It's 10 o'clock. Do you know where your children are?

On collegeconfidential.com, reading the stress-charged posts of high-strung teenagers and parents. On some level, I find these posts really amusing for the simple ridiculousness that teenagers would spend their free time discussing college on forums. But then, collegeconfidential is like crack. I know it's terrible, yet I've been terribly addicted.

I spent the last half hour reading a huge thread about the discrimination against Asians in high-stakes admissions. Basically, an article in the Harvard Crimson quoted a book in which an admissions officer was quoted calling a Korean student a "textureless math grind." Knowing, if only peripherally, people whom one might label "textureless math grinds," I find the statement ridiculous and insulting. What? Why are Asians stereotyped as having no personality? No human being deserves this kind of offhand brush-off. Judgment based on only a few numbers and pieces of paper no less. They haven't even met the damn person!

At the same time I express outrage at this, I feel like I apply that label to other people too. Being Asian myself, I understand all too well the parental pressure. I would not call myself particularly rebellious, but I have tried to move away from it. I have acqueicesed to the signifigance my parents put in grades, but I hardly care about them. This year, I've managed to get my lowest test grades ever in math, history, French, and science. This is out of my entire high school career. Maybe it's because it's senior year, but I don't even get stressed out over my Cs. Although I understand, I cannot sympathize over people who cry over grades. It's not fucking worth it. My term grades all turned out okay in the end anyways.

My parents and I still have so many fundamental disagreements. I'm really lucky to have parents who are at least on the liberal side (in Asian terms only), but they still don't understand. They were absolutely devasted when I wanted to quit piano. But piano was something I absolutely abhorred. The only reason I would have continued would have been to please my parents or fancy my future college admissions officer. One reason is slightly less loathsome than the other but both are equally soul-sucking. It's also interesting that I have spent high school moving away from math/science and toward the humanities. Although I'll probably still never declare an English major, I have more of an affinity for the humanities than before. Math problems used to excite me but now I just copy them out of the answer book. Literature and art just excite me in a way numbers and impratctical theory cannot.

Yesterday, I mentioned to my parents that I probably would not apply to Harvard/Yale if I get into UChicago. My parents were crushed and upset beyond belief. They looked like I had undermined their entire life's work. (Eh, probably true upon introspection.) But...I was surprised at their reaction too. I thought they were at least okay with my choosing UChicago, but I now realize they still harbored latent hopes of Ivy. (Wow, I almost typed harvard instead of harbor--something is most definitely wrong.) My parents tried to explain it to me in terms of a financial leverage--if I get into Ivy, I might be able to negotitate a better financial aid package--but I know they still have their Asian-American dream of Ivies. I guess I'm perfectly okay with the financial explanation, but there is no way I will chose Harvard/Yale/Columbia over UChicago. It's a good thing that my chances at any of the three above schools are so low.

And it's not a rebellion/snobby thing that makes me choose UChicago either. I swear it must be fate that UChicago is everything I want in a college. Not only is it perfect in location and academics, UChicago has the exactly personality I want in a school. Even talking with fellow applicants online, I feel I have met my soulmates. UChicago has a personality that is utterly distinct from the Ivy but fits me perfectly. I think what my parents don't understand is that I am not an Ivy student; I would not fit in or succeed at Harvard at all. There was a time, long long ago, when I harbored this dream, but I now recognize the Ivies are definitely not for me. I just wish my parents would understand that too.

I'm actually not that stressed out for my decision. In fact, the emotion might be better described as excitement. Or maybe I am stressed. I don't know! This is going to sound really cocky, but I actually feel pretty confident about getting into UC. Looking at naviance stats and my total love of the school, I think I should get accepted. Of course, this will only make the deferral/rejection worse. Le sigh.

At the end of the Crimson article I mentioned above, there was a sentence that I found interesting...becasue it was basically the exact same thing as my self paper thesis: "But a major roadblock to Asian-American empowerment is that same old stereotype, imposed upon them by society and internalized by the community." It even uses the same wording! When I write English papers, I usually come up with theses that I understand to be true in real life. So is this true? I hope not.