<p>@Ryan1119</p>
<p>awesome, I went to Beijing No.4 High School… I mean if you grew up in China… you should know that the majority in the mainland are communist. And when I left there last year, many were handing in their application to be a communist…</p>
<p>However, lets not make this a political post, PM me =]</p>
<p>Uhm… smalllab I was talking about Asian-Americans who go to high school in America. Of course things are going to go crazy at a high school in China. There is too much competition and higher chances of failure.</p>
<p>In America, even if one doesn’t get into the top colleges they still, in the long run, fair very well.</p>
<p>smalllab, you’re right. Let’s not make this a political thread.</p>
<p>But things have changed throughout the last couple of decades.
In fact, my parents never slugged me when I got low grades.</p>
<p>So this is an accurate depiction of life for Asian American high school students:</p>
<p>@light10491</p>
<p>haha sorry, this is like when my friends here ask me about life in China.</p>
<p>“Don’t get me started” I always say. lol</p>
<p>urmomgoes,
IMO, that video is so hilarious… The “MOM” reminds me of a crazy lady in a Chinese comedy, who is also performed by a guy.</p>
<p>Well duh, because most asian parents think you will not become a doctor if you don’t go to a top school</p>
<p>
Now that was a :o moment (supposed tobe a : o smiley) not sure how it really comes out</p>
<p>I think that there are some Asian parents who know how it feels like to suffer in their home countries where there is a very lack of opportunity to climb up the social ladder and become successful. That’s why many of them see America as a great opportunity to achieve success because their communist countries do not give such opportunity. The success can mean getting a high-paying and stable career. And the only way to get a good career is through a good education. </p>
<p>Even though the Asian parents who live in America now may work in low-ranking and laborous jobs, they do not want their children to end up the same way. Their jobs are typically low-paying, have long work hours, and are physically strenuous. Therefore, many Asian parents will teach their children to get a good education that can get them much more farther in life. If that was the case, you may ask, “Why don’t the Asian parents get an education, instead of simply telling their children what to do?” The answer is because they may have just came to America recently and their English is not good. As a result, the best they could do is to encourage their children to work hard in school and get a university education. </p>
<p>Asians may be typically more academically competitive and value education more than other races, even though they are the minority because of what their parents have been through. But there are still some Asians who don’t care about school and would rather party and such because they don’t know the value of education.</p>
<p>I’m sure that the Europeans who first came to America also had to suffer at some point and some degree. Coming to a different and new place isn’t easy for many people. But they still have to work hard in order to survive and build a foundation for their future grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Unfortunately, some of the younger generation, especially those who inherit the money/businesses do not know how hard their great-grandparents and grandparents worked in order for them to get where they are today. They tend to spend extravagantly and do not care about education. Eventually, their family can corrupt and the foundation that was built before, would be destroyed. I can relate these events concerning the Europeans to those with the Asians today. Maybe in the future, the Asians may not be as strong academically as they were before.</p>
<p>I’ve seen that the children of these Asian families are often very smart theoretically, but when it comes to simple pratical things, they can be sort of…iffy.</p>
<p>Posts like this seem weird because it was always my non-Asian parent harping at me for not getting 100% on every test while my Chinese parent couldn’t care less about that stuff. Question for people with Chinese-mainland relatives: Do your relatives know of American schools other than Harvard? (just curious, mine don’t)</p>
<p>Dunzo
It’s not a current phenomenon that Asian families value education more than any others.
That’s the traditional Chinese doctrine shared by Eastern society for centuries.</p>
<p>Jakor,
That’s an interesting question. Many of my relatives and family friends in China know schools more than just Harvard. The list sometimes might includes Yale, MIT, Stanford, and Cal. =)</p>
<p>Ryan1119 - I’m not familiar with the Chinese doctrine centuries before, but I’m aware of what is happening today.</p>
<p>broad sweeping generalizations are never true</p>
<p>The same thing also happened in the past.
I just kinda disagree with your final statement.
The fact that Chinese value education than any one else is hardly gonna change whether it’s in the past, the present, or the future.</p>
<p>I honestly think my parents at heart would be okay with me attending ANY college. But because they want to “save face” (AKA want relatives back home to recognize the college I’m going to), they unreasonably set these standards for me to get into an Ivy even though they know there are better engineering schools out there for me.</p>
<p>Out of many people I asked, everyone know Harvard and most know MIT. Not even Yale or Princeton=p</p>
<p>Sorry to break the discussion here, but I have a question:</p>
<p>Why did tokenadult single out this article to post as a featured discussion? Is this a thinly veiled reference to how insane the path to college admissions is, a way to support that Asians adore higher education, or etc? It just seems really strange to see the headline, “Chinese aim for the Ivy League.” It just seems so distasteful.</p>
<p>Hello everyone, I’m a Chinese student living in Canada; my family and I immigrated here 7 years ago. Right now I’m a senior at a Catholic high school in a mid-size city in south-western Ontario. I hope I can give you some more insights into the “Chinese Ivy Aimers” background. </p>
<p>Today, in China opportunities are limited, meaning only a small number of people attend universities from a pool of millions of high school seniors. Although the percent of college students is on the rise, the competition to get in is still fierce. Unlike North America where a person with only high school diploma could do well in life (middle class), in China, this is impossible because of the income differences and living costs.</p>
<p>Since the Chinese culture is very unite and proud (in the “Tibet incident” last year, majority of the Chinese stood with the Communists; and look at the Olympics, everyone thought China to be narrow only to discover China as a huge country with proud people). In Canada (maybe America as well) Chinese families tend to be closer to other Chinese families. So, in major cities in Canada, around 70% of the students in the best high schools are Asian descendants. This takes away the rich Western cultural influence the Asian students get. Typical Asian families do not emphasis on sports, because in China, athletes must win Gold in Olympics to earn a modest living. </p>
<p>There are none (that I know of) Nobel Laureates from main-land China because Chinese universities are poor (relative to America’s) to fund researches. The best universities in China are ranked poorly internationally.</p>
<p>I attend a Catholic school and I’m the only Chinese student. Having spent my last 3.5 years there, I’m able to see from both sides. Because of my friends and their influences on me, I’m the best miler in my district and captain my XC team. In sophomore year I was voted by the coaches as Athlete of the Year, and voted by the students to be student council president. But for the “Asian” side, I keep a 90% average, 3rd in school. As for my interests, I can start a lunch time conversation about major league sports (NHL and NBA, popular in Canada) and music, from Coldplay to 50 cent to Beethoven, in French.</p>
<p>While most of my friends who attend Asian-dominated high schools have much higher SAT scores than me, I don’t think either Asian or American system is “better” at raising “Ivy Aimers” – All roads lead to Rome.</p>
<p>Keep this discussion up, I sent my app to Harvard, and not much homework to do.</p>