<p>After I told my dad that I qualified for ELC (top 4%) of my class, which qualifies me into certain UCs, he shrugged and said "You are probably not going to these schools anyways." I personally feel that UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara are nice schools, but my family thinks that only UCB, UCLA, and UCSD are good. This really puts a lot of pressure on me since they look down on UCI and UCSB. </p>
<p>Every time I tell them I might apply to a certain school, they go on US News and Report to look up the ranking and nothing else. They don't care about the location, the student population, or the majors offered. This is really frustrating. I tried telling them specific ranking really do not matter because it's different on each website and in four years, I'm sure the ranking of x college will fluctuate. Besides, ranking is not solely academic; many other factors are considered. </p>
<p>Schools have reputation outside, I mean people all know that Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford are tier 1 schools. Do they really care which one is ranked higher on a biased system? It also does not make sense that the world ranking and US ranking on the same website can be so different. A school A can be lower than school B in US, but higher in the world? I told them to consider the school's reputation instead of ranking- if it's highly thought of in the world. Well, they basically don't listen to me. </p>
<p>Is this typical for all parents? Or just my stereotypical Asian parents? Sigh.</p>
<p>Don’t try to change their minds at this point.
Apply to the UCs they deem suitable and tell them you are applying to UCI and UCSB as safeties.
Save your breath, they are not ready to be realistic about how competitive acceptances are for the top UCs, especially for certain declared majors.
Keep up your grades, decide on your major, finish your applications, and enjoy your senior year.</p>
<p>i’m asian but thank god my parents let me do my thang- why? CAUSE I’M THE ONE GOING TO COLLEGE and THEY WANT ME TO GO TO COLLEGE and THEY CAN’T APPLY FOR ME.</p>
<p>Tell your parents to go (insert the a phrase synonymous with “to grow up, man”)</p>
<p>Convince your parents that you chose to select those schools because of things you liked about that school(s). Like for example, majors, social life, etc etc. </p>
<p>Make it clear to them that the name doesn’t matter. What matters in the end is the major that you choose to pursue (and whether the program in that school is excellent). That’s what’s most important.</p>
<p>Also, if your parents didn’t know, UCI is starting to become of the more competitive UCs now; they are getting more respect as an academic institution. I’m very surprised your parents looked down at UCI; even my parents know that UCI is becoming a very good university (and they’d be happy if I got in, lol)</p>
<p>P.S. I’m Asian too, and I have met parents that have this mentality before</p>
<p>Your parents are idiots. Go where you want to go and where you feel comfortable (as long as it is affordable). It’s your life and you will be an adult in college, don’t let them control it for you.</p>
<p>And those damn rankings are so stupid. It’s just a news magazine trying to sell it’s product by placing school X in front of school Y.</p>
<p>It’s okay. I totally know what you’re feeling… my Asian parents are overbearing, narrow- minded, USNews ranking- obsessed too.</p>
<p>Here’s a typical conversation I have with them whenever I try to argue to apply to colleges out- of- state. Because, no offense, there aren’t really any decent colleges in my state…</p>
<p>Me: "Sooo Mom, Dad, I’m thinking of applying to insert-out-of-state-college-that-I-really-want-to-go-to-here… </p>
<p>Parents: No. If you don’t get into Harvard, then you’re going to the state university.</p>
<p>Me: But…</p>
<p>Parents: No buts. Harvard is #1. We aren’t going to pay an out-of-state tuition if it’s not number one.</p>
<p>Me: But insert-out-of-state-college-that-I-really-want-to-go-to-here is in Top 15…?</p>
<p>Parents: Not worth it.</p>
<p>Me: -____-</p>
<p>LOL, I say to just apply to your dream college and screw your parents.</p>
<p>BUT, realistically, they’re mostly incharge of tuition, unless you get a full- ride, so you may not have a choice…stupid rankings…</p>
<p>OH right. I remember when Princeton tied with Harvard or something for #1. My mom literally freaked and was like “OMGGGG Princeton is #1 now. Screw Harvard. Apply to Princeton.”</p>
<p>the ranking argument! I basically do not make posts around here and mostly lurk around grad school board, but heck! being interested in UCI myself I searched Irvine to find stuff about it and your post came up, look I have made a good deal anti-rank-worshiping material in my previous posts, IMO I have made conclusive posts about why rankings are absurd also have given examples of very successful people graduated from not so highly ranked schools. take a look at them and find stuff for stuffing your parents mouths,
BTW rank-worshiping syndrome knows no specific race</p>
<p>Honestly, you can’t major in anything at UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, UC Merced, etc. (Exceptions are UC Davis - Veterinary Studies and UC Riverside - Pre-med) but overall, those lower UC’s pretty much suck. They lack significantly lower funding, research and internship opportunities, and a qualified faculty and administration than do the top 3 UC’s, UCB, UCLA, and UCSD. When you attend a top 3 UC, you can pretty much major in anything and feel EXTREMELY safe and secure that you’ll have a goodass job after college. They’re a lot more well-rounded and provide a myriad of opportunities.</p>
<p>That’s not what I meant; I meant that the schools don’t have particularly outstanding programs for a particular major(s).</p>
<p>A good thing not to have? Oh yeah, because you definitely need large as hell classrooms with sizes totaling up to 4000 people and you don’t need to be involved in research and internship opportunities. Sounds great.</p>
<p>^^^ one of the majority of stupid people that knows nothing more about “outstanding programs” except the numbers offered by usnews. this makes me so sad, while someone who knows nothing about courses/labs offered uci-ucb makes such judgments. I mean whhhhy instead of looking at those lists a million times you don’t look at the websites of the schools and compare their offerings, course syllabi, textbooks used, …
I know the reason of course: you’re too stupid to be able to carry out such thing so: STICK to your LISTS</p>
<p>This just happened today… I got a free application from Tulane in my email a week ago, and since it was free I figured it wouldn’t hurt to just quickly fill it out and send it off, since I had already written my Common App essay and just used it for the personal statement. I told my mom today about it, and she had a major freak-out Here’s the punch line for all of you to enjoy: </p>
<p>“I know you need safety schools, but you don’t need to go so far down the list!” </p>
<p>LOL! As far as I’m concerned, it seems that Asian parents automatically assume that ANY school they haven’t heard of is bad. :D</p>
That comment was poking fun at the fact that you said the school lacked significantly lower funding (as in it did not have significantly lower funding), as opposed to saying it had significantly lower funding or lacked large amounts of funds.</p>
Here’s the punch line for all of you to enjoy: </p>