Senior with 4.09 GPA accepted at UC Berkeley, oh wait illegal immigrant

[BerenTebogo]

She already received "$100,000" in public school education, and it's not like she's being denied entry into college...

The question is not "should she be provided with opportunity" it's "how much more should she be given"?

More than we give to 2.5ers who are going to use their B.A. in Lib. Arts to work at starbucks?

Boy, that was hard.

[archibaldcrane]

It's not even about getting loans/scholarships/etc. Just to make that clear.

It's not? I thought that was what this entire article was about.

[Weiing]

Assuming I'm right about her GPA weight being 4.33 Kenyon College, Scripps, Occidental would all be safe with a decent SAT. Colgate or Colby possibly.

I always assumed those schools were more expensive compared to UC/Cal State prices? It wouldn't make sense for her to apply to those schools then, financially speaking.

[Gredival]

>>implying Harvard is better than UC Berk at anything other than Business and Law.

There is a basis for the prestige. Harvard has better SAT bands and GPA bands. They have higher average MCATs and LSATs.

I mean no doubt there are lots of brilliant kids at Cal, and as a whole Cal is definitely a heavyweight academic school, but comparing a group of median kids from each school I'm pretty sure the Harvard kids would be comparatively superior students. Maybe at the very top end there wouldn't be very much difference.

[BerenTebogo]

The biggest problem here isn't the inability to receive federal funds for US schools. That's really an inarguable point. The inability to receive scholarships that she's earned on merit and effort due to the lack of a SSN is the problem.

It's so ass-backwards I can't even begin to go wtf enough.

[BerenTebogo]

There is a basis for the prestige. Harvard has better SAT bands and GPA bands. They have higher average MCATs and LSATs.

I mean no doubt there are lots of brilliant kids at Cal, and as a whole Cal is definitely a heavyweight academic school, but comparing a group of median kids from each school I'm pretty sure the Harvard kids would be comparatively superior students. Maybe at the very top end there wouldn't be very much difference.

Someone doesn't live near an Ivy league school. The median kids in most Ivy leagues are there because of money, not merit. The higher end is all that really exists in comparison.

Edit: For her major, PolySci, Harvard may be the better choice though. On average though Harvard exists for the name and the few specialties. Not for the broad spectrum of A+ education.

[archibaldcrane]

More than we give to 2.5ers who are going to use their B.A. in Lib. Arts to work at starbucks?

Boy, that was hard.

Seems like a pretty large investment in a Mexican to me. At least your 2.5er with a B.A. in Liberal Arts can work at Starbucks - where the fuck is this illegal immigrant with a college degree going to work?

Oh, that's right - she's not going to legally work anywhere in the United States. She can't legally contribute to this country, at all.

[Kirb]

Someone doesn't live near an Ivy league school. The median kids in most Ivy leagues are there because of money, not merit. The higher end is all that really exists in comparison.

Was about to point this out. Connections and money are generally the primary gateway to Ivy League. Sure, there are some top notch students that get in, but as the mantra goes: Harvard students are like a good milkshake, thick and rich.

If I were a physics, chemist or other varied science major, I would always take Berkeley or MIT over Harvard, damn the prestige. What good is prestige if it doesn't give you the skills and experience that a science-focused school would help you acquire?

Oh, that's right - she's not going to legally work anywhere in the United States. She can't legally contribute to this country, at all.

Yeah, why apply for citizenship in the US when you too, can work in glorious Mexico.

Citizenship is hard, like I mentioned earlier, but it's not impossible, and it's very likely the path she's going to take.

[BerenTebogo]

Seems like a pretty large investment in a Mexican to me. At least your 2.5er with a B.A. in Liberal Arts can work at Starbucks - where the fuck is this illegal immigrant with a college degree going to work?

Oh, that's right - she's not going to legally work anywhere in the United States. She can't legally contribute to this country, at all.

Unless she gets married? Applies for citizenship when she isn't under 18? Hurr durr?

[Gredival]

I always assumed those schools were more expensive compared to UC/Cal State prices? It wouldn't make sense for her to apply to those schools then, financially speaking.

Private schools have the ability to finance their own financial aid packets. Generally they use scholarships as bait to get better students in order to try raise their median stats in order to rise in the rankings... and then the cycle repeats.

Anecdotal experience -- I had a scholarship from Kenyon that far cheaper to go there vs. my offer from Berk. It all depends on they want you (stats compared to their medians) and they could give a very nice package in an attempt to lure you.

That being said generally the top ranking schools are also the schools with better endowments that can best fund this sort of student recruitment... which is why school rankings are very static and you will never ever see Harvard Yale Princeton Stanford etc. deposed from their perches.

[archibaldcrane]

Someone doesn't live near an Ivy league school. The median kids in most Ivy leagues are there because of money, not merit.

So...it's their money that buys them higher median SAT, GPA, MCAT, LSAT scores?

K.

[BerenTebogo]

So...it's their money that buys them higher median SAT, GPA, MCAT, LSAT scores?

K.

My SAT scores as a high school dropout were higher than Harvard's median acceptance level for the year I would've graduated.

>>implying Harvard is hard to get into scholastically.

[archibaldcrane]

Unless she gets married? Applies for citizenship when she isn't under 18? Hurr durr?

So we're counting on her to get married then?

You're (and most in this thread) are vastly underestimating how difficult it is to get U.S. citizenship through the proper channels. She doesn't have a direct relative that is a U.S. citizen, so it's going to be pretty much impossible for her outside of marriage or (maybe) having a baby.

How is she going to pay back $130k in student loans when she can't even get a job legally?

When someone answers this, then we can continue.

[BerenTebogo]

Private schools have the ability to finance their own financial aid packets. Generally they use scholarships as bait to get better students in order to try raise their median stats in order to rise in the rankings... and then the cycle repeats.

Anecdotal experience -- I had a scholarship from Kenyon that far cheaper to go there vs. my offer from Berk. It all depends on they want you (stats compared to their medians) and they could give a very nice package in an attempt to lure you.

That being said generally the top ranking schools are also the schools with better endowments that can best fund this sort of student recruitment... which is why school rankings are very static and you will never ever see Harvard Yale Princeton Stanford etc. deposed from their perches.

The benefits of prestige can be summed up in one point: Professors.

All schools have specialties. The more prestige your school has the more Professors in that specialty will want to pursue tenure there.

It's really all about where the school is focused in terms of education.

[Zoolander]

Seems like a pretty large investment in a Mexican to me. At least your 2.5er with a B.A. in Liberal Arts can work at Starbucks - where the fuck is this illegal immigrant with a college degree going to work?

Oh, that's right - she's not going to legally work anywhere in the United States. She can't legally contribute to this country, at all.

Exactly. There is no legitimate argument for our national government to fund someone's higher education when they won't even be able to turn around and make use of it. The problem is in the impossibility of becoming a citizen. THAT needs to be addressed.

[BerenTebogo]

So we're counting on her to get married then?

You're (and most in this thread) are vastly underestimating how difficult it is to get U.S. citizenship through the proper channels. She doesn't have a direct relative that is a U.S. citizen, so it's going to be pretty much impossible for her outside of marriage or (maybe) having a baby.

How is she going to pay back $130k in student loans when she can't even get a job legally?

When someone answers this, then we can continue.

How does Tyrone the crack dealer repay them?

Talking scholarships, ace. Try to keep up.

[archibaldcrane]

My SAT scores as a high school dropout were higher than Harvard's median acceptance level for the year I would've graduated.

>>implying Harvard is hard to get into scholastically.

You didn't drop out of high school because you were too dumb for the classes. You implied that Harvard has less intellectual rigor than UC-Berkeley, but objective measurements demonstrate otherwise. Stop sidestepping like a bitch.

[Gredival]

Someone doesn't live near an Ivy league school. The median kids in most Ivy leagues are there because of money, not merit. The higher end is all that really exists in comparison.

Edit: For her major, PolySci, Harvard may be the better choice though. On average though Harvard exists for the name and the few specialties. Not for the broad spectrum of A+ education.

The kids that get legacied in and such usually sit at the bottom of the pool not the median.

And the same kid raised in a rich and poor environment, which one do you think will end up performing at a higher potential assuming they both work hard? Psst... it's the one with more resources to pay for the prep classes, go to a prep school, take the AP classes, etc.

There's a reason top level schools are 100% need blind, they are looking for the excellent kids who succeed in spite of adversity. That is a preferable student to the excellent one that was helped along by Daddy's wallet. But in the end they simply want the students that perform the best and being poor won't excuse bad performance or test scores.

(And I went to a top three lib-arts so I'd consider my school superior to the non-HYP ivys. Seriously, Brown is shit.)

[archibaldcrane]

Talking scholarships, ace. Try to keep up.

Then you aren't talking about this article or this girl's situation.

FONTANA - Gladys Castro has all the numbers needed to get into UC Berkeley - except one.

Although the 17-year-old Kaiser High School senior carries a 4.09 grade-point average and has been accepted to the university, she cannot apply for government loans because she's an illegal immigrant and doesn't have a Social Security number.

[BerenTebogo]

You didn't drop out of high school because you were too dumb for the classes. You implied that Harvard has less intellectual rigor than UC-Berkeley, but objective measurements demonstrate otherwise. Stop sidestepping like a bitch.

As said multiple times already, shit's situational. Harvard is less intellectually rigorous in science and math curriculum compared to the top schools specializing in such.

You don't go to MIT to study business law.