Helping kids get into Stanford/Harvard?
What can I do now to help my 4th grader get into Stanford/Harvard/Berkeley type place? I would like to help her get there. We are not the typical parents who push their kid with prep school, RSM etc. Any tips from successful parents? TC 450k YOE 15
Divorce and marry some historically under represented people and use their last name to apply in the future.
You could save up 6M, that’s the documented going rate of bribes to get into Stanford (as of 2019)
If you are not typical parents who push their kid, why you are pushing them to Stanford/Harvard? They will find their own way, if they want to
Having second thoughts about not being the typical parent. And wondering if the pushy parents are setting kids for success
What does success mean to you? Chasing money or chasing happiness? If former, then odds are higher that pushy parents would setup the kids. Kids may or may not cope up with it.
Make smart kids
Your kid is in 4th grade and you’re already planning the details of their college life 🤦
Kids will inherit your genes, if you are not Harvard/Stanford alum, then forget about it. Its your fault for not getting into Harvard, you setup your kids for failure by not getting in
Harvard doesn’t have enough seats for people carrying Harvard genes. So even if you attended Harvard, the odd for your children to get in is not significant. When I was in college, professors celebrated their children to get in to the school they taught like a big achievement.
The best thing you could do for your kid is to teach them how to think for themself instead of sending them to a woke brainwash internment camp like UC Berkeley. I work with plenty of alumni from those schools and their work ethic is mediocre, their intellect is questionable, and their ego is through the roof.
+1111111111
Stanford/Harvard is typically not attainable even for high GPA + high SAT + sports captain/club president unless you’re under-represented or last name is on a building on campus. Send them to a great high school, watch them get into a good to decent school like UT Austin, Washington, Wisconsin, etc. A great high school will prep them to be toward the top of their class at these places if they continue to work hard. From there they can get a good job and two years into the workforce where you went to school becomes meaningless.
https://facts.stanford.edu/academics/freshmen-class-profile/ The freshman class size is around 1700. So there are around 500 Asian kids. Also 50% of incoming class come from public schools. (Asian because we are Asian). So I don’t think it’s that bad. How to be in that 500. The numbers are similar at Harvard, Yale, Rice, Brown. So there are a total of 5k of so places at ivies adjusted for DEI etc.
If you are Asian, forget about it. Just give you one example, Nathan Chen, four time world champion, Olympic champion and 1600 SAT didn’t get him into Harvard. It will be significantly harder 20 years from now. Because everyone knows what needs to be done today, 20 years from now, everyone will have those things in their application package. Plus Asian youth will be doubled, and Harvard is determined to defend their quota for Asian. Your kids will need to win an Oscar or a Nobel prize or a lottery. There is nothing you can do about the lottery part although that’s the most likely way to get into.
Donate millions of dollars. Maybe a building. Divorce and marry someone with an underrepresented last name. Or an alum who donates a lot so your kid is a legacy. Cure cancer and give your kid the credit. Get your kid into the Olympics and get recruited for sport. Or you could be a normal parent and nurture their innate gifts without pushing them. Harvard/Stanford isn’t success and many people from public schools are not only smarter and happier but also better people than those at Ivies. It’s the quality of the person that matters, not the school that they went to. Biden didn’t go to an Ivy. Or Taylor Swift. Or Steve Jobs. Sure, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg did but they dropped out. I don’t think they made all their money because they went to an Ivy. By the way, I DID go to one of the schools you mentioned. Many of the individuals there were stunted because they had parents exactly how you are describing yourself. Many also tend to be kind of smug and entitled because of the name brand of their school. And they went on to get jobs and attend grad schools in exactly the same places as non-Ivy people. Quality of a person is more important than the name brand of a school.
Thanks. But I don’t think”quality of a person” and school brand name are mutually exclusive. Or do you think the brand name schools are actively hurting the prospects of the students?
This is a totally random but based on people I know example. Suppose your kid is in the top 200 nationwide at math (which is already insanely good.) Well a college can’t take 100% math majors. They have to fill their class with English majors, history majors, etc. why would they take your kid for math when there are 199 better than them? Okay, then maybe you should get your kid to focus on History or English or Latin or something less competitive so that they get in. But what if your kid really loves math and wants to pursue it as a career? Aren’t you hurting them? But wait! You could focus on other stuff to get in then switch your major afterwards. But then you are losing those precious high school years to really excel at it, and once you switch your major you are behind. That’s not setting your kid for success. What if instead you let your kid pursue math as much as they wanted in high school and just send them to the best school they get into without worrying that it is Harvard or Stanford or whatever. I think that sets them up for more success in the future. I know quite a few people who got into Harvard/Stanford based on being a recruited athlete or legacy or something similar. And some of the absolute smartest, most amazing and talented people I know were rejected from both. Guess who is more successful now? All I’m saying is that setting these expectations in early childhood is not setting your kid up for success. If they make it because they happen to be the best mathematician in the country, cool. But nobody becomes the best at something because their parents want them to, it has to be because it’s something they genuinely love.
I rejected someone from Stanford and they sent me a threatening email once