I answer the SUICIDE/TALK line and most of the kids I talk to that are in HS/college are asian…so obviously it is having some impact being from that cultural background/expectation of pressure
2 Likes
Wow… I’m surprised that once they get into college the pressure is still on. I mean definitely, I’d want my kids to graduate, but seems to me there’s a lot more leeway unless someone is aiming for Med school…
Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for ages 20-34
2 Likes
I figured a lot of it was depression from the transition to college and then adulthood. Can be stressful to move to places where you don’t know anyone.
It’s more than that. Imagine being the absolute best & brightest student at your local high school level and then being thrown in with the big fish at a place like Harvard or MIT. Kids that got straight A’s, had perfect SATs, took college courses and did well on the Putnam exam in HS suddenly find out that rather than being Tier 1 (which they had gotten used to) they are now Tier 3 or Tier 4. Big hit to your self esteem. I saw it first hand – many of them never recovered. Malcolm Gladwell has a good lecture on it. He argues that it is actually better over the long term to be Tier 1 at a marginal school than in the bottom 90% at a top school.
2 Likes
Really depends on parenting and how much importance parents place on being a topper & introduce stress. Feel that getting good exposure and motivation requires you to be in a decent school with inspirational teachers.
1 Like
I had this (big fish->small fish) happen to me several times. I’ve used them as learning opportunities (progress not perfection) but I can see how it can be stressful.
1 Like
Those kids’ ego may get bruised, but I don’t think that’s enough to push them into suicide.
Male youths kill themselves at a far higher rate than female, and by race the American Indians has the highest rate, followed by White:
Crude Suicide Rate Among Male Youth Aged 15 to 24 Years by Race/Ethnicity, 1999 to 2019
I don’t think tiger parenting and pressure to perform in school is a big reason for teen suicides. Sure that may account for some cases. I suspect the biggest contributor is bullying and lack of friends.
It depends on the kid. My kid was the top in his elementary school. We moved him to a school where everyone is wicked smart. He was happier because he stopped feeling bored and alone. There’s no way he would be happy at a mediocre college.
But other kids thrive in the glory. Really depends on what motivates the kid. For mine, it’s learning and being properly challenged.
I would probably say “Better Tier 1 at marginal school than bottom 30% at a top school”. Who cares if you’re 89%ile at MIT? That’s pretty good!
1 Like
1 Like
So the conclusion between your info and britt522’s is that Asians are more likely to seek out help on a suicide line unlike other ethnicities.
That’s at least a positive thing!
No you can’t. Only once a year.
On that day, the whole nation stops. People go to work late not to cause traffic jam for test takers. Police officers are busy to take the students (who are late) to testing site.
People won’t understand this unique culture unless you grow up there.
However, this score based admission is much more fair than holistic admission crap. There is huge college admission scandal in cupertino now. 2 Monta Vista sisters who were/are admitted (attending) to UPenn got caught with tens of papers published to predatory journals. The area of papers are from machine learning to mining industry to US education systems to medicine. They got coca cola scholarship with these research papers and then admitted to multiple ivy schools.
3 Likes
Just wondering out loud why I should be paying taxes for public universities that are preferentially admitting minorities and rejecting the (highly qualified) non-minorities who probably actually pay most of the taxes. It’s like a double college tuition - I’m paying tax, and then paying for tuition elsewhere too… 
3 Likes
Guess we missed the memo on that.
If they’re not going to require genetic tests then it’s definitely time to take race off of the application.
I know a black family whose kid is 99%ile who considered not putting race down because they weren’t sure which “bucket” was better for them. The mom felt that the black quota tends to be taken up by athletic recruitment and not high achieving students.
I feel like when a black family is worried about race dinging them quota-wise, just take it off. Seems like the only people winning here are the Latinos.
1 Like
Representatives from Northeastern have said that they underestimated their yield for last year’s admitted class (the number of accepted students who attended). Instead of the usual 3,300-student-sized class, the class of 2025 consisted of 4,504 students. As a result of last year’s over-enrollment, they had to decrease the class of 2026 by 25%, driving down the acceptance rate.
“The biggest factor that contributed to last year’s over enrollment was the shift to a test-optional admissions process,” Associate Vice President and Boston University Dean of Admissions Kelly Walter said in an interview with The Daily Free Press. “We never see that kind of differential yield. It was unprecedented.”
Getting rid of standardized tests is a really bad idea.
2 Likes
| School | Class of 2026 Admission Rate | Class of 2025 Admission Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Barnard College | 8% | 10.4% |
| Boston College | 16.4% | 18.9% |
| Boston University | 14% | 18.3% |
| Bowdoin College | 8.92% | 8.8% |
| Brown University | 5% | 5.5% |
| Colby College | 7.45% | 8% |
| Colgate University | TBA | 17.2% |
| Columbia University | 3.73% | 3.9% |
| Cornell University | Not Releasing Data | ~8.7% |
| Dartmouth College | 6.2% | 6.17% |
| Duke University | 6.2% | 5.7% |
| Emory University | 15.8% | 20.4% |
| Georgetown University | TBA | 12% |
| Harvard University | 3.19% | 3.43% |
| Johns Hopkins University | 6.48% | 7.4% |
| Middlebury College | 11.5% | 15.7% |
| MIT | 3.96% | 4% |
| New York University | 12.2% | 12.8% |
| Northwestern University | 7% | 6.8% |
| Pomona College | TBA | 6.6% |
| Princeton University | Not Releasing Data | 3.98% |
| Rice University | 8.56% | 9.3% |
| Stanford University | Not Releasing Data | 3.95% |
| Swarthmore College | 6.95% | 8% |
| Tufts University | 9% | 11% |
| University of Chicago | 5% | 6.2% |
| University of Notre Dame | 12.87% | 14.6% |
| University of Pennsylvania | Not Releasing Data | 5.68% |
| University of Southern California | TBA | 12% |
| University of Virginia | 18.68% | 20.6% |
| Vanderbilt University | 6.1% | 6.7% |
| Washington University in St. Louis | 10% | 13% |
| Wellesley College | 13% | 16% |
| Williams College | TBA | 8% |
| Yale University | 4.4% | 4.62% |
1 Like
I have to assume they’ve looked into this, but I think the pandemic also messed up acceptance rates big-time. Apparently University of Waterloo didn’t change their admissions process, but got 225% of their normal acceptance rate in Fall 2020 for CS. As they said “We haven’t done admissions during a pandemic before.”
Some of the change in 2021 acceptances at top colleges may also be the rumors that smaller colleges might close due to the lower revenue during the pandemic.