I have posted this before, but will again. When my son went off to Rice, he was cocky. He was a Merit Finalist, had won the Texas state science fair as a sophomore, had taken every AP and honors class offered, and had fullride offers from a lot of colleges. (not Rice, sadly).
After a couple of weeks, he called home and said that not only was being a Merit Scholar no big deal at Rice-- everyone was- the American students were getting their asses whupped by the Asian and Indian kids, whose math skills were incredible and whose work ethic was unbelievable. As he said, I;m not as smart as I thought.
And I have no idea if this has any meaning since it's purely anecdotal, but his roomie first year WAS there on a fullride, becuase he was Hispanic. He almost flunked out that semester, and I wonder if it was because he was given too much with affirmative action, and was spoiled, rather than challenged to succeed without making excuses.
I notice that on the list Mme posted, there was no mention of parenting, perhaps because it isn't something that committee felt they could control, but all the rest is meaningless without addressing the home and social aspects. A longer school day actually would do that to some extent.
Oh, but wait, then they might not have time for football practice. |
