He comes from a working class (basically poor) immigrant family and was the only Asian kid in school for most of his life. Our school didn't offer more than 4 AP classes but he made the most of it. He tried really hard, is an EXCELLENT essay writer, and he couldn't figure out why he didn't even have one Ivy League school accept him. While they accept students based on a long list of ambiguous factors, he thought that at least one of them would pick him up.

Edit: there are SO MANY factors as to why a student might get accepted to an Ivy League/prestigious university. It's not just based on GPA and standardized test scores. However, he applied to dozens of schools (he got his fees waived due to being low income and didn't want to miss out) and was only accepted into 2 which both had acceptance rates around 6-10% at the time.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4603458&forum_id=2#40753586)

wustl is pretty competitive to get into these days.

michigan state has an 80% admissions rate

university of michigan has a 20% admissions rate

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4603458&forum_id=2#40754251)

i don't resent URMs with lower credentials for getting into those schools because oftentimes they do come from harder backgrounds but what irks me sometimes is that so many of the URMs at Ivies are like 1/4 ethnic and went to prestigious prep schools and are getting the same amount of affirmative action as some poor first-gen college student black girl who grew up in queens

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4603458&forum_id=2#40753708)

I remember at my HS the teachers that were in charge of running our internal SAT/ACT prep seemed to take the position that the SAT was clearly > the ACT in applying for selective (top 50ish) colleges, except that they would steer a few of the dumber yet still ‘aspirational’ kids towards the ACT, because it was supposed to be more ‘learnable’ and ‘gameable’ than the SAT, which was more RAW intellectual horsepower.

But when I was teaching SAT for Kaplan in college someone told me that view was outdated (if it was ever true at all) and colleges really have no preference.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4603458&forum_id=2#40754254)

these graphs really speak volumes, especially the asian line falling in lockstep with whites and men one year and then rising the next: https://twitter.com/UnsilencedSci/status/1198629212984229889

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4603458&forum_id=2#40754264)

splitters are not-flame the most oppressed group in this country.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4603458&forum_id=2#40754280)

(a) a money grab by whatever gang of bureaucrats run it, and

(b) a way for colleges to obfuscate their stats by having alternative tests.

Incidentally to those core purposes, it is also:

(c) a way a way for rich kids to game the system by taking two different tests and using the one where they score at the high end of their personal distribution through blind luck or having a better day, and

(d) a way to trick 110 IQ kids with test anxiety into performing at their true level (by persuading them that the ACT is very different from the SAT after they shit the bed on the SAT and conclude that they are a retard).

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4603458&forum_id=2#40755032)