I got into UC Berkeley with a high school GPA of 2.9 by talking about math with professors. This strategy failed everywhere else, and would have failed at Berkeley if I hadn’t been lucky enough to find a professor stubborn enough to argue with the admissions office again after they ignored him the first time. On the other hand, my accomplishments are not even close to as impressive as Andraka’s, so he might have an easier time with this strategy even with a worse GPA.
Anyway, if you’ve done anything impressive, finding a champion within the system is easy. Andraka had a hard time with that step because he was trying to get support before doing something cool rather than after. Now, the vast majority of biology professors would gladly stand up for him to their institution’s admissions department. But this strategy requires persistence on the part of the champion, as well as the applicant.
Anyway, if you’ve done anything impressive, finding a champion within the system is easy.
It’s not impossible, but “easy” is an overstatement.
One of the most disappointing discoveries of my life was the existence of professors—even math professors, alas—who think like high-school teachers or college admissions officers. They not only exist, but exist in large enough numbers that one will actually run into them. The good guys also exist, but they don’t dominate the way I thought they did. This realization caused me to change my view of academia.
Now, the vast majority of biology professors would gladly stand up for him to their institution’s admissions department.
Again, I think that’s an overestimate. Maybe half of them would, but the “vast majority”? You would get a substantial number who, while grudgingly admitting the impressiveness of his accomplishment, would seek to rationalize the traditional status structure by making excuses about his not being “ready” or “a good fit”, etc.
When I did it, it wasn’t very difficult. Maybe about a third of the professors I talked to agreed to talk to their admissions department on my behalf, which is remarkably high considering that I had not received any official recognition for my work, I had some difficulty explaining it coherently, it was really only slightly impressive, and I’m a bit short on social skills, which are useful for impressing people (I had a lot of really awkward meetings with professors). Andraka at the very least has a huge advantage over me in the first and third of those problems, which should give him a sizable majority. If he’s solid in the second and forth problems as well, I would expect him to get an overwhelming majority.
I got into UC Berkeley with a high school GPA of 2.9 by talking about math with professors. This strategy failed everywhere else, and would have failed at Berkeley if I hadn’t been lucky enough to find a professor stubborn enough to argue with the admissions office again after they ignored him the first time. On the other hand, my accomplishments are not even close to as impressive as Andraka’s, so he might have an easier time with this strategy even with a worse GPA.
Anyway, if you’ve done anything impressive, finding a champion within the system is easy. Andraka had a hard time with that step because he was trying to get support before doing something cool rather than after. Now, the vast majority of biology professors would gladly stand up for him to their institution’s admissions department. But this strategy requires persistence on the part of the champion, as well as the applicant.
It’s not impossible, but “easy” is an overstatement.
One of the most disappointing discoveries of my life was the existence of professors—even math professors, alas—who think like high-school teachers or college admissions officers. They not only exist, but exist in large enough numbers that one will actually run into them. The good guys also exist, but they don’t dominate the way I thought they did. This realization caused me to change my view of academia.
Again, I think that’s an overestimate. Maybe half of them would, but the “vast majority”? You would get a substantial number who, while grudgingly admitting the impressiveness of his accomplishment, would seek to rationalize the traditional status structure by making excuses about his not being “ready” or “a good fit”, etc.
When I did it, it wasn’t very difficult. Maybe about a third of the professors I talked to agreed to talk to their admissions department on my behalf, which is remarkably high considering that I had not received any official recognition for my work, I had some difficulty explaining it coherently, it was really only slightly impressive, and I’m a bit short on social skills, which are useful for impressing people (I had a lot of really awkward meetings with professors). Andraka at the very least has a huge advantage over me in the first and third of those problems, which should give him a sizable majority. If he’s solid in the second and forth problems as well, I would expect him to get an overwhelming majority.