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UC Admission Blood Bath
From what I heard this year was a blood bath for UC Admissions for California residents.
I spoke with a college councilor and he knew students accepted at UC Berkeley (#1 ranked), but turned down by UC Irvine and UC San Diego!
Or accepted by UCLA, but turned for UCI and UCSD.
My understanding is:
1. UC's have taken major budget cuts.
2. Out of State Tuition is higher than in-state.
3. Foreign student tuition is higher than in-state.
Therefore, more spots were made open for Out of State and Foreign Students, reducing the amount of in state students admitted.
And the admission process is subjective with Essays, Outside Activities, Leadership, etc. all being taken into account to see whom would be the best person to be admitted. Labels: college admissions
Cal State Brand Vs. UC
Some things I noticed...
1. Some UC's are lower ranked in some areas that Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Cal Poly is nationally ranked for Engineering, Architecture, agriculture, and Business to name a few. For public universities in California, it's #2 for business. For Engineering, #5 in some rankings nationwide (for those not offering a PhD). 29% acceptance rate. #27 for all public universities in the US on a Forbes List. It made the top 20 schools for recruiters per the WSJ. Average starting salaries are right behind Berkeley.
2. Admissions is done automatically at Cal States. No reading of essays, not like the UC's that is subjective.
3. Whites are accepted at the same rate as Asians.
4. Asian's accept at 50% of White students.
5. For many Chinese I have noticed, Cal Poly San Luis is an unknown brand. UC have a much higher brand recognition. Labels: college admissions
Study to help determine how best to market to Chinese
Sugar Daddy Education
Not sure what this says about China today. Is this just for show and sound good, or is it a real initiative?
Chinese girl to learn sour side of relying on "sugar daddies" - Xinhua
I find this disturbing from the article:
According to a recent online poll conducted by China Youth Daily, nearly 60 percent of respondents had peers who hoped to marry or rely on rich and powerful men as a way to realize personal goals. Nearly half of the respondents were born after 1980.Labels: china's future
China Fuels Waste-Paper Boom - WSJ.com
Amazing how what happens in China impacts the US. Looks like the Chinese economy has gone through a huge rebound. It was not too long ago that waste paper prices had crashed.
Labels: business chinese, made in china
Rejection from Colleges - Dealing with it
With college admissions, there is a lot of rejection by colleges. The colleges first spend a huge amount on marketing to you to get you to apply, and then reject you. And why? So they can show how selective they are are part of the rankings game. Some colleges do not even charge for online applications as a way to game the system.
I picked this up at a place I worked that had a lot of layoffs. There are four stages for dealing with loss, and many times the stages are mixed. So you have a bit of shock and anger at the same time.
For the college you thought you were a Shoe In For:
SADA
Shock - How could they reject me! Everybody gets admitted here!
Anger - I just heard that so and so got in with a lower GPA! What is wrong with that school!
Denial - There must be something wrong with their admission process.
Acceptance - Lots of qualified applicants, budget cuts for UC's in California, and I got accepted at XYZ anyway where I really wanted to go. Or it was too (fill in the blank) anyway. Labels: college admissions
San Gabriel shuts down makeshift maternity ward catering to 'birthing tourism'
New Chinatown in Salt Lake City coming soon
Welcome to the SGV (San Gabriel Valley)
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Sons by Model Minority
China Tightens Censorship of Electronic Communications
China in Latin America
Good article. The amount of Chinese investment in Latin American is amazing. Mexico sees China as a competitor for manufacturing, but other countries have rolled out the red carpet for doing business with China.
China grabs Latin America, well ahead of Obama's outreach - CS Monitor
In the past year, China has secured some $65 billion in regional deals. President Obama's current visit to Latin America is seen as a counteracting move. Labels: china's future, latin america
College Brands to Many Asian Parents
The brand name of a college is so important to many Asian Parents, especially Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese I have observed first hand.
Ivy Leagues are at the top. A parent is so proud when they can say their child is going or went to Harvard! The daughter of a Korean termite exterminator I met is going to Harvard and he was very proud. The next tier in California is the UC's an Stanford. The Claremont Colleges, CMC, Pomona, Scripps, Harvey Mudd, and Pitzer don't seem to be as well known or have the same brand awareness in the Asian community. Another ranking of the world's top universities.
The top UC's Rankings ( Rankings do vary)
#1 UC Berkeley - Student body is over 50% Asian
#2 UCLA - In 2009 was 23% acceptance rate. This year looks worse for instate. They are recruiting more students from out of state due to budget cuts.
#3 UCSD - 2009 was 40% acceptance. This year it seems to be lower. Not a safe school any more per a college admission's councilor I spoke with who commented its been getting harder and harder each year.
#4 UC Santa Barbara 49% acceptance rate in 2009
#5 UC Irvine - 49% acceptance rate in 2009
#6 - UC Davis - 53% acceptance rate
#7 UC Santa Cruz
#8 UC Riverside
#9 - UC Merced Labels: college admissions
UCLA Student with Asian Rant Video Withdraws
Reel China: Targets an elusive film fan — the Chinese American
Reel China: Targets an elusive film fan — the Chinese American - LA Times
My 2 cents on targeting Chinese in the US - Good Luck!
2 years to build the market. I don't see success with what is in the article for their distribution just targeting Chinese. Yes, there are 2.3 Million ethnic Chinese in the US, but how many actually go see movies at a movie theater.
I would suggest a better strategy is actually going through Cable and hitting video store rentals. I don't see a large audience at the movie theatres for a Mandarin Chinese film. Labels: chinatown
Chinese Mistress became Billionaire
Cheap Chinatown Buses
I took one to Las Vegas one time for a trade show, where my family met me later that day after my wife's work. It was OK and low cost. And later a person I was worked with (Hispanic) was a host on a bus to the airport. I met him in the morning when I was dropping off my in-laws to take a bus to LAX (much easier than driving there).
Crashes put scrutiny on low-fare bus lines - Associated Press
Investigation: Are Chinatown buses safe? - 7Online.com Labels: chinatown
Visa Loopholes with Colleges
Dealing with Failure and K-12
A challenge with K-12 education in the US is not teaching kids how to failure. I have heard stories about Little League teams where everyone gets a trophy, where there are no losers.
And what happens when the student applies to colleges, and they get turned down. They fail.
Even the best of students may get turned down by a Harvard, UC Berkeley, Stanford, etc. UCLA had 82,300 freshmen and transfer applications for about 7000 spots.
And all of a sudden, your little Prince or Princess who has heard so much about how they walk on water, is faced with being turned down. Of having failed.
And as a parent of this young adult, you get to help them work through this. To explain that not everyone is a winner all the time. That Life is like a bowl of Cherries, mostly sweet with a few pits. Some advice I got from one of my early bosses was it was not just important to get up when you fall down, but also how quickly you get up.
I also like the story about how babies learn to walk. They learn through lots and lots of failures, till they finally figure out how to walk.
Being a parent can be challenging! Labels: college admissions
Bilingual Chinese English Translation Quality
Translation projects unlock world of Taiwanese literature - Taiwan Today
Yes, its neat that some Taiwanese literature is being translated into English.
What I found more useful is how the explain the challenges of translating from Chinese into English.
“Because English and Chinese are vastly different languages in terms of syntax and idioms, the translator has to find the right sentence structure and the right word,” said Yeh, who has been teaching in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California-Davis since 1988.
“Moreover, images and symbols with cultural meanings are not always translatable. What is 'poetic' in one culture may be incomprehensible or ludicrous in another. In short, translatability is probably the most important consideration,” commented the Taiwan-born and raised Yeh.
Which is why I don't sell Dr. Suess in Chinese. The Chinese translations I have seen lose the flavor of the English original. For bilingual books with excellent English and Chinese, I recommend:
A Thousand Peaks: Poems from China - Wonderful book!
The Mouse Bride, Softcover Book: A Chinese Folktale, Bilingual English/Chinese Softcover
Monkey King Wreaks Havoc in Heaven - Hardcover Book - Great story!
Lady White Snake - Hardcover Book - Excellent.
The Making of the Monkey King - The Beginning. Excellent English and Chinese. And a great story!
The Ballad of Mulan - Hardcover Book - Nice version of Mulan. Great bilingual book in English and Chinese. Labels: bilingual books, english to chinese translations
Beijing Nigerian Pop Star
SAT’s Reality TV Essay Stumps Some
SAT’s Reality TV Essay Stumps Some - NY Times
The recent SAT Test had an essay question on Reality TV. Some test takers were not very happy, since they don't watch TV. Or at least not reality TV.
I am so glad my daughter is done with the SAT's including the Chinese SAT II, Now we are just waiting for college admission acceptance/rejection letters. Labels: SAT
Assimilation and celebrating cultures
Why Boxes are better for Shipping
Aargh! I dislike processing returns.
2 done so far for CB.
First one was in a priority envelope and damaged the spine of the book.
The other one was returned in a padded envelope and resulted in bent corners.
Books in both are not resellerable.
One time I ordered a book from Amazon who loves to ship using padded envelopes. Returned it twice due to damaged corners. Then when I contacted customer service they just wanted to cancel the order. I was shocked, since I still wanted the book. Amazon after another contact from me where I expressed my shock (Amazon customer for 15 years) decided to resend the book to me.
Another time a customer sent back an order with no packing material. And the cases on the CD's were broken.
Please send back books in a box! That way I don't have to tell you why I can't refund you order. I don't like to write those type of e-Mails...
Which is why all books for Childbook are sent out in boxes. I will use a padded envelope for DVD's, but for books, a box is the best way to make sure the order gets there safely. I have been lucky that I have had no customer complaints about damage for books, etc. due to packaging for 10+ years that I can remember. Labels: customer service
Update on UCLA Junion Youtube Asian Rant
My daughter knew about this Sunday night! I only found out about it Monday from a different source. This video has definitely gone viral in the Asian community.
There is even an article in the NY Times!
U.C.L.A. Student’s Video Rant Against Asians Fuels Firestorm - NY Times
And an article from the Daily Bruin on this. Comments are a good read.
And my post:
http://blog.childbook.com/2011/03/rant-on-asians-by-ucla-student.html
What I did not like:
1. The part where she did her imitation of an Asian Language.
2. Typecasting of all Asians.
3. The dumbness of putting this on you-tube. She's a political science major who is a junior, and should know better.
I did not pay a lot of attention to the video so I may have missed more objectionable content in the video. Labels: Racism
Red Capitalism
Answers some questions on whatever happened to the loans to the state backed companies and other underwater investments.
Book Review in the Wall Street Journal on Red Capitalism that compares it to what happened at Enron.
China's Fiscal Legerdemain Mountains of bad loans have been shifted within the banking system, putting off the day of reckoning. - Wall Street JournalLabels: china's future
Rant on Asians By UCLA Student
Rant by a UCLA student against Asians uploaded to youtube.
And for the rest of her life when ever anyone googles her name, this will come up.
Dumb. Never, never, and never put anything online or in an E-Mail that you would not want to be on the front page of the NY Times.
And what is amazing to me, is all the super talented people who got rejected by UCLA.
Quick disclaimer, just because my Father went to USC does not make me biased :-)
And my wife's cousin went to UCLA and he is the family superstar. Labels: college admissions
Tech Rice - Great Blog
I started with an article about LinkedIn and how it was blocked for a day and then there was a great post on FaceBook in China. Great blog/site. Labels: china's future
Chinese Chip Makers May Need 20 Years to Catch Intel
Comments are interesting...
Chinese Chip Makers May Need 20 Years to Catch Intel - MIT Technology Review
My 2 cents:
Intel is an incredible company. CRUSH and Intel Inside are examples of two marketing programs that have made Intel what it is. AMD has sometimes had better chips than Intel, but Intel still stayed ahead. Technology is not everything... And now the focus is on mobile processors that are low power, and in this area Intel is playing catch up. A key strength of Intel is their manufacturing ability. Labels: china's future, made in china
Who Will be the Steve Jobs of China?
Libyan strife exposes China's risks in global quest for oil
Parking Spaces in Chinatown
Its amazing how little room there is in parking spaces in the Rowland Heights area. It makes parking a challenge. I should take some pictures to show. The stores strip the parking spaces super small, so only a very small car can fit comfortably inside. Labels: chinatown
Pork Chop Rice
It's a favorite of mine. I have had it at least 8 restaurants in the area, so I am a bit opinionated...
Reading the name, you would think its fried rice with pork. Its actually a deep fried pork chop with rice. Usually a thousand year egg comes with it. Some vegetable such as Cabbage. A bit of ground pork.
Prices vary from just above $5 to $7.30
I just went to a Restaurant last night, very good reviews per Yelp, and it cost $7.30. The place had an igloo for ice water and another one for hot tea. Self serve that I have not seen for a while. Last time I saw this was a place that offered 3 Chinese dishes for $10 in Rowland Heights. The pricing was strange. Why $7.30? And the price seemed higher than other places and the quality was OK, but not great. They also have a location in Taiwan. Labels: Chinese Food
Chinese Banks
I had to go to two Chinese banks yesterday. Yes, dutyful Son-in-law who is available during the weekday when banks are open.
There have been a lot of bank robberies around Rowland Heights, so the Chinese banks have either added security guards or you need to be buzzed in.
The first bank I went to is one was for my Father in law to do a deposit. Web up to the glass door. Rang the door bell. Tried to open, nothing. Rang door bell again. Not hearing any buzzing. So I knocked on glass door and everybody in the bank then looked at me :-) And I finally got door open. May be the battery in the door bell remote needed to be replaced or something.
Second bank for a business transfer. Not my usual branch. Big mistake. I had to take out my driver license 3 times! And then the regular branch called my wife to confirm this morning. Labels: chinatown
Forclosures in New Chinatown
No Shark Fin Soup in CA, HA, WA, and OR?
Jasmine Revolution?
I have not written anything until now, because not sure what to write.
The knowns:
- The revolutions in the Arab World are a worry to the Chinese Government Leadership
- China does not want a repeat of Tianamen Square.
- China has much more effective control over the Internet in China through the Great Firewall and an army of 50 cent bloggers (people who blog/tweet/microblog with a positive spin for the Chinese government - visit the Economist.com and any article on China to see how this perverts web 2.0 - also starting to become a joke since its so obvious).
- China does not allow uncensored Internet Searches within China (which is why Google is finally no longer in China)
- Using outside of China services, people in China are being asked to just stroll around a particular place as a form of protest.
- Known dissidents within China are being taken into custody.
- China is attempting to restrict coverage by foreign journalists. One got roughed up recently.
- Street Sweepers with water are being used as a way to prevent crowds from forming.
- China does not have the unemployment issue that the Arab countries have, with the exception of college graduates (Army of Ants)
- China does have a corruption issue as do the Arab countries.
- China's government has studied the fall of the Soviet Union and other revolutions in order to avoid a similar fate.
- The word Jasmine can no longer be searched from within China.
- China no longer reports the number of protests/demonstrations within China. 87,000 in 2005. 74,000 in 2004. 58,000 in 2003.
- China has sent a ship and a plane to get Chinese out of Libya. There were 30,000 working there. Basically the Chinese goverment did not want to be accused of not doing enough to get its citizens out.
My take - China has a very efficient security system and I don't expect any major changes as long as Economic Growth continues and corruption is kept at a reasonable level.
References:
Calls for subtle protests have China security forces in tizzy - LA Times
- Economist
- Economist Labels: china's future
Chinese language classes growing in popularity in American schools
How Chinese Students Struggle to Apply to U.S. Colleges
Having just finished the College Application process and now in the pray for acceptance process, I have a lot of sympathy for Chinese students trying to understand the strange, baffling, and makes not sense application process. One of my daughter's music teachers daughter did not get accepted to NYU, Brown, UCLA, etc. High GPA, lots of 5's on AP Tests, Leadership, etc. She ended up going to a local Cal State with a great musical theatre program, and now she is a major star in a Broadway Musical. And there are many people who were accepted into her top choices, that are still waiting tables. In some ways who gets accepted almost seems to be random. How Chinese Students Struggle to Apply to U.S. Colleges - The Atlantic Labels: college admissions
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