<p>Hello everyone,</p>
<p>I am the applicant’s father. I would like to address many things that have been said, so I apologize if what I write is hard to follow.</p>
<p>All the information in the article was accurate. Laura Heinauer took the copies of all the documents: acceptance, waitlist, rejection letters, official SAT/ACT scores, news release, son’s resume etc., but not everything I said made it to the article, and some things I said were not portrayed perfectly. She didn’t write about all of his state or national achievements, or his leadership information, etc. I told the news everything what I am writing here.</p>
<p>Why did I quit my job?</p>
<p>I did not quit my job to help my son get admission into college with ECs, etc. I quit my job to support my family. We did not even know the importance of volunteering, EC etc. until the end of my son’s 9th grade. The teachers and the counselors of his magnet Jr. high school (he was valedictorian two years in a row) never taught him the importance of EC or volunteering. He still did have many activities though. In Jr. high school (8th grade) my son hated his school’s PE class, so he started taking Kung Fu lessons for a PE waiver, and loved it. He started playing piano in 3rd grade just for fun, and his teacher used to come to our home. We had no idea that those two will be ECs one day. He also took Latin in Jr. High school, and fell in love with mythology. He continued to take Latin in high school and joined his school’s Latin club. And so on.</p>
<p>While I lived in Dallas, my wife took care of my son. She is not the CEO of Pepsi. I wish she were. She cannot drive. She is scared to death of driving, and always afraid of getting an accident. My son and I tried many times to convince her to try driving, but failed. When I drive, she even panics if a car drives by while she is sitting in the passenger seat. There was an HEB grocery store nearby, so they always walked to the store to buy groceries. My son was too young to get a driver’s license. My sister-in-law, whose son was in the same year and same school as my son, lived nearby, so my son always depended on her when he needed something: to go to kung fu (5 hours a week), the central library, competitions, to go to a store for something he needed for a project or to buy necessities, etc. My son is also very prone to being sick – he even had to go to the hospital twice because he had bacterial pneumonia last year. When I was in Dallas, he always depended on my sister-in-law to take him to the doctor.</p>
<p>But one day, my sister-in-law told us that she would be moving, and could not support my son any longer. At this point, my son, like most kids his age would be in the same situation, was frustrated with the idea of being limited in everything he wanted to do. Try telling your 14-year-old son that he cannot do anything but go to school and stay home.</p>
<p>Why didn’t we use public transportation or a cab? My son could have taken the late bus home from school, but he would arrive home every day at 7:30. Everyone that went to his school will tell you how heavy their workload was, and coming home every day at 7:30 was not an option. My son could have used a cab, but not to go everywhere. Many times he had to go to his school’s parking lot at 5 o’clock in the morning to go out of town for competitions for Latin Club or Quiz Bowl or Science Olympiad. When returning, he was always dropped off at school at 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning. His school is in a very bad neighborhood and far from our home, so my wife could never go there alone in a cab at night.</p>
<p>I wanted my son to move to Dallas and live with me. He applied to the School for the Talented and Gifted at the Townview Magnet Center (ranked as the #1 public high school in the US by Newsweek ’06 and ’07) and St. Mark’s School in Dallas for 9th grade and got accepted to both. But he decided that he didn’t want to leave his life and his friends behind, so he stayed with his mom.</p>
<p>The admission officers don’t know that I quit my job, because my son didn’t mention it in the application or his essays or anything. His guidance counselor does not know I quit my job either. Yes, I applied for financial aid, because I was unemployed, and I quit my job because it was necessary. I couldn’t find a job here.</p>
<p>Hopefully you now understand that I did not quit for my son’s college admission. I quit because my family needed me with them.</p>
<p>Why is son only 4th in his class?</p>
<p>I am not saying that my son should have been higher than 4th. The top 3 ranked students are very smart and they deserve their ranks. But there are other factors to consider.</p>
<p>First, his school is a magnet school. The school website states: “The Liberal Arts and Science Academy student body is composed of some of the most academically advanced students from the eleven public high schools across the city as well as area private schools. Because of this distribution, class rankings are not comparable to class rankings of students in traditional high schools.”</p>
<p>Second, in his school, AP classes are divided into two groups: AP magnet, and AP topics, and taught by different teachers. Topics is much harder than magnet and has a heavier load, but both classes carry the same weight. The school weighs Honors, AP magnet, and AP topics as the same (score 100 is 5, 90 is 4, etc. so 92 is 4.2). My soon took all the topics courses he could, including AP topics English, which the teacher said would prepare him very well for the advanced English in college. In AP magnet English, most students can receive high grades, but in topics, it was very hard to get even an A for a very good student. He also took the hardest classes available in his other subjects, like Modern Physics, and always received straight “As” from 9th to 12th grade. I never went to the teacher to argue about grades, as someone suggested. In 11th and 12th grade, he took 13 APs, bringing his total to 14 (I am counting AP Physics C as two). </p>
<p>Many of the students my son was competing with did not take the hardest courses possible. They also had “off periods” or “teacher’s aid” classes. I am not saying anything against them; I am only saying that you cannot dismiss my son just because he is 4th and not higher.</p>
<p>Someone in this thread said he wanted to know where the top 3 ranked students from my son’s school are going to college. #1 is going to USC. #2 is going to Colorado College. #3 is going to Rice University.</p>
<p>Why was he not a Presidential scholar?</p>
<p>Although he is a U.S citizen (born in Dallas in 1991), my son was not the PS candidate, because he received the perfect score after October ’07. One of his best friends (rank # 19) was a PS semifinalist with a score of 2340 (CR & M: 1600).</p>
<p>Why did he retake the standardized tests?</p>
<p>After my son got rejected from Early Action at Stanford (Stanford was tied for his first choice college. My son wanted to go there very much), he wanted to take those tests to boost his chances at other colleges. Otherwise, he never would have retaken them. And for everyone criticizing his decision to take the tests again, he received outside merit scholarships because of his perfect scores. </p>
<p>In 2004, one Korean student from his school got a 1560 for the first time and perfect 1600 later; he was accepted to both Harvard and Yale, but chose Yale.
In 2005, another Chinese student, who had the same piano teacher as my son, did the same: 1560 first time and 1600 second time, and was accepted to Harvard and Princeton, but chose Princeton for math major. Harvard did not flag them. So there is nothing wrong with taking the tests twice in the view of the admission office. My son also got 1560 (2340) first time.</p>
<p>Why did he take ACT after receiving 2400 on SAT?</p>
<p>He registered for both tests at the same time. After taking the SAT on January 26 ’08, he was very confident about the test and decided not to take ACT on February 9 ’08 if he got the score before that test date. He did not receive his SAT score online before then, so he took the ACT anyways. </p>
<p>Were my son’s perfect scores because of superscoring?</p>
<p>No, my son’s perfect scores were not because of superscoring and he did not take the SAT 13 times, as someone in this thread suggested. He took the SAT a total of two times in high school, and once in Jr. High because of the Duke TIP program. In 7th grade, he got a 1340 out of 1600. In January ’07, he got a 2340. In January ’08, he got a perfect 2400. He took the ACT a total of two times: 35 the first time and 36 the second time. He took the PSAT three times because his school paid for and made every magnet student take the PSAT from 9th to 11th grade.</p>
<p>What were his SAT II scores?</p>
<p>My son took three SAT II subject tests, each only once. He took Math II and Chemistry in 10th grade, and received 800 on both. He took Latin in 11th grade, and received 720.</p>
<p>Rejected from all Ivies?</p>
<p>My son never applied to all Ivies. He applied to four: Princeton, Harvard, Yale, and Wharton’s LSM program at UPenn. He was on Yale’s extended waitlist until one month ago. His other colleges were Stanford (Early), MIT, Caltech, Rice, Duke, and UT (Engineering Honors and Plan II Honors). He had sent his perfect scores only to Princeton, Harvard and Yale, so he was accepted to Caltech, Rice, and Duke with his 2340 score.</p>
<p>UT Plan II rejection?</p>
<p>My son applied for Plan II at UT on February 1, ’07 (last day) at 11 P.M. First of all, Plan II accepts students under a rolling system. My son’s friend was accepted in the month of November ’07 to Plan II. Second, my son was already admitted to Engineering Honors, and he did not even want to go to UT (his safety school), even with Plan II, so he did not spend much time on the application or the essays. I am not trying to make an excuse for his rejection. Maybe he didn’t deserve to get accepted to Plan II. But he did not take the application or the essays seriously.</p>
<p>Harvard doesn’t have Biomedical Engineering?</p>
<p>Someone in this thread asked why my son applied to Harvard if he wanted to go into Biomedical Engineering, because Harvard does not have that. Harvard does have a biomedical engineering concentration, but it’s called “Biomedical Science and Engineering” under Engineering Science.</p>
<p>Did I go to the interviews with my son?</p>
<p>I did not. I dropped my son off at the Starbucks, or the Library, where the interview took place, before the interviewer arrived.</p>
<p>Did my son give a terrible interview or write terrible essays?</p>
<p>I do not know how my son’s interviews went or how good his essays were. But he received a likely letter and acceptance to Rice and his Duke interviewer, after his acceptance to Duke, tried to convince him many times to go to Duke. His Harvard interviewer tried to sell Harvard to him the whole time, and only asked him one question at the end before leaving (although he was ultimately rejected from Harvard). He got accepted to Caltech, Rice, and Duke and the extended waitlist for Yale with the same Common App essay he sent to all the other colleges.</p>
<p>Recommendations?</p>
<p>His US History teacher and quiz bowl coach, and a science teacher gave his recommendations--- we do not know what was written in them, because he waived the right.</p>
<p>Calling admissions office many times?</p>
<p>My son leaves for school before Harvard’s office opens, and comes back after it closes, so he could not call. I called Harvard admission office only a couple of times. First time I asked (admission representative transferred me to an admission officer) if it is bad to retake the SAT, and the officer said that trying to improve 2340 is perfectly fine, but not more than three times. After Stanford rejection he found out that he forgot to mention volunteering, research experience etc. in EA application’s Additional Info (he had already filled up the application with everything else). My son was 16 yrs. old, and made a mistake (even the US President makes mistakes). Son talked to a Harvard admission officer only one time (on a school holiday), and asked how to submit the additional information to the common application (volunteering etc.), because he had already applied elsewhere (besides Caltech and Duke) along with Stanford. Rice wanted that by e-mail, but other colleges through the fax. In the end of Dec.’07 he decided to apply to both Caltech and Duke (he did include everything with the common application this time and got accepted in both). Neither of us ever called Princeton, Yale, Duke, and UPenn.</p>
<p>Why was my hand on my son’s shoulder in the photograph?</p>
<p>The photographer Kelly told me to put my hand on his shoulder. It was not my idea.</p>
<p>SAT Prep?</p>
<p>Yes, my son took a $900 SAT prep course. It was a total waste of money. The teacher taught many wrong things, according to my son. </p>
<p>Did I, an Asian parent, ruin my son’s life?</p>
<p>No, I did not. I hope other Asian parents on College Confidential will support me here. Asian parents do interfere in their children’s life only in a way so that their children don’t end up doing drugs, dropping out of HS, associating with bad influences, drinking alcohol, become a slacker, stay out until 3 AM partying, etc. We serve as their friend, teacher, guide, and etc., all-in- one. Sure, I wanted him to do well at school, and on his standardized tests, but I never stood over him to make sure that he got his apps in on time and well done, or demand perfect scores on his exams at school or anything like that. I am not an overly-domineering father; academically I never imposed on him anything. I pushed him as much as any parent who cares about his child would, but even then, my son pulled me along. I did not force him to do activities he did not want to. From middle school he was very much interested in math, science, English, history (his US history teacher was his favorite teacher ever), and Latin (he was in love with Greek mythology since 6th grade). He also loved to do Kung Fu, and that’s why he is now a Black Belt. His love of those subjects came from his heart – it was not induced by me. He is not only a math/science guy but also humanities guy. He is a truly well-rounded student. He thrived at Liberal Arts and Science Academy (LASA), a prestigious public magnet school, which separated from the local school LBJ this year (same building, but on a separate floor). Next year LASA might be in top 20 best schools in Newsweek’s report (this year rank of LBJ is 95).</p>
<p>Nobody can get 2400 only with intense parenting or practice; otherwise there would have been more than about 270 (out of 3.3 million – 0.008%) perfect scorers present in each graduation year. When the total possible SAT score increased to 2400 from 1600, the number of perfect scorers dropped about 73% (from 1000 to 270). Does it mean that students have 73% less intense parenting than before? No. Intelligence (not practice) plays a part here. My son was born perfectionistic. I haven’t raised him with unreasonable expectations out of him. He was born smart, so I raised him with reasonable expectations and he never became a slacker because of parental involvement. </p>
<p>By the way, we both love to play games, watch TV, watch movies, and spend time together. I have a very good relationship with my son.</p>
<p>There is one more thing I would like to say. A Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard alumnus, author of the book “The Price of Admission”, Daniel Golden, called me after reading my son’s story in the news. A long time ago, unhooked students had a better shot at the Ivy League. In 1952, Harvard admitted 63% of its applicants. In 1974, Harvard admitted 14% of its applicants. (It had 11,166 applicants for 1600 seats in the freshman class). One applicant with 1410 SAT, top-10 class rank and one AP course was enrolled at Harvard in that year. That was Dan Golden. Now, an unhooked applicant with these credentials wouldn’t even dare to apply as in 2008, Harvard admitted 6% of its applicant (1660 out of 27,462). So % of acceptance decreased over the years. I admire the guy for publishing his stats in public. Dan Golden told me two major things: One: if my son hadn’t applied for financial aid he would have been accepted to Harvard – he claimed that admission is not need blind even though Harvard says it is. Two: he said that there is discrimination against Asians (a chapter in his book is titled “The New Jews: Asian Americans Need Not Apply”). I do not know how true these claims are, but so many people on College Confidential are criticizing and discriminating against my son and me (with many posts concerning our being Asian) without knowing the facts! If not Harvard, at least everyone in this thread who only had negative things to say about my son and me are guilty of discrimination.</p>
<p>I think I have answered all, or most, of your questions. Please don’t use the offensive adjectives and assume anything (or bet) without knowing the truth. </p>
<p>Now, my son is happy with the colleges he has been accepted to, and he is very excited to go to his choice in the fall.</p>
<p>This is my last post. Thank you to everyone who supported my son and me in this thread and gave us the benefit of the doubt.</p>