<p>The percentage of Asian students at Stanford is slightly over 30%.</p>
<p>The CC community is slightly skewed toward certain kind of parents, and it will not surprise me that their Asian friends are also skewed in specific aspects about their kids education. Fact is not all affluent white American parents scheme to get their kids into elite kindergarten although it is safe to say that such kindergartens are almost exclusively populated by affluent whites. I know asians from all range of socio-economic classes. Some of these parents don’t even want their kids to go to college. My parents never paid any attention to my schooling except putting me down in boarding schools. I only see them about once a week per year, and I do not recollect a single instance where they query my school work or where I want to go to college for that matter. How I wished to have typical CC Asian parents!</p>
<p>We all laugh on harmless stories based on stereotypes but I would not laugh at Li’s efforts. It is not a case without merit, at least according to EEC, and I will just wait for the outcome. </p>
<p>Here is a really good one about SAT prep class. It is funny becuase of its total aburdity. I know at least one Asian kid who was sent from NYC to Shanghai during the summer of her high school freshman year to enroll in an SAT prep course with a cost of US$ 3,000, a price that is not insignficant to this specific family. The logic of this totally escapes me. On the other hand, this family will never understand why my kid had never enrolled in a prep course.</p>
<p>Why are you assuming that this is not a case without merit? Doesn’t the EEC have the obligation to investigate ALL claims? </p>
<p>Will you change the nature of your positions if the EEC finds the case to be without merit and files it next to the countless other frivolous actions. </p>
<p>And, for what it is worth, your friend who was flown from NYC to Shangai might have been more interested in the “extra services” provided to clients than in pure SAT preparation. To avoid any misunderstanding and speculation about what I just wrote, the extra services are related to exploiting the laxer security measures in certain parts of the world as well as the opportunities offered by the different time zones. </p>
<p>“Do you think it would benefit American society to have all the elites at that percentage, pa? Why?”</p>
<p>Having high percentages of Asians at Berkeley, UCLA and Stanford obviously did not affect their desireability for admission nor the almighty US NEWS college ranking. The fact is that there are just as many students majoring in social sciences, arts and humanities at these three universities prior to the increase in their Asian student population. Perhaps, they are indistinguishable from the rest of the student body except in their surname and skin color. </p>
<p>The irony of Li’s case is that Princeton, rather than H or Y, had long been the most desirable college of the Asian privileged. Princeton’s single largest gift also came from an Asian alumnus (Gordon Wu of Hong Kong for 60 million US dollars) who also sent his two children there. My own extended family had sent three kids there and had been generous to the college as well. The bias against Asian, in my very humble and limited understanding is against middle class, from which a large majority of Asian applicants belong to. Princeton has no problem with accepting those members in my family with relatively inferior stats or the all importnat EC’s. That said, like all the elites, they have their quotas for the truly disadvantaged as well.</p>
<p>Do you think Stanford capped the percentage at 30%? Would it be higher? should it be higher?</p>
<p>pa…The CC community has plenty of diversity–an amazing range if you ask me. There are plenty of first generation students hwo have asked for help as well as parents who are about to launch brilliant college students, having never had the chance themselves. As for pigeonholing me regarding my friends, sorry no dice. Ditto for the elite kindergarten my sons attended. It was next to a top 25 university so it was full of academic children. Asians, Africans, AfAms, Eastern Europeans–you name it. Lots of people from somewhere else. Its racial breakdown reflected the breakdown of that university in fact. </p>
<p>One of the grads of that school was a young Chinese American girl–the daughter of friends who were offered political asylum in the US after he spent three years in Chinese jails for his role in the Tiannamen Square uprising. I met them when the boarder next door asked me if I would hire the refugee’s wife, illegally, while they sorted out their green cards. Even though I had been a stickler for green cards up until that point, I did it for them. She became our new nanny. </p>
<p>She picked up my boys from that elite school and when she had a baby, I offered to help her get a scholarship for her D to attend. Which I did. I also helped their D get a scholarship to the elite high school she now attends. </p>
<p>My closest Asian friends attended the best universities in the world but there is a wide, wide racial and socio-economic range in my large group of friends and colleagues–much wider than you seemed to have imagined, pa. for one thing, I currently live in a somewhat anti-intellectual society. </p>
<p>Personally I think Li filed the lawsuit for geopolitical reasons with the full backing of the Chinese government. I’m not drinking the Koolaid that an 18 year old immigrant with a Yale ticket would be capable of that level of bitterness.</p>
<p>Xiggi, you know well that any complaints will get an initial scrutiny and will proceed into an investigation only if the complaint is not without merit. That is not to say that finding will favor either party at the end but that there is sufficient cause to investigate. Even if a finding is in favor of Li, the EEC may not recommend action. That was what happened in the finding that was negative to the Harvard math dept a few years back.</p>
<p>I know this people who sent their kid to Shanghai quite well. I was told directly by the parents.</p>
Not on this no-cut team. I should have been more clear. </p>
<p>
No, not really. Of course great stats are highly desirable when admissions officers put together classes. And we know that Asians certainly have them in greater numbers than other races. What many Asian’s consider bias against their race is those cases where the 2100SAT football QB/class president/lead in the school play beats out a 2300SAT Asian without the leadership ECs. The Asian kid put his efforts into his stats, the QB put his into more diverse activities. Some applicants & their families believe if a kid’s worthiness can’t be measured in a quantifiable way, then it shouldn’t count. In my neck of the woods, that is predominantly an Asian mindset.</p>
<p>“Ditto for the elite kindergarten my sons attended. It was next to a top 25 university so it was full of academic children. Asians, Africans, AfAms, Eastern Europeans–you name it. Lots of people from somewhere else. Its racial breakdown reflected the breakdown of that university in fact.”</p>
<p>Your sons are fortunate to attend such a kindergarten. If it is indeed full of children from an academic world, it is quite likely a most stimulating school. However, a place full of such children can hardly belong to the “elite”. furthermore, most of us in this profession will find it difficult to come up with the $30,000 tuition and fees for a kindergarten kid at such places.</p>
<p>Not all elite schools are $30K, padad. Even in Manhattan, in 1991, private schools like Trinity started at $12k a year for kindergarten.<br>
When you put two academics together–or when the academics are academics attached to a top medical school, they can afford elite private schools. Academics will sacrifice lots of things to purchase an excellent education, in my observation.</p>
<p>I define elite as a private school with -30% acceptance rate and excellent placement records. Remember too, not all elite schools cost as much as Manhattan schools. Not all are located in the NE/LA/SF region.</p>
<p>And you chide me about MY assumptions! tsk tsk ;)</p>
<p>cheer, Obviously, I view elite differently. That is not to say that they are necessarily better or more desirable as viewed by you or me. One of my extended family members went to Chapin as a kindergartener. From what I gather, general admission at Chapin, at least for the lower school, is based more or less on whether the parents are in the “elite class”. </p>
<p>Regarding your comment on Li. I would think that many Yale freshman are capable of taking on something like what Li had done. There are some truly amazing youngsters there. Maya Lin was at Yale as an undergraduate when she won the design for the Vietnam Memorial (a nice monetary prize too). Yale certainly picked a winner in her. Perhaps, Li may be able to make a significant contribution to our society as well. We will just have to wait for the EEC to conclude its finding.</p>
<p>Padad, you misunderstood cheers point because you didn’t read the entire sentence:
Capable of that level of BITTERNESS. Lin’s Vietnam Memorial design was a wonderful achievement that should never be compared with Li’s hissy fit. It takes absolutely no talent, vision, or character to complain about not gaining admissions to an elite school. Bitterness, yes. Backing from the Chinese government? I share the same suspicions as Cheers.</p>
<p>While the backing of the Chinese government might a stretch, it is undeniable that Li was pushed --and manipulated-- by a few highly questionable individuals, including a defrocked MD from New York. </p>
<p>Oh goody, my favorite CC game–slicing elite institutions to argue degrees of prestige. I thought you were disbanding stereotypes–not reinforcing them? Yawn.</p>
<p>You’ll have to take my post, pa. I am quite familiar with elite schools. Also, I have known many, many Yale and Ivy freshman through the years. They are extremely bright but they are mostly booksmart, suburban, American eighteen year olds. Perhaps you find them amazing, I am less astonished. In my experience, when I meet an eighteen year old involved in some earth-shattering activity, I can be sure that a terribly clever adult is providing unusual support. Knowing how my Chinese born employees and friends feel about government and foreign hosts in particular, I very much doubt that Li filed that suit without the explicit approval of the PRC. </p>
<p>Mind you, some of the Yale freshman I know have gone on to become quite famous, amazing adults. I am sure the current Yale students I know will also make wonderful contributions. </p>
<p>Anyway, this puddle has lost it’s intrigue for me. CYA round the cyber hood.</p>
Padad, you could substitute the words “all humans with a pulse” for “many Yale freshman” and the statement is still accurate. All Li has done is cry “victim” & in America, lawyers rush to victims like sharks to blood. I’m still puzzled how the accomplishments of Ms. Lin have even the slightest relevance to this lawsuit & bias claim.</p>
<p>Maya Lin was 21 when she did the Vietnam Memorial. She’d had four years of Yale education–and professor input. Also, to my point, her father was a well known artist.</p>
<p>“Also, I might count ultra selective colleges as being overrepresented in the ranks of NFL head coaches. 10% of the current NFL coaches graduated from Yale or Wesleyan.” - Interesteddad</p>
<p>I get your point, but this is a tad deceptive, because 10% is only about 3 people.</p>
<p>“Simba, as related to Af Am you are wrong. We are not pushing our kids to apply to the Ivies or top ranked schools”</p>
<p>"True. When it comes to blacks in the U.S., the people who are pushing their kids to apply to Ivies and top ranked schools are the parents who immigrated from Africa or the Caribbean.</p>
<p>“The African Americans who don’t fit in those categories and who want their kids to go to college are starting their kids in football and basketball from early ages and are hoping that sports will be their kids’ tickets to financial and academic success.” -Northstarmom</p>
<p>Kind of a sweeping generalization, don’t you think? I’ve never pushed my kids toward sports, even though it was my first love when I was a teenager. None of my three teen children has played high school sports. And I am pushing my D2 to apply to Ivies and other top ranked colleges.</p>
<p>I wonder if the applicant in your link had other Extracurrics besides his perfect SAT score. I don’t think that having a perfect score alone should qualify anyone to an admission. There need to be other qualities besides a perfect score in one’s application. Do we know if the rejection may have been due to lack of other ECs perhaps?</p>