Could you elaborate on this?
I've always been curious what is going on in the admissions dynamics such that it will result in one person having the choice of 10 top tier schools versus 1-2. They all fall on the interesting side of the continuum, but what is going on that leads to these thresholds of admissions success?
The star quarterback of his smalltown football team goes down with a career ending injury during preseason practice before his junior year.
Instead of standing on the sidelines with a headset and clipboard and having the local paper write a human interest piece about how he's "helping the offence," he takes a job at a local marina taking care of the boats.
He's quickly put in charge of the place. While doing this, he learns he's fascinated by the boats, their lines and curves and decides he wanted to study architecture. (I fudged the details here but that's the story.)
Let's break this down:
1. Kid faces setback.
2. Kid responds in unexpected way.
3. Adults recognize his competence and give him considerable responsibilities.
4. Kid handles this well (his boss wrote a great letter of recommendation)
5. While working on his unusual project, kid discovers passion for something.
6. Kid wants to come to your school to engage with that passion.
That's kind of the textbook example. Admittedly, his social circumstances (middle class white kid with lots of connections via football) helped him make that decision between steps 1 and 2. I bet he had a parent who was like "son, you're done with football. Let's go on a new adventure." And that can make all the difference. But still, the kid executed.
We didn't admit the guy. That's why the job's tough. Because there's 1000 kids with stories as good as his or better.
But he certainly got more attention than the average kid.
