Chapter 184: Disadvantages of Applying to Ivy League Schools

"Damn, that's brilliant!"

Watching Carter on stage, looking as if he had suffered a great injustice, LeBodin felt his heart race. An F-word almost escaped his lips.

Just like the salary structure Carter had mentioned earlier, these words made sense at first glance. With so much initial investment, recovering some through store shares seemed reasonable and fair.

But damn it, this still didn't change the fact that he was essentially freeloading store shares!

Carter set the interest rate for the special loans used for the HT plan at 12% annually for a ten-year term. Benefiting from the new law removing the cap on residential loan interest rates, Carter's loan, which could be considered usurious in a normal year, no longer faced legal loopholes.

However, compared to the past normal residential loan rates, 12% was two to three times higher. Yet, when compared to some of the commercial loan rates heading towards 18% or the approximately 14% long-term residential loan rates, Carter's rate seemed quite reasonable.

As a result, many who came to borrow, after seeing the interest rate posted by Forest Bank, simply bit the bullet and borrowed the full amount of $200,000. They didn't want HT to invest more and take a bigger share.

"Carter, your reputation in Pearson is probably better than Mr. LeBodin's now! If you ask me, our interest rate could easily be 14% and it wouldn't be excessive!"

It was now April 15th. Goodman, entering Carter's office with a wide grin, could barely contain his excitement.

Clearly, his dissatisfaction was only for show; deep down, he was extremely pleased. The demand for loans was steady, and the interest rate wasn't low. What more could one ask for in such times?

"By the way, the second store in Pearson is opening tomorrow. Are you going to attend? Treffaly just came to see me, inviting you to the opening ceremony. Their crew has a legitimate business now, and Treffaly seemed quite excited. He probably wants to treat you to a big meal."

"Forget it, I won't go. I've been so busy lately, and I can't neglect my studies. By the way, how are they finding the new equipment? Are they getting used to it?"

Shaking his head with a smile, Carter decided against making another trip. Although it might seem a bit cold, Carter believed Treffaly would understand. After all, applying to so-called Ivy League schools had always been a tricky business.

In the U.S., the SAT is somewhat similar to China's college entrance exam, but only somewhat. The full name of the SAT is the Scholastic Assessment Test, and its scores are crucial for applying to Ivy League schools. But it isn't everything.

Unlike China's college entrance exams, where admissions are strictly score-based, with some preferential policies translating into bonus points, U.S. universities use SAT scores merely as an important reference standard.

Besides academic performance, they consider self-presentation, service and contributions to others, family contributions, and extracurricular activities. In short, five main areas are evaluated.

Self-presentation includes your overall abilities and connections. For instance, whether you've won any significant awards, held positions like class president or student council president, or have a recommendation letter from an important person.

According to Ivy League admissions officers, such recommendation letters help them piece together a complete picture of your intellectual curiosity, leadership, and personal charm beyond your reported achievements, and verify the authenticity of your personal resume through a third-party endorsement.

Service and contributions to others are straightforward: donations. If you donate a million dollars to an Ivy League school, even if your child is an idiot, the high and mighty admissions officers will bow their heads and warmly welcome you with a "Welcome!"

But clearly, Carter didn't want to spend so much money just to get into a university. So, this point was essentially irrelevant to him.

The third point, family contributions, or rather, family background, is quite simple. For example, if you're applying to Harvard and you say, "My dad is an alumnus of Harvard, class of XX," your acceptance rate immediately jumps by 20%. If you add, "My mom also went to Harvard," congratulations, your acceptance rate just hit 40%!

However, Carter's parents didn't have Ivy League backgrounds; they hadn't even attended college. So, this shortcut was also unavailable to him.

The last point, extracurricular activities, left Carter uncertain. Just as a recommendation letter could add significant weight, impressive extracurricular activities could supposedly demonstrate comprehensive qualities. But Carter suspected this was a thinly veiled way of assessing social status.

For example, if you wrote that your extracurricular activity was playing in the mud, making castles from dirt, and someone else wrote about sailing, weekend yachting, and scuba diving, no matter how talented you were at mud sculpting, Carter felt Ivy League schools would likely prefer the yacht enthusiast.

Thus, without making donations, his extracurricular activities involving business ventures posed a dilemma: should he include them? If he did, admissions officers might think, "You made so much money and didn't donate a cent? Clearly, your values don't align with ours."

But if he didn't include them, what else did he have? Carter realized he had no conventional extracurricular activities—no sports, no music clubs, no book clubs.

Therefore, without impressive extracurriculars or a significant donation, and with no family background to leverage, Carter was left with only one option: ace the SATs to impress the admissions officers.

As for non-Ivy League schools, being a time traveler and settling for a regular college in the U.S. was too humiliating for him.