<p>Interesting. Despite your often repeated references to an endless pool of cousins and friends that allows you to comment on any subject with authority, I really doubt that your Stanford friends are anything more than a figment of your vivid imagination. The references to Stanford being the largest Taco Bell in the world have been made, but the internet is fueled by ignorant commentaries. It so happens that the contributions by an ignoramus take a life of its own. Repeat it often enough and it might become true. Or so they think! </p>
<p>Anyhow, even your story has an embryo of truth, it remains that the comments reflect a rather poor understanding of how Stanfordās campus fits in its ā¦ environment. And reflects the type of university it wanted to be and has become. While a campus emulating a British or German university might have pleased some, it might also have become an eyesore, especially considering the vastness of Stanford. </p>
<p>Fwiw, here is a past discussion. You will notice the comments of JHS that balance Phantaās posts about the architecture. All of that confirms that people have vastly different tastes when it comes to art and architecture. Some like gargoyles and dark caves; other like the spartan look of light flooded museums. To each its own! </p>
<p>My own viewpoint is that Stanford, when its many facets are discovered with interest, is a magnificent campus. For its style and for its people! And, if that is important, I did not ask --nor cared-- what my cousins might think about it. My opinion is my own and is based on my eyes and heart. </p>
<p>Perhaps, you should try it sometimes, Cobrat! </p>
<p>Are the AP exams necessary in your district to get the uber-important AP boost to maximize the class rankings? Those pesky class rankings that define, more than anything else, the composition of the Texas state universities?</p>
<p>Yes, it so happens that students can do a lot with AP credits. The real question to answer if this actually benefits the students or robs them of the chance of taking the class in colleges at the appropriate level. And if it really benefits a student to graduate from college based on poorly designed and mostly irrelevant AP courses and exams? </p>
<p>Has our school system and education system improved in quality in the past decades with this tsunami of AP courses? Do we really dozens and dozens of those courses when the overwhelming majority of students in our HS graduate with lacking skills in the most basic areas such as math and reading? Yes, our students do well when asked to memorize a bunch of unrelated and trivial data (and quickly forget most of it) but can they think well enough to express a cogent thought in reasonable English? You do know the answer to that question! </p>
<p>The sad reality is that the AP (and its poor bastardly cousin imported from Europe) main attraction is that it creates schools within a school, and offers a well-hidden segregation that should no longer be legal or acceptable. Obviously, it finds quite a bit of support among the middle-class that flocks to the public schools that create a quasi private school within its walls by making sure that the access will be controlled. </p>
<p>All in all, the benefits of programs such as the crazy AP we currently have are dwarfed by the negatives. But as long as the negatives mostly handicap the most disadvantaged among us, all ā¦ is well! </p>
<p>And it will get worse until some day we will have to answer the basic question : What was that about! </p>
<p>@xiggi, anyone can take AP classes in our school, as long as they can convince their parents to sign a form acknowledging that they chose to ignore the recommendations of their teachers and counselors.</p>
<p>No one is forced to take AP credits. Itās an option. Some AP classes may be weak but I donāt think what goes on in most college calc 1 classes is that much different than such a class in a good high school. </p>
<p>Not sure who āour studentsā are. AP classes were never intended to solve the problem of kids who can barely read. That doesnāt make them a bad thing. In most schools AP classes have caused the school to stretch and upgrade their former offerings. Even in the past few year, some schools in our area have added BC calculus to their offerings instead of capping students at AB calc. How is offering more advanced coursework and more opportunities a bad thing? Yes, itās driven by the high schools being evaluated on their AP program. That was clearly evident when our school cut their CS offerings after the college board discontinued the CS AB test. That was an educational loss for my daughter, directly tied to an opportunity that had been created, then destroyed, by the AP program. Of course Iād prefer if offerings were more uniformly rigorous than AP and if schools had the courage to offer rigorous classes that arenāt rubber stamped by the college board, but at least the AP program does define a certain standard of education that is better than what most schools would be willing to provide if they werenāt being measured by it.</p>
<p>Well, xiggi, I have to be honest, Iāve visited Stanford three times in my life and I also felt that some of the architecture reminded me of Taco Bell, but then again some of the Mission Style / Southwest architecture is a style of architecture I donāt particularly care for, but it wouldnāt keep me from attending there or sending my kids there if they were so inclined. I think the difference, though, is that I actually <em>own</em> my opinion based on my personal experience (which is limited - 3 superficial visits, not in-depth exploration of every nook and cranny) versus claiming that Iāve got untold Stanford alum friends/cousins who, of all the topics they could talk with me about, specifically made it a point to tell me about how they felt the architecture resembled Taco Bell. </p>
<p>To go all the way back to the premise of this discussion, I was thinking that it may seem that parents are more crazy now because the entire bell curve of parental involvement in kidsā education and activities has shifted in the direction of more engagement (at least for middle and higher income families). My parents, and the parents of most of my friends, were remarkably hands-off with respect to what happened at school, and with respect to the specifics of college applications. Now, I actually think the general increase in parental involvement is a good thingābut it may mean that the over-involved end of the bell curve is more extreme than it was 10, or 20, or 30 years ago.</p>
<p>Wonder if itās along the lines of be a multi-billionaire, celebrity, politician, or a titan in oneās field whose widespread wealth fame has or could bring potentially neutral-positive credit to a given school. </p>
<p>I would like to apologize and clarify my yesterday posts.</p>
<p>I donāt mean that OHS (Stanford online school) kids are plain. They are great kids. Some kids are average, some kids are WOW, brilliant. My D is blessed to attend a really nice magnet public HS. In comparison to OHS, her magnet school has more brilliant kids. </p>
<p>Public magnet school selected kids on the bases of entrance exam. Overwhelming majority of students are Asian. Kids are great. Lots of really brilliant kids. OHS selects kids holistically, and uses extensive questionnaire with lots of personal questions about kids background. Pretty uncomfortable experience. In the end, I think that our magnet school has a stronger student body (at least 10 graduates go to Ivys, every year; at least 30 graduates go to Berkeley). </p>
<p>I donāt like holistic approach because it is 1) opaque 2) creates perception of bias 3) doesnāt really give better student body. Just personal experience. </p>
<p>I agree that there is an increase in parental involvement, but I am not yet convinced that parents have gone crazy over the last 10 years (the OPs original question).</p>
<p>Sites like this and others as well as the 24 hour media do highlight the fringe cases. The āevidenceā seems to boil down to a confirmation bias āI know someone whose friend was totally crazyāā¦while not pointing out that they also know another 100 people all have friends who are not crazy.</p>
<p>I wonder if it is similar to how some people perceive the āincreaseā in violent crime compared to when they were growing up when the reality is that for the US it generally has been going down.</p>
<p>Depends on the HS and individual course policy. Some HSs and individual course teachers will give boosts for students scoring 4s and 5s on the AP exam. </p>
<p>Iāve read some parents do look at AP exam results and percentage of AP students taking exams to see if the average grades correspond or whether the given high school has grade inflation issues in their AP courses. </p>
<p>For instance, if the AP course grade average is close to/exceeding an A, but most students are scoring 3 or lower, such parents are likely to pass on such a school. </p>
<p>I wouldnāt promise just ābrain developmentā. </p>
<p>It isnāt just about academics, I would also offer EC development, Recommendation Development, Compelling Story Development and a jump start on the essays.</p>
<p>My business would be ācollege admissionā to MD HYPMES CCDGRUVA</p>
<p>@fluffy2017. I still prefer your previous idea for Fluffy University with its brilliant initials for the uninitiatedā¦the school will have 0% acceptance always with the attitude to go along with itā¦ </p>
<p>āPublic magnet school selected kids on the bases of entrance exam. Overwhelming majority of students are Asian. Kids are great. Lots of really brilliant kids. OHS selects kids holistically, and uses extensive questionnaire with lots of personal questions about kids backgroundā Why do you suppose kids are even turning to an online high school? Because they donāt have enough opportunity where they are. They donāt have access to fancy magnet schools like your community does. And itās extremely likely they didnāt get the same quality of education prior to hs either. I can tell you that our HS has competed with MIDDLE schools from your area in math competitions. Hardly surprising many of the online kids are not on par with the top students in a community like that, where middle schools can even compete in hs math competitions, that supports education enough even to run a magnet school. Some of those questions you found uncomfortable may in fact be aimed at identifying kids who would benefit the most from participating in the online program due to lack of opportunity in local community. </p>
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