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How I Snuck Into The Ivy League. And You Can Too.

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Re: How I Snuck Into The Ivy League. And You Can Too.

#31
post #29
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only Indian colleges worked that way. They have only one way to get it (I mean the finest one's IITs/NITs/BITS/IIIT/Best state colleges), give there entrance exam after 12th class. Crack it, your in, don't crack it, your out. This is pretty much the way it is in any country with a non-dysfunctional school system. Germany, Japan, etc. In the U.S. we have been hypnotized by the notion of everybody is special" and "a…

[deleted]

I went to high school in Japan. This is not true.

Re: How I Snuck Into The Ivy League. And You Can Too.

#32
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only Indian colleges worked that way. They have only one way to get it (I mean the finest one's IITs/NITs/BITS/IIIT/Best state colleges), give there entrance exam after 12th class. Crack it, your in, don't crack it, your out. This is pretty much the way it is in any country with a non-dysfunctional school system. Germany, Japan, etc. In the U.S. we have been hypnotized by the notion of everybody is special" and "a…

For a country with a dysfunctional university system, the US certainly seems to create a disproportionate share of the good research.

These days, that's mainly because we import so many East Asians, Indians, and Europeans into our postgrad programs.

Re: How I Snuck Into The Ivy League. And You Can Too.

#34

There's a more general lesson here: personal interactions are the quickest way to bend the rules. You may have a stellar application/resume, but so do many other candidates. If you want to get an unconventional outcome, do it in person. Related: I was a terrible student as an undergrad and when I later applied to grad schools I got rejected by every university with half a shred of self-respect. So, I enrolled as a no…

This was also very similar to my biggest takeaway from Startup School, actually. Any of the advice about how to gain customers, traffic, etc. when starting out was centered on real-world actions people took -- like evangelizing via meetups, as one example.

Re: How I Snuck Into The Ivy League. And You Can Too.

#35
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only Indian colleges worked that way. They have only one way to get it (I mean the finest one's IITs/NITs/BITS/IIIT/Best state colleges), give there entrance exam after 12th class. Crack it, your in, don't crack it, your out. This is pretty much the way it is in any country with a non-dysfunctional school system. Germany, Japan, etc. In the U.S. we have been hypnotized by the notion of everybody is special" and "a…

For a country with a dysfunctional university system, the US certainly seems to create a disproportionate share of the good research.

The claim is that the undergraduate education component of the US university system is broken, not that the basic research component of the US university system is broken.

Re: How I Snuck Into The Ivy League. And You Can Too.

#36
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a country with a dysfunctional university system, the US certainly seems to create a disproportionate share of the good research.

These days, that's mainly because we import so many East Asians, Indians, and Europeans into our postgrad programs.

We import them from American universities though. Our high schools are way more broken than our colleges.

Re: How I Snuck Into The Ivy League. And You Can Too.

#37
post #25

If only Indian colleges worked that way. They have only one way to get it (I mean the finest one's IITs/NITs/BITS/IIIT/Best state colleges), give there entrance exam after 12th class. Crack it, your in, don't crack it, your out. Also I like how the American colleges allow you to take several classes which are not related to my branch. I could tailor my degree to my requirements. If I had the chance I would have taken…

If only Indian colleges worked that way. They have only one way to get it (I mean the finest one's IITs/NITs/BITS/IIIT/Best state colleges), give there entrance exam after 12th class. Crack it, your in, don't crack it, your out. This is pretty much the way it is in any country with a non-dysfunctional school system. Germany, Japan, etc. In the U.S. we have been hypnotized by the notion of everybody is special" and "a…

You're conflating two completely unrelated failings. For example you ignore the fact that in the US the SAT/ACT carry large weight with most schools, and you know what? It's a terrible predictor of college success. Contrary to the this post, most attendees of prestigious schools have all the traditional qualifications. The failures of the American education system are far and wide, but giving too many people an equal shot at a good education are far from one of them.

Re: How I Snuck Into The Ivy League. And You Can Too.

#38

Let me just say that as the PHP developer at B5Media, which owns Crushable and other blogs, this is the last place I expected to see one of our articles. Please let me know if you have thoughts or feedback on the design or site itself.

Like the design, but I absolutely hate the brand name. You will forever be a Mashable-ripoff because of it. Nothing you can do now but ick, that was not a good decision.

I didn't really get the name at first, but really it's the content that counts. 4/5 stars!

Re: How I Snuck Into The Ivy League. And You Can Too.

#40
post #39

Could somebody help me out here - I was under the impression (and perhaps this is just the case for Canadian schools?) that you need a student number to register for courses. If you're not admitted to the school, how can you get a student number to register for courses?

Most us schools offer student id numbers to non degree seeking students. They are charging/filtering mostly for the prestige of their degree.
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