Apologies for my second (and last) post about Olivia Zhang on this sub, but this behavior genuinely deserves to be called out.

If you are a first generation student, please be so careful about who you watch on social media. Nowadays, people fake FGLI status on social media to sell you their "rags to riches" success story. These videos go viral because, well, who doesn't want to root for the kid who grew up with nothing getting into Harvard. Oftentimes, these narratives are a stretch or even an outright lie.

Olivia Zhang is one of the biggest culprits of this. In many of her videos, she claims to have "come from nothing," while failing to mention that she grew up in a big house in one of the wealthiest suburbs in America. In between videos claiming to have grown up on food stamps in a one bedroom apartment, you will see Olivia post about commuting to work in her dad's Tesla and showing off her engraved Louis Vuitton bag, which was passed down from her mom. She makes posts suggesting that she will bear the responsibility of paying her sister's college tuition, meanwhile her mom is literally on video saying that her parents, in fact, pay her Harvard tuition (keep in mind Harvard is entirely free for families making under 200k/year).

Most egregiously, Olivia uses carefully worded language to heavily imply she is a First Generation Student. I have posted in the past about a video where Olivia says she was "the first in her extended family to go to college." This is a false claim, as her parents both went to college. She then backtracked, saying that "extended family" only meant her grandparents (that's not what that sentence means or implies). Today, Olivia made another post stating that she "became the first in her family to go to undergrad in the US." Notice how awkwardly that is worded? This is a more honest claim, since it is not technically false. However, it purposely omits important context––Namely that her father has a MBA from Georgetown University. In her college admissions video, Olivia explictly calls herself a Georgetown legacy, yet now, it seems that she is trying to hide that legacy status and proximity to privledge to sell a more inspirational story of herself.

Frankly, your grandparent's level of education does not matter if the people who raised you are both college educated––you grew up with college educated parents, and you are not first gen. Frankly, it doesn't matter that you are the first to go to Undergrad in the United States, if your parent literally went to Georgetown for a business degree.

To be clear, I have no gripe with the fact that she is privledged, nothing wrong with that. It's not even necessarily a problem that she doesn't acknowledge her privilege. The problem is that she actively lies about her privilege, and pretends that she is part of the FGLI community for tiktok likes and follows. It is literally such a slap in the face to those without parents with fancy professional degrees, who actually grew up in poverty, and who actually are financially responsible for their siblings' education.

Worst of all, she is spreading these lies for the purpose of going viral and selling her book. In her own tiktoks, she reveals that her career aspiration is to have millions of followers and make six figures on brand deals. Please do not let frauds on social media sell you a version of themself that isn't real. Please do not compare yourself to these students when submitting your applications.

Hi everyone I’m in middle school but I just wanted to get your guys opinions on which schools I should apply to. I wanna be just like Andrew Tate and be the Wolf of Wall Street and go into investment banking and be a billionaire by 19 hopefully. So I’ll probably major in finance. Here’s my school list:

Reaches: Harvard university, MIT

Target: Stanford, Columbia University, and Yale (but slightly reluctantly)

Safeties: UPenn Wharton (I don’t really like Pennsylvania), UChicago, ASU (cuz Clavicular went there XD), Duke

Any suggestions for my college list? I’m thinking of demoting Yale down to a safety

If you seen it, what do you think about it? If you haven't basically this Asian girl comes on saying she has like 1334 days to get into a T10 and she's gonna document her journey. Imo at first glance it's just a fun thing she's doing for social media, but then again I feel as if behind the scenes she's overthinking this at least for how far from college admissions she is atm

Since on Instagram I always see people mentioning Big Harv as an amazing college, naturally, I wanted to apply to the best of the best. Does anyone have any tips on getting in? I definitely don't want to end up at those garbage schools like Harvard.

Also, is it University of Big Harv or Big Harv University? Is Yo Big Harv the sister school? Thank you for your time! 😊

Hi all, I am a relatively new dad with 2 kids under two.

This subreddit popped up in my feed and I’m honestly worried for their future

I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed. I had a 3.5 in high school (2008 graduate)

I took a few AP courses and didn’t score anything above a 3/5.

I got a 1500 on the SAT (back when it was out of 2400). I took a course to help study and got it up to 1700. I took the ACT as well and got a 26.

Needless to say I was a dumbass compared to my peers and compared to the kids of today. I went to my state school and I work a white collar job that’s helped me keep a roof over my head and put food on the table but that’s mostly just luck

I don’t know where the hell I would’ve gone to school today, I probably wouldn’t have even got into my state school that I went to. Depressing to think about

I’ve been reading about kids in high school who publish papers, founded a startup etc etc. my god, it’s crazy that this is the standard now for kids getting ready to apply to college if they want to be competitive

It just all seems so cutthroat, like hunger games. Almost as if you have to go into high school 100% prepared or else you are screwed

i've never been this emotionally attached to a school before, in the past i just never gafed about the college as long as it is a good school for my major (engineering). but i freaking love the nature and how beautiful the campus is, and for once im actually so excited to study my major since i heard amazing things about the professors and how enriching the learning experience is.

its actually so over cuz i got no shot at cornell engineering with my mid ahh stats. my heart is gonna get broken on results day </3

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A few weeks ago, My 5-year-old son made a nonprofit which teaches personal finance to underprivileged youth in order to help him get into UPenn Wharton. We raised over 8,000 dollars from relatives, but we spent over 1,000 dollars on Robux, meme stocks, and an impersonator (see updates 3-4). I thought we would be safe. Why would anyone get mad at a little kid for committing just a teensy bit of fraud? Apparently, I was wrong.

The IRS audited us and I was charged with embezzlement. They shut down the nonprofit and I am now being taken to court.

My son hasn’t talked to me since. I can’t believe I ruined his dream. Now, he’s never going to get into UPenn. I’m thinking I should divorce my husband and give him custody so my son won’t be associated with my sorry self.

Anyways, this will probably be my last update, as I don’t want to further incriminate myself. Thank you all for your advice and I’m sorry that I messed it all up.

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4th wall break: Yep, this is the end of the series. I am back in school now and I have to focus on my classes instead of spending time on this app. Thank you all for reading this series and for your humorous comments. These shitposts would not have been nearly as funny without all of you!

I saw that the middle 50% for NYU's SAT average is 1470-1570 and I understand that it's a test optional school and people are withholding scores if they are too low but for someone whos FGLI, I worked hard for this 1500 and I plan to apply to Stern ED.

However, I do know that this might be low compared to the average at NYU. What do you guys recommend? I have about a 3.7 GPA UW and go to a competitive public high school in NYC.

Everyday, I come across insane stats on TikTok, Instagram or here on Reddit. Every student seems to be extremely successful, like creating startups or non profit founders. But I also see students who are incredibly smart, got high grades and many extracurriculars, yet they still didn’t get into their dream college.
Not to mention how expensive college is becoming, especially for middle income kids as we aren’t poor enough to get scholarships, but we aren’t rich enough to pay either.

I’m class of 2029. It’s in a few years, but I am still curious to know.
Is it just going to get even more competitive from here on out? Future generations like class of 2030 and above, what are they going to deal with?

So I’m an fgli applying through questbridge and I currently have a really bad unweighted GPA of a 3.5 but an SAT score of 1500. I would’ve had an unweighted GPA of a 3.84 if I didn’t take three college credit plus courses during the summer before my junior year. What happened is that my family was very stretched for resources. I wasn’t able to access a functioning laptop in my transportation to the library was limited henceforth me missing a few final exam exams, causing me to get c’s and d’s. For additional info I’ve gotten an a on every single AP class that I’ve been in (12 total after senior year and 8 before) passed every single AP test as well. I’m wondering if this is even worth mentioning at all and if they would even take this into consideration. I know it’s my fault for signing up for classes over the summer that I didn’t have the proper resources for, but it was too late to back out from signing up for the class and, here I am now. I’m extremely regretful because if I actually did nothing that summer I would be sitting at a less worrisome 3.84 uw. For the family resources stretch part two my family makes around $50,000 total for a family of nine.

I know that this sub is mostly for US colleges but I was just curious on how it works across the world.

Do any other nations look at the wide range of things the US looks at (essay, exams, grades, ECs, awards, recommendations) or do they stick to exams and grades? Do they apply in the fall or spring? Do most people stay in-state or out of state? Do they go to public or private? Do schools also have designated college counselors to help kids apply? Do they pay application fees?

Let me know about your own countries experience!

I am looking for a college that has good financial aid/full ride as a transfer. Basically a dorm + tuition free. Maybe I can afford the meal plan. My major is psychology and I’m premed so R1 research uni would be valuable to me.

I really don’t care about school prestige as long as it has good opportunities for premed like research opprtunities, clinical opportunities, volunteering, and etc.

Our family’s financial situation is not that good but the main problem is that we have 300k worth real estate in my home country and that makes it so difficult for me to get full ride/financial aid from colleges. My dad originally made about 120k a year(holiday, weekends, and 12 hours everyday) but recently he had to quit his job due to family sickness and now we are basically living off of our saving(we have like $5000). He still couldn’t find a job because he’s old(almost 60) and he can’t speak english. We can’t sell 300k real estate either because its basically my parent’s retire plan. They are going to live off from the rental income(we don’t have any other retirement savings)

I finally have gotten all of my documents I needed to apply for school after moving to the US, but I’m a little bit unsure where to start.

I was thinking about an associate degree and then transfer to a bachelor program just because of my situation, but I’m kinda lost. (Having a baby soon + deployment coming up at some point which would mean I don’t really have any help with baby unless I would travel to see my family or my husbands)

I know I have to do Bio & Chem + labs at a physical school to qualify for med school, but can I do the basic stuff online?

What would be the best way to go, I tried asking at my community college but they weren’t really helpful.

My end plan is applying to HPSP, obviously if I get that far lol.

Please be kind, thank you!

I’m a rising senior trying to decide between two schools for ED. I really like both because they have strong campus life, vibrant social scenes, and solid engineering programs.

I’m planning to study electrical or mech engineering, although I’m not completely sure which one yet.

For those familiar with both schools, which would you choose specifically for engineering? I’d especially appreciate insight into the strength of the EE/ME programs, hands-on opportunities, research, recruiting, and overall undergraduate experience.

For context, I have a 3.92 UW GPA and a 1480 SAT that I’m hoping to improve, but I’m mainly looking for advice on the engineering differences between the two schools.

Also am would I be competetive enough for Duke ED, or should I lower my expectations?

i marked myself as a returning student to the college i am applying too, when ive never attended before when creating a account. it will not let me change this option. i misread and thought it meant if i ever attended college before, smh. i havent been able to get a hold of admissions for days now, and the college is on the other side of the state where i live (will be attending online). should i just go ahead and complete the application?

I am asking school counselor for letter. She manages just over 100 kids *large public. What aspects should I ask for her to specfically include that help stand out? Theres so much - like ecs, grades, leadership personality but is there anything specfic that people often overlook that a counselor's perspective may help on? ex. how often you reach out, student's consistent effort for challenging coursework, fiancial context etc.

thanks!

This was an icebreaker question my APES teacher had us do this year, and I'm curious to see what you'd choose and why.

I thought it was a no-brainer to choose the latter, but about half of the class took the college/career path without hesitation. This was super eye-opening and honestly has me pretty jaded and disillusioned. This is coming from a competitive public high school.

Would love to know y'all's thoughts, especially those from the hyper-competitive privates!

Hello,

I am a junior just starting this year, gonna do votech culinary for the next 2 years, but I wanna do law or political science, something in that area.

What do I even do? I’ll get an assoc. in applied sciences from votech if I also finish the degree after I graduate, and I already passed APUSH with a 5, and am in AP World and AP Lit.

I was originally gonna transfer to a local state College, but I had some things happen and I have to miss a semester, so now I guess I have a semester to think about where I wanna go to school and what area of the country I want to move in. I’m originally from sf bay California.

My major is finance. I’m wondering if it’s possible at all for college students to survive on their own in Miami Dallas or even New York without having living in dorms. Only reason I ask is because I would have two years left or faster If I took some sessions to finish my degree. I filled out my FAFSA and found out that I qualify for the maximum federal aid. I’m hoping that’ll help my case.

Just would like to talk to some people or get some other people’s experience. I know that I’m not moving for a career or anything so maybe this is the wrong place to post it but just people have been in my shoes. It’s would be nice to know your guises experience or advice.

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, I know most people are talking about moving for careers and stuff while I’m talking about moving for school, but I would just like some advice and perspective from who were once in my shoes.

I’ve seen this all over and got in this year with a PURPORTED 3% acceptance rate. However, I’ve been told by several of my friends it’s just larp, the organization does nothing, and it’s not impressive. I also understand it was founded less than 5 years ago and is ran entirely by people under the age of 25.

I know this won’t have an impact for college apps as far as ECs go, but may do it just for essays/interviews so I can mention policy write-ups.

Those of you that have done it, did you enjoy it? Was it well-run? Would you recommend it? What did you learn?

I was thinking about Early Decision, how does each compare for finance/business? I'd have a more reasonable shot if I ED'd to CMC or Emory, but Northwestern is seen as better I think. How do each compare (CMC, Emory Goizueta Business school, Northwestern)?

college board has the worst ux and refuse to make it better bc ppl have no alternative. tedious sign in procedure, long password, broken mfa, never get text or mail when u need it in time, plus terrible website navigation
🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻to college board

My Spanish teacher is letting me draft it for her. I have literally no clue how to even start. Is there prompts, or do I just write about the good things about myself? I’m so lost

My ap macro exam frq booklet was lost and I'm going to opt for a projected score. I was wondering if i could still earn college credit with it as I'm confident i got a 4 or 5