<p>the funny thing is, amalthea, you'll probably do better than we do on the applications, since you've got that independent flair</p>
<p>of course, the idea is to work so hard that you can not only get into Harvard but also get scholarships to pay for those 30K+ a year...at least, that's what I think our parents are thinking...</p>
<p>Geez... what kind of families do you guys hav</p>
<p>My parents came over from Vietnam about 18-19 years ago. In my maternal family, I can say I'm the forerunner without being arrogant or conceited. They're a bunch of lazy... superficial people who aren't really good at anything. My mom's the seventh child (of 10), and she is practically the matriarch. She's crazy, but has enough sense in her to lead her very wayward family. Out of my maternal 30-40 cousins (about half of them older than me)... only ONE has gone to a four-year university (UCSD).</p>
<p>My dad's side is a different story. Everyone intermarried... but they are very successful, athletic, brilliant, beautiful, etc. etc. Not a single one is "dumb" by Asian standards. Everyone over 17 is in college/graduated. On my dad's side, it's like a soap opera. Lots of tragedy and extraordinary stuff with <em>perfect</em> people.</p>
<p>I never get compared because... well, no one on my mother's side tries (they compare their children to me... sigh, it's so depressing). On my dad side, they're very Americanized and diverse... so no "typical" Asian-ness there.</p>
<p>However... that doesn't mean my parents aren't tough. I do get those "When I was back in Vietnam..." stories ALL THE TIME though. They had very tough lives.</p>
<p>So I don't really understand those "Asian" stereotypes. I was talking to my maternal aunt yesterday. Here's a rough translation.</p>
<p>Aunt: What school do you want to go to?
Me: Wesleyan. I'm going to apply ED next year.
Aunt: Wesleyan? Where's that?
Me: In CT.
Aunt: Yale is better.
Me: Not for me.
Aunt: But you won't get it.
Me: Let's not start about your kids. (we joke around a lot... this is a frivolous convo)
Aunt: So what do you do at school?
Me: That I like? Journalism, writing, English, Latin. I think I'm going to major in film and linguistics.
Aunt: What for? Film is not going to save anyone's life.
Me: You want me to be a doctor?
Aunt: Or a lawyer.
Me: How about not?
Aunt: So what do you do all those science/math things for?
Me: I want to...
Aunt: You like it, see.
Me: But I <em>love</em> media and video journalism and things like that. Not sticking needles in people's arms.
Aunt: You're so strange.</p>
<p>:?</p>
<p>my parents think im ganna goto nyu or something.... puhahah
From wat i seen from my psats, i will get rejected from a community college... No joke( im a sophomore). mind as well just drop my ap euro and play games 24/7</p>
<p>actually, I don't have it so bad...my parents are pretty much gonna let me stick with my computer science, though they shot down my idea of game design/programming...they said that that "only benefits the rich people"</p>
<p>I just found out that some schools give you 5.35 for AP/Honors A+! No fair! So it's true, there are plenty of inflated grades</p>
<p>on my mom's side, let's see...3 cousins went to UCI, 1 dropped out of college, 1 is psychologically disturbed, 1 went to Penn State...
on my dad's side...they pretty much all went to Cal Poly</p>
<p>I think it's not a family thing for me but more of a personal thing...my dad went to Princeton and I think he's disappointed with the way his life turned out, so he wants to "try again" through me to see if some more studying will go farther...then there's this friend of his who had a prodigy for a son...precalc at 4 years of age, Julliard at 6! I think my dad was jealous or something, so one day when I was 8 he gave me a book on computer programming, and when I was 9 he gave me a book on the Fourier decomposition of waves...the former I tinkered with, and the latter I just looked at the pretty pictures lol</p>
<p>Well then you'll think my school has the biggest grade inflation of all lol... We get 6.0's for IB/AP's.</p>
<p>I know an asian whos cousins a rhodes scholar, and he doesnt really try and he still got a 1350. But he said his mom puts SO much pressure on him...</p>
<p>1350 is low by (sterotypical) Asian standards lol...I mean, I got that in 7th grade...</p>
<p>my parents was iffy when i said i have eliminated engineering, med-school and law-school. i don't want to be be any of the above, maybe a slight interest in law because i am in mock trial. my parents' respond was what am i going to do with my life. i am stumped and still kinda stumped but at the same times i realized how narrow their views are. </p>
<p>they expected me to get in to UC Berkeley. As my mom loved to say a few years back (she stopped it now), Berkeley is easy. She based her opinion on the fact that her friend's kids got into berkeley esp. haas, my cousin got in and now in med-school at UCLA, and my brother got in with medicore stats but he had a awesome essay and considering that he was going through treatment (has a rare disease) and immigration...</p>
<p>it is actually really funny cuz my parents are dead set against me going to cornell. i got interested in it few months back when i was flipping through a viewbook at my friends' house.</p>
<p>at the same times, i can understand cuz my parents both came from an extremely poor family. it was by a stroke of luck that my aunt married a american citizan and can got us immigrated. my dad was an incredible student but unable to go to college because he needed to support his family after his father's death. he had pinned his hope onto my brother and me. he never heard of cornell (he lives in hong kong b/c of his job). my brother had made it clear that he is against me going to cornell if i get into berkeley or ucla b/c of tutition.</p>
<p>wow i really don't have a point to my rant. i guess i am just sharing my side of the story. </p>
<p>just wondering, i know you all are really intelligent and top of your class, you guys are the people i always envy. but are there any people out there that are above average, work heck of hard, but just not "naturally" incredibily smart? because that's me. i am smart in other people's eyes but when i start comparing myself with other people i realize how wrong i am. </p>
<p>i have an above average intelligence and far-fetched dreams. disappointment is inevitable.</p>
<p>I came over to the U.S with my family from Vietnam13 years ago. I wont go into any anecdote about my parents and the struggle they had to go through to bring us to where we are today. Its too cliché for worth of mentioning (for asian typically) and for ego reasons I find it difficult to write or mention anything about our hardships (yet there are many). Pertaining to topic, I DO feel pressure, yet the kind of fulfilling pressure to follow that Asian idealism of filial piety and especially work hard-->harder and make your parents proud (or to later financially support them, w/e) I have come to realize that theyve sacrificed so much for their children to be in America and to study. No matter how much I might have dislike their push, and their drive to live in their children at moments, no matter the teenage angst and frustration I may have unleashed upon them, I would later, as a rational whole, come to realize that their self-sacrifices should be of merit to what I should do. I dont want their sacrifices to have amount to moot, even if the sacrifices might have been perceived to outsiders as overdone.
HOwever, the steps to achieving that American dream idealism of my parents are not what they might have wanted of me. I am ok in math and science, better if I really focused. But my passion has always been in the liberal arts. Oddly enough, Im the only Asian person that I know around here who is interested in such, everyone else that I know of aspires to be dentists, surgeon, or something in that category. Id like to someday be one of those rare birds publishing fictions/fantasy novels, be the editor of a prestigious magazine, screenwrite and have a heck of a lot of success in it. And yea, I fought hard with my parents to make them realize that there is something beyond math/science that an asian person can do. And Ive survived, with little mental scars.</p>
<p>Cali, theres a saying that goes, Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Work hard and youll do fine. I dont consider myself smart, I get embarrassed when peple say so, and my response to theirs would be if you work harder, youll be even smarter than me. And personally, I dont think the SATs determine a persons intelligent. You can basically buy those scores. For some. And there are a numerous other reasons that factors into high SAT scores (except natural intelligence), but Ive ran out of breath.</p>
<p>You guys don't understand the world.</p>
<p>To my asian "homegirls," did you guys enjoy or at least feel like you could relate to some of the stories in the Joy Luck Club? (especially the one about Winnifred/Jan I think their names were)</p>
<p>Another thing I've noticed is that the Asian culture seems to fear/frown upon failure more so than other cultures. While my own family isn't like this, I've observed it in a lot of others and was wondering if you guys find that observation valid.</p>
<p>Cincinnatistudent, care to explain?</p>
<p>it's cuz asian kids don't fail (well, at least my cousins don't)</p>
<p>You're genuinely afraid of your sats, or your gpa, or a lack of extracurriculars, when the truth is THEY DON'T MATTER!</p>
<p>Well i'm asian and am one of those 1500, etc... described above (and thankfully don't have any nearby cousins of the kind) and I am failing for the first time in my life, and you know what? it actually feels alright.</p>
<p>and Cincinnatistudent is right. though, it's probably debatable to some.</p>
<p>perhaps cinci missed the part where we said that we don't fuss over those things because it bothers us, but because our families really hope for it in us and we don't want to let them down</p>
<p>perhaps cinci, thinking that everyone's world is like cinci's, believes that those who worry about their world are foolish</p>
<p>sorry...I'm just in a bad mood right now...</p>
<p>But the SATs aren't your world...</p>
<p>Maybe not to your or me, but to other people, they might. Keep that in mind.</p>
<p>Er. I'm not saying worrying so much about the SATs is a good/bad thing, but sometimes you have to look at things from the perspective and sitatuion of other people, you know?</p>