Above all, what matters is your true grit. There're MIT's in India, too. A renowned aerospace scientist, former President of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was an alumnus of Madras Institute of Technology (MIT). The current CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella got his engineering degree from Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT). Think about the autodidacts listed at:
Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]
111–120 of 136 posts
Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not at all, because everything I read about him suggests he is a focused problem solver. Someone who meets challenges with creative solutions out of the stuff he has on hand versus someone going back and doing a lot of set up research and then testing phases and then development. Many of the folks I've met from MIT fit that same model, basically uniting around solving complex problems.
I was thinking the same thing. The speed at which parent jumped to that conclusion made me think he was the discriminating one, not you.
I guess I should've put /s at the end of the first statement/question. I meant we shouldn't judge by stereotypes - I'm glad Chuck meant a different thing... at that level though.
Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]
#113It is an interesting claim. I think Harvard would still reject him, he doesn't seem to fit in with what a "Harvard Man" is. The mistake is thinking that Harvard wants all the successful people in the world to go there, as far as I can tell they don't. Every private University recruits from their "tribe" whether it is 'quirky' at Reed or 'cosmopolitan' at Harvard, while not discriminating on race, religion, Etc they d…
What are you basing this analysis on?
Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
> he would have been fine at MIT I suspect Why? Because he is Asian and must be good with numbers? Chuck, what you describe, does indeed exist in American universities, but it is a discrimination. We should fight such atrocities.
MIT is actually more diverse than Harvard. In the past several years, it's been >10% international. Both schools have about the same percentage of Asian students. Harvard: https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/admissions-statistics MIT: http://web.mit.edu/ir/pop/students/diversity.html
Natural diversity is good of course, but we've heard some horrible stories regarding forced diversity (race, gender, ...) - preferring A over B only because B's race quota has been filled...
Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
> 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. It's much more difficult today. The US has unquestionably the best university system in the world, which means American students are competing w…
> The US has unquestionably the best university system in the world
A bold assertion. Well-educated Europeans with near-zero debt on graduation might argue otherwise.
Every developed country has long lines of overseas students competing for college places, including very mediocre colleges. It's a route to immigration and not necessarily an endorsement of the university system.
Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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. It's much more difficult today. The US has unquestionably the best university system in the world, which means American students are competing w…
> The US has unquestionably the best university system in the world A bold assertion. Well-educated Europeans with near-zero debt on graduation might argue otherwise. Every developed country has long lines of overseas students competing for college places, including very mediocre colleges. It's a route to immigration and not necessarily an endorsement of the university system.
The system may have problems, but the universities themselves are the best in the world in both education and research.
Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]
#117It's kind of funny how people who have made it as big as Jack Ma are still obsessed enough with Harvard to mention almost as a badge of honor that they were rejected from Harvard. As if to say "see Harvard was obviously wrong here". Harvard or any top school in no way can accept anywhere near all of the applicants that are qualified to attend those schools. As such there will be people that will be rejected and accep…
Like several others have mentioned how the video contains so much more than then just headline, I get the sense that you did not watch the video before commenting.
His passing mention of Harvard could hardly imply he is "still obsessed" with Harvard.
Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The US has unquestionably the best university system in the world A bold assertion. Well-educated Europeans with near-zero debt on graduation might argue otherwise. Every developed country has long lines of overseas students competing for college places, including very mediocre colleges. It's a route to immigration and not necessarily an endorsement of the university system.
The system may have problems, but the universities themselves are the best in the world in both education and research.
Some of them are, yes indeed. The US dominates the world top-20. The US has lots of the world's best hospitals too, and few would claim it has the world's best health care system.
I'm very happy the extremely good places exist, but I'm sad about crazy student debt and crappy for-profit universities.
Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]
#119It is an interesting claim. I think Harvard would still reject him, he doesn't seem to fit in with what a "Harvard Man" is. The mistake is thinking that Harvard wants all the successful people in the world to go there, as far as I can tell they don't. Every private University recruits from their "tribe" whether it is 'quirky' at Reed or 'cosmopolitan' at Harvard, while not discriminating on race, religion, Etc they d…
I heard claims that Ivies were analyzing the living hell out of alumni donation probabilities... and Asians flunked. Also, I think Ron Unz claimed empirical evidence for anti-Asian discrimination.
That looks different if Asians are greatly over-represented in their applications.
Re: Jack Ma: 'Harvard rejected me 10 times' [video]
#120Earlier 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…
The real question is, what is the acceptance rate of non-asian with similar profile as you just described. I'd be interested in this piece of data.