That's supposed to be the way here too. A total meritocracy. Only.... sometimes it doesn't work as well as it should. *wry grin*
Excellent post -- I'm with you all the way. "Overachieving Asians" which so overwhelmingly come from working/middle class families are a powerful tool for the high school classroom teacher: "Hey kids, you want to succeed? Take a look at the Chan family. Ever notice how Jimmy doesn't waste all his time getting stoned and playing video games? Notice that even though he works for his parents 30 hrs a week, he also finds time to do his homework and do it well? Notice how his family saves money and lives frugally? Did you see the scholarships Jimmy got......"
When my one Asian (Chinese) kid's mother and father (really his aunt and uncle -- he was adopted) were severely injured in a car accident, he came home from Appalachian State to help run TWO family restaurants. So that he wouldn't fall too far behind for the semesters he was home, he was able to pickup some internship hours by working gratis for a local prep school doing PR work for them -- in other words he was working at least 70 hrs a week and wore a smile.
He was and is an amazing inspiration.
Judge people on merit alone?! Not their skin color, religion, sexual preference, or gender?! Why you unmitigated white, anglo-saxon, protestant, male, southern, (have I left anything out?) bigot you.
I continually wonder if I can hope to see this in my lifetime. Or my children's.
you unmitigated white, anglo-saxon, protestant, male, southern, (have I left anything out?) bigot you.
Heterosexual, Republican, and unlikely to get into a top-tier university today given today's admissions standards. 
asians -- the jews of the 21st century; i've been saying that for a long time
how many generations will it take for them to be couch potato tv watchers? my money: 2 more
there's also the demographic bulge of the boomers and their progent: i am hoping that when my bright kid goes to college it will be a student's market, not a university's, as it has been the past 25 years or so ... and the schools will be fighting over the top 15 percent of kids, not the other way around, as it has been for some years now
Y3P,
I'm starting to become convinced that a veritable explosion of online universities will indeed make it a buyer's (student's) market, not only for admission but a downward pressure on cost as well.
"Being educated -- that's the most honorable thing you can do." I actually think that's a subset of the greater first commandment of Asian childhood, "Make your mama proud."
You know, the coverage of the MLK memorial I heard all talked first about the color of his skin rather than the content of his character...
There's a lot of grumbling about this on the "with older kids" blogs--not only in undergrad admissions, but graduate and law school admissions. Check the Power Line coverage (and elsewhere) about Minnesota fighting and losing for the right to racially discriminate in admissions; the schools lost, but the Bar is still fighting on...
...and John, it's not just on line universities but brick-and-mortar with extension buildings far far away. Us Navy guys used Univ. of Phoenix for decades before others did.
Next up: some of the guild certifications. Why must one go to four years of college for some of these skills which didn't need them before, and then get certificates from the existing guild? Ah, but that takes a bit more work, it does...
I thought there was no B&M Univ of Phoenix -- thought it was all virtual save for the stadium the Cardinals play in -- U of P has no football team but it DOES HAVE a pro stadium. Learned that factoid when I was checking them out last month and their salesman called to give me the pitch.
I'm starting next month with American Public Univesity....which is also the same thing as American Military University. Doing a master's in American History. Many of the profs are vets and it looks like many if not most of my fellow students will be active duty. First class is historical method, with primary text being Major Problems in American Military History. I'm thinking the online discussions won't be boring.
I've been looking into online Masters programs for a while now (in my case, likely to be an MBA program.) Right now my short list is Penn State, Syracuse and the University of Indiana, but I wish to hell that the Tepper School at Carnegie Mellon would get off the stick and start offering their online MBA classes (currently available only to "partner corporations") to the general public.
John: Congrats and enjoy the learning! (U of P does have some buildings, an office here, a set of classrooms at the base there, a stateroom for the civilian teaching on the aircraft carrier there, and so forth. What it doesn't have is a central campus where everything happens.)
Barry: The dirty little secret about distance ed is that completion rates are dismal. GMAP was the first to really have a decent completion rate, and the others have been scrambling to try to replicate the success. This may be one factor to why CMU hasn't gotten their online thing going. The other dirty little secret is that the alumni think online people are being sleazy and thus think it's a lesser degree, despite any information to the contrary, so there's pressure to not build a program.
barry -- kudos to you for your continual efforts at self improvement, and to your friends here, too. fyi, MIT is in the process of putting everything taught there online, but not for credit -- more citizen philospher; you can get the knowledge but the credential is still exclusive
re affirmative action: let's go all the way back, to school funding based on property taxes, which assures that wealthy districts will send children to well funded schools and poor districts won't. that's fundamentally a crime against children, in my opinion -- of all colors.
@Chap: Yes, I'm aware of all the perceived and real shortcomings with online education/distance learning, but given my travel schedule (3 weeks in NYC, one week in Raleigh) a mostly- or solely-online program is the only option I have.
@y3p: I would say that not only the school funding model but the public schooling model is grievously broken; however, some students manage to achieve regardless, and shouldn't be punished for it.
i went to public school
i went to public school
Me too, and a very good public university after that. Doesn't alter the fact that in many, many parts of this country, the public schools are not operating at an acceptable level of quality.
Blacks and Hispanics should stop complaining.
Blacks and Hispanics should stop complaining.
(1) It's hardly just Blacks and Hispanics who are expressing concerns about this issue.
(2) Why, specifically, Blacks and Hispanics, then?
Is that a bot?
Is that a bot?
Wondered that myself; surfed into the site on a Google search for the Times article.
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