851–860 of 888 posts
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It’s not an argument. It’s an observable fact.
Pgizer Covid vaccine contains mercury, that is an observable fact.
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If gaming the system means cultivating good study habits, taking rigorous classes over 4 years, generally pushing yourself to realize your potential, maintaining balance through sports and exercise, we're guilty. These are good habits that will serve him well no matter where he goes. I think you may be projecting your own thoughts and insecurities here.
In that case you should not be too hung up about him getting admission into a "lesser" (according to you) school. But here you are. Oh absolutely I am projecting my thoughts. I was lucky but I know many Indians who have been pushed by their parents and are miserable. I also dont think a university environment dominated by such kids will be good either for the school or for them down the line. I am pretty positive you…
Indian-American father here, living in the Bay Area. My wife and I came to this country with a few hundred dollars between us and have worked hard to reach where we’re at. We're far from privileged. I am 100% against affirmative action on the basis of race. I think there should be some measure of AA on the basis of economic status. It's quite personal for me this year. My 17-year old is applying to universities to st…
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Why does this bother you? Do you assume that the system is perfect, except for this particular benefit you believe it provides to rural applicants?
I assume it's a reocurring thought that maybe the commenter you replied to only got in because of the standards being lowered. Which is something I have heard of from quite a lot of people who may have benefitted from AA. And it's somewhat frequently paired with a huge amount of self doubt.
ISTM these "special" circumstances very rarely contribute the bulk of any incoming class. Any "regular" student who really deserved admissions got it, and only marginal strivers with few must-have qualities complain about getting denied in favor of applicants with special circumstances. It's fine for these people to suggest larger class sizes (certainly in the case of Harvard they are correct; I don't know about the Australian system). Their self-interest is showing, however, when they start making lists of people whose test scores they beat by a few points. There's no reason to trust their judgments over those of professional admissions staff.
That is doubly the case for those of us who may have been admitted for these reasons and then went on to collegiate success. Why the hell would we worry about the opinions of those marginal strivers? They should do their best at their safety schools.
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Many of your points are valid and I don't disagree with them. But you're assuming too much by saying that he has too narrow of a focus. You don't know him. My kid is strong in some areas, not as strong in others. He's realistic and knows that Harvard, Stanford are lottery schools for almost everyone. He has no feeling of entitlement, and neither do I, but I do know that he's being held to a much higher standard than…
> ...but I do know that he's being held to a much higher standard than almost anyone else because of his race. Your measuring stick is 90% blank. How you measure "higher standard" are table stakes in the Ivies. csa already did a good job explaining this which apparently didn't sway you, so I'm going to try a different tack. If you ever get the opportunity to meet in person face to face in an intimate setting with Bil…
This is worded extremely well.
I think many people grossly underestimate what a motivated and talented high schooler can do, largely due to the conceptual ceilings that are pervasive in our society.
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Yeah that’s a terrible approach. All you’d get are kids who are good at testing and nothing else.
This is false. You should read MIT's very helpful blog on why they decided to bring back the SAT. Tl;Dr - the SAT is not a perfect indicator, but in combination with GPA, it is the best predictor of success in advanced education, especially in STEM disciplines. There is very high correlation between grades and SAT scores. Anecdotally, this aligns with my observations too. I am quite familiar now with the SAT, and hav…
It can be true that the SAT is a good predictor of university grades, and also that there is more to university life, and life in general, than grades. The parent comment is suggesting that optimizing for grades may not produce the ideal set of university students/graduates. But if you think that graduating with high grades is the whole point of the endeavour then obviously you'll disagree.
Certainly I enjoyed spending my time at university surrounded by people who had more going on than just academic excellence.
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If gaming the system means cultivating good study habits, taking rigorous classes over 4 years, generally pushing yourself to realize your potential, maintaining balance through sports and exercise, we're guilty. These are good habits that will serve him well no matter where he goes. I think you may be projecting your own thoughts and insecurities here.
In that case you should not be too hung up about him getting admission into a "lesser" (according to you) school. But here you are. Oh absolutely I am projecting my thoughts. I was lucky but I know many Indians who have been pushed by their parents and are miserable. I also dont think a university environment dominated by such kids will be good either for the school or for them down the line. I am pretty positive you…
We hang out in different circles. Looks like your default position is that Asian American kids have been pushed to study by their parents. Did it ever occur to you that many kids like to push themselves and test their mettle?
>I also dont think a university environment dominated by such kids will be good either for the school or for them down the line.
You're making up stuff about "university environment dominated by such kids." That's right, let's admit unprepared kids by lowering the bar. We'll act puzzled when they drop off from STEM programs into easier majors (which is a well known phenomenon, BTW.)
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First, those are cases of black people being arrested or detained, sometimes violently, by police. Not killed. Further, many of them resulted in a successful lawsuits against the police, which should tell you something about the quality of police actions. Second, keep in mind that data about police violence, including deaths, are complete shit because police are not required to report data and no one has an incentive…
>By one estimate, Black men are 2.5 times more likely than white men to be killed by police during their lifetime. That is because they commit more violent crimes. Did you know that? >Black people who were fatally shot by police seemed to be twice as likely as white people to be unarmed. See the last point. In 99.9% of cases, people killed by police are commiting crimes. Also note that asians have the lowest rate of…
"Black people who were fatally shot by police seemed to be twice as likely as white people to be unarmed."
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In that case you should not be too hung up about him getting admission into a "lesser" (according to you) school. But here you are. Oh absolutely I am projecting my thoughts. I was lucky but I know many Indians who have been pushed by their parents and are miserable. I also dont think a university environment dominated by such kids will be good either for the school or for them down the line. I am pretty positive you…
Your comment is quite revealing of the cultural conflict underlying this debate. The dominant liberal white culture--which is adopted by many assimilated desis--holds that people should “follow their bliss” and disapproves of how Asians raise their kids. They view that as part of "gaming" the system, don’t like the incentive structure and competitiveness created when educational institutions are “dominated” by Asian…
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This is false. You should read MIT's very helpful blog on why they decided to bring back the SAT. Tl;Dr - the SAT is not a perfect indicator, but in combination with GPA, it is the best predictor of success in advanced education, especially in STEM disciplines. There is very high correlation between grades and SAT scores. Anecdotally, this aligns with my observations too. I am quite familiar now with the SAT, and hav…
I think you probably have a different idea about what constitutes success in higher education than the commenter to whom you're replying, and possibly also to admissions officers at prestigious universities. It can be true that the SAT is a good predictor of university grades, and also that there is more to university life, and life in general, than grades. The parent comment is suggesting that optimizing for grades…