YC at Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, UPenn

Re:YC at Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, UPenn by morgante on Thursday February 09, 2017 @01:52PM (#13609678)

Oh please. You can do plenty of SAT prep at the library. My parents certainly couldn't afford an SAT prep course for me. The effect of such courses is vastly overblown—they mostly just sit you down with the same books you can get for free at the library (or for $20 on Amazon).

There are plenty of "oddball" extracurriculars that rural poor students can engage in. My admissions essay was literally about hiking with an ancient backpack covered in duct tape.

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Re:YC at Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, UPenn by xapata on Friday February 10, 2017 @12:46AM (#13613500)

Your personal experience is contradicted by some systematic studies. Unfortunately I don't have the citations nearby, but I'm sure if you search Google Scholar you'll find that you are an unusual person.

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Re:YC at Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, UPenn by sn9 on Friday February 10, 2017 @07:59PM (#13620295)

I think you're overestimating the extent that SAT prep courses play in college admissions compared to, say, personal tutors or involved parents who have knowledge about the particular rituals needed to get into good schools.

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Re:YC at Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, UPenn by xapata on Friday February 10, 2017 @09:51AM (#13615719)

I should add that while it's true a child can visit the library to study for the SAT, it seems that's not very common.

I looked up some articles about SAT prep, reports say preparing for the test increases scores about 25 points on average. I'm not sure whether that was from the 2400 or 1600 test.

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