Quality-Only Admissions

After leaving the principal's office, Link took Peggy to the library. Classes were in session, so the library was empty. Link said, "Peggy, are you planning to go to Princeton University?"

"Of course. Princeton University has the best mathematics department."

"But Peggy, I'm actually planning to go to California Institute of Technology."

"Why?"

"Because I think it might suit me better there."

Link did not explain in much detail. After hearing him out, Peggy said, "If that's the case, then I'll choose California Institute of Technology too."

"Wait, Peggy. Don't you need to discuss this with your parents?"

"Of course not." Peggy paused before slowly saying, "After my parents divorced, they both started becoming strange. My mother got busy dating, while my father became like a child. My sister often cried by herself."

"I used to hope everything could go back to the way it was, but I realized that was simply impossible... Every weekend when I went home, I had to stay in two different houses. My grandmother said so many bad things about my father..."

"Most of the things that used to matter to me no longer mattered. At first, I thought I was alone, but when I remembered how you risked yourself to save me during that camping trip, I knew you still cared about me."

"After that, I started thinking that no matter where you went, I wanted to go with you. I'm studying hard now only because you like doing it."

From those words, Link became completely certain that Peggy had developed an excessive dependence on him. For a moment, he could not decide how he should handle it.

He had wanted to tell her that the wild boar they had encountered back then would have found it difficult to hurt him even if he had not been holding a weapon, so the danger had not been as great as she imagined. But after hesitating, he ultimately only said:

"All right, Peggy. In that case, we can tell Flora next time that California Institute of Technology is our goal. But before that, you still need to get your parents' consent."

"Of course. My mother will agree."

After that, Link did not know how Peggy spoke to her parents, but they eventually agreed to let her choose California Institute of Technology. Linda, however, said she would accompany Peggy to California Institute of Technology before the school term began and personally choose a suitable host family.

After all, Peggy had only just turned eleven. As for Peggy's claim that Link could take care of her, it was immediately rejected. In reality, no one would believe that seventeen-year-old Link could properly take care of someone.

The PSAT was only one part of getting into university. More importantly, it concerned obtaining scholarships.

Of course, with Peggy scoring full marks at her age and receiving the school's recommendation, California Institute of Technology had made the decision to admit her early on.

But seventeen-year-old Link still had to follow the normal college entrance process, such as taking the ACT and SAT.

The ACT and SAT were both forms of college entrance examinations in the United States, and they also affected scholarship evaluations. Taking both gave students a wider range of schools to choose from, and earning good scores on both made admission more likely.

According to the exam schedule, Link took the ACT first.

He had only been at his new school for a year since transferring, but according to Link's plan, he had gotten his driver's license not long ago. It was time for him to go to university.

The pre-exam procedures were not much different from the college entrance exams on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. He brought paper, pencils, his admission ticket, student ID, and so on, then waited outside the examination room for the teachers to inspect them.

Students were required to hand over anything that could not be brought into the examination room, and their appearances were checked one by one to prevent substitute test-takers.

Universities often claimed to treat the ACT and SAT equally, but Ivy League schools' preference for ACT scores had become an open secret among students and teachers.

Link also hoped to get a good score in one try. After all, he did not want to wait another two months.

Unlike the universities on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, universities in the United States had originally been designed for the upper class, so their admissions process carried a strong air of aristocratic privilege.

The score-only system across the Pacific Ocean, where countless students fought to cross a single-log bridge, was scorned by some confused people. The example they always cited was the quality-only admissions practiced by United States universities, never realizing that score-only admissions were precisely what guaranteed the most important fair ladder in a person's life for entering the upper class.

Quality-only admissions meant that scores alone did not determine who was exceptional. Either one had money or power, and in the United States, power and money were interchangeable. In short, there was only one thing to say: if you had no money, do not come.

Those top-tier heirs of wealthy families had parents who had already accumulated their fortunes. Before they were even born, their families had established foundations, built buildings for elite universities, donated money, brought in famous teachers, and purchased expensive teaching equipment.

Thus, no matter how wildly those rich second-generation or multi-generation heirs behaved in high school, or how poor their grades were, they could lie back and enter world-class elite universities that countless others could not enter despite their best efforts.

Those with slightly less wealth and status would donate what they considered a small sum, such as hundreds of thousands of US Dollars, to a prestigious university and become members of its donor committee. When their children applied to that university, they would receive priority admission from the admissions office.

Those a step below that would send their children to college preparatory programs and honors classes, and have them take part in all kinds of niche sports seen as markers of quality, such as equestrianism and golf.

These niche sports, widely regarded as markers of quality, were simply beyond the means of public high schools to offer. Even if they did offer them, most students could not even afford the equipment.

After such layers of selection, more than half the student pool at prestigious universities had already been taken. Add exceptional admissions for geniuses like Sheldon and Peggy, and there were only a handful of spots truly left for ordinary students.

As a result, the remaining ordinary students could only take the ACT and SAT, returning to a system based purely on grades. Meanwhile, a whole group of students with "quality" had already crossed to the other side, watching countless ordinary students fight to cross a steel cable.

Of course, since he had been born in the United States, he had to find a way to adapt to everything here. If Link had not possessed his cheat ability and been able to continuously raise his intelligence, then even with his rebirth, his intelligence would only have been at an ordinary level. His best plan would have been to get into a first-rate public university; the most famous private institutions would have been beyond consideration.

But Link's intelligence had now risen to the point where he could be called a genius. Compared with natural geniuses who had displayed high intelligence from childhood, he was still at a disadvantage in terms of age. Being roughly the same age as everyone else meant he could only obediently take the examinations.