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Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

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Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#91

Post by Apocryphon »

xienze wrote: post #60
yuncun wrote: post #50

I grew up in a Chinese household, and I swear, Chinese people are way too obsessed with university branding. It's not even about quality of education, it's a cultural status phenomenon. If you take 10 mothers, the dick size of each one is directly proportional to the US News (yes, specifically US News) ranking of the university of her child. And if Timmy, some random kid in school, had a 2380 SAT, then as a fellow Ch…

Valid point, but there's something to be said for the Asian American community's obsession with education. Is it any surprise that they are the most successful minority group in America?

Self-selection bias. The Asian American community is immensely diverse and consists of many different immigrant (and native!) waves. Wealthy, well-educated Taiwanese semiconductor engineers from the '70s and '80s are not the same as LA Korean grocers are not the same as Vietnamese boat people are not the same as Hmong refugees are not the same as recent mainland Chinese nouveau riche are not the same as Nisei and Sansei who have been in the U.S. for decades are not the same as Pacific Islanders or South Asians or Middle Easterners.

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#92

Post by lsc »

doczoidberg wrote: post #47
arihant wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They are nothing for entrepeneurs. This is absolutely false. Great colleges are extremely hard, and in top programs kids are always fighting for life to not get kicked out. To me, CMU taught invaluable lessons in hard work, getting kicked in the teeth over and over, surviving mostly on coffee and alcohol, and persisting till success comes along. All these lessons help while starting a startup. A great college progr…

As you mentioned those universities are extremeley hard what means time consuming. Starting a company is time consuming too. Doing both at the same time is nearly impossible. But when you are studying it is the best time to start a company. It would be better if colleges would honor this instead of just ignoring.

>But when you are studying it is the best time to start a company.

What?

Most people would argue that having knowledge of the field, experience and contacts; the sort of thing you get after working in a field for a while, is going to help more than the slightly increased physical stamina you have as a very young person.

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#93

Post by paulhauggis »

gyc wrote: post #63
yuncun wrote: post #50

I grew up in a Chinese household, and I swear, Chinese people are way too obsessed with university branding. It's not even about quality of education, it's a cultural status phenomenon. If you take 10 mothers, the dick size of each one is directly proportional to the US News (yes, specifically US News) ranking of the university of her child. And if Timmy, some random kid in school, had a 2380 SAT, then as a fellow Ch…

Asian-Americans (including Chinese-Americans) have to have better grades and test scores to have the same chance as your average white American to get into an elite university, so I can see why Asian-American parents would think it's necessary for their children to focus so much on improving their test scores.

"Asian-Americans (including Chinese-Americans) have to have better grades and test scores to have the same chance as your average white American "

It's because Asian-Americans statistically score much higher than white Americans so the competition is fierce.

If you check the "Asian" box when you take the SATs, you actually get points deducted from your overall score.

I'm not sure what started it, but the vicious cycle of over-achieving continues to make it so they need to get extremely high scores to be accepted to many ivy-league universities.

On top of this, most universities in the US have student quotas based on ethnicity, instead of basing admission on merit.

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#94

Post by yuncun »

gyc wrote: post #63
yuncun wrote: post #50

I grew up in a Chinese household, and I swear, Chinese people are way too obsessed with university branding. It's not even about quality of education, it's a cultural status phenomenon. If you take 10 mothers, the dick size of each one is directly proportional to the US News (yes, specifically US News) ranking of the university of her child. And if Timmy, some random kid in school, had a 2380 SAT, then as a fellow Ch…

Asian-Americans (including Chinese-Americans) have to have better grades and test scores to have the same chance as your average white American to get into an elite university, so I can see why Asian-American parents would think it's necessary for their children to focus so much on improving their test scores.

Tbh I don't take this for fact. My alternate theory is that schools aren't rejecting Asians for being Asian, but rather they are rejecting profiles that are common to ASians. How many apps do you think Cal receives every year with 4.3 GPA/2200 SAT, 4 yrs key club, no sports, and an essay about being nervous in a piano recital? If you get ten of those, and maybe one application from a kid in Inglewood with an 1850 SAT and a childhood fraught with gang violence, then I can't blame Cal for taking three from Category A and one from Category B, leaving seven families angry that their higher SAT was rejected.

The disconnect for some Asian parents is that they're stuck with the Chinese idea that highest marks always equals best university. As a result they push push push their child to test higher on the SAT, GPA, farm community service hours, play more piano... But they don't realize American schools aren't solely score based, and at the end of the day, there comes a point where the University just isn't impressed by the same profile over and over again.

As a supporting anecode, I'm Chinese, and I was admitted to a competitive department at UCLA with a 3.7 unweighted GPA in 2009, which was far below the average for whites, or asians. So I don't think there's a conspiracy against Asians.

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#95

Post by doczoidberg »

lsc wrote: post #92
doczoidberg wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As you mentioned those universities are extremeley hard what means time consuming. Starting a company is time consuming too. Doing both at the same time is nearly impossible. But when you are studying it is the best time to start a company. It would be better if colleges would honor this instead of just ignoring.

>But when you are studying it is the best time to start a company. What? Most people would argue that having knowledge of the field, experience and contacts; the sort of thing you get after working in a field for a while, is going to help more than the slightly increased physical stamina you have as a very young person.

Later you have a family and responsibility for your children. In college you are free and can take risks.

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#96

Post by analyst74 »

yuncun wrote: post #50

I grew up in a Chinese household, and I swear, Chinese people are way too obsessed with university branding. It's not even about quality of education, it's a cultural status phenomenon. If you take 10 mothers, the dick size of each one is directly proportional to the US News (yes, specifically US News) ranking of the university of her child. And if Timmy, some random kid in school, had a 2380 SAT, then as a fellow Ch…

There is also another important factor people tend to overlook. There were relatively few asians in America before the door of immigration opened a couple decades ago. This is unique compared to African American community or the mainstream European American.

The influx of highly educated immigrants who probably value education more than general public have a large impact to the relatively small community.

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#97

Post by gyc »

yuncun wrote: post #94
gyc wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Asian-Americans (including Chinese-Americans) have to have better grades and test scores to have the same chance as your average white American to get into an elite university, so I can see why Asian-American parents would think it's necessary for their children to focus so much on improving their test scores.

Tbh I don't take this for fact. My alternate theory is that schools aren't rejecting Asians for being Asian, but rather they are rejecting profiles that are common to ASians. How many apps do you think Cal receives every year with 4.3 GPA/2200 SAT, 4 yrs key club, no sports, and an essay about being nervous in a piano recital? If you get ten of those, and maybe one application from a kid in Inglewood with an 1850 SAT…

I certainly do think what you have described it's a well accepted stereotype, and it may well be true in your anecdotal experience, but I don't think there's been any real evidence that Asian applicants, as a whole, are nothing but test taking, piano/violin playing robots or are as a whole less well-rounded (by whatever measure) than white applicants.

As for your own experience, prop 209 passed in California banned the state, including state universities, from considering race, so you were not judged by any heightened Asian standard like some other schools.

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#98

Post by [deleted] »

yuncun wrote: post #94
gyc wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Asian-Americans (including Chinese-Americans) have to have better grades and test scores to have the same chance as your average white American to get into an elite university, so I can see why Asian-American parents would think it's necessary for their children to focus so much on improving their test scores.

Tbh I don't take this for fact. My alternate theory is that schools aren't rejecting Asians for being Asian, but rather they are rejecting profiles that are common to ASians. How many apps do you think Cal receives every year with 4.3 GPA/2200 SAT, 4 yrs key club, no sports, and an essay about being nervous in a piano recital? If you get ten of those, and maybe one application from a kid in Inglewood with an 1850 SAT…

[deleted]

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#99

Post by wnevets »

deterselect wrote: post #5

He claims that out of 25 people, he was the only one rejected for a job at KFC. That to me is more inspirational. On the other hand, could he be lying about some of these hardships to make him seem more relatable?

it reminds me of the Einstein was bad at math myth.

Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]

#100

Post by alistairSH »

yuncun wrote: post #50

I grew up in a Chinese household, and I swear, Chinese people are way too obsessed with university branding. It's not even about quality of education, it's a cultural status phenomenon. If you take 10 mothers, the dick size of each one is directly proportional to the US News (yes, specifically US News) ranking of the university of her child. And if Timmy, some random kid in school, had a 2380 SAT, then as a fellow Ch…

It's not just Chinese-Americans. I live in Fairfax, VA and the entire county is bonkers over GPAs. It's to the point that >20% of my son's high school class had "better than perfect" GPAs (possible because honors/AP come with bonus points).

Many of those same kids spent their afternoons being shuttled from enrichment program to enrichment program. Very little unscheduled time where they could just be kids.

I question the sanity of it all. I didn't have anywhere the level of structured activity as a teen and still managed to gain entry to a top-20 university. Presumably because I was successful in things I enjoyed, not things my parents thought were good application boosters.

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