Teens: Ivy League Media Hype Killing Us

BOSTON, Oct. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Applications to the most competitive colleges are expected to hit all-time highs again, sending a new crop of high-achieving high school seniors into spirals of panic and despair.

(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131015/PH97416 )

"It's insane," one Aurora, Ill. high school senior told teen-oriented education website, 60second Recap, http://www.60secondrecap.com. "I feel like my head is going to explode."

Driving the frenzy is a factor frequently overlooked in discussions about forces behind the increasingly-brutal annual contest to secure admission to the nation's top colleges: Media favoritism.

Example: 60second Recap today published an analysis of Forbes "30 under 30" survey of highly-accomplished recent college graduates. (http://www.60secondrecap.com/forbes-30-under-30-colleges/) It discovered that Forbes is seven times more likely to identify someone as a graduate of an Ivy League or Ivy League-equivalent college or university than it is to tell readers when one of its honorees graduated from a less renowned institution.

As an illustration, 60second Recap observes, "Forbes tells of one '30 under 30' honoree's experience as an undergraduate at Duke, but doesn't mention any of the Arizona State University undergraduate degrees carried by three of its young stars."

60second Recap® went further, analyzing every entry in each of the 15 occupational categories of the Forbes "30 under 30" list. In all categories, it found alumni of colleges and universities accepting more than 50% of applicants.  Several of these institutions accepted all, or nearly all, of their applicants." Forbes named only one of these institutions in its story.

Result: Recap's 15 over 50%, a list of the least selective colleges and universities with alumni among Forbes "30 over 30" honorees in each of the 15 Forbes "30 under 30" categories.

"Take a look and you tell us: Does a prestigious college make you successful in life? Or do you do that for yourself?" says 60second Recap in its report overview.

"To put it another way: Is your life really over if you don't get into Yale?"

60second Recap at http://www.60secondrecap.com. For more information, contact Email. 

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