<p>Absolutely not. This is a free country. People should be able to pursue whatever it is they want to pursue. That may be STEM, or opening a restaurant. Either way no ridicule should be sent in their general direction. It is quite unfortunate that on CC becoming a veterinarian, a chef, and an elementary school teacher is usually applauded, but being a STEM major is often looked down upon. I believe that people should do what they want to do and whatever makes them happy. People have no obligation to society to do this or that. They have the obligation to pay taxes and obey laws, but that’s about it.</p>
<p>I am not convinced that starting kids in serious/intense musical studies, sports, etc at the age of 2 is particularly healthy. Erikson’s psychosocial development theory suggests that this is a time for working on basic autonomy/individuation skills necessary for healthy social/emotional development. At that age, when the preschool teachers met to tell us how well the little kiddos were doing in learning pre-reading/reading skills, etc, I tended to also ask "who did they play with today? How did they interact? Did they have fun? Personality styles, social skills and even the precursers to good networking skills do begin at that time.</p>
<p>IndianParent, excellent point with which I completely agree. However, people also have the right to disagree with your stance and to express their point of view. My daughter for example hates to read. So sad. I recall all the hours spent reading to her and then hoping she would love it to no avail. She’s a math/science nerd with athletic talent. Let it be is what I say.</p>
Disagree strongly with this one. Having been around here a long time, it seems the preponderance of folks attracted to this site are high achieving folks (parents and students) with high academic/career goals, many, many of whom are parents of STEM kids or STEM students themselves. If anything, this site probably attaracts a higher percentage of those folks than in the general population.</p>
<p>What if they don’t want to ignore everything else?</p>
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<p>Then why force your kid to ignore everything else?</p>
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<p>Then why force your kid to stop if they don’t want to?</p>
<p>IP, you are a funny guy that is trying to make a point…it’s just so hard to follow. Why don’t you just state it and leave it at that?</p>
<p>I really found this post enlightening as to your position:</p>
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<p>I think I finally get what your point is and I agree with a lot of it (not so sure about leave everything else behind) because as you pointed out earlier people should do what they feel comfortable doing.</p>
<p>btw–colleges DO NOT WANT kids that do a lot of things simply to have a laundry list to put on a college application (that trend is long gone). I find it funny when I read the chance me threads and students list like 25 things they did. THAT is uninteresting(IMO).</p>
<p>See, was it really necessary to use the word nerd? No one who is good in math or science hates to read. They just read math and science related books. How would you feel if I called you a reading nerd?</p>
<p>IP: “being a STEM major is often looked down upon”</p>
<p>Not true, or no more true than for a lot of “typical types.”
I am sure AdComms make snarky remarks about other typical candidates:
“another spoiled entitled BS/private school student”
“another girl who loves languages and performing arts”
“another computer gamer who wants to do CS and loves anime”
…I am sure others can come up with more of these!!</p>
<p>Unfortunately, due to culture and perhaps due to neurological differences, there are some patterns in these kids. These may be tied to personality or family interests or culture or skin color or class or SES or … </p>
<p>Not everyone is unique. To me that is what the issue is!
Conformity is really a bete noire these days with AdComms, right or wrong!
And these patterns happen even when the culture is not conformist, for sure.
And these schools tend to categorize kids and compare them and limit the numbers of each type to get a class with diverse interests, talents, backgrounds. Right or wrong.</p>
<p>This is one list from an HYPMS admissions website of some of the passions of entering freshman this fall</p>
<p>3 of the 4 Gold Medalists at the 2011 International Biology Olympiad (all of them young women who rock science!)</p>
<p>2 of the 8 New York Times Scholars</p>
<p>A student who was offered $100,000 to start her own company based on her research…and turned it down to come to …</p>
<p>An ISEF Engineer Award Winner from rural Georgia who spent five years restoring an ancient VW Bus</p>
<p>A Junior Olympic ski racing cork 720 throwing valedictorian from Lake Tahoe</p>
<p>A web developer whose music search engine was featured on lifehacker</p>
<p>The King of Potato Cannons, who is also an Athlete of the Year</p>
<p>A high school inventor whose haptic feedback cane won the grand prize in the Popular Science National School Inventors Challenge</p>
<p>An award winning Canadian filmmaker</p>
<p>a competitive yoyoist</p>
<p>DO you believe that these kids only pursued these activities as the expense of everything else? Or might they have other passions as well that they just didn’t feel like mentioning?</p>
<p>I’ve never heard Adoms say any of these statements. However, from time-to-time, you do hear them complain about the STEM people. The only other group they tend to complain about is “another person taking college classes in the summer,” although this group overlaps with the STEM people.</p>
<p>IndianParent, I’d be fine if you called me a nerd. I don’t take that word negatively at all but would be proud to be considered nerdy. Means I’m smart which is better than not being smart, no? Being cool is way oversold.</p>
<p>As has already been discussed elsewhere, “nerd” is not considered an insult.
And whats with all the “absolutes”?
Says who??? My math/science s’s do not particularly like to read (I don’t use the word “hate”-- too strong for most of anything). Older s does enjoy science magazines and science/technology stuff on the web, but not younger son. I will never find them with their nose in a book.</p>
<p>Curious too, though its really rhetorical. If you dislike the term “EC”, interesting that you chose to use it in the thread title. Wasnt necessary- was your choice.
I agree with limabeans01 with the number of inconsistencies in the “arguments/debates”. What is the point of having a disucssion with the goal of arguing? It is because you love debate and wat to demonstrate your self reported prowess here to beat down your opponents? That is not the goal/purpose of this community.</p>
<p>I don’t think that’s typical. People who are interested in science tend to read a lot, but it tends to be nonfiction. How else would you learn science if you don’t read? </p>
<p>I read a lot of science, history, and other nonfiction books when I was a kid. Only occasionally did I read fiction.</p>
<p>Nerd is a term that refers to an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit.[1] Nerds are generally considered to be awkward, shy and/or unattractive by most.[2] Thus, a nerd is often excluded from physical activity and considered a loner by others, or will tend to associate with a small group of like-minded people.</p>
<p>The fallacy in you debate IP (er um…argument) is that you hold your own abilities as the pinnacle of what others are capable of doing. This causes you to lack perspective. You believe others can only be “like you” and do just one thing really well, hence they need to drop everything else. What takes YOU 30 hours to produce might take someone else only 5 hours and thus give them plenty of time for something else.</p>
<p>“I’ve never heard Adoms say any of these statements.”</p>
<p>Read the book by the former Dartmouth admissions officer- Michele Hernandez- A is for Admissions. (It is the book that also describes the Academic Index, etc.)</p>
<p>I will add to the list a new one for me- “oh another one who took courses in the summer…” Thank you.</p>