@florida26, my point had nothing to do with AA (which I support.) My point is that most immigrant kids who succeed so brilliantly have one thing in common: coming from families/culture that value educational achievement and make a point of learning about/taking advantage of educational opportunities in this country.
In that way they’re not nearly as disadvantaged as impoverished American kids (both white and of color) who come from traditionally disenfranchised communities. My initial point on this thread is that while I applaud these immigrant kids’ accomplishments, the ones who really inspire me are the ones “from the hood,” – the kids of under/un-educated parents of very limited means and a culture of generational poverty and underachievement. The kid who comes from that kind of background and still manages to excel - now that’s a kid who should be heralded as much (if not more) than the I-got-into-8-Ivies immigrant success story kiddo.
It sounds to me that both immigrant boys being discussed here (not sure about the female who also got into 8 Ivies and is just the child of immigrants) do come from low income families, though families who highly value education. Their parents hold blue collar jobs. They are of limited means and not of privilege. They managed to excel, and yes, their parents strove for high goals for their kids.
I do acknowledge that some colleges are trying harder and are better at attracting URMs “from the hood” as someone said, and again, from places like the Yakima Valley. Some colleges are beginning to assist and counsel disadvantaged parents and high schoolers whom are motivated, with great outreach programs. Two that I read about are at the U of Washington and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The schools give these kids a ‘heads up’ about effectively preparing for college work. Hopefully other colleges will start to do the same thing. I know that the high schools should be doing this…but that’s another story.
And I admire and commend immigrant parents such as Frugaldoctor’s. I never fail to scratch my head as to why other parents don’t show the same motivation. Frankly, something has been lost in our communities over the last 20-30 years. Figuratively, you don’t hear as many stories today about the Black Georgia farmer, who sat his kids down most nights of the week to quiz them about their “lessons,” even though he held only a 6th grade education himself. Or the domestic worker in Long Island, who pushed her son into academic excellence. We have lost something in this country when kids know every word in a Ludacris or Beyonce lyric but can’t read at grade level.
Good points, LakeWashington. There is hope in some schools, however. A few hours ago, I was in an urban charter school where most of the students are of color and from low socio-economic backgrounds. Every single student (and many are first generation) will go onto college. It is the school’s mission and it succeeds in accomplishing this goal. It begins at a young age.
Your school and others like it give me hope. Not to be political, but I do not understand the opposition from African American parents to charter schools when their existing " standard" public schools are failing. Then again, I do understand it, being an armchair political operative myself.
It is hard to keep the stories straight as they come in fast and furious. The NC boy’s mother is a physician with what appears to be her own practice. It’s part of the story linked.
I the level of income is becoming part of this thread, one should note that none of those students applied through the College Match program at Questbridge A number of valid conclusions are easy to reach from that tidbit.
@xiggi Yes, it is hard to keep the stories straight as four different kids have been referenced on this thread as getting into all 8 Ivies. When I was talking of coming from low socio-economic backgrounds, I was referring to the young man from New York who is an immigrant from Nigeria and the young man from Indiana who is an immigrant from Bulgaria, and not the young man from NC who has a parent who is a doctor. Just clarifying.
Not every GC is really familiar with all the Ivies! That is not the point.
Obviously, but chances are that someone who can find his way to applying to all Ivies, participate in the Intel and other activities … did!
It is one thing to correctly point out that Questbridge has some work to do before reaching every hamlet in Alabama or other pioneer outposts served by the Pony Express, and other to think that sophisticated applicants are oblivious to the major scholarships and organizations.
I have spent plenty of time with students who were in both groups as well as the ones labeled strivers by Hoxby et al. As usual, there is a lot of misconception about the abilities of students to figure it out, and especially as soon as they realize that their fingers on a keyboard is many times more powerful (and timely) that that poor overworked GC who is dealing with truants and emotional problems.
To be clear, and not that it matters, but you’d have an extremely hard time to convince me that those “8 Ivies” are part of the disadvantaged, low income, unsophisticated, and uneducated group of applicants that are usually forming the URM category.
For starters, do you think any of them has a … zero Federal EFC or qualifies for full Pell grants?
Well, the Indiana student has a single parent who works cleaning houses. The NYC area student has parents who have blue collar jobs and there are five kids in the family. I consider these families to likely fall under disadvantaged, low income. We don’t have their financials but I bet they qualified for significant need based financial aid.
On one of the links I provided on the first page of this thread, the video says that Harold Ekeh received “almost a full scholarship” to the Ivies. The article about the Indiana student says that Harvard and some of the others offered the student “full scholarships.”
(btw, where my kids grew up, there were plenty of low income kids, first generation college students and I very much doubt any had heard of Questbridge)
None of the above contradicts my prior points. Not sure what two blue collared jobs bring in New York, if they are indeed true blue collar jobs, but I am sure that the income is vastly above a Pell grant.
Fwiw, when I grew up I never heard of Questbridge, nor when I applied to college in 2003. At that time, the program was different and no “bridge” attached. It started when your D already had done a few races for Brown! Plenty of reasons for VT kids to not know about QB.
The situation is different in 2015, and while your average kid might be oblivious to the selective college world, kids that can send seven dozen research requests and collect 8 IL envelopes are hardly the kids you describe.
As far as full scholarship at the IL, should we link this to the NYC mayor for relevance? I really think people should come down my former neck of the woods to see how low income people really live. Sixty bucks for a 48 hours week. Teachers making 240 every two weeks. Granted that is in Mexico, but the story across the river is not that wonderful. A six figure income in the South? That is the realm of the …rich! Comparatively speaking, that is. The rich down here are really rich!
The latest high school immigrant student to earn acceptance to all Ivies, MIT, Stanford and other schools.These kids are popping up all over the place. I’m guessing UVa was the safety.
The kid from Virginia wrecks a lot of CC theories even more than the Bulgarian immigrant. I do like what she said about why she applied to so many top schools–it’s because admission is unpredictable. That’s what I always say.
The Virginia student is not an immigrant. Northern VA has a large population of very well to do South Asian professionals Both her parents are engineers. She was born in the US and her parents are definitely not poor. She attended a very rigorous private school (Nysmith) before enrolling at TJHSST.
The Virginia student from TJHSST is a classmate of my co-worker’s daughters (twin). I think that school is a magnet HS. BTW, the twins also are Indians and also has high stats (2300+ SATs). They also applied to most Ivies and rejected/WL’d to all. But they got accepted at UVA.
TJHSST is a beast of a school as reported in Jay Mathews book “Class Struggle”. Unfortunately the book is out of print but it should be a popular book among the CC crowd. After reading that book I decided not to push my children to the point where they would miss out on their childhood. The personal stories of the students chronicled in the book sadden me and I knew I didn’t want my children to experience so much unnecessary pressure. I would consider TJHSST the MIT or Caltech of high school. I am not surprised that their graduates would be highly accomplished. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0812931408/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1428796079&sr=8-1&keywords=mathews+class+struggles&dpPl=1&dpID=018P4CJNF2L&ref=plSrch&pi=AC_QL40