offers from other schools, I only applied to one undergrad institution, and was planning on going there… even though I really didn’t know how I was going to afford it. I don’t think I would have lived on campus if I didn’t have the scholarship, and that was really the part of the college experience that “opened up my world,” as it were. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694/28 "2012-02-06T06:13:24Z")
In Peru it used to be (and it’s still is for public universities) very simple: Take a test (diffeent one for each univ) and the top X students got in accodring your chosen studies. Sex, race, extracurricualrs, or sports made no difference. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694/29 "2012-02-06T07:41:07Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Why? I can think of a few reasons why a business would hire restrictively\* but it just seems very wasteful of opportunities. Do they have the gall of saying they like diversity? > > - The prestige of being able to say "We have X% of Ivy league graduates’. The fact that recruiting from the Ivy league cuts out the bottom, to an imperfect but large extent. I think it is an HR prestige thing. It is really a pain in the ass to recruit in this situation since I have lots of professor friends in schools which have top rate groups in my area - but they don’t qualify. Every time I discover a new rule I say “curiouser and curiouser.” ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694/30 "2012-02-06T07:49:24Z")
Eh, my college acceptance was kind of expected. I won’t mention the alma mater that I never completed. But if I could have even gotten and truly applied for the placement I was truly “deserving” and had applied myself towards in latent, high school, academic terms… maybe things could have been different. I wanted to go to Middlebury… and even now, what would that be worth? ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694/31 "2012-02-06T07:56:35Z")
I’m almost sure I would have been accepted to Middlebury in '89 but I wasn’t brave enough. Never do that kind of regret, if you can help it. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694/32 "2012-02-06T09:09:08Z")
My acceptance was entirely based on merit. I have never competed for any spot based on color, and never would…nor handicap, nor privelege, station or wealth. ---
**Author:** ![piepiepie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47774/32.png) [@piepiepie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/piepiepie)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694/33 "2012-02-06T13:59:02Z")
I wish I would’ve applied to an ivy, but I was set on going to my state school because it’s one of the best on the east coast. I graduated third in my class, had decent SAT and ACT scores (I also applied to Purdue and OSU but thought a good ACT score would bolster my decent SATs), and loads of extracurriculars, plus I took AP classes. I got a full ride, which I later lost because engineering kicked my ass. It still does. I have one class left and I’m stalling since there’s some redtape I need to take care of. It makes me mad. I should’ve planned this better so I’d be done by now. I’m a black female but it’s not like I wasn’t an exceptional student in high school. However, I’m from a small town and there wasn’t a lot of competition either. I missed out on the top 2 by .01 or something. I’m cool with that. ETA: I think I only got my scholarship because of my handshake. My interviewer said he could tell I was a drum major. ---
**Author:** ![Gus\_Gusterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@Gus\_Gusterson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Gusterson)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694/34 "2012-02-06T14:53:55Z")
I went to a school that had open admission - if you applied you got in. I totally earned that acceptance. ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694/35 "2012-02-06T15:17:18Z")
I went from a middling public high school to a pretty rigorous undergrad institution. I can certainly say that I wasn’t academically prepared for college, but I never questioned my admission. My HS grades were good, my board scores were pretty good, and I’m pretty sure my essay was entertaining for the admissions committee, but like others have mentioned, it probably helped that I went to the kind of high school where not so many people apply to elite colleges. However, I graduated with honors both within my concentration and in the College as a whole, so I think it all worked OK. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694/36 "2012-02-06T20:05:22Z")
Considering that they accept about 80% of applicants, and roughly 95% of the admissions decision is made based on your essays (I submitted I think 12 pages, double-spaced) and two letters of recommendation, I would say I deserved the acceptance to the school I ended up attending. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694/37 "2012-02-06T21:00:31Z")
White dude with a reasonably good HS GPA. Upon graduation from college we were given back our entrance applications (with essays) just for grins. After reading mine I can confidently say: no way in hell did I deserve admission. I am certain I was let in because of some weird “Trading Places” bet. Or maybe I was let in because I was a White dude. In any event, they _did_ eventually get through to me and by my last year I was performing at least as well as my fellow classmates. I have since, however, reverted back to idiocy–there is comfort in what you know. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694/38 "2012-02-06T22:29:41Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I think it is an HR prestige thing. It is really a pain in the ass to recruit in this situation since I have lots of professor friends in schools which have top rate groups in my area - but they don’t qualify. Every time I discover a new rule I say “curiouser and curiouser.” “Rated” by whom? Part of it is a cultural thing. Many of those companies are run by generations of an old boy’s club of managing directors who all graduated from the same elite universities. But there are actually jobs that require you to be very smart. Like top 1% of your class, 1600 on your SATs (or whatever the max score is now), 9% acceptance rate smart. It doesn’t mean those people who didn’t get in are “dumb”, But it’s the difference between \*\*piepiepie \*\*struggling with engineering at “one of the best state schools on the East Coast” and someone at MIT or CalTech designing freakin robots in their spare time. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694/39 "2012-02-06T22:50:54Z")
White male here, and back in the 80s: Accepted: Stanford UVA Georgetown UPenn Waitlisted: Princeton Rejected: Harvard Yale Dartmouth ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694/40 "2012-02-06T23:12:27Z")
> [@Algher](#): > > White male here, and back in the 80s: > > Accepted: > Stanford > UVA > Georgetown > UPenn > > Waitlisted: > Princeton > > Rejected: > Harvard > Yale > Dartmouth Those were all my safety schools! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-college-acceptance-deserved/611694.md?page=3)