<p>“mainly because no matter what a student accomplishes people will always bring this up.”</p>
<p>In the absence of AA, many people would find some other justification for denigrating the achievement of URMs. There are plenty of people in this world who do not like to see people they perceive as “outsiders” getting a piece of the pie. That point of view was around before anyone dreamed of AA; it’s around at colleges that aren’t allowed to use AA (like public schools in Texas); it’ll stick around after AA is discontinued.</p>
<p>Harvard wants more than good grades. You seem to be stuck on that.</p>
<p>You also talked about not being able to find homework–this is a problem for Harvard. They are MORE interested in the whole student then they are in just “who knows this stuff the best”. Will your son have the same attitude at his job? Will trivial, mindless activities and reports just get lost?</p>
<p>If your son is so smart that he knows everything or learns it in 1/10 of the time as the rest of the class why is he sitting in HS? Shouldn’t he be taking college classes or on-line classes? The best students don’t whine about everyone else, they do what they need and are NEVER satisfied with just sitting around daydreaming.</p>
<p>He earned 17 hours of college credit and 6 semesters of online credit, in addition to a full load in high school (which is why he is graduating a year early), which included 8 officially registered AP classes and 4 more self-studied ones.</p>
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<p>High school is not like college where you can just skip lectures and show up for the tests. He did get permission to teach himself calculus while sitting in precalculus class and also learning precalculus, but it took 2 months of meetings, including his teacher, the math dept. head, his counselor and the principal to get approval. In AP Bio this year, he’s been made TA and helps his classmates during quiet lab, discussion or review periods. In his math class, he has standing permission to leave and tutor students in the other AP math and science classes as needed. His school has been very accommodating, but there are still limits – also, it takes a fair amount of time to prove one’s self before high schools will even consider making special accommodations.</p>
<p>“Asians who feel like you are victimized and are upset because people tell you to “get over it,” well, guess what? You have no other choice, but to get over it. Your rejection is not going to be overturned. Move on with your life.” </p>
<p>Do I recognize this language? Well, an actual thug could not have said it better. I don’t know what your circumstance is, but I sincerely hope you in your lifetime will never meet a bigger bully than yourself. I don’t care (genuinely not interested) if you are an Asian or not --you only speak for yourself-- and for all of the appearance, you may well be a ■■■■■. </p>
<p>And save your idiotic boilerplate about “many other amazing colleges” --I have no skin in the game (actually, I do, but boasting is beside the point). However, not being personally harmed does not prevent me to see that many Asians are getting a raw deal in college admission. </p>
<p>I admit that I don’t have a good solution, because at certain level I can identify with the arguments for AA. Maybe some dreams have to be crashed so others can thrive. All of us, including our families and the society in which we live, make trade-offs all the time. But what I absolute don’t agree with is this thuggish “get over it” attitude. I am sure this phrase has been said to many many minority groups throughout history --but never justified.</p>
<p>Also, if it’s true what you’re telling us about your son, then it is more the school’s loss than his. Applying to schools with a sub 10% acceptance rate is honestly just a crap shoot. No one is ever a lock for those kinds of schools. </p>
<p>Your son should be a shoo-in however for other top tier schools like USC, UCB, UCLA, Northwestern, UChicago and Duke.</p>
<p>Your son’s initiative and raw intelligence are absolutely astonishing and any school that wouldn’t recognize them is undeserving of him.</p>
<p>Doc, he did just fine: He was rejected by MIT, Yale and Princeton, but accepted by Brown, Williams (early write), Amherst (early write) and Northwestern. He absolutely loves Brown and may well have chosen it even if he had gotten accepted to the others.</p>
<p>We knew that graduating in 3 years would put him at a strong disadvantage to his competition: it gave him one year less to fully develop his ECs and community service projects and also took away 15-20 hours a week of time he needed to commit to outside classes rather than ECs. He stuck with his 3-year plan nevertheless, mainly because he had exhausted his school’s entire advanced math and science curriculum.</p>
<p>While Haddon makes a good point, most of the Asians I know who were rejected from top colleges bounce back immediately. Since the majority of Asians applying to the top colleges are second/third generation Americans, they still have the immigrant mentality their parents/grandparents have. You have to fight, know that you’re going to be disadvantaged in terms of political and social power, but still fight your way to the top. And you really don’t deserve to go to the Ivies if you feel you “deserve” a spot there. It’s a crapshoot, and a lot of times, it’s just pure luck. There are so many qualified candidates. That’s why I can’t get it when people talk about their rejection as if they were robbed of a spot.</p>
<p>When you feel you have been treated unfairly in life, you have two productive choices: either get over it and move on, or do something about it.</p>
<p>I think what becomes irritating is the constant and continual complaining about the perceived unfairness of AA, which has been going on from the day I joined the CC community, without any concrete action being taken on the part of the complainants to change what they adamantly propound to be obvious, unjustifiable discrimination.</p>
<p>There is a very well established course of action you can take when you feel that your Constitutional rights have been violated. Why not pursue it? Jian Li tried, and thus far the government has disclosed no findings of discrimination after 5 years of investigation (which usually take only several months). Maybe you can make a better case. Please do it if you can, so we can put this issue to bed once and for all.</p>
<p>^ Read my post: I have no case to file. And thank you for your preposterous life’s lesson about “productive choices”, and I am sorry that I, in this public forum, have an opinion that is “irritating” to you.</p>
<p>Yes, no one is “entitled” to any particular school, what we are talking about here is a pervasive discriminatory practice across the board. I applaud those who take formal actions, but that does no preclude me to voice my opinion here. Speaking out in public is also a “well established course of action” in American democracy. No lecture is needed, really.</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, what if the AA is implemented on the basketball court? If, by AA, the Jordans and James and Kobe’s were never gotten a chance to play…How many folks would buy a ticket to watch NBA?</p>
<p>^Wow. That’s ignorant.
AA is mainly used by colleges to promote diversity and create a class they want. It’s not the most fair policy, but colleges use it.
Basketball is a business. Owners want to make money, and to create a great team. Therefore, they’ll pick the best players, the players they want.
Terrible example. Colleges want to pick the classes they want, so they use AA. Owners want to make money, so they go with the best players.</p>
<p>This thread is sad. It reminds me of when I had gotten admitted to Brown with a 1900 SAT score and everyone screamed Affirmative Action. Oh well, I guess that this URM flame war will always happen on CC.</p>