<p>QM, I am not a mathematician so I will put the odds that you will “read only” after you have commented in layman’s terms- in other words, slim to none. I enjoy your posts so hope you will post away!</p>
<p>Seems right now NPR is discussing admissions and diversity, interests, Asians. It may be a repeat of what one poster noted. " On Point. "</p>
<p>Online wbur Boston.</p>
<p>Thank you so much, mythmom, for post #1730! I appreciate your reference to Shakespeare’s Shylock–it is exactly what I thought, when I read about the supposedly “robotic group.”</p>
<p>Alh, I really liked your story. But mostly, I am encouraged: there is hope for my son yet. :)</p>
<p>Wonderful post, PolarBearVsShark, #1732. In retrospect, re the Vulcan Science Academy, I should have objected at once to the idea that Earth got Spock + a case of the finest Romulan ale, and the Vulcan Science Academy got <em>me.</em> </p>
<p>Whooh! Actually very funny. </p>
<p>We would need to send <em>at least</em> an entire fleet of ships with trans-warp drive + 100 of the USAMO participants that MIT has rejected in recent years–even then, not really an even trade (leaving the Romulan ale out of the deal entirely).</p>
<p>Mos Eisley, alh? As in, “you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy?”</p>
<p>Sadly right, sevmom, #1761! 
But now I am truly going off for a while.</p>
<p>Also, really enjoyed AgentNinetyNine’s post about having the keys to Headquarters!</p>
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<p>I have a feeling neither of you would have been thrilled to attend my HS or LAC. </p>
<p>In HS, few cared to dress well because they had other priorities and was viewed as being “phony” and not being a “true Nerd*”. Being male and not really caring about fashion sense…just went along by default. </p>
<p>In college, dressing well like a frat/sorority person would have meant you got labeled as an "oppressive bourgeois capitalist tool and even protested. Also, one parent interviewed for Fiske’s guide said Oberlin students did go out of their way to dress ugly. :D</p>
<p>Fortunate for me as it meant I could continue to wear hand-me-downs and thus, clothing choices were extremely low maintenance. Also, wearing swiss-cheezed clothes turned out to be “cool” there as many well-off students did it as a form of “slumming it”. </p>
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<li>Nerd was an honorific nearly everyone desired to be conferred by the HS campus culture. Too bad my academic standing was such that I wouldn’t qualify by that culture’s standards.<br></li>
</ul>
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<p>Welcome to the club! :)</p>
<p>If one wanted to compare my HS class standing with famous folks, it’d be much closer to that of POTUS W, VEEP Joe Biden, or Senator John S McCain from their respective undergrads. </p>
<p>I commonly use this as a self-deprecating joke among friends and acquaintances to break the ice during college/work. Oddly enough, no one ever believes it…or the fact I was sent to the dean’s 4 times as a 13 year old HS freshman.</p>
<p>I definitely want to sit next to alh! I promise I never talk about colleges and SAT scores IRL. I usually gravitated to the science nerds, but had a lot of arty-literary friends too.</p>
<p>Agent99, I have the “shoe phone”.</p>
<p>Two good articles in the March PE Magazine (published by NSPE).</p>
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<li>STEM Careers Offer Endless Possibilities for Women</li>
</ol>
<p>2.Growing More Engineers Critical to Our Nations Future</p>
<p>Both good reads and very relevant to this discussion.</p>
<p>"
PG and I were both very well dressed sorority girls"
"I have a feeling neither of you would have been thrilled to attend my HS or LAC. "</p>
<p>I have no opinion on your hs, cobrat, because while it looms large in your experience, it means absolutely nothing to me, despite all your anecdotes. It’s just not all that important outside the little Stuy world. </p>
<p>As for Oberlin, I’m more the u type than the LAC type, but I’m sitting here in a coffee shop having attended a progressive speaker at my alma mater. My S is an officer in this organization and brought this speaker to campus. So trust me, I’m plenty progressive and liberal.</p>
<p>"
I commonly use this as a self-deprecating joke among friends and acquaintances to break the ice during college/work. Oddly enough, no one ever believes it…or the fact I was sent to the dean’s 4 times as a 13 year old HS freshman."</p>
<p>This is what we mean by social acumen. Most adults don’t constantly reference their high school years to the extent you do.</p>
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<p>I think you kind of misinterpreted cobrat’s post.</p>
<p>I don’t like the word “nerd” in general, though I think cobrat uses it without the usual negative connotations of being unathletic, gawky, and uncouth. Rather, I think he uses “hard-core nerd” to mean someone who has the highest academic talent and does not have a ceiling at which they are satisfied with their academic performance.</p>
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<p>The royal “we” is a special touch from PG, but in fact, no one else on CC is so eager to diagnose the character and personality flaws of others. I think it’s interesting to read about the life experiences and academic careers of various posters, including cobrat, even if my super-duper GPA-and-income prediction model cannot incorporate unstructured data.</p>
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<p>If this is true, perhaps it is just as well that my S was rejected at MIT and forced to attend Harvard instead! I know he does not like the “hard core nerd” or “nerd power” culture. He thinks it is a very limiting label that brings to mind someone who embraces their lack of social skills and who does not want to conform just for the sake of it. Just another self-identified group, really. And very self conscious, actually.</p>
<p>I get it,collegealum. I am just saying that the super focus on academics,even among kids with strong math and science aptitude, is not for everyone. Those interested in academia, research,etc. will probably have different needs than kids that are not particularly interested in those types of things. For lots of kids, even those with high math and science aptitude, there are lots of schools that will serve them quite well. It could be MIT but could also be Harvard, Michigan, UVa, Illinois,Virginia Tech,etc.</p>
<p>mathmom: oh goody - we can talk about “dressing young” and art - and our precious snowflakes, naturally. :)</p>
<p>My non-mathy snowflake is actually the one doing the really interesting stuff these days. :)</p>
<p>
Huh??? I have participated, in fact more than I probably feel comfortable doing. Didn’t know there was some sort of requirement or expectation to post. Refusing? I am (a) on vacation and not spending much time on the internet and (b) finding this thread peculiar and frequently nonsensical. I think/hope that was supposed to be funny. In fairness I haven’t read all the posts-- just skinmming as when I tried to read, cc was down. To get out of your funk- I recommend letting this thread go the way of all threads…</p>