<p>LOL! Ellen Baer, the ANTI-CUPID (excuse the blasphemy)</p>
<p>Oh dear, I have some hilarious (and some equally devastating) stories about my fanatical ivy-obsessed peers. Kids DO change their names at my school, no joke, and it’s kind of strange (you get desensitized after a while, especially after seeing a hoard of kids give into adcom pressures and mold their lives around the fantasy of the ideal applicant). I would tell you their antics but I’m afraid that may expose my identity (certain students have been stalking this thread after they heard someone from our school got into TASP. again, no joke). Applying to ivies isn’t bad; however assuming that life ends when the rejection letter is opened IS. </p>
<p>And Roam, I’m from BC. It’s nice, the weather is nuts (here if you don’t like the weather you just wait 15 minutes), and WOW I’m actually talking about the weather…
Vancouver Summary:
restaurants=excellent
music scene=diverse/relatively groovy
retail=nice boutiques–given possession of daddy’s magical plastic key
superficial tourist attractions=abundant and cleverly located away from the clear-cut coastal forests so that you don’t feel environmentally conscious on your vacation. If you’re in town, drop by; if you aren’t in town, consider coming!</p>
<p>P.S. Today in class, my lit teacher played us this unbelievable recording of The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot read by Eliot himself and it was AMAZING. His voice is so befitting and the poem sounds like an awkward alien chant. If you can, listen to it. He sounds like what the wizard of Oz should sound like… so cool. Okay, I have to get back to enjoying my lack of homework, peace out fantastic homies!</p>
<p>i see where you’re coming from. however, it isn’t insane for asians to change their names during college admissions–and i wan’t the one who thought of the idea. you called it “immoral”. some people find it extremely “immoral” that asians experience prejudice during college admissions simply because they are asian. an asian can take a personal stand against racial AA (if s/he doesn’t believe in it) by attempting to hide his/her race from colleges. that can be hard to do, especially when your last name is Xiong or Yang. </p>
<p>yes, i agree that changing your first name to an african-american sounding name is overboard…i was kind of kidding there.</p>
<p>as for the part about me being too involved in college admissions: well, it’s better than other addictions like drugs or cigarettes. plus, i HATE middle school passionately. CC helps me plan for my future, which will hopefully be better than right now. thats not a crime, is it? :). by the way, i’m not obsessed with ivy league schools, like you might assume, since i’m in 8th grade. my favorites are pepperdine, princeton, and the university of chicago.</p>
<p>(imagine one of those super-cute emoticons where it raises an eye brown in disbelief)</p>
<p>No way! That’s just going WAY TOO far. No offense. And this in Vancouver? What school do you go to? (Rhetorical question - however, I am actually interested, if you care to PM me. I’ve visited, and the schools there don’t seem THAT competitive…)</p>
<p>How on Earth is that taking a “personal stand”!? By that logic, the Civil Right Movement would have started by black people pretending to be white people and women pretending to be men. That’s not called taking a stand - that’s called avoiding the issue all together.</p>
<p>Yes, if indeed there is a significant degree of racial prejude in college admissions, it would be “immoral” (actually, I never used that word in my last post). However, enlighten me on how changing one’s name or otherwise avoiding the issue can solve it. Just because the system is corrupt doesn’t necessarily justify employing unscrupulous means to “beat” it - that’s hardly going to change anything, and more likely to make it worse.</p>
<p>And yes, being involved in college admission is healthier than being addicted to drugs, but so are a lot of things. Again, live your life the way you want, but more likely than not you’re going to regret it if you place too much importance on college admissions; you might be sacrificing many things that are much easier to lose than to gain back.</p>
<p>As to whether or not it’s “insane” for Asians to change their names - well, you know where I stand. I certainly am not going to change mine, and I have about the most Asian name ever. (And anyone who dares to reveal it on CC shall feel my wrath… muahahahaha).</p>
<p>----- Aside -------
I daresay that was a pretty good 300th post - at least it’s not, “yes (10 char)” XD</p>
<p>just kidding, Mintie. =) yes, i agree, that was indeed a pretty damn good 300th post. </p>
<p>while i may not necessarily agree with AA, i do believe in certain aspects of its ideology (even though its execution may be… undesirable to some) and i don’t understand how you can “combat the system” by outright lying and changing your name. </p>
<p>there’s nothing wrong with trying to get headstart on your future… but seriously, i was totally ignorant of college admissions when i was in eighth grade (and in some ways, i still am) and i fared along fine. Mintie’s right in that it is your life, so i’m not going to start preaching. we’re all entitled to our own opinions, but for the love of god, i sincerely hope you were kidding with that earlier comment.</p>
<p>wow, you guys have intense schools…like, stalking this thread because they heard you got into TASP? i’ve yet to find anyone else in my school/city who has even heard of TASP. my friends are just like…so why are you going to summer school again? haha…i still haven’t come up with a good way of explaining why TASP is awesome</p>
<p>You know, TA had a UChicago branch in the long long ago (I imagine as a response to the influence of Allan Bloom, Leo Strauss, et al. who taught Fu kuyama and Wolfowitz), but TASP doesn’t seem to send too many people that way these days.</p>
<p>TA also had a branch in Berkeley in the 60s, but that’s another story completely :)</p>
<p>yeah tako i sympathize. I’m not getting anything no matter where i go. It doesn’t really matter though. My parents are paying. =) actually it sucks. If my friends ever talk about cars we always have the same conversation. </p>
<p>Friend: My car is so crappy! I wish my parents had given me a nicer one.
Me: Shut up. At least you have a car.
Friend: I’m paying for college Karen. Are you?
Me: That’s beside the point! (changes topic)</p>
<p>I was reading a passage in a Princeton Review SAT practice test today that talked about tv addiction. It said that Television is now considered a psychological addiction much like drugs and that many scientists are now publishing books on how to overcome a tv addiction that are almost identical to drug-recovery books. All I could think of while reading that passage was college confidential. I need one of those books.</p>
<p>The thing is, I don’t know if my parents will be willing to pay for college. And honestly? I don’t want them to.</p>
<p>That’s why I’d highly consider going to a “lower” school if I happened to get a full ride / full tuition. So hopefully UChicago will see some potential in me ;)</p>
<p>mj93 you underestimate the value of drug use ;)</p>
<p>oh and that donation pales in comparison to my $10 donation to TASP</p>
<p>spend my money wisely kids
and yes every time you’re at that weekly budgety meeting thingy i expect you to remember that you’re dealing with part of my ten dollars</p>
<p>And LMAO I just found out my science teacher recommended me to be a “Science Club” officer. Apparently I have a passion for the sciences. Hmm…maybe getting a rec letter from him won’t be that bad then, after all…</p>
<p>oh and i might be driving by myself to dc during tasp time
…and cornell happens to be right between here and there
…and i hear there’s some damn good food at tasp
…
.
<em>wink wink nudge nudge</em></p>
<p>Yea my school is kind of nuts. It’s a bit sad because you get a lot of bright kids with high hopes all competing for very few spots. The competition regrettably gets out of hand. My school has a student body of about 2100, about 420 students a grade (we don’t have middle school so our high schools are 8-12). Out of the 400 students in a class only 1 or 2 get into the HYPS every year (being internationals, it gets a little bit more selective because we have to compete for something like 10% of the seats in an entering class) and I would say a good 250 students are conniving their way for those coveted spots. Most of my friends who are supportive and not ivy-diseased know only of TASP from me, but because of the high level of competition, there are a lot of students who frequent the CC boards in attempts to increase their chances at these schools and many have stumbled upon the EC’s threads, which lead to TASP. Academic stalking is RAMPANT. By the second month of 8th grade, everyone who wanted to figure out others’ ID numbers did. They essentially copy down the marks and track everyones progress, and also keep track of awards, ECs, community service hours, and anything else that somehow plays a part in college admissions (which somehow helps THEM…). Anyway, I don’t imagine this is a rare case with college admissions becoming more and more selective and hopes of climbing socioeconomic ladders through fancy schools increasingly important (and apparently to many parents, the ‘surefire’ way to a happy and successful life). That’s my mini-rant on my school, but I love my friends, I love my teachers, I love my classes, and I really enjoy a lot of the opportunities offered because of the large and driven student body. </p>
<p>On the note of people who don’t know what TASP is, my parents still call it ‘that program that is getting in the way of our family summer vacation plans.’</p>
<p>I mean, I thought my school was bad enough, but it’s NOTHING compared to yours…I hope. Seriously, this whole growing up too fast thing has gotten out of hand.</p>
<p>Change of topic: What are you guys bringing to TASP to spruce up the ol’ houses? I am trying to pick out things from my room right now. Currently the list stands at:
a map of mount everest (from 1988, so I imagine it’s dangerously useless)
my patrick star teddy bear (he looks so freakishly happy, it’s hilarious)
lots and lots of music
*maybe a box of legos
*maybe some drapes, I don’t like ugly flowery drapes…</p>
<p>Im mad I wrote a really long post for Mj93, but my browser crashed and although it was copied I then copied some Norwegian name for a project over it. Anyways my point was, I think you are lowering your chance for doing TASS/TASP because you seem to have the wrong intentions. Also by being on here this year, and reading everything, and of course you will be on here next year if you are on here this year, so that is 2 years before you are even eligible for Telluride. And that is 2 years of seeing what other people wrote about, how they wrote, how people who got in acted ect. And its narrowing your scope and essentially you are putting yourself in a corner. So my advice is you can read peoples chances threads or whatever else on here, but if you seriously want to do TASS/TASP think about the program and what you hope to accomplish if you were to attend, if it is to matriculate to Harvard, like plenty of TA alumnus, I am sorry but I just don’t think it will happen. There is an energy around TASS/TASP that you don’t understand until you apply for TASS/TASP and you really really want it, and its that energy that feeds you during the process. It shows you that this isn’t just another summer school and that the essays aren’t another expository school piece of crap. And If you approach it with the I want it on my resume mentality , that energy wont be there. I know this from experience and by seeing those who made it and didn’t make it, and I don’t mean it in a derogatory way because obviously a lot of good people with good intentions apply. But TA employs the most subjective and intense application process and they can sniff out the good ones and they have doing that for 50 some years with TASP.</p>
<p>I dont mean to say this to scare you or to offend you, and it is not only directed to you. It is sort of a warning to all. </p>
<p>Also Nate Ithaca couldn’t be anymore in the wrong direction from DC :-P</p>
<p>^thanks for the detailed post! yeah, i’ve seen you guys talk about that before. but honestly, i think TASP/S sounds really interesting, if nothing else because you get to spend six weeks on a beautiful college campus (for free). i love to write.</p>
<p>“How on Earth is that taking a “personal stand”!?”</p>
<p>by not revealing his/her race, an asian applicant is essentially boycotting the system. s/he wants to be judged solely on the basis of his/her merits. many people that are against racial AA believe that each candidate should be judged on individual merit (not saying that i agree with that mentality). so therefore, by changing his/her last name, an asian applicant is indeed taking a stand–a stand against the current AA laws and goals.</p>
