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This is not accurate. There are more than enough people on Earth are able and willing to pay for Harvard or Yale admission. The top few universities can still pick and choose with their "undisclosed" guidelines and requirements.
Back to SHSAT, after browsing though some math sample tests, I found it is basic and straight forward. Tricky problem is very rare. If students feel those are difficult, they really need to study harder. Google "Hong Kong Maths tests" or "Singapore maths exams" to see for yourself.
You may attempt this medium difficulty 5th grade problems from Singapore. John’s mother is thrice his age. 11 years from now, his mother’s age will be twice that of his. How old is his mother?
I'm at a top university and I went to another top university, and if a wealthy person with a high GPA and high test scores wants to get in, they will.
If they are rejected they can reapply. Alternatively they can take classes at the university (you have to pay cash), make sure they get As, and apply for regular admissions.
Btw really rich people do more than pay for tuition. They donate to the university (making the admission of one's kids even more likely if they have high test scores and GPA). Make major donations to the university are your kids are in.
that is why and how I feel frustrated when I tutor my son math problems. I recall that a lot of the questions that appeared easy and fun to me would be beyond him at the same grade level here in the usa. and worse, he has no desire or motivation to learn the skills that I tried to pass on to him because what he knows is way above his grade average and he is content with that. so I give up home tutoring even though I feel that one day he will wake up to the reality that his math level is way behind his Asian peers.
Here is an Asian father and son story.
One day, the son asked his father, "Dad, is it true 9 out of 10 Asian kids can do math?"
"I don't know." The father answered, "I just make sure you won't be Asian kid #10."
The son said, "I understand. Thanks Dad."
Do you have any data to back this up? The friends that I grew up with are now Directors and VPs at Fortune 500 companies, Ivy League trained physicians, consultants, and lawyers.
It is based on my personal experiences. It probably not a big enough sample size to draw a definitive conclusion.
FYI..being a VP at a Fortunate 500 company is nothing special. Manhattan is a lot more competitive than other parts of the country. Titles have very little meaning, it what you get paid and at what age that determines your worth. In a working environment with stagnant wages, titles are the consolation prize to stop you from leaving.
It is based on my personal experiences. It probably not a big enough sample size to draw a definitive conclusion.
FYI..being a VP at a Fortunate 500 company is nothing special. Manhattan is a lot more competitive than other parts of the country. Titles have very little meaning, it what you get paid and at what age that determines your worth. In a working environment with stagnant wages, titles are the consolation prize to stop you from leaving.
Agreed, but those schools are focused on math and science. Typically it's soft skills like your ability to sell, present, and speak that get you into the upper echelons of corporate America. If a specialized high school grad can hit 200k+ in their 30s doing IT I would say that's successful. 200k+ is about the SVP/director total pay for an IT person at a good bank or financial company in the city nowadays. Or if their skills is really top notch they can get 250k at a company like Netflix just coding.
And money doesn't define success in all cases. They can also become a PhD and teach. While the money is not superb I'd consider that a success. If money is priority then one should learn how to sell stuff. Junior sales guys in their mid 20s can get $150k selling data packages at places like Blomberg, etc. senior sales guys can hit hundreds of thousands in bonus. The skills required for those positions you can get at any school. And guess what most companies will promote the sales guy to CEO over anyone technical even at tech companies. Perfect example is Steve Balmer at Microsoft. Turned out to be a horrible decision but he's made his billions during the years he was leading the company. And due to his soft skills he was able to lead the company in the wrong direction without getting fired for at least a decade. No math and science school can teach you those skills. In fact math and science would tell you to fire yourself if most of your acquisitions resulted in multi billion writedowns.
Last edited by bumblebyz; 03-09-2016 at 01:46 PM..
I'm ok with this - at least its not a subjective handy-wavy proposal where you get into the school based on writing a sob story essay or what some random teacher says about you. Give the kids the tools to do well on an objective test by making the information to pass the test, and the tutoring for it, more freely available.
Completely agree. This is the right way of going about it.
Comments from above seem pretty spot on including those from many Asian and African American posters.....
Jennifer Li Nalano635 • 3 hours agoWhat you are saying is ridiculous and does not speak to the Chinese immigrant experience. I AM Chinese, and my family as well as my relatives, friends and those in the Chinese community came to the USA poor, do not come from wealthy families. Wealthy Chinese are a RECENT phenomenon after the acceleration of shipping manufacturing to China in the past 15 years. Still the MAJORITY of Chinese, the largest Asian ethnic group in NYC, started off poor. My parents, aunts, uncles, waiters, seamstresses, cooks, cleaners, construction workers, etc. Furthermore, we all went to public school, learned English, without special help or aid or tutoring, went on to college, academic scholarships, and first we lived in a black neighborhood, then moving to a Latino neighborhood. We weren't on CPW. What is wrong with you, that you want to attribute academic success of Asians with money?
Completely agree. This is the right way of going about it.
Tutoring only works if there is something there to work with; that is it can help round out knowledge and bring someone up a level or maybe two. However without a proper foundation to build upon much of it is wasted time.
Math in particular builds upon what one has learned before. If you do not have a firm grasp of the basics then algebra will be a struggle. Without a firm grasp of algebra then then higher levels of math will be difficult as well.
Go to any CUNY college and look at the numbers of incoming freshmen from NYC high schools that failed the math assessment exams and are taking various levels of remediation classes. Some of those kids were "B" or even "A" math students in high school (don't ask how or why), but somehow they cannot handle first year college math.
We must realize that some kids are un-prep-able. They cannot do fraction, don't understand ratio. What can a tutor do? A "A" of math in many schools does not mean much.
Tutoring only works if there is something there to work with; that is it can help round out knowledge and bring someone up a level or maybe two. However without a proper foundation to build upon much of it is wasted time.
Let's be honest, most of us are not going to outcompete this tiger moms who use brute force to get their kids ahead. Most of us who are affluent can only hope we teach our kids in a more productive and time efficient way as to not sacrifice their childhood. Our youth was one of the funniest time in our life, but I do worry that when my kid is playing sports there is some Asian kid studying.
Tutoring only works if there is something there to work with; that is it can help round out knowledge and bring someone up a level or maybe two. However without a proper foundation to build upon much of it is wasted time.
Math in particular builds upon what one has learned before. If you do not have a firm grasp of the basics then algebra will be a struggle. Without a firm grasp of algebra then then higher levels of math will be difficult as well.
Go to any CUNY college and look at the numbers of incoming freshmen from NYC high schools that failed the math assessment exams and are taking various levels of remediation classes. Some of those kids were "B" or even "A" math students in high school (don't ask how or why), but somehow they cannot handle first year college math.
I agree, but we're not trying to solve all of the NYC educational issues here. Somebody can spend years studying and writing a thesis on that. The issue at hand is to minimize the racial disparity at the specialized high schools. The immediate cause is the lack of tutoring or test prep available to everyone. Personally, I disagree with it because it's just a matter of where you want to spend the money. Are you willing to forego your vacation so your kid can take summer test prep classes? In any case, test prep available to a more diverse population *should* yield a more diverse student body at these schools.
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