Colleyville TX valedictorian preparing for HARVARD (news item)

Colleges & Universities Harvard University
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<p>“Preparing for a major transition”</p>

<p>(exerpt from Aug 28 Fort Worth Star-Telegram story)</p>

<p>COLLEYVILLE - Kavita Kannan of Colleyville can’t wait to begin college at Harvard University. But she knows she will miss the Indian food her parents make so well.</p>

<p>And although she was 2005 valedictorian at Colleyville Heritage High School, she is a bit nervous about how she will measure up at Harvard.</p>

<p>As for doing her own laundry, she said she mastered that while attending out-of-town debate camps during the summers. </p>

<p>Kannan, 17, will leave Monday for Cambridge, Mass. She is the first child in her family to go to college. And as the day approaches, she and her family feel apprehension and anticipation.</p>

<p>Until now, Kannan said, “home has been kind of a retreat from society, and I’m sure I’ll be in social situations I’ve never been in before.” …</p>

<p>Kannan, a National Merit Scholar, said she will major in government and hopes to work for an international consulting firm or for the government in international relations.</p>

<p>“I’ve always liked the allure of Harvard since I was really little,” said Kannan, who moved to Colleyville from St. Paul, Minn., in the sixth grade.</p>

<p>“I like meeting new people, but it’s kind of nerve-racking because everybody at Harvard will be so smart,” she said. “But the professors are supposed to be amazing, and I hear the classes are about 25 people.”</p>

<p>For Kannan’s parents, their daughter’s departure will be bittersweet.</p>

<p>Her mother, Shanthi Kannan, 44, an information technology director for a financial services company, said she and her husband were "ready to support her if she didn’t make it to Harvard, and we were kind of speechless when she did, because the competition seems to be incredibly stiff. …</p>

<p>“It’s almost as if she’s landed in a paradise for learning.”</p>

<p>Living at Harvard will mean adjusting to roommates, Kavita said.</p>

<p>“Dorms are all sort of in the center of campus, and I’ve heard 97 percent of the students live on campus,” she said. …</p>

<p>And driving in Boston is “insane,” so Kavita said she will rely on mass transportation. Easing the transition will be the emotional support of friends who attend universities in or near Boston, she said.</p>

<p>Lori Cleveland, who taught Advanced Placement calculus in high school to Kavita, said the teen is “just brilliant. Whatever she sets her mind to, she’ll do. She’s got a good mature head on her shoulders.” …</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/12499288.htm[/url]”>http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/12499288.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>jeez whats with all these “omg i go to harvard now i make the news” things? Ok. fine, so she goes to the best university in the world, wow. thye really don’t have to run news articles on every single harvard person.</p>

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<p>For small towns (and some not so small towns) it’s a source of pride to have one of their own go to Harvard. No harm there.</p>

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<p>No one ever ran a news article when I was accepted. And I was the 1st person in my high school/town to go. Sigh.</p>

<p>LOL</p>

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<p>This is not a small town. Colleyville Heritage is a 5A high school. It sits a few miles from DFW airport in the heart of the metroplex. Like Plano, Southlake, and others, it is a highly affluent north Dallas suburb with an outstanding school system and a very high income level.

Hardly a deprived childhood…</p>

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<p>Then maybe…she got in because she was smart! What a concept, Harvard admitting people based on their ability rather than their deprivation or race!!!</p>

<p>Bandit_TX…not being sarcastic towards you, just venting about some of the tones about AA and admissions have really annoyed me.</p>

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<p>In Valrico (Near Tampa FL) it would make BIG news! I really do hope I get in! Being a Puerto Rican it will sadly be even more surprising to my town.</p>

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<p>Vent away, I’m a big boy and say what I believe. You’re entitled too :slight_smile:
I was trying to correct the earlier poster (small towns) and the article. She is advertised as first generation college, but hardly the type that normally goes with that terminology. She had every advantage a high school can provide, she should have done well if she was smart.</p>

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<p>I did say small towns and not so small towns. Just to clarify. By not so small towns I meant… large towns.</p>

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<p>7 million?</p>

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<p>She doesnt seem that smart to me. “Ooh I heard that 97 % live on campus” or “the allure of Harvard” Gosh, Id rly like harvard to consider people who really want to go there, and who have busted their -you know- to get there. Another typical rich kid from some crap high school getting accepted to Harvard. Why do they all look the same!! They are clones!! No diversity!! Just rich asian/wasp kids that are valedictorians who have no ambition or love for the Harvardness. How nice. Id like to see her in 20 years.</p>

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<p>in 20 years she’ll probably be making oodles of money</p>

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<p>Ouch Dha_06!</p>

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<p>Please, didn’t anybody see her hook? first one to go to college in the family! If not for that, she’d be missing her mother’s indian food from texas A and M!</p>

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<p>here, here dha; finally somebody with some sense</p>

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<p>Hope she doesn’t take EC10.</p>

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<p>Big freaking deal. My mom graduated top of her class in Peru and wanted to go to UCLA, however, she didnt know that immigrants without papers could go to school. Now she is middle-aged, not as vivid in her former academic ability and stuck at a community college trying to get her AA degree so she can work as an RN. Therefore, dont give me that crap that she is the first in her family to attend college. These asian immigrants are wealthier-by far than their south american counterparts. They come here 1st class working for some corportation who sponsors their home and family’s education. Then the kids become valedictorians at their local high schools because those schools are so damn easy to get an A in. Seriously, in my local high school, if you bother to do the work, you get an A. This is because their fellow classmates are doing drugs or getting arrested. I had the opportunity to go to one of the top high schools in the country, which is hard as hell and you have to work ur @@@ in order to get a B. No one gets As. Colleges need a better way of evaluating individuals. Grades in mediocre public high schools are in no way a demonstration of hard work. Anyone can go to these rotten inner-city school and become valedictorian with little effort (I know because I live in the inner city). Adcoms, wasps, asians; everyone in the admissions process is unaware of the true situation, and the few of us that actually get screwed over are the ones that work.</p>

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<p>DHA_10-

Harvard can tell what kind of high school you go to. That is what a lot of the secondary school report shows. </p>

<p>

Do you think that doing the work at all in areas like this when no one else around you is shows something? Maybe that the students doing the work want to and are making the best of their situation that they can? Should this work not be rewarded and acknowledged because they did not have the opportunity to go to a tougher school, just because it may be academically easy? I think that succeeding, or even bothering to put your butt in the classroom seat, in an inner city tells a lot about the character of a student, as opposed to a student in a middle class area where it is the norm and the expectation to attend class.</p>

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<p>“These asian immigrants are wealthier-by far than their south american counterparts. They come here 1st class working for some corportation who sponsors their home and family’s education. Then the kids become valedictorians at their local high schools because those schools are so damn easy to get an A in.”</p>

<p>These immigrants are wealthier because only the wealthiest can come to America. With places like South America, some wealthy Hispanics and many poor Hispanics come. With Asia, some wealthy Asians come, but the many poor Asians can’t come and are thus left with less opportunities in Asia.</p>

<p>Mexico and South American immigrants are blessed because their country is so close to the United States. While poor Hispanic immigrants can come to the United States, it isn’t feasible for poor Indian immigrants or Chinese immigrants to come. Rich Asian kids are just as privileged as rich Hispanics who have come to America. </p>

<p>Also, that is a big generalization to make…that Asian kids go to easier schools where it is easy to make an A. Asians don’t come here first class with a company sponsoring their education…not all of them. And even with those who do, there are just as many people coming from other nations who are treated in this way. It is just that poorer people from these nations can also come, whereas poorer people from Asia can’t. If you “had the opportunity to go to one of the top high schools in the country,” and got B’s, colleges will evaluate you based on your high school. </p>

<p>Public high schools are not all mediocre. In fact, with many of them, grading is in caliber of the teaching. That’s why, although standards may be less, students are taught less. I even hesitate to make that generalizations because I’ve seen enough great public high schools to steer me away from creating a stereotypical “mediocre” public high school. </p>

<p>Asians and “wasps” work very hard. There is no reason to undermine their work…because they usually have standardized statistics to show for it. Colleges already make adjustments based on the school district that one attends, however, I think they SHOULD put more emphasis on one’s socio-economic conditions.</p>

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<p>Paco de Lucia-

you are in luck. Check out the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative, which recruits low-income students:
<a href=“http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/hfai/[/url]”>http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/hfai/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;