National Merit semi final
- Thread starter irvinehomeshopper
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Yes I realize anyone can achieve. My question is what does it take to achieve it and how does the other stuff increase decrease that
In the Garfield case the movie depicts it as 7-noon six days a week for just the calculus exam. Not sure on that match up to reality
Garfield high is also the prime example. Do you get lucky and you and your kid find an Escalante or do you just get worn down by the inertia of the place? Conversely, say at Uni you have the opposite problem, your ki is in class competing against 50% or 80/90% of kids that are tutored many hours a week an the class starts getting taught assuming someone is filling in the gaps.
irvinehomeshopper
Well-known member
I have been talking to the same group of parents from various school events since middle school. Reality is finally kicked in. Soon learning the top private colleges are only interested in the top 1% of the senior class and no more than 6 students will be admitted from each Irvine school parents optimism over the years is quickly replaced by regret. What is this so called 1%? Schools keep ranking for the entire student body and a critical reference requested by college admission. Ranking is based on a composite score purely based on Unweighted GPA, Weighted GPA and SAT. Among the top 1% students must score 2300 or above and no more that one B grade. UC schools typically aim for the top 5% historically but due to the budget cut California resident admission has been reduced by 50% by favoring out of state and foreign students because they pay full tuition.
nosuchreality
Well-known member
qwerty said:
Yes I realize anyone can achieve. My question is what does it take to achieve it and how does the other stuff increase decrease that
In the Garfield case the movie depicts it as 7-noon six days a week for just the calculus exam. Not sure on that match up to reality
Garfield high is also the prime example. Do you get lucky and you and your kid find an Escalante or do you just get worn down by the inertia of the place? Conversely, say at Uni you have the opposite problem, your ki is in class competing against 50% or 80/90% of kids that are tutored many hours a week an the class starts getting taught assuming someone is filling in the gaps.
irvinehomeowner
Well-known member
I'm one of those people who believe that success is nurtured and discovered not forced.
Everyone has their own way, for many of those National Merits, those kids "enjoy" the extra academics, they relish the competitive nature and it drives them to continue to do better and more power to them... but for many others, the path to a bright future doesn't involve Kumon, SAT prep classes, or even Ivy League schools.
I've learned not to worry so much about that stuff, life is too short... do what you love, love what you do and that's good enough for many. Maybe that's an excuse for me not to push my kids to be the top 1/2% of their class... or maybe that's being just a good a father as IHS is but in a different way.
Like I said, someone has to work for IHS' kid, it might as well be mine.
Everyone has their own way, for many of those National Merits, those kids "enjoy" the extra academics, they relish the competitive nature and it drives them to continue to do better and more power to them... but for many others, the path to a bright future doesn't involve Kumon, SAT prep classes, or even Ivy League schools.
I've learned not to worry so much about that stuff, life is too short... do what you love, love what you do and that's good enough for many. Maybe that's an excuse for me not to push my kids to be the top 1/2% of their class... or maybe that's being just a good a father as IHS is but in a different way.
Like I said, someone has to work for IHS' kid, it might as well be mine.
irvinehomeshopper
Well-known member
My kid has no desire to be anyone's boss. She wants to be the one to find a cure for today's most common and deadliest diseases. Her path must start at the right college a prerequisites in order to reaching nations top research institution. Although many people's choice of career could be achieved without a rigorous academic path this one offers no flexibility.
A common error of most parents to be noted. Sports accolades are useless when SAT and grades suffer. Sports will not make up for lack luster academic record. Colleges make their cut base on grades and test score. Unless the applicant is national sport or Olympic fame the academic still is the deciding factor.
SAT is written for the level of an Irvine 9th grader. When my daughter took it in her ninth grade her score was 1900. 4 years of prep raised her score shy of 500 points. For those interested in paying me I will insert your tutoring organization here ___________.
Colleges can't gauge the quality of "A" from different schools so many academic based standardized testings are required for the students academic portfolio. Advance Placement tests and SAT subject tests in Physics, Calculus, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, English, Economics, Statistcs, History, Literature, Art History, Languages and etc. The availability of high level classes is where the Irvine schools are superior to Santa Ana schools. A student with a high grade from a Santa Ana school will have fewer upper level academic classes. Middle College high school in the campus of Santa Ana College was the exact reason created for the city's brightest but economically and geographically disadvantaged students.
So "just tell me the bottom line!". Are Irvine schools better for my child? The answer is no if you want your kids to be accepted to a top college because the odds are your children will likely to fall into the bottom 99% unless you have the dedication of 6 years of time, conviction and financial resources to augment outside educations. Even at best outside tutoring will never teach children team leadership, public speaking, presentation, project creativity, artistic ability and awareness required for humanity classes. This is where Asian students consistently fall short in making the top college cut. The answer is a overwhelming yes if your children do not have the top college ambition. Historically Irvine schools have succeses with top tier and safety tier of UC and Cal State campuses.
A common error of most parents to be noted. Sports accolades are useless when SAT and grades suffer. Sports will not make up for lack luster academic record. Colleges make their cut base on grades and test score. Unless the applicant is national sport or Olympic fame the academic still is the deciding factor.
SAT is written for the level of an Irvine 9th grader. When my daughter took it in her ninth grade her score was 1900. 4 years of prep raised her score shy of 500 points. For those interested in paying me I will insert your tutoring organization here ___________.
Colleges can't gauge the quality of "A" from different schools so many academic based standardized testings are required for the students academic portfolio. Advance Placement tests and SAT subject tests in Physics, Calculus, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, English, Economics, Statistcs, History, Literature, Art History, Languages and etc. The availability of high level classes is where the Irvine schools are superior to Santa Ana schools. A student with a high grade from a Santa Ana school will have fewer upper level academic classes. Middle College high school in the campus of Santa Ana College was the exact reason created for the city's brightest but economically and geographically disadvantaged students.
So "just tell me the bottom line!". Are Irvine schools better for my child? The answer is no if you want your kids to be accepted to a top college because the odds are your children will likely to fall into the bottom 99% unless you have the dedication of 6 years of time, conviction and financial resources to augment outside educations. Even at best outside tutoring will never teach children team leadership, public speaking, presentation, project creativity, artistic ability and awareness required for humanity classes. This is where Asian students consistently fall short in making the top college cut. The answer is a overwhelming yes if your children do not have the top college ambition. Historically Irvine schools have succeses with top tier and safety tier of UC and Cal State campuses.
irvinehomeowner said:I'm one of those people who believe that success is nurtured and discovered not forced.
Everyone has their own way, for many of those National Merits, those kids "enjoy" the extra academics, they relish the competitive nature and it drives them to continue to do better and more power to them... but for many others, the path to a bright future doesn't involve Kumon, SAT prep classes, or even Ivy League schools.
I've learned not to worry so much about that stuff, life is too short... do what you love, love what you do and that's good enough for many. Maybe that's an excuse for me not to push my kids to be the top 1/2% of their class... or maybe that's being just a good a father as IHS is but in a different way.
Like I said, someone has to work for IHS' kid, it might as well be mine.
irvinehomeshopper
Well-known member
Yes and pretty much confirmed by dot matrix posted.
ps9 said:
irvinehomeshopper
Well-known member
Definitely the Safety school of UC Irvine at 51% acceptance rate and 52% of Asian population.
bones said: