Reply to How does one prep place account for 25% of TJ Admissions?

Forum Index » Advanced Academic Programs (AAP)

Reply to "How does one prep place account for 25% of TJ Admissions?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why would multiple current TJ students state that they had access to the actual questions ahead of time?

[b]Why do almost 100% of the kids that get into TJ from Curie have Indian names?  This is not a normal TJ prep place.  [/b]

I personally do not see any problems with prepping.  However, this particular company appears extremely suspect.

[/quote]

Why does it matter that the kids are Indian? These schools get their students by word of mouth.  It's possible curie's founders are indian or they started off at a location with a lot of indians.

Should a reader assume a "Therefore" before the second sentence (bolded)?  If so, why?

[/quote]

If you have some time, try to dig up on how many Indian kids compete in spelling bee and math and science competitions, go into science, engineering and medical undergrad and grad programs all around the country (esp. better ranked universities), take jobs or start companies in computers, engineering and other STEM related professions compared to their demographic representation in the country. Do you believe Indian kids have been cheating in the spelling bee as we just can't imagine how they can completely dominate the bee for 15+ years though they represent less than 1% population of US?. Well, Its not that hard to understand. This does not necessarily mean Indians are inherently smarter than everybody else. Its simply because they are more academic focused than others and Indians see education (esp. STEM) as the key to successful life, tend to prioritize education over anything else in life and do not hesitate to spend money and resources. Since many Indian parents themselves have STEM background, their kids are naturally inclined to go in the same direction and with the enrichment and hard work, they probably have a leg up in the game.

It may not be fair, but its no secret that kids (any race, region or country) with well educated and academic focussed parents tend to do better 'on average' as compared to kids from non-academic focussed families and have a higher chance of success as a result. This is where teachers, schools and government need to focus and spend resources on. They need to focus on recognizing the natural talent in kids and promote/raise them when parents aren't providing necessary support. But, if the schools have to reduce their standards to be more inclusive, then its step in the wrong direction.

[/quote]

Indian students dominate the Spelling Bee because it is a competition of rote memorization with a sprinkling of formulaic thinking. Indian students are unique in their ability to firmly command material that they've seen before, but the moment a variable is introduced that they're unfamiliar with, they tend to freeze.

I have dealt with thousands of students of all nationalities over the many years that I've been involved in public education, and the one thing that is consistent about Indian students and families is their demand to know exactly what to prepare for in any evaluation. Exactly how many questions, exactly what types of questions, exactly what sorts of drills, and exactly what the metrics of evaluation will be. And that's just not how life works for 99% of it.

I've had dozens of doctors in my life. Consistent among Indian doctors is their extraordinary textbook knowledge and their extreme inability to adjust to the specific circumstances that present themselves with each individual patient - drugs that don't work, symptoms that don't match up... basically anything that isn't "by the book". They score the best in speed of visit and the worst in listening to their patients.

And finally, Indian students (and to an even greater extent, their parents) are supremely unique in their difficulty understanding the importance of sacrificing something that would be nominally good for themselves or their family in support of the collective or of society. The more recently a family has emigrated from India, the more acutely they carry the zero-sum mentality that goes with living in a country with a historically well-defined caste system with such an extreme and visible difference between rich and poor. If you want to know why "opportunity hoarding" is a thing, this is pretty much why.

Feel free to call me a racist if you want - these are observations that have been so consistent as to become predictable over time. White people have their issues - mostly surrounding entitlement. Blacks and Hispanics have their issues - mostly around a complete lack of academic self-confidence. East Asians have their issues - mostly around a cultural inability to advocate for themselves. With Indians, it's rigidity and inflexibility - and it's BY FAR the most consistent. And the thing that makes me the happiest as an educator is when I find a student who defies these stereotypes.[/quote]

Honey, everyone is an educator who saw thousands of students on the interwebz.

I am white.  But if I was an Indian parent and you had guts enough to put your name to the drivel you wrote, I would dedicate my life to ruining yours and discrediting every shred of professional credibility you've ever had. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics