<p>7Dad, Did they mention how many of the JHU-CTY students are from public schools vs. private/BS?</p>
<p>I agree with Madaket. Affirmative Action is practised to the URM’s as a group. Granted, some people in that group may not need taking advantage of it because they get in the door with enough merits of their own, but that doesn’t mean many others do get in the door otherwise closed to them through the effetive application of Affirmative Action, which is not a stereotype.</p>
<p>pulsar, the JHU-CTy program lists the students’ schools. At the ceremony we attended, most award winners were from public schools.<br>
Sevendad may have been at the same ceremony we attended…I was very surprised by the demographics.</p>
<p>Most of these award winners are middle schoolers. You’d be surprised how many top BS students had one or more of such awards under their belts. And that’s one reason why Asian student population is 25%+ in both Andover and Exeter (more in Exeter I think). A higher percentage of Asian kids are more academic.</p>
<p>DAndrew, I think your stats are wrong. We visited Andover and saw very few Asian kids. What is the source of your stats?</p>
<p>It was the same at the one I attended. My son was one of 3 white kids. I also noticed how few girls there were.</p>
<p>Sunrise1, the details may be too “technical” for the public forum. I will PM you a bit later.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.exeter.edu/documents/facts2010WEB.pdf[/url]”>http://www.exeter.edu/documents/facts2010WEB.pdf</a></p>
<p>Page 6 list the ethnic breakdown. Asian = 26%</p>
<p>^^Not current. The 2010-2011 fact book posted on the school website shows 28.2% Asian.</p>
<p><a href=“http://exeter.edu/documents/facts_2011WEB.pdf[/url]”>http://exeter.edu/documents/facts_2011WEB.pdf</a></p>
<p>@pulsar: You know what my answer is going to be, right pulsar? Yes, the majority were from public schools. But as someone else noted, these are 7th and 8th graders…who knows where they will be applying for high school? I know for a fact that one boy whose parents we spoke with is looking into a quality private day school that has been mentioned on this forum before.</p>
<p>@neato: Girls were pretty well represented at ours. Caucasian girls? Not so much. I would hazard that there were less than 10 total, and two of them were sisters.</p>
<p>@DAndrew: I think the “Asian kids are academic” stereotype has a lot of validity and evidence to support it, but I’m more curious about the “whys” of it…beyond the Malcolm Gladwell explanation.</p>
<p>oops. Sorry. I should have looked at the date.</p>
<p>7Dad - don’t know what the Malcolm Gladwell explanation is for the “academic asians” but my feeling is that it is written into their DNA and embedded in their culture.</p>
<p>@Madaket: Outliers is worth a read, if you have the time. One of the points he makes (based on some other person’s research) is that countries where rice is farmed are more intuitive about math — for a number of reasons that currently escape me.</p>
<p>As tough as that is, your parents ultimately have the final say. If you’ve given them all of the information you can and had mature, serious conversations with them about it and the answer is still no, then that’s just tough. I think people who have associated themselves with prep schools for a while [myself included] start to forget that the VAST majority of people never attended prep school. Do well in the school you’re in, work hard, play hard. Make the most of the high school you’re in [or are going to], or maybe look for some local alternatives. You will be successful. It is NOT the end of the world. </p>
<p>That said, money could still be an issue. Unless you qualify for full financial aid, including books and travel, the cost definitely won’t be “virtually zero”.</p>
<p>I love Carolina Brown rice. Now I only just need to get intuitive about math. :D</p>
<p>The fact is that a student is going to get better at what they put more effective training time into…the point that Gladwell makes in terms of training in athletics, in music and in academics. Many Asian kids in our area spend double or triple the amount of time on math training than a student who is only getting their math training in school. They take Saturday school, they take classes in the summer, they work with tutors, and if you walk around our local middle school at lunchtime, they are the kids doing math contest problems in groups for fun.
I think boarding school is one way for students to get a similar effect, that the resources are there to train at a greater level than available at many schools. However, there are plenty of day schools that offer fantastic resources. There are also many ways to cobble together advanced training in a student’s areas of strength, even with a not-so-great school.</p>
<p>@siliconvalleymom: Yes, the 10,000 hour rule is covered in Outliers. As is the the Asian mindset of hard work = success. That used to be part of the American ethos as well.</p>
<p>I go with creative problem solving, learning to work with others for success than rote hard work. May be that’s why we don’t see as many Asian Nobel Laureates.</p>