<p>theyre over-represented in top colleges.</p>
<p>i think everyone needs to calm down, and get to work on RD…</p>
<p>Totally agree, gregb. I’d love to see this thread back to the supportive place for all it is intended to be. </p>
<p>Those of you moving on to Regular Decision, have you submitted or are planning to submit an application to a Financial Safety school? I think that is the most important part of the process for any student.</p>
<p>@ natim not getting VP, just start your own company</p>
<p>future: ? i dont understand what you mean. i think u were meant to direct that comment to someone else?</p>
<p>future probably meant to direct it at jsterrence</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, the environment shapes a lot of things, but I don’t think money is the main issue. There are so many Asian immigrants, many from villages and poverty stricken areas, and they come to America without anything, unable to speak the English language, unable to afford anything, work long hours for very meager wages but their posterity still manages to be do so well in school. Why? It’s about work ethic and values. Most Asians cherish education, and have aspirations to be successful. </p>
<p>Whereas the URMs (I know I’m generalizing it to a majority of URMs though there are many who do work hard, applicannot’s 25hr/week of work is just WOW), don’t have the same values. I see many young minority non-Asian kids completely out of line, sentences full of expletives, disrupting and holding up the subway, fighting on the streets, arguing with police, etc. They have this sort of daredevil mentality, and will stop at nothing to be popular. It’s not a money problem that is causing this because they should have the advantage over the immigrant Asians who don’t speak English and have no base in America. Many of them just don’t have education and their future as a priority; they seek immediate gratification and don’t put much effort into studying and end up dropping out. </p>
<p>I’m Asian and I live in a poor ghetto neighborhood. The building I live in is supposed to be for low-income people, but I see tenants who own Mercedes and Cadillacs and new flat-screen TVs. When we Asians have money, we use it on education and test prep. When other minorities have money, they buy material things instead of investing in their future (again, I’m generalizing it to the majority, as there are many who do care about their future). Affirmative action isn’t going to effectively solve the social issues plaguing our current generation. Yes, I believe that when two students a URM and a non-URM have comparable stats, the URM should get admittance, but why should a poor URM who has comparatively lower qualifications than the immigrant who was able to succeed in spite of their own socioeconomic woes be held to lower standards?</p>
<p>wow… it seems a bit tense in here
I have a question to all those who are doing the Gates Millenium Scholars…
would it be to my advantage to put that im a Questbridge Finalists in the Awards and Honors? I have space for one more award/honor…
disadvantage:
they might see that im already doing questbridge and decide not to give it to me
advantage:
maybe they value questbridge and see wow… this kid is doing qb…</p>
<p>anybody done it before or doing it now? thoughts???</p>
<p>yellowstar: It’s hard to say, and I agree with your advantage/disadvantage. If you don’t put QB, the effect will be neutral, no harm no benefit. If you put it, there is the possibility it could help, but there is the possibility it could harm. It’s a dilemma and a risk that you’ll probably have to make. If I were doing Gates Scholar, I would put it, but that’s just cause I don’t have any awards beside generic ones. The safe thing to do is to omit it as I don’t think QB Finalist will really promote your app that much. It’s your call.</p>
<p>And there is no better place to debate affirmative action and other issues plaguing minorities than in a thread full of intelligent, accomplished, socioeconomically disadvantaged minorities…</p>
<p>@immortalix: I just pm u :)</p>
<p>okay something is messed up…
i forwarded Brown my qb app and when i look under “Checklist of Regular Decision Requirements” it doesnt show up. it shows all the other ones except brown
and i double checked to see if i really did forward my qb app to brown
whats going on!!!</p>
<p>yellowstar: just call qb. it’s not that hard.</p>
<p>im making a big deal out of nothing
ill just email them
thanks okay</p>
<p>stop arguing affirmative action and repeat this after me.</p>
<p>The Serenity Prayer:</p>
<p>“[God/Buddha/Allah/Darwin] grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.”</p>
<p>the things we cannot change: that URMs have an edge in admissions because of the color of their skin, that some of us were not matched, that we might not have utilized our last 3 years of high school to do something truly extraordinary.</p>
<p>the things we can change: commonapp application, supplemental essays, what we do this year in terms of activities and test scores.</p>
<p>the difference: only the latter is up to us. the first is completely out of our hands.</p>
<p>My friend won this a few days ago! 
He got a full ride scholarship to Princeton!! Good Job!
I hope everyone else is really happy with their results (:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I don’t know if it’s just me, but I find the word “won” obnoxious and offensive, like QB and college admissions is a game/contest.</p>
<p>stop bickering.</p>
<p>ultimately, it’s the white man pushing us down.</p>
<p>REAL RD QUESTION:</p>
<p>All of these QB schools request a supplement as well, but it appears to be a supplement to the Common App. Should I really write a fourth essay for all of these schools if im submitting through QB? Or can I copy of of my QB ones…
I know copying an essay over sounds like a bad idea, but im equally confused as to why a school would want to read 4 of ym essays, when they only read 2 or 3 from common app kids…</p>
<p>someone please help please please please before i email every single school and try to re-ask this probably embarrassing question.</p>
<p>A few thoughts for all the QB applicants - finalist, matched or otherwise.
I came across a quote today from John Adams; ‘We can not insure success but we can deserve it’.
Outside of a few mathematical laws (and perhaps not even them) nothing in this world is absolute - there are good rich folks, bad rich folks, derserving URM’s and undeserving ones. Yes, cultures carry certain values based on the environmnet in which those cultures existed but the majority of cultural specific values & beliefs vanishes after one generation in a new environment. Indeed this has been studied and if not in one gneration by the end of a second generation assimiliation will modify custom with few exceptions (off the top of my head I might say that Orthodow Jews who live in relgious communities are an example of an exception).
You cannot control others behaviors, only your own. Judgements of groups are dangerous and faulty - and so it is best to not waste your intellectual power on a such a fruitless activity. The factors and reasons for why people are selected for anything are complex, even for such prorams as Questbridge which has the highest goals - to enable people to have an opportunity they might otherwise be denied.
However there is a deeper note here that I find perturbing. I mentioned this to one of the other members in a side note but I think it’s something for all to consider. A scholarship, an award, an opportunity should be considered a ‘mitzvah’. Typically people think of a mitzvah as a blessing, a goodness and it is. But an mitzvah is more than that - it is also an obligation, it speaks of a goodness that comes from doing. With any gift - including the natural gifts some have of intellect - one bears the responsibilities that come with it. THe scholarship is not a pity prize, not even a ‘balance’ mechanism to even the score - the scholarship is given as a responsibility, one that it is hoped you ALL will rise to. To attend a school without debt, to be recognized despite or even becasue of your hardshipss is not to get your into the ‘c’ suite, to make you rich or famous - it is not mean to simply allow you to run from where you have come but rather it is meant for you to achieve the position so that you may change from where you have come, so that you may be empowered to remember, not forget - to make the world better, to reduce prejudice, to eliminate powerty, to seek out better treatments in healthcare, or more equitable systems.
All of you have talents and skills and strengths - you can choose to use them or you can choose to be angry. The reality of this world - in biology, in humanity, in the stars and the sea and in all things is that the is no such thing as justice - you can only strive to some approximation of justice but to assume justice would be to assume one can control all the factors, that there is some measuring stick for worth or value.<br>
Economics and race all are factors in one’s life experience and, as I said before, so is natural intellect. There are some who can, with little effort score 2400’s on SATS and others who doggedly review SAT books a the library to pull a 2100. Are those equal scores? What do they mean? Comparing these things is of little value; instead look to yourselfs, look to your own life and see what you can do, be grateful that you can succeed enought to be recognized on any level by schools and QB and your teachers. Take those things and apply them, create your own mitzvah.
And - as important as getting into Yale or Rice or Wesleyan - look to yourselves and ask - how did I improve the world today? Do I live a life of values? Do I live with meaning and intent? Do I know what is truth to myself?
It is easy to simply want to move into the ranks of the ‘haves’ - regardless of skin color, or culture - to have money and achievement and title - but it’s for naught - really - if it’s just to say ‘you are a success’. If necessary go to ‘Podunk U’ and accomplish great things anyway. Hopefully you will not have to but there is no shame in that.
If all your support of each otehr falls apart then you need to ask yourselves why. Success (by which I mean a good life, a quality life, not just monetary) is not guarenteed, and even if obtained may not be yours forever, but that is NEVER an excuse not to deserve it. Live your lives to deserve success, whether you are gifted with it or not.</p>
<p>I’ve been avoiding this thread since it’s taken a negative turn, but since we’re dispensing advice I’ll add this phrase I heard this morning at a conference (didn’t hear to whom speaker attributed it: Some people dream of success; others wake up every morning and work hard at it.</p>