Originally Posted by
Dan Druff
When I was a young lad, I dated a girl who was a complete fuckup in high school. Smart girl, but a complete disaster in school, mostly due to having a really irresponsible mom who somehow had full custody of her.
Anyway, her dad was married to a woman who worked at some mid-level administrative job at USC. You could say it was a her "stepmom", but keep in mind that she did NOT live with her dad, nor was this woman related to her in any way.
Despite that, the woman had the authority to get her into USC. She was not a professor or very high ranking at the college. As I said, she was a mid-level administrator. Even with USC's low standards at this time, this kinda surprised me.
But it's not just USC. There is so much bullshit in college admissions.
There's the aforementioned nepotism.
There's the college athletics admissions, where they let in great athletes with horrible academics in order to win football and basketball games, in what is basically just an unpaid minor leagues system. (Obviously this is a huge debate/discussion in itself.)
There is the racial element, where Asians are horribly discriminated against, while other non-white minorities are given a tremendous advantage. (It was actually shown in a recent lawsuit that whites approximately break even in this system, and it's the Asians taking it up the ass.)
There's the silly "college essay" requirement, which is supposed to demonstrate who you are as a person, but in reality is just a competition as to whose parents (or hired coaches) can write the most impressive essay.
There is the idiotic emphasis on extracurricular activities regarding deciding who to admit, in a misguided attempt to admit "well rounded" kids. In reality, it's a competition as to which kids' parents are better at helping them puff up their extracurricular claims.
I'm not writing this stuff from a position of bitterness. I got into every school to which I applied. I ended up going to UCSB because I liked the atmosphere and the fact that it was not-too-close, not-too-far from LA.
But even as a 17-year-old, I found the entire admissions process to be a combination of shady and misguided.