Every Ivy League school wants her

Even at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a top-ranked magnet school, senior Pooja Chandrashekar stands out among her brainiac peers.

She’s got a 4.57 grade-point average, scored a 2390 (out of 2400) on the SAT, and aced all 13 of her Advanced Placement exams. She also founded a national non-profit that encourages middle-school girls to participate in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs.

She’s also developed a mobile app that analyzes speech patterns and predicts with 96 percent accuracy if a person has Parkinson’s disease.

Oh, and she’s 17.

College admissions offices took notice. She can now add another bullet to her résumé: Pooja earned admission to all eight Ivy League schools. She also was accepted at Stanford, MIT, Duke, the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan and Georgia Tech, going 14 for 14.

Earning an acceptance letter from one Ivy League school is a rare achievement for most high school students. It is extremely rare for a student to gain admission to all eight, though a few each year manage to do so. This year, Long Island student Harold Ekeh announced he, too, had been accepted to all the Ivies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/virginia-student-earns-admission-to-all-eight-ivy-league-schools-and-others/2015/04/10/64e46100-df0d-11e4-a500-1c5bb1d8ff6a_story.html?hpid=z1

Wonder why she applied for 14!

confuzzled dude wrote:

Even at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a top-ranked magnet school, senior Pooja Chandrashekar stands out among her brainiac peers.

She’s got a 4.57 grade-point average, scored a 2390 (out of 2400) on the SAT, and aced all 13 of her Advanced Placement exams. She also founded a national non-profit that encourages middle-school girls to participate in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs.

She’s also developed a mobile app that analyzes speech patterns and predicts with 96 percent accuracy if a person has Parkinson’s disease.

Oh, and she’s 17.

College admissions offices took notice. She can now add another bullet to her résumé: Pooja earned admission to all eight Ivy League schools. She also was accepted at Stanford, MIT, Duke, the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan and Georgia Tech, going 14 for 14.

Earning an acceptance letter from one Ivy League school is a rare achievement for most high school students. It is extremely rare for a student to gain admission to all eight, though a few each year manage to do so. This year, Long Island student Harold Ekeh announced he, too, had been accepted to all the Ivies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/virginia-student-earns-admission-to-all-eight-ivy-league-schools-and-others/2015/04/10/64e46100-df0d-11e4-a500-1c5bb1d8ff6a_story.html?hpid=z1

Wonder why she applied for 14!

Exactly my thought when I read the headline.....Wasn't she confident ? Why spend about $100 for each school and not to mention the stupid essays for each... Add to that, these ABCDs go on visits to all the schools they are interested.

Why Univ of Virginia, Duke, GT, MIT, Stanford...etc...all over. Either she did it for publicity, or lack of confidence or mommy/daddy asked her to.... In any case, she is good and gooder, but some independent "selective" quality missing.

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

confuzzled dude wrote:

Even at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a top-ranked magnet school, senior Pooja Chandrashekar stands out among her brainiac peers.

She’s got a 4.57 grade-point average, scored a 2390 (out of 2400) on the SAT, and aced all 13 of her Advanced Placement exams. She also founded a national non-profit that encourages middle-school girls to participate in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs.

She’s also developed a mobile app that analyzes speech patterns and predicts with 96 percent accuracy if a person has Parkinson’s disease.

Oh, and she’s 17.

College admissions offices took notice. She can now add another bullet to her résumé: Pooja earned admission to all eight Ivy League schools. She also was accepted at Stanford, MIT, Duke, the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan and Georgia Tech, going 14 for 14.

Earning an acceptance letter from one Ivy League school is a rare achievement for most high school students. It is extremely rare for a student to gain admission to all eight, though a few each year manage to do so. This year, Long Island student Harold Ekeh announced he, too, had been accepted to all the Ivies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/virginia-student-earns-admission-to-all-eight-ivy-league-schools-and-others/2015/04/10/64e46100-df0d-11e4-a500-1c5bb1d8ff6a_story.html?hpid=z1

Wonder why she applied for 14!

Exactly my thought when I read the headline.....Wasn't she confident ?  Why spend about $100 for each school and not to mention the stupid essays for each... Add to that, these ABCDs go on visits to all the schools they are interested.

Why Univ of Virginia, Duke, GT, MIT, Stanford...etc...all over.  Either she did it for publicity, or lack of confidence or mommy/daddy asked her to.... In any case, she is good and gooder, but some independent "selective" quality missing.

The private school she attended costs about 30 grand a year, so money is not an issue here.

Ongoing through.... it will be interesting to see what she will END up studying... I bet medicine....

Most ABCDs have preference for geography, south, North, Private or public, small or big, etc...

She is probably not a strict ABCD and hence still under parental influence. Her selection of schools everywhere and of all kinds - despite her stellar record - indicates a play safe, what if, and I dont know where to go indecision......

Interesting Jewish-American perspective?! Many among Caucasian population in NVA area are upset about Asian domination in the TJ's, about 65-70% of the student body are Asian-Americans.

LeftandRight
4:54 AM EDT
I think if I were to change my sons name to Choapoaladolaka Surenimaolacecpod he will have a better chance of getting into college than if he applied using his given name- Zachary. Sad but this is the world in which we live-universities clamoring to give the impression of diversity.

But getting back to the article, I am sure she will run a major corporation or cure cancer or something close. Congratulations Pooja!

cipitio
7:51 AM EDT
So you imply that Zachary got a GPA over 4 and SAT of 2390 and was turned down from Ivy League schools?

Report it to the Post. It will be a heck of a reverse discrimination story....!!!

Commenter1776
8:07 AM EDT
Don't forget her nonprofit, parkinson's app and 13 5's on her various AP exams? It is a fact that the hardest demographic to get into any college is the Asian female. Being a Jewish male named Zachary actually would have made it significantly easier for her to get in any one of these schools

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

confuzzled dude wrote:

Even at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a top-ranked magnet school, senior Pooja Chandrashekar stands out among her brainiac peers.

She’s got a 4.57 grade-point average, scored a 2390 (out of 2400) on the SAT, and aced all 13 of her Advanced Placement exams. She also founded a national non-profit that encourages middle-school girls to participate in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs.

She’s also developed a mobile app that analyzes speech patterns and predicts with 96 percent accuracy if a person has Parkinson’s disease.

Oh, and she’s 17.

College admissions offices took notice. She can now add another bullet to her résumé: Pooja earned admission to all eight Ivy League schools. She also was accepted at Stanford, MIT, Duke, the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan and Georgia Tech, going 14 for 14.

Earning an acceptance letter from one Ivy League school is a rare achievement for most high school students. It is extremely rare for a student to gain admission to all eight, though a few each year manage to do so. This year, Long Island student Harold Ekeh announced he, too, had been accepted to all the Ivies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/virginia-student-earns-admission-to-all-eight-ivy-league-schools-and-others/2015/04/10/64e46100-df0d-11e4-a500-1c5bb1d8ff6a_story.html?hpid=z1

Wonder why she applied for 14!

Exactly my thought when I read the headline.....Wasn't she confident ?  Why spend about $100 for each school and not to mention the stupid essays for each... Add to that, these ABCDs go on visits to all the schools they are interested.

Why Univ of Virginia, Duke, GT, MIT, Stanford...etc...all over.  Either she did it for publicity, or lack of confidence or mommy/daddy asked her to.... In any case, she is good and gooder, but some independent "selective" quality missing.

>>>This girl is definitely off the charts in terms of her accomplishments.  Still, it may have been a case of playing it safe because of the horror stories about the asian/indian penalty. It could also have been due to wanting to see which school came back with the best financial deal.

confuzzled dude wrote:

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

confuzzled dude wrote:

Even at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a top-ranked magnet school, senior Pooja Chandrashekar stands out among her brainiac peers.

She’s got a 4.57 grade-point average, scored a 2390 (out of 2400) on the SAT, and aced all 13 of her Advanced Placement exams. She also founded a national non-profit that encourages middle-school girls to participate in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs.

She’s also developed a mobile app that analyzes speech patterns and predicts with 96 percent accuracy if a person has Parkinson’s disease.

Oh, and she’s 17.

College admissions offices took notice. She can now add another bullet to her résumé: Pooja earned admission to all eight Ivy League schools. She also was accepted at Stanford, MIT, Duke, the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan and Georgia Tech, going 14 for 14.

Earning an acceptance letter from one Ivy League school is a rare achievement for most high school students. It is extremely rare for a student to gain admission to all eight, though a few each year manage to do so. This year, Long Island student Harold Ekeh announced he, too, had been accepted to all the Ivies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/virginia-student-earns-admission-to-all-eight-ivy-league-schools-and-others/2015/04/10/64e46100-df0d-11e4-a500-1c5bb1d8ff6a_story.html?hpid=z1

Wonder why she applied for 14!

Exactly my thought when I read the headline.....Wasn't she confident ?  Why spend about $100 for each school and not to mention the stupid essays for each... Add to that, these ABCDs go on visits to all the schools they are interested.

Why Univ of Virginia, Duke, GT, MIT, Stanford...etc...all over.  Either she did it for publicity, or lack of confidence or mommy/daddy asked her to.... In any case, she is good and gooder, but some independent "selective" quality missing.

The private school she attended costs about 30 grand a year, so money is not an issue here.

it doesn't. she attends a charter school. charter schools are state funded, just like a public school. i am happy for her. that's what it takes for an indian american kid to make it.

confuzzled dude wrote:

Even at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a top-ranked magnet school, senior Pooja Chandrashekar stands out among her brainiac peers.

She’s got a 4.57 grade-point average, scored a 2390 (out of 2400) on the SAT, and aced all 13 of her Advanced Placement exams. She also founded a national non-profit that encourages middle-school girls to participate in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs.

She’s also developed a mobile app that analyzes speech patterns and predicts with 96 percent accuracy if a person has Parkinson’s disease.

Oh, and she’s 17.

College admissions offices took notice. She can now add another bullet to her résumé: Pooja earned admission to all eight Ivy League schools. She also was accepted at Stanford, MIT, Duke, the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan and Georgia Tech, going 14 for 14.

Earning an acceptance letter from one Ivy League school is a rare achievement for most high school students. It is extremely rare for a student to gain admission to all eight, though a few each year manage to do so. This year, Long Island student Harold Ekeh announced he, too, had been accepted to all the Ivies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/virginia-student-earns-admission-to-all-eight-ivy-league-schools-and-others/2015/04/10/64e46100-df0d-11e4-a500-1c5bb1d8ff6a_story.html?hpid=z1

Wonder why she applied for 14!

>>>On another note, I am nervous whenever these types of stories crop up with Indian names. You can almost be certain a bunch of Indian parents are coming down on their kids as to why are they are not Poojas.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:

it doesn't. she attends a charter school. charter schools are state funded, just like a public school. i am happy for her. that's what it takes for an indian american kid to make it.

Max, I was referring to the Nysmith school which she attended prior to getting into the TJ's. My comment is no knock on her smarts; I know several kids who have attended both schools and were not half as successful (academically) as her.

Kris wrote:

confuzzled dude wrote:

Even at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a top-ranked magnet school, senior Pooja Chandrashekar stands out among her brainiac peers.

She’s got a 4.57 grade-point average, scored a 2390 (out of 2400) on the SAT, and aced all 13 of her Advanced Placement exams. She also founded a national non-profit that encourages middle-school girls to participate in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs.

She’s also developed a mobile app that analyzes speech patterns and predicts with 96 percent accuracy if a person has Parkinson’s disease.

Oh, and she’s 17.

College admissions offices took notice. She can now add another bullet to her résumé: Pooja earned admission to all eight Ivy League schools. She also was accepted at Stanford, MIT, Duke, the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan and Georgia Tech, going 14 for 14.

Earning an acceptance letter from one Ivy League school is a rare achievement for most high school students. It is extremely rare for a student to gain admission to all eight, though a few each year manage to do so. This year, Long Island student Harold Ekeh announced he, too, had been accepted to all the Ivies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/virginia-student-earns-admission-to-all-eight-ivy-league-schools-and-others/2015/04/10/64e46100-df0d-11e4-a500-1c5bb1d8ff6a_story.html?hpid=z1

Wonder why she applied for 14!

>>>On another note, I am nervous whenever these types of stories crop up with Indian names. You can almost be certain a bunch of Indian parents are coming down on their kids as to why are they are not Poojas.

I hope not. I'd be happy if my kid earned a degree from a local community college working part-time a degree is more important to me than from which school.

Kris wrote:

confuzzled dude wrote:

Even at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a top-ranked magnet school, senior Pooja Chandrashekar stands out among her brainiac peers.

She’s got a 4.57 grade-point average, scored a 2390 (out of 2400) on the SAT, and aced all 13 of her Advanced Placement exams. She also founded a national non-profit that encourages middle-school girls to participate in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs.

She’s also developed a mobile app that analyzes speech patterns and predicts with 96 percent accuracy if a person has Parkinson’s disease.

Oh, and she’s 17.

College admissions offices took notice. She can now add another bullet to her résumé: Pooja earned admission to all eight Ivy League schools. She also was accepted at Stanford, MIT, Duke, the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan and Georgia Tech, going 14 for 14.

Earning an acceptance letter from one Ivy League school is a rare achievement for most high school students. It is extremely rare for a student to gain admission to all eight, though a few each year manage to do so. This year, Long Island student Harold Ekeh announced he, too, had been accepted to all the Ivies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/virginia-student-earns-admission-to-all-eight-ivy-league-schools-and-others/2015/04/10/64e46100-df0d-11e4-a500-1c5bb1d8ff6a_story.html?hpid=z1

Wonder why she applied for 14!

>>>On another note, I am nervous whenever these types of stories crop up with Indian names. You can almost be certain a bunch of Indian parents are coming down on their kids as to why are they are not Poojas.

YEP...for sure... In any case...I just now read this sentence:

She’s narrowed her list to Harvard, Stanford and Brown, where she got into a program that guarantees her admission to the university’s medical school.

Finally....shows the limitations of this girl.... So she wants to get into a Med school....(duhhh....what a surprise)...

A program that GUARANTEES admission to med school ???? First wonder which program gives a guarantee....Secondly, she is not even confident of getting into a med School ???? Finally she wants to do Biomedical engineering...

Duh...Harvard and Brown dont even have a bioengineering progam....and Stanford is no where in the rankings.... Shows she transplanted from Bangalore half way through her school years and listening to her H1B-Desi parents who show their ignorance of the US schools.

I would suggest that she should go to UPenn/GT/Duke/MIT for her Biomed... BTW, MIT does not strictly have a Biomedical/Bioengineering UG program.

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:
Finally....shows the limitations of this girl....  So she wants to get into a Med school....(duhhh....what a surprise)...

A  program that GUARANTEES admission to med school ????  First wonder which program gives a guarantee....Secondly, she is not even confident of getting into a med School ???? Finally she wants to do Biomedical engineering...

Duh...Harvard and Brown dont even have a bioengineering progam....and Stanford is no where in the rankings....  Shows she transplanted from Bangalore half way through her school years and listening to her H1B-Desi parents who show their ignorance of the US schools.

I would suggest that she should go to UPenn/GT/Duke/MIT for her Biomed... BTW, MIT does not strictly have a Biomedical/Bioengineering UG program.

Hmm.. getting a medical degree would be wasting her smarts, wouldn't it?

confuzzled dude wrote:

Kris wrote:

confuzzled dude wrote:

Even at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a top-ranked magnet school, senior Pooja Chandrashekar stands out among her brainiac peers.

She’s got a 4.57 grade-point average, scored a 2390 (out of 2400) on the SAT, and aced all 13 of her Advanced Placement exams. She also founded a national non-profit that encourages middle-school girls to participate in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs.

She’s also developed a mobile app that analyzes speech patterns and predicts with 96 percent accuracy if a person has Parkinson’s disease.

Oh, and she’s 17.

College admissions offices took notice. She can now add another bullet to her résumé: Pooja earned admission to all eight Ivy League schools. She also was accepted at Stanford, MIT, Duke, the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan and Georgia Tech, going 14 for 14.

Earning an acceptance letter from one Ivy League school is a rare achievement for most high school students. It is extremely rare for a student to gain admission to all eight, though a few each year manage to do so. This year, Long Island student Harold Ekeh announced he, too, had been accepted to all the Ivies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/virginia-student-earns-admission-to-all-eight-ivy-league-schools-and-others/2015/04/10/64e46100-df0d-11e4-a500-1c5bb1d8ff6a_story.html?hpid=z1

Wonder why she applied for 14!

>>>On another note, I am nervous whenever these types of stories crop up with Indian names. You can almost be certain a bunch of Indian parents are coming down on their kids as to why are they are not Poojas.

I hope not. I'd be happy if my kid earned a degree from a local community college working part-time a degree is more important to me than from which school.

>>>My rule of thumb is push them 10% beyond what they seem capable of, to make up for innate laziness. The keeping up with the Joneses is stressful for all parties involved, but at this time of the year Indian parents with high school kids seem to go bonkers. They also drive each other nuts.

Kris wrote:
>>>My rule of thumb is push them 10% beyond what they seem capable of, to make up for innate laziness. The keeping up with the Joneses is stressful for all parties involved, but at this time of the year Indian parents with high school kids seem to go bonkers. They also drive each other nuts.

I've been through the rigors of pushing kids to get into the GT program and prepping hard for TJ's entrance test etc., as a result, attained parenting Nirvana and have decided to leave them alone. My only request is to earn a bachelor's degree, even then they think I'm being pushy and overprotective

confuzzled dude wrote:

Kris wrote:
>>>My rule of thumb is push them 10% beyond what they seem capable of, to make up for innate laziness. The keeping up with the Joneses is stressful for all parties involved, but at this time of the year Indian parents with high school kids seem to go bonkers. They also drive each other nuts.

I've been through the rigors of pushing kids to get into the GT program and prepping hard for TJ's entrance test etc., as a result, attained parenting Nirvana and have decided to leave them alone. My only request is to earn a bachelor's degree, even then they think I'm being pushy and overprotective

what's TJ?

swapna wrote:

confuzzled dude wrote:

Kris wrote:
>>>My rule of thumb is push them 10% beyond what they seem capable of, to make up for innate laziness. The keeping up with the Joneses is stressful for all parties involved, but at this time of the year Indian parents with high school kids seem to go bonkers. They also drive each other nuts.

I've been through the rigors of pushing kids to get into the GT program and prepping hard for TJ's entrance test etc., as a result, attained parenting Nirvana and have decided to leave them alone. My only request is to earn a bachelor's degree, even then they think I'm being pushy and overprotective

what's TJ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_High_School_for_Science_and_Technology

Hellsangel wrote:

swapna wrote:

confuzzled dude wrote:

Kris wrote:
>>>My rule of thumb is push them 10% beyond what they seem capable of, to make up for innate laziness. The keeping up with the Joneses is stressful for all parties involved, but at this time of the year Indian parents with high school kids seem to go bonkers. They also drive each other nuts.

I've been through the rigors of pushing kids to get into the GT program and prepping hard for TJ's entrance test etc., as a result, attained parenting Nirvana and have decided to leave them alone. My only request is to earn a bachelor's degree, even then they think I'm being pushy and overprotective

what's TJ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_High_School_for_Science_and_Technology

thanks.

swapna wrote:

confuzzled dude wrote:

Kris wrote:
>>>My rule of thumb is push them 10% beyond what they seem capable of, to make up for innate laziness. The keeping up with the Joneses is stressful for all parties involved, but at this time of the year Indian parents with high school kids seem to go bonkers. They also drive each other nuts.

I've been through the rigors of pushing kids to get into the GT program and prepping hard for TJ's entrance test etc., as a result, attained parenting Nirvana and have decided to leave them alone. My only request is to earn a bachelor's degree, even then they think I'm being pushy and overprotective

what's TJ?

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, one of the top STEM high schools in the country, often ranked #1.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_High_School_for_Science_and_Technology

Cd
Why do you think other parents do not know what is good for their children?

I can understand uppili dissecting the mental limitations of a girl like pooja and her incompetent parents.

excerpt from the link:

The student demographic at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology has shifted dramatically in the past decade. Asians are significantly overrepresented at TJ, comprising around 60% of the student population in 2013-14,^[16] far exceeding the approximately 20% in the general population of Fairfax County. Asians became the school's largest racial group in 2009-2010, at 46.38%, while whites comprised 43.63% of the population.^{[citation needed]} In contrast, blacks and Hispanics comprise a much smaller percentage of the student body (<4%) than is present in the populace of the participating localities (approx. 10% and 16%, respectively).^{[citation needed]}
When looking at admitted students, in 2004, approximately 54% of admitted students in the Class of 2008 were identified white, while 32% were identified as Asian. By 2014, only 24% of admitted students in the Class of 2018 were white, while 66% were Asian. Male students also make up 60% of students admitted.^[17]
In 2004, the Fairfax County School Board (FCSB) commissioned a study to determine what steps, if any, should be undertaken to remedy the underrepresentation of certain racial or ethnic groups, as well as low-income students, among enrollees. Prior to the study, admissions decisions were based mainly on middle school grades and students' scores on the admission examination. In 1998, attorneys working for Fairfax County Public Schools published an interpretation of law that restricted "soft affirmative action", which led to a severe decline in enrollment among black and Hispanic students.^{[citation needed]} The FCSB commission concluded that a change to the admissions policy was necessary to mitigate the underrepresentation, by taking into account other factors, such as gender, ethnicity and other socio-demographic characteristics, as "plus" factors in a holistic review of applicants. Despite efforts at increasing outreach, however, the percentage of minority students only increased moderately, and only for a few years.
During the 2013-14 school year, the black student population of the school was 1.21% and the Hispanic population was 2.31%.^[16] Students admitted in 2010 were 2.42% African descent and 3.84% Hispanic, although these two ethnic groups constitute more than 25% of the student population in Fairfax County.^[18]
In 2012, a civil rights complaint against the school was filed with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights by Coalition of the Silence, an advocacy group led by former county School Board member Tina Hone, and the Fairfax chapter of the NAACP.^[19][20] In response, the Office of Civil Rights, in September 2012, opened an investigation.^[21]

truthbetold wrote:Cd
Why do you think other parents do not know what is good for their children?

I can understand uppili dissecting the mental limitations of a girl like pooja and her incompetent parents.

Hmm.. I didn't even remotely suggest that.. you're accusing me of something that I did not say/do.

pravalika nanda wrote:excerpt from the link:

The student demographic at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology has shifted dramatically in the past decade. Asians are significantly overrepresented at TJ, comprising around 60% of the student population in 2013-14,^[16] far exceeding the approximately 20% in the general population of Fairfax County. Asians became the school's largest racial group in 2009-2010, at 46.38%, while whites comprised 43.63% of the population.^{[citation needed]} In contrast, blacks and Hispanics comprise a much smaller percentage of the student body (<4%) than is present in the populace of the participating localities (approx. 10% and 16%, respectively).^{[citation needed]}
When looking at admitted students, in 2004, approximately 54% of admitted students in the Class of 2008 were identified white, while 32% were identified as Asian. By 2014, only 24% of admitted students in the Class of 2018 were white, while 66% were Asian. Male students also make up 60% of students admitted.^[17]
In 2004, the Fairfax County School Board (FCSB) commissioned a study to determine what steps, if any, should be undertaken to remedy the underrepresentation of certain racial or ethnic groups, as well as low-income students, among enrollees. Prior to the study, admissions decisions were based mainly on middle school grades and students' scores on the admission examination. In 1998, attorneys working for Fairfax County Public Schools published an interpretation of law that restricted "soft affirmative action", which led to a severe decline in enrollment among black and Hispanic students.^{[citation needed]} The FCSB commission concluded that a change to the admissions policy was necessary to mitigate the underrepresentation, by taking into account other factors, such as gender, ethnicity and other socio-demographic characteristics, as "plus" factors in a holistic review of applicants. Despite efforts at increasing outreach, however, the percentage of minority students only increased moderately, and only for a few years.
During the 2013-14 school year, the black student population of the school was 1.21% and the Hispanic population was 2.31%.^[16] Students admitted in 2010 were 2.42% African descent and 3.84% Hispanic, although these two ethnic groups constitute more than 25% of the student population in Fairfax County.^[18]
In 2012, a civil rights complaint against the school was filed with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights by Coalition of the Silence, an advocacy group led by former county School Board member Tina Hone, and the Fairfax chapter of the NAACP.^[19][20] In response, the Office of Civil Rights, in September 2012, opened an investigation.^[21]

Yup, this is sorta mini-ivy-league crisis for the parents of Northen Virginia region.

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

Kris wrote:

confuzzled dude wrote:

Even at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a top-ranked magnet school, senior Pooja Chandrashekar stands out among her brainiac peers.

She’s got a 4.57 grade-point average, scored a 2390 (out of 2400) on the SAT, and aced all 13 of her Advanced Placement exams. She also founded a national non-profit that encourages middle-school girls to participate in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs.

She’s also developed a mobile app that analyzes speech patterns and predicts with 96 percent accuracy if a person has Parkinson’s disease.

Oh, and she’s 17.

College admissions offices took notice. She can now add another bullet to her résumé: Pooja earned admission to all eight Ivy League schools. She also was accepted at Stanford, MIT, Duke, the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan and Georgia Tech, going 14 for 14.

Earning an acceptance letter from one Ivy League school is a rare achievement for most high school students. It is extremely rare for a student to gain admission to all eight, though a few each year manage to do so. This year, Long Island student Harold Ekeh announced he, too, had been accepted to all the Ivies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/virginia-student-earns-admission-to-all-eight-ivy-league-schools-and-others/2015/04/10/64e46100-df0d-11e4-a500-1c5bb1d8ff6a_story.html?hpid=z1

Wonder why she applied for 14!

>>>On another note, I am nervous whenever these types of stories crop up with Indian names. You can almost be certain a bunch of Indian parents are coming down on their kids as to why are they are not Poojas.

YEP...for sure...  In any case...I just now read this sentence:

She’s narrowed her list to Harvard, Stanford and Brown, where she got into a program that guarantees her admission to the university’s medical school.

Finally....shows the limitations of this girl....  So she wants to get into a Med school....(duhhh....what a surprise)...

A  program that GUARANTEES admission to med school ????  First wonder which program gives a guarantee....Secondly, she is not even confident of getting into a med School ???? Finally she wants to do Biomedical engineering...

Duh...Harvard and Brown dont even have a bioengineering progam....and Stanford is no where in the rankings....  Shows she transplanted from Bangalore half way through her school years and listening to her H1B-Desi parents who show their ignorance of the US schools.

I would suggest that she should go to UPenn/GT/Duke/MIT for her Biomed... BTW, MIT does not strictly have a Biomedical/Bioengineering UG program.

I wasn't impressed either, Uppili. I am happy that she did not choose finance or economics like our other overachiever, Kavya Viswanathan. Anyhow, this girl needs to go the gym, spend some time shopping in park slope, or maybe the max mara on N Michigan, or online at Nordstrom's. She needs to get layers in her hair, get some nice contacts, chanel lipstick etc. You're 17, go have some fun. Get a boyfriend, have a French martini, have three in a row, make out in the back of a car, kiss under The Bean, go to a Rothko show, get some sun....anything but more nerdiness.

confuzzled dude wrote:

pravalika nanda wrote:excerpt from the link:

The student demographic at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology has shifted dramatically in the past decade. Asians are significantly overrepresented at TJ, comprising around 60% of the student population in 2013-14,^[16] far exceeding the approximately 20% in the general population of Fairfax County. Asians became the school's largest racial group in 2009-2010, at 46.38%, while whites comprised 43.63% of the population.^{[citation needed]} In contrast, blacks and Hispanics comprise a much smaller percentage of the student body (<4%) than is present in the populace of the participating localities (approx. 10% and 16%, respectively).^{[citation needed]}
When looking at admitted students, in 2004, approximately 54% of admitted students in the Class of 2008 were identified white, while 32% were identified as Asian. By 2014, only 24% of admitted students in the Class of 2018 were white, while 66% were Asian. Male students also make up 60% of students admitted.^[17]
In 2004, the Fairfax County School Board (FCSB) commissioned a study to determine what steps, if any, should be undertaken to remedy the underrepresentation of certain racial or ethnic groups, as well as low-income students, among enrollees. Prior to the study, admissions decisions were based mainly on middle school grades and students' scores on the admission examination. In 1998, attorneys working for Fairfax County Public Schools published an interpretation of law that restricted "soft affirmative action", which led to a severe decline in enrollment among black and Hispanic students.^{[citation needed]} The FCSB commission concluded that a change to the admissions policy was necessary to mitigate the underrepresentation, by taking into account other factors, such as gender, ethnicity and other socio-demographic characteristics, as "plus" factors in a holistic review of applicants. Despite efforts at increasing outreach, however, the percentage of minority students only increased moderately, and only for a few years.
During the 2013-14 school year, the black student population of the school was 1.21% and the Hispanic population was 2.31%.^[16] Students admitted in 2010 were 2.42% African descent and 3.84% Hispanic, although these two ethnic groups constitute more than 25% of the student population in Fairfax County.^[18]
In 2012, a civil rights complaint against the school was filed with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights by Coalition of the Silence, an advocacy group led by former county School Board member Tina Hone, and the Fairfax chapter of the NAACP.^[19][20] In response, the Office of Civil Rights, in September 2012, opened an investigation.^[21]

Yup, this is sorta mini-ivy-league crisis for the parents of Northen Virginia region.

this is a school that prevented blacks and hispcanics from entry. that's my point. it is precisely the age at which they need to be exposed to science but they face discrimination here. what's so special about Asian kids and Indian kids that they are dominating the school other than the advantage of their birth and privileged upbringing? I am glad they have affirmative action everywhere else. all you stuffed-up indina parents deserve it.

incidentally i took a test and went to the top school where i was growing up. lol, guess they had low standards.

pravalika nanda wrote:
this is a school that prevented blacks and hispcanics from entry. that's my point. it is precisely the age at which they need to be exposed to science but they face discrimination here. what's so special about Asian kids and Indian kids that they are dominating the school other than the advantage of their birth and privileged upbringing? I am glad they have affirmative action everywhere else. all you stuffed-up indina parents deserve it.

Not sure of discrimination because the entrance test for this school is open for everyone in the region. Yes, I do agree and have stated before (in another thread) that without some kind of AA, black students will not be able to compete with their upper middle class counterparts whose parents can afford to shell out $$$ to train their kids for the test(s). The rumor is that the TJ's selection committee is going to up the qualification requirements for the applicants of Asian origin to weed out some (coached for test).

pravalika nanda wrote:
I wasn't impressed either, Uppili. I am happy that she did not choose finance or economics like our other overachiever, Kavya Viswanathan. Anyhow, this girl needs to go the gym, spend some time shopping in park slope, or maybe the max mara on N Michigan, or online at Nordstrom's. She needs to get layers in her hair, get some nice contacts, chanel lipstick etc. You're 17, go have some fun. Get a boyfriend, have a French martini, have three in a row, make out in the back of a car, kiss under The Bean, go to a Rothko show, get some sun....anything but more nerdiness.

Speaking from experience?

confuzzled dude wrote:

pravalika nanda wrote:
this is a school that prevented blacks and hispcanics from entry. that's my point. it is precisely the age at which they need to be exposed to science but they face discrimination here. what's so special about Asian kids and Indian kids that they are dominating the school other than the advantage of their birth and privileged upbringing? I am glad they have affirmative action everywhere else. all you stuffed-up indina parents deserve it.

Not sure of discrimination because the entrance test for this school is open for everyone in the region.

don't you get it, man? the test is rigged.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWuJHbVZBQg

confuzzled dude wrote:

pravalika nanda wrote:
I wasn't impressed either, Uppili. I am happy that she did not choose finance or economics like our other overachiever, Kavya Viswanathan. Anyhow, this girl needs to go the gym, spend some time shopping in park slope, or maybe the max mara on N Michigan, or online at Nordstrom's. She needs to get layers in her hair, get some nice contacts, chanel lipstick etc. You're 17, go have some fun. Get a boyfriend, have a French martini, have three in a row, make out in the back of a car, kiss under The Bean, go to a Rothko show, get some sun....anything but more nerdiness.

Speaking from experience?

oh, i'm too old now to remember the exact details.

The problem with the US society is it is following the Sinhala-style segregating "affirmative action." It is picking/limiting each category to the top layers in each category - Asian, Whites, Blacks, Hispanics to meet the quota. This will prevent Indians who score 2300 in SAT from top colleges and admit hispanics who score 2000 and Blacks who score 1900, as they come out as top of their respective groups.

This is no different than the Sinhala discrimination and later followed by the Indians. Financial and economic factors are taken care of by the respective colleges - independent of race and ethnicity. This will lead to the same situation as one selecting an ABCD Doctor or a American Chinese doctor over docs from other categories due to the uncertainty over their real intellectual calibre. I know of a well accomplished and well known economist who will avoid Indian MBBS docs like a plague as he thinks they all came through quota and got their MD through short-cut USMLE....(yeah....not me...although I agree with that Gentleman).

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:
The problem with the US society is it is following the Sinhala-style segregating "affirmative action." It is picking/limiting each category to the top layers in each category - Asian, Whites, Blacks, Hispanics to meet the quota. This will prevent Indians who score 2300 in SAT from top colleges and admit hispanics who score 2000 and Blacks who score 1900, as they come out as top of their respective groups.

This is no different than the Sinhala discrimination and later followed by the Indians. Financial and economic factors are taken care of by the respective colleges - independent of race and ethnicity.  This will lead to the same situation as one selecting an ABCD Doctor or a American Chinese doctor over docs from other categories due to the uncertainty over their real intellectual calibre. I know of a well accomplished and well known economist who will avoid Indian MBBS docs like a plague as he thinks they all came through quota and got their MD through short-cut USMLE....(yeah....not me...although I agree with that Gentleman).

We had this discussion before, state universities follow region based quota system. For example, University of Virginia caps # of admissions by region (I believe, proportionate to the % of state population), else the students from other areas will be at a disadvantage, in terms of SAT scores, compared to their Northern Virginian peers.

truthbetold wrote:Cd
Why do you think other parents do not know what is good for their children?

I can understand uppili dissecting the mental limitations of a girl like pooja and her incompetent parents.

The Indian disapora is seriously segmented and the rich/highly educated/business/medicos dont talk freely to each other.

For ex..the girl shortlisting her 3 schools while picking biomedical enginering and ASSURACE of medical school admission shows a serious hole in advising.

Temple and South Florida assure freshmen of medical school admission if the student maintained 3.5 at the time of senior year. But, there is no unconditional assurance - that too Brown, Harvard, Stanford.

Just ask the SuCHers...when someone is sick, they consult a doc that they know...how many consult a financial expert or an educationist? Obviously they know some facts (say they will pass with 45% in those areas) and convince themselves they know everything (remember only I know everything... and act on that even for their kids. They mean well but the road to hell is also paved with good intentions.

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

truthbetold wrote:Cd
Why do you think other parents do not know what is good for their children?

I can understand uppili dissecting the mental limitations of a girl like pooja and her incompetent parents.

The Indian disapora is seriously segmented and the rich/highly educated/business/medicos dont talk freely to each other.

For ex..the girl shortlisting her 3 schools while picking biomedical enginering and ASSURACE of medical school admission shows a serious hole in advising.

Temple and South Florida assure freshmen of medical school admission if the student maintained 3.5 at the time of senior year. But, there is no unconditional assurance - that too Brown, Harvard, Stanford.

Just ask the SuCHers...when someone is sick, they consult a doc that they know...how many consult a financial expert or an educationist? Obviously they know some facts (say they will pass with 45% in those areas) and convince themselves they know everything (remember only I know everything... and act on that even for their kids. They mean well but the road to hell is also paved with good intentions.

Bio-medical engineering appears to be the latest trend at TJ, several TJ grads have been opting for this major for the last few years. Some went to Johns Hopkins and a few decided to go local, VCU with full tuition scholarships (smart gujjus, of course)

confuzzled dude wrote:
Bio-medical engineering appears to be the latest trend at TJ, several TJ grads have been opting for this major for the last few years. Some went to Johns Hopkins and a few decided to go local, VCU with full tuition scholarships (smart gujjus, of course)

Biomedical is a very high risk major for those who go into it thinking they would get a fat job after a BS or walk into a med School. They will be in or a huge disappointment. Medical schools have cut down on the intake of Biomeds and engineers in general. For sometime the medical schools were enamored with the Engineering graduates and their approach to problem solving. But, these guys find the rote-learning curriculum of the first 2 years very hard. Recently, an adcom of a Tier 2 med school was indirectly told to look at "carefully and closely" at the STEM graduates.

Ask VCU for data on Biomed graduates. If at all they provide you with the data you will be in for a shock. There is a LOT of misconception about biomed and Desis who go by "fashion" and "popularity" will learn the hard lesson.

IMO people with sharp analytical skills will find most routine clinical medicine dull and uninspiring. for them a physician's job sans research can be a morale killer.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:IMO people with sharp analytical skills will find most routine clinical medicine dull and uninspiring. for them a physician's job sans research can be a morale killer.

I agree...Most physician specialists see very similar cases within their specialty on a daily basis. I have no idea how they can do it for 8 hours a day, 4 days a week all year round...A job at Jiffy Lube is more interesting.

Kris wrote:

confuzzled dude wrote:

Even at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a top-ranked magnet school, senior Pooja Chandrashekar stands out among her brainiac peers.

She’s got a 4.57 grade-point average, scored a 2390 (out of 2400) on the SAT, and aced all 13 of her Advanced Placement exams. She also founded a national non-profit that encourages middle-school girls to participate in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs.

She’s also developed a mobile app that analyzes speech patterns and predicts with 96 percent accuracy if a person has Parkinson’s disease.

Oh, and she’s 17.

College admissions offices took notice. She can now add another bullet to her résumé: Pooja earned admission to all eight Ivy League schools. She also was accepted at Stanford, MIT, Duke, the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan and Georgia Tech, going 14 for 14.

Earning an acceptance letter from one Ivy League school is a rare achievement for most high school students. It is extremely rare for a student to gain admission to all eight, though a few each year manage to do so. This year, Long Island student Harold Ekeh announced he, too, had been accepted to all the Ivies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/virginia-student-earns-admission-to-all-eight-ivy-league-schools-and-others/2015/04/10/64e46100-df0d-11e4-a500-1c5bb1d8ff6a_story.html?hpid=z1

Wonder why she applied for 14!

>>>On another note, I am nervous whenever these types of stories crop up with Indian names. You can almost be certain a bunch of Indian parents are coming down on their kids as to why are they are not Poojas.

I hope those kids ask their parents whether they professionally are in the same league as Pooja Chandersekhar's parents!

some douche had to throw in a caste angle to this...geez I wonder *which* caste he/she is a member of:

Pooja Chandrashekar is a southern Indian brahmin and the city of Bangalore in India had a lot of such wise Brahmins whose main focus was to get educated in science & technology. That's one reason the city blossomed over the decades in to technology hub for American companies. It is not just call centres. I doubt whether they have any or may be just a few. They have moved up the value chain and do considerable research work. Sir C.V. Raman and even physicist Chandrashekar come from the same creed although none of them were related in any way. There's one more at Pepsico: Indra Nooyi: similar brahmin who made it big. This is not to give any casteist twist; rather ancient India had been divided in to castes based on their professions. The Brahmins were mainly scholars who pursued anything to do with pursuit of knowledge. From a statistician's stand point that is something to be said about 'business class'/caste. Companies such as for example Reliance with revenues of over $15Billion are owned by people from business class / caste. It's hard for Americans to understand how the dynamics work; however, I am not surprised that this girl with such a promising future has her roots/heritage in Bangalore, India.

What's impressive about her is this:

"She’s also developed a mobile app that analyzes speech patterns and predicts with 96 percent accuracy if a person has Parkinson’s disease."

and this:

"In middle school, she built a windmill to explore the prospects of renewable energy."

Everything else is ok.

PS: I have a feeling that her parents felt bad that she missed the perfect score in SAT by 10 points. A friend of my whose son also scored 2390 in SAT was blaming it on the fate, 'bad luck! he missed by 10 points.'

pravalika nanda wrote:

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

Kris wrote:

confuzzled dude wrote:

Even at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a top-ranked magnet school, senior Pooja Chandrashekar stands out among her brainiac peers.

She’s got a 4.57 grade-point average, scored a 2390 (out of 2400) on the SAT, and aced all 13 of her Advanced Placement exams. She also founded a national non-profit that encourages middle-school girls to participate in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs.

She’s also developed a mobile app that analyzes speech patterns and predicts with 96 percent accuracy if a person has Parkinson’s disease.

Oh, and she’s 17.

College admissions offices took notice. She can now add another bullet to her résumé: Pooja earned admission to all eight Ivy League schools. She also was accepted at Stanford, MIT, Duke, the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan and Georgia Tech, going 14 for 14.

Earning an acceptance letter from one Ivy League school is a rare achievement for most high school students. It is extremely rare for a student to gain admission to all eight, though a few each year manage to do so. This year, Long Island student Harold Ekeh announced he, too, had been accepted to all the Ivies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/virginia-student-earns-admission-to-all-eight-ivy-league-schools-and-others/2015/04/10/64e46100-df0d-11e4-a500-1c5bb1d8ff6a_story.html?hpid=z1

Wonder why she applied for 14!

>>>On another note, I am nervous whenever these types of stories crop up with Indian names. You can almost be certain a bunch of Indian parents are coming down on their kids as to why are they are not Poojas.

YEP...for sure...  In any case...I just now read this sentence:

She’s narrowed her list to Harvard, Stanford and Brown, where she got into a program that guarantees her admission to the university’s medical school.

Finally....shows the limitations of this girl....  So she wants to get into a Med school....(duhhh....what a surprise)...

A  program that GUARANTEES admission to med school ????  First wonder which program gives a guarantee....Secondly, she is not even confident of getting into a med School ???? Finally she wants to do Biomedical engineering...

Duh...Harvard and Brown dont even have a bioengineering progam....and Stanford is no where in the rankings....  Shows she transplanted from Bangalore half way through her school years and listening to her H1B-Desi parents who show their ignorance of the US schools.

I would suggest that she should go to UPenn/GT/Duke/MIT for her Biomed... BTW, MIT does not strictly have a Biomedical/Bioengineering UG program.

I wasn't impressed either, Uppili. I am happy that she did not choose finance or economics like our other overachiever, Kavya Viswanathan. Anyhow, this girl needs to go the gym, spend some time shopping in park slope, or maybe the max mara on N Michigan, or online at Nordstrom's. She needs to get layers in her hair, get some nice contacts, chanel lipstick etc. You're 17, go have some fun. Get a boyfriend, have a French martini, have three in a row, make out in the back of a car, kiss under The Bean, go to a Rothko show, get some sun....anything but more nerdiness.

sounds like you did all that and look where it got you: ordering veggie takeout at 35 and stiffing the delivery out of few bucks

Propagandhi711 wrote:

pravalika nanda wrote:

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

Kris wrote:

confuzzled dude wrote:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/virginia-student-earns-admission-to-all-eight-ivy-league-schools-and-others/2015/04/10/64e46100-df0d-11e4-a500-1c5bb1d8ff6a_story.html?hpid=z1

Wonder why she applied for 14!

>>>On another note, I am nervous whenever these types of stories crop up with Indian names. You can almost be certain a bunch of Indian parents are coming down on their kids as to why are they are not Poojas.

YEP...for sure...  In any case...I just now read this sentence:

She’s narrowed her list to Harvard, Stanford and Brown, where she got into a program that guarantees her admission to the university’s medical school.

Finally....shows the limitations of this girl....  So she wants to get into a Med school....(duhhh....what a surprise)...

A  program that GUARANTEES admission to med school ????  First wonder which program gives a guarantee....Secondly, she is not even confident of getting into a med School ???? Finally she wants to do Biomedical engineering...

Duh...Harvard and Brown dont even have a bioengineering progam....and Stanford is no where in the rankings....  Shows she transplanted from Bangalore half way through her school years and listening to her H1B-Desi parents who show their ignorance of the US schools.

I would suggest that she should go to UPenn/GT/Duke/MIT for her Biomed... BTW, MIT does not strictly have a Biomedical/Bioengineering UG program.

I wasn't impressed either, Uppili. I am happy that she did not choose finance or economics like our other overachiever, Kavya Viswanathan. Anyhow, this girl needs to go the gym, spend some time shopping in park slope, or maybe the max mara on N Michigan, or online at Nordstrom's. She needs to get layers in her hair, get some nice contacts, chanel lipstick etc. You're 17, go have some fun. Get a boyfriend, have a French martini, have three in a row, make out in the back of a car, kiss under The Bean, go to a Rothko show, get some sun....anything but more nerdiness.

sounds like you did all that and look where it got you: ordering veggie takeout at 35 and stiffing the delivery out of few bucks

those were years filled with good fun and genuine feelings; it felt so simple.  i'm 36 now but those years and those men make me confident that i will find love and happiness. i am uncompromising when it comes to my personal happiness. baava, i'm sorry you missed out.

People do this in their 40s too, I been told.

Beatrix Kiddo wrote:People do this in their 40s too, I been told.

Ohhh.....Is that what they mean when they say "Today's 40 is yesterday's 17?'....

confuzzled dude wrote:

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

truthbetold wrote:Cd
Why do you think other parents do not know what is good for their children?

I can understand uppili dissecting the mental limitations of a girl like pooja and her incompetent parents.

The Indian disapora is seriously segmented and the rich/highly educated/business/medicos dont talk freely to each other.

For ex..the girl shortlisting her 3 schools while picking biomedical enginering and ASSURACE of medical school admission shows a serious hole in advising.

Temple and South Florida assure freshmen of medical school admission if the student maintained 3.5 at the time of senior year. But, there is no unconditional assurance - that too Brown, Harvard, Stanford.

Just ask the SuCHers...when someone is sick, they consult a doc that they know...how many consult a financial expert or an educationist? Obviously they know some facts (say they will pass with 45% in those areas) and convince themselves they know everything (remember only I know everything... and act on that even for their kids. They mean well but the road to hell is also paved with good intentions.

Bio-medical engineering appears to be the latest trend at TJ, several TJ grads have been opting for this major for the last few years. Some went to Johns Hopkins and a few decided to go local, VCU with full tuition scholarships (smart gujjus, of course)

There is a lot of research money in biomed-engg in the universities, which makes it easier to receive research assistantship etc. for students during grad. studies. Moreover, many Indian parents, who think highly of medicine and engineering, see biomedical engg. as a combination of the two (medicine and engg.) and therefore an ideal career for their kids.

pravalika nanda wrote:

Propagandhi711 wrote:

pravalika nanda wrote:

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

Kris wrote:
>>>On another note, I am nervous whenever these types of stories crop up with Indian names. You can almost be certain a bunch of Indian parents are coming down on their kids as to why are they are not Poojas.

YEP...for sure...  In any case...I just now read this sentence:

She’s narrowed her list to Harvard, Stanford and Brown, where she got into a program that guarantees her admission to the university’s medical school.

Finally....shows the limitations of this girl....  So she wants to get into a Med school....(duhhh....what a surprise)...

A  program that GUARANTEES admission to med school ????  First wonder which program gives a guarantee....Secondly, she is not even confident of getting into a med School ???? Finally she wants to do Biomedical engineering...

Duh...Harvard and Brown dont even have a bioengineering progam....and Stanford is no where in the rankings....  Shows she transplanted from Bangalore half way through her school years and listening to her H1B-Desi parents who show their ignorance of the US schools.

I would suggest that she should go to UPenn/GT/Duke/MIT for her Biomed... BTW, MIT does not strictly have a Biomedical/Bioengineering UG program.

I wasn't impressed either, Uppili. I am happy that she did not choose finance or economics like our other overachiever, Kavya Viswanathan. Anyhow, this girl needs to go the gym, spend some time shopping in park slope, or maybe the max mara on N Michigan, or online at Nordstrom's. She needs to get layers in her hair, get some nice contacts, chanel lipstick etc. You're 17, go have some fun. Get a boyfriend, have a French martini, have three in a row, make out in the back of a car, kiss under The Bean, go to a Rothko show, get some sun....anything but more nerdiness.

sounds like you did all that and look where it got you: ordering veggie takeout at 35 and stiffing the delivery out of few bucks

those were years filled with good fun and genuine feelings; it felt so simple.  i'm 36 now but those years and those men make me confident that i will find love and happiness. i am uncompromising when it comes to my personal happiness. baava, i'm sorry you missed out.

good luck with them memories, cats and takeout chinese..sorry, japanese food

Propagandhi711 wrote:

pravalika nanda wrote:

Propagandhi711 wrote:

pravalika nanda wrote:

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:


YEP...for sure...  In any case...I just now read this sentence:

She’s narrowed her list to Harvard, Stanford and Brown, where she got into a program that guarantees her admission to the university’s medical school.

Finally....shows the limitations of this girl....  So she wants to get into a Med school....(duhhh....what a surprise)...

A  program that GUARANTEES admission to med school ????  First wonder which program gives a guarantee....Secondly, she is not even confident of getting into a med School ???? Finally she wants to do Biomedical engineering...

Duh...Harvard and Brown dont even have a bioengineering progam....and Stanford is no where in the rankings....  Shows she transplanted from Bangalore half way through her school years and listening to her H1B-Desi parents who show their ignorance of the US schools.

I would suggest that she should go to UPenn/GT/Duke/MIT for her Biomed... BTW, MIT does not strictly have a Biomedical/Bioengineering UG program.

I wasn't impressed either, Uppili. I am happy that she did not choose finance or economics like our other overachiever, Kavya Viswanathan. Anyhow, this girl needs to go the gym, spend some time shopping in park slope, or maybe the max mara on N Michigan, or online at Nordstrom's. She needs to get layers in her hair, get some nice contacts, chanel lipstick etc. You're 17, go have some fun. Get a boyfriend, have a French martini, have three in a row, make out in the back of a car, kiss under The Bean, go to a Rothko show, get some sun....anything but more nerdiness.

sounds like you did all that and look where it got you: ordering veggie takeout at 35 and stiffing the delivery out of few bucks

those were years filled with good fun and genuine feelings; it felt so simple.  i'm 36 now but those years and those men make me confident that i will find love and happiness. i am uncompromising when it comes to my personal happiness. baava, i'm sorry you missed out.

good luck with them memories, cats and takeout chinese..sorry, japanese food

gosh, you were a kid -- or so it seemed -- till a few years ago. now you are 36? either you have been taking steroids or my math is all whack. 

wait, my math is not weak. you are either a troll (likely) or an unlucky and bitter woman (unlikely). sorry.

hi tingu how's life?

Beatrix Kiddo wrote:hi tingu how's life?

life is good. waiting for accche din in business -- not happened yet.  super caught up with sending younger to college this fall. today he has his vitjee exam and it is bengali new year. happy baisakhi!  older graduates next summer. wow, time flies!

tingu wrote:

Beatrix Kiddo wrote:hi tingu how's life?

life is good. waiting for accche din in business -- not happened yet.  super caught up with sending younger to college this fall. today he has his vitjee exam and it is bengali new year. happy baisakhi!  older graduates next summer. wow, time flies!

Happy baisakhi! Didn't know it. I think I'm also forgetting all the seasons and their order. I know jeth is coming up next. Hmm. Will try to brush that up today.

Good luck for younger. At least in India you have specific goals to take entrance exams and such. A totally different type of tension than here. Getting all sorts of nightmares about older. Next year being her time for the same. She tries to pacify me by saying how getting into college is not that hard. But I mean. Biggest decision of her life and I feel like I don't know much. I am thinking of changing my approach a little bit. Since I can't handle her, gonna set XH after her. Same blood, only they know how to deal with each other. Loha hee lohe ko kaTta hai. It's easier for me to nag him than to nag her. I have already delegated certain parenting tasks to him and he seems to be doing a good job. Let's see what happens.

Beatrix Kiddo wrote:

tingu wrote:

Beatrix Kiddo wrote:hi tingu how's life?

life is good. waiting for accche din in business -- not happened yet.  super caught up with sending younger to college this fall. today he has his vitjee exam and it is bengali new year. happy baisakhi!  older graduates next summer. wow, time flies!

Happy baisakhi! Didn't know it. I think I'm also forgetting all the seasons and their order. I know jeth is coming up next. Hmm. Will try to brush that up today.

Good luck for younger. At least in India you have specific goals to take entrance exams and such. A totally different type of tension than here. Getting all sorts of nightmares about older. Next year being her time for the same. She tries to pacify me by saying how getting into college is not that hard. But I mean. Biggest decision of her life and I feel like I don't know much. I am thinking of changing my approach a little bit. Since I can't handle her, gonna set XH after her. Same blood, only they know how to deal with each other. Loha hee lohe ko kaTta hai. It's easier for me to nag him than to nag her. I have already delegated certain parenting tasks to him and he seems to be doing a good job. Let's see what happens.

i hear you. i don't have enough exposure or stats at hand  but i feel it's tougher in the usa. the usa model lets you choose your major as late as in mid college. whereas in india, you decide right after class 10. i think the usa system is nauseating for any student who has no guidance from his parents or no "calling."  i had friends in college who were undecided till junior year and ultimately they followed my footsteps and selected philosophy. one went to harvard to study law and is an eminent lawyer and another (who abandoned his phd in philosphy) is a manager in a distillery in the east coast (but happy). the upshot is, indian students sometimes realize late that they selected the wrong stream. my older told me last week that he regretted selecting ece and should have gone for cs. i said - why? he answered - the faculty sucks and we have to self-study and anyway what i see the cs guys learning is, i now i realize, what i had always wanted to learn. curious, i googled ece. bloody hell, it turned out to be the new name for good old electrical engineering! i had almost opted for ee when applying abroad but cs was the rage then and my father insisted i pursue cs (parental guidance -- priceless!). in college i found that the ee students had NO life. i felt thankful and then i got a calling and did a double major.

so, for my kids, the mould is set. older graduates, gives gmat and probable destination columbia business school or another for mba (cat ruled out for iim too tough without work experience; xat he will try for there's is a tata angle) . it's easy for indian students in india if your parents have wherewithal and they guide you.

you have to guide your kids! no substitute. else they will hate you for life. worse, they will become a burden on you. i have loads of anecdotal stories or experience.  

one of my most favourite writers (in my top five firmament), t c boyle, went through a turbulent childhood and was abusing drugs left right and centre in college and thought his calling was music and used to play music with no fucking idea of what he wanted to do in life. one day he woke up. he quit drugs, studied literature, did his phd and became a prolific writer (and i think professor too). but that is very rare. it happens very very rarely -- to be a phd in literature (that can be counter productive -- can stem your talent), continue in academia and shock the world of fiction. he is highly underrated by critics. posterity will remember him as the super boss of fiction. but that is how turbulent the usa system can be if you are floating rudderless. he was lucky because he got a "calling" -- however late in life it might have been. but how many students in the usa get a "calling?" i ask because the system is designed to nurture your calling which the system innately believes every student is bestowed with and that it should nurture it and not stymie it. my belief is that no system can stymie a "calling." not even the indian system.