<li><p>I’m a homer. Sue me.</p></li>
<li><p>Boris is a friend of both my kids, and reputedly a great guy. Everyone is really proud of him.</p></li>
<li><p>A little bit of an object lesson for those on CC who obsess about comparatively minor differences between students and colleges. Boris was certainly a competitive student in high school, with lots of respect from his peers, but he was never within spitting difference of “val” or “sal” status. He didn’t apply to HYP or MIT. He did well on the science fair circuit, but a couple of his classmates did better. He certainly didn’t have his research handed to him by his parents or their friends. He is a product of the perpetually troubled Philadelphia public school system (which did very well by him).</p></li>
</ol>
<p>He went to Central, which is not your typical Philadelphia public high school, but it is an impressive achievement none the less. Obviously a very gifted kid.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting this! Kudos to a very deserving and dedicated young man. Education is not about who's first or fastest. It's about who perseveres the hardest and the longest. This story is inspiring to kids like mine who come from a mediocre public school. </p>
<p>This also shows that no one school can be characterized in a general way: I've seen my own child's very esteemed school (Duke) be characterized as a binge drinking haven and Penn as too preprofessional with kids who are only concerned about grades and top jobs. Thanks for bringing some perspective to this.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Penn Sophomore Lead Author of Article in Science<<</p>
</blockquote>
<br>
<p>What? How can that be? Everyone on CC knows that undergrads get to do research only at LACs, and that at research universities (and especially the Ivy League) grad students hog all the research opportunities. Plus the profs just don't care about undergrads. Everyone knows this! It's been stated here on CC a thousand times, so it must be true. ;-)</p>
<p>No, Central isn't "your typical Philadelphia public high school", but it is the largest high school in the system. (I think . . . Northeast may be a skootch bigger.) Its average stats are not that impressive -- the last reported average SAT was just above 1100 (on a 1600 scale) -- and it's not going to impress anyone with its pristine condition, cozy neighborhood, or opulent magnificence. What it is, is a gritty, diverse urban school that works really well.</p>
<p>(And, yes, coureur, that was part of the object lesson, too, but I didn't want to rub it in.)</p>
<p>JHS just read that. Impressive and great to see it on the front cover. Certainly, his engineering parents gave him great guidance. </p>
<p>In contrast, did you read the article about the Cherry Hill East student, who changed four students transcripts- his several siblings all attended Ivys. He felt the teacher was unjustly tough with grades.
A mistake he will live with for a long time .</p>
<p>A corrective note to post #5: I just checked and Northeast High has over 1,000 kids more than Central (about 40% bigger). That's a little more than a "skootch".</p>
<p>Thanks, JHS, for posting a great story about such a hard working kid. With all the bad news in the press, it's just so uplifting, for me, to read about some of the great accomplishments by today's youth.</p>
<p>
[quote]
What? How can that be? Everyone on CC knows that undergrads get to do research only at LACs, and that at research universities (and especially the Ivy League) grad students hog all the research opportunities. Plus the profs just don't care about undergrads. Everyone knows this! It's been stated here on CC a thousand times, so it must be true. ;-)
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Coureur, could it not be true that those "thousands" of CC "voices" are mostly rebuttals of posts that state that anyone interested in research better look at the amazing offers at ... research universities since the LAC cannot possibly compete against the academic juggernauts that know how to play the funding game and have a monopoly on the talent? The Berkeley forum at CC surely indicates this.</p>