I Got Paid to Improve Rich Kids' Personalities on Their College Applications | Hacker News Reader

I Got Paid to Improve Rich Kids' Personalities on Their College Applications

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17 pointsBalgair6 comments

> The fact of the matter is that these kids don't have passions, so they are trying to do what others did with the test scores and buy their way in. Trying to fake passion is hard. It's upsetting that people would pay good money rather than trying to cultivate it themselves.

I didn't have any "passions" when I was 17. I know few people that did. Instead of mocking "rich kids", why don't we ask why a college should care about our personality or passions. Some people just want to go to school, find a career, start a family and live a normal happy life.

A college should care about personality and passion because the college's prerogative, if it's so inclined, is to cultivate culture. Consider a student body where no one has any passions or personality. Seems pretty grim to me.

That said, I don't think it's reasonable for colleges to insist that every entering student already be well-formed. After all, acculturation is one of the things that happens (or is supposed to happen) in college.

Because colleges are more interesting with interesting people in it

If you want just a “career” than we should have UBI and socialized healthcare so these people who want to be careerists can go work retail or sell insurance and not take up spaces in our institutions of “higher” learning.

There are plenty of colleges that don’t care about your personality. There are plenty of colleges that have basically enough slots for every reasonable applicant. But the really good ones, as the sibling comment mentions, are concerned with culture as well as academics, and they have many more applicants than slots.

The stereotype you mention is associated with your local large public university for a reason. The more ambitious are seeking a different experience, and the admissions essay is part of the process.

It's not what you know, what you achieve or what you can do; it's who you know, who your parents are and how much money they have. Basically, the same as the criminal justice system.

I don't think "personality" rates very high in the interview process; it's really more about legacy, money and other pedigree qualities. They may swear up-and-down about diversity and other feel-good, aspirational virtues, but they're a business bent on exclusivity, first and foremost.

The person who wrote this, who is pretty clearly very fond of themself, seems about as dull as the kids they are disparaging. Who brags about being in varsity swimming and making highschool honors as an adult?

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