A Chinaman's Chance at Columbia

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>Hi, everyone. Thanks a lot for reading my post.
I came to the States 3 years ago from Shanghai, China, and I frequently g back for volunteering and visits.</p>

<p>Here are my stats:</p>

<p>SAT I: took it 3 times, most recent one: 1560, 760 V 800 M
SAT IIs: Math IIC 800, Physics 800, Chemistry 790, World History 800, US History 760, Writing 740
APs: calc bc 5, chemstry5, physics c mech. 5, physics c e&m 5, world history 5, us history 5(projected score; they lost my free-response section!!!), english language and comp. 5 </p>

<p>GPA: 4.36 weighted, 4.0 unweighted, ranked 2nd in class,
College courses: have taken/am taking/will take 6 math courses at Pomona, Harvey Mudd colleges. Engineering Physics at Citrus College
Use all resources available to me at my public high school, courseload difficult.</p>

<p>ECs:
Math Club co-president, science club president, JETS Varsity captain (1st in S. CA, multiple choice score best in history; free-response sucked though--15th nat'l), currently organizing Science Olympiad, Physics Bowl/Olympiad teams at my school(not many ppl interested...) Bio research at Keck Graduate Institute (now)
Speech and Debate team treasurer; won many awards in congress, policy debate, thmatic interpretation, duo interpretation, etc.; represented team and the USA in a trip to Azerbaijan in 4/2004.
School tutoring for four years
Full-time volunteering last summer: China Shanghai International Arts Festival, shanghai int'l piano competition, and Shanghai Business Daily; worked as a translator, interpreter, organizer, and editor.</p>

<p>Essays for MIT: discussed my experiences being a Communist Young Pioneer(controversial, but decided to take the risk) and how that shaped my life.
my experience in Azerbaijan (a basketball game, in which I discovered another side of my debate coach, an admirable man). creation: taking a shopping cart as my evidence box carrier at a USC debate tournament...conciese, neat short answers...don't have the time to list them all.</p>

<p>Thx a lot everyone. What are my chances?</p>

2

<p>btw I am recycling my MIT essays for Columbia, if applicable.</p>

3

<p>why do you bother? =&lt;/p>

<p>you've got as good a chance as there is and YOU know it. Why bother posing such a question if your test scores are near-perfect and your EC's include visits to countries whose names I can't even pronounce?</p>

4

<p>thx for the post, pebbles. But you know, at top colleges like Columbia, anyone could get rejected... why do they reject so many 1600s then? I simply want to hear advices from you guys and know what I should do to make it better and increase the chance of admissions. Thank you!</p>

5

<p>Too late to change anything now, and there's not much room for improvement anyways on your resume. You've got the same crapshoot chance as the rest of us.</p>

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<p>And, Dude, "chinaman" is not the preferred nomeclature. Asian-American, please.</p>

7

<p>Lol, I thought his using of "Chinaman" was funny. Does that make me a bad person?</p>

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<p>Chinaman is of no offense. I believe "Chinaman" itself doesn't have ominous meanings. From "China" and I am a "man" What's wrong with it? it's just history's assigning definition of this word. And I don't think we shall see it as an offensive term.</p>

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<p>dude, just say you are chinese or asian american, no need to be creative with word formation.</p>

10

<p>using "chinaman" has been and can be offensive to some people in this country</p>

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<p>last year a Dallas Mavericks play-by-play guy had to make a public apology because he called Yao Ming a chinaman, so try to use an alternative term</p>

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<p>Hey you're from Shanghai? Me too!
Well, my parents are, but I was born here, but I go back to Shanghai every few years and I speak the dialect (mostly).</p>

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<p>so u applied ED MIT?</p>

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<p>Also, my post was a reference to "The Big Lebowski," one of my favorite movies ever.</p>

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<p>I applied to MIT EA.
And let's stop the Chinaman discussion. If it's offensive to you, it's my bad. But I just think it doesn't matter to me.
And Thomaschau, you are from Shanghai ? Good. Nong ho.
thx everyone!</p>

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<p>Using "Chinaman" is insulting to many Asian Americans. You have to look back on how this word was used to describe Chinese to understand it. Sorry, if you are from China, you are Chinese. BTW, can we call people from England Englandman? If Englishmen find the word “Englandman’ derogatory. Chinese and Asian Americans also find the word “Chinaman” highly offensive.</p>

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<p>Shanghai has got an attitude. Maybe he feels he's entitled to royalty treatment for having been in the States only 3 years and accomplished so much so quickly. And he dawn-well knows what "Chinaman" means to people, White or Asian. I thinks he's using that term to look down on people less capable than him, or in some kind of grotesque, dark humor. I am not laughing.</p>

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<p>One more thing, the US gave you this opportunity. It wouldn't hurt to be grateful and a little bit of humility goes a long way.</p>

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<p>"arguing on the internet is like the special olympics...even if you win you are still retarded."</p>

<p>LOL, Anyways, with that point made, im just here to give my random comments.</p>

<p>It really isn't "Chinaman" that's very offensive, it's "Chinaman's Chance" the phrase that caught my attention. Where back in the gold rush when people used to say "not having a chinaman's chance" to describe the low rate of success, it's actually derived from the fact that the Chinese were murdered by mobs at that time for scapegoat reasons..."not having a Chinaman's chance" means that the chinese really didn't have a chance to get away.</p>

<p>Hmm...Can my comment close the discussion on this?</p>

<p>Oh BTW shanghaiwes, congrats on getting 760 V of only being in the U.S. for 3 years. It raises questions but if it's true, I would say you have very good chance.</p>

<p>"Communist Young Pioneer" O man...LOL been there done that, do you still have your "red scarf/hankerchief"? haha =)</p>

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<p>Interesting diversion but I don't think Shanghai asked if he has a "Chinaman's chance" to succeed. You are making excuse for him. With his command of the the academics (World Hist 800, US Hist 760) he knows what Chinaman means, especially to Asians Americans. He is REALLY saying "this Chinaman" is looking down on you.</p>