Posted by a don on 6/4/2009, 2:52 pm, in reply to "Re: and......"
DC - The way I've seen it, there's two ways to get into an Ivy. The first is to be extremely bright and merely take mostly AP classes for nothing but A+s. I naively observed the second method with a prep classmate. To start with, his family was and is one of the richest in No. Calif., and they sent humongous checks to Harvard for generations. None of us could figure out why he hid in the very lowest class at Bellarmine. A little Latin, but no French and certainly no Greek like many of us "enjoyed." He joined about the same number of clubs as the rest of us. But near the end of his junior year, his family's plan revealed itself. He made an alliance (this sounds a little like Survivor) with a poor but very talented and popular guy so this guy could be Student Body Vice President, and the rich guy, naturally, could run as SB President. Their campaign was over-the-top! Huge professionally made banners covered the school and on election day, they passed out free Eskimo Pies to the student body. Sure, upon graduation he got into Harvard. I was so slow absorbing his masterful plan that it didn't dawn on me until years later. It really didn't matter since most of us were thrilled to attend Santa Clara or USF. And I wouldn't trade a moment of my USF experiences.