how diverse is your family, your city, your county?

[jefhatfield]

in my family, there is japanese, italian, okinawan, english, irish, scottish, german, russian, greek, macedonian, jewish, african american, and lithuanian

the city where i live is about 99 percent white and probably more than 90 percent english descent...some say i sometimes have an english accent but that more likely comes from me having lived there and having had an english girlfriend from york ;)

the county i live is more than half white, a strong showing of hispanic and latinos, some african americans, and virtually no native americans

but the greater bay area to the north and the los angeles and san diego area to the south is stronger with spanish speaking people and i kick myself almost every day for not taking spanish in middle school and high school

after i got my 4 year degree in hr at a b-school, almost every hr job out there required that i speak spanish

[vniow]

Let's see.......most of my family is white, there's some Cherokee blood in there somewhere but it's like 1/32 or something small like that, one of my uncle's wife is from Japan and they have three kids I think and one of my cousins (who is old enough to be my aunt) married a black guy (who used to keep a couple tankfuls of alligators!http://img.ranchoweb.com/images/veronica/eek21.gif) and they adopted a girl, then later had one of their own.

And all that's on my dad's side (except for the Cherokee I think) my mom's side is all white as far as I know except for my adopted uncle who is from the Phillipenes.

There's some Irish blood on my mom's side also I think.

My city (more of a small town really) is about 99.9% white except for some tourists that pass through, and the town I used to live in before this one was about the same, however, when I lived in the city (OKC) it was pretty diverse and I miss that now that I've spent a few years in the country, it just seems like there's more to choose from in most cities than the country, in my experience, the reasons that most people give to move out into the country aren't worth the INCREDIBLE BOREDOM that exists here, or maybe I'm just a city girl, I don't know.http://img.ranchoweb.com/images/veronica/rolleyes.gif

Santa Cruz county is fairly diverse I guess, mostly white out in the suburb areas, but more diverse as you go farther into the city, the more diverse it gets.

Am I making any sense here?

[diorio]

I live in Co Springs, so it is mostly white. The hispanic population is growing, as is the african american population. My family is all adriatic.

[Rower_CPU]

Family:
White as far as I know...Mayflower...John Hancock...stuff like that.

City/County:
The whole San Diego/ Tijuana area is an interesting mix of California and Mexico...so pretty diverse. Plenty of people from all over the Pacific, Europe, etc all end up here. I love it!

[Doctor Q]

I'm in Los Angeles, so of course we have people of every culture. Our school district has students who speak over 100 (maybe over 150) different languages.

We are spoiled by having people of all backgrounds everywhere we turn. We get used to the variety. I have neighbors of all backgrounds and religions. I can find any kind of ethnic food if I drive in any direction.

It is true that people who took other than Spanish in high school are often sorry they didn't take Spanish, the "more practical" language in L.A.

When I'm in other cities, I'm often shocked that everyone looks and sounds the same!

[GrandShenlong]

I'm 100% mainland Chinese
School: largest in MI, English, black, Hispanic, Chinese (few), Korean (more), Japanese (very rare), German, Russian, Lithuanian, Irish, Swedish, Dutch (almost typed "Hollish":p), etc. etc.

Yeah. Diverse. Very liberal, which can be irksome at times.

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by GrandShenlong

Yeah. Diverse. Very liberal, which can be irksome at times.

wow. jump in on the political threads if you have not already ;)

your sat score is amazing...you are ivy bound if you so choose...20+ yrs ago at my hs, we had someone score in the low 14s who chose not to go to college until much later and did only 2 yrs and dropped out and became very successful instead but his score was a record at the public hs...but there were private hs kids that did 15, but i never heard of 1550 on west coast

you can go to harvard and swap stories with john123 here:D

[marcsiry]

Not sure why the SAT score is relevant here. I could post how much money I make, which I'm reasonably sure is more than most people on this board, but what purpose would it serve other than to piss some people off?

Anyhow, I'm half Puerto Rican, half Dominican, and 100% New Yorker :-) My wife is Nisei Japanese from Los Angeles. We live in Manhattan, which is as diverse as it gets.

..and we're both Mac users, as our future kids will be too, dammit!

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by marcsiry
Not sure why the SAT score is relevant here. I could post how much money I make, which I'm reasonably sure is more than most people on this board, but what purpose would it serve other than to piss some people off?

Anyhow, I'm half Puerto Rican, half Dominican, and 100% New Yorker :-) My wife is Nisei Japanese from Los Angeles. We live in Manhattan, which is as diverse as it gets.

..and we're both Mac users, as our future kids will be too, dammit!

the sat score is not related to this thread, i just noticed it on the poster's sig below and my eyes fell out...that's a good score for a 16 year old kid

if you try and force your kids to go mac, they might rebel and become pc users:p

[Backtothemac]

My Mom, was Cherokee and Irish, Dad is Irish and Seoux. So, I have a lot of Native American blood in me. It doesn't show on me the way it did on my mom though.

Rest of the family is the same. We have family that have married Asian, and African Americans, so I would like to say we are diverse.

My city, 70% white, 30% black. Great place, and lots of culture. Mercedes Benz has a factory here, and they have brought a lot of culture here.

My country. different per area.

[eyelikeart]

ok...where do I begin?

New Orleans...70% black.
I live in Kenner techincally, a suburb. The suburbs are predominately white.

There is a big Hispanic community here also.

Lots of diversity & closed-mindedness, in my opinion though.

My family...
Mom's side all goes back to the old country in Sicily. Dad's side is mixed (German/French/Spanish).

I look Italian for sure...but I'm a Heinz 57 blend... ;)

[mcrain]

I'm from South Central Illinois which is extremely diverse if you consider the subtle differences between one white corn-bred person and the next white orn-bred person.

Actually there are some people of color here, including black, a small amount of Asians, and a very few Jewish people.

My family is white (German, Hungarian, Scottish mix) while I am an adopted half Indian/half Irish mutt. (Real Indian, not Native American).

[JustAGuy]

lemme see, my city (Van, BC) is about 50-60% white, 30-40% asian (mostly mainland china), 10-20% Indian and then a smattering of other races/cultures including native, french-canadian, just plain french, various europeans, etc.

The regional district i live in (Cdn equiv. of a US county) is even more diverse, seeing as it includes both Richmond (pre-dominately asian) and Surrey (high Indian pop).

As a result, this has to be one of the best cities to live in if you're into multiculturalism--especially the cuisine aspect. Only out here are sushi restaurants even more popular than coffee shops (and we have a lot of coffee shops--think seattle)...

[P-Worm]

I live in Utah. I think we have a black family now. ;)

Utah's moving up the diversity ladder!

P-Worm

[mcrain]

I personally can't stand the bubble "race" questionairs on some tests and forms...

The current population of the earth is 6.246 Billion people.

The population in "Asia," excluding the pacific rim (arguably part of Australia), is 3.66 Billion.

Just shy of 60% of the people on this planet have to fill in the "Asian" bubble!

That's awfully silly if you ask me.

[JustAGuy]

And 50% have to fill in the Male bubble... what's your point, exactlyl? Race is a perfectly valid demographic stat to gather.

[Durandal7]

Let's see, I'm 50% Calabrian, 12.5% German and 37.5% Scottish. My city has a fairly large hispanic population but is by no means a model of diversity.

One branch of my family is one of those massive sterotypical extended Italian families. We're all white folk. My sister in law is Pakistani though.

[Doctor Q]

Originally posted by P-Worm
Utah's moving up the diversity ladder!I was in Salt Lake City last November and went to the Mormon temple for a tour. I know very little about the Latter-day Saints and their religion and just wanted to learn a bit. Our tourguides were both Europeans who were there for religious training. I saw non-whites here and there, but I think they were mostly the tourists. In any case, everyone was extremely polite. Most interesting parts of the tour: the tabernacle and the genealogy research center.

[wwworry]

Queens is the most diverse city in the world with 158 nationalities and 110 languages spoken. We all get along pretty well. It means there are a lot of really great restaurants, bakeries and interesting looking people. Just walking to the corner store is always a treat. Also, within three blocks is a grocery store, 2 produce vendors, 4 banks, a CVS, a 24 hour Genovese Pharmacy, 3 bakeries, a subway station, a Radio Shack, a Blockbuster Video, a Dunkin Doughnuts, a Twin Doughnut, 2 Florists, many delis and more.

Not only is it diverse, it's incredibly convienient. I hardly ever have to drive.

[kettle]

I live in a diverse world where people like to compartmentalise.

Myself and my family are not diverse.
That must make me....
a. racist
or
b. irrelevant

:confused:

[wwworry]

or you could be neither!:)

[kettle]

Originally posted by wwworry
or you could be neither!:)
Damn Right, but which liberal nitpick of a box would that be?

[wwworry]

Originally posted by kettle

Damn Right, but which liberal nitpick of a box would that be?

I'm not sure I know what you are talking about. I thought you were neither racist or irrelevant.

[Taft]

Well, my family isn't very diverse...mostly European (Irish, Scottish, French/English and German) with a rumored smidgeon of Native American (which, judging from the family members I've met, is probably just a story my grandmother made up).

I live in Chicago, which is probably the most diverse place in the midwest and competes very well with LA and New York in diversity.

I do have some complaints about Chicago, though. Segregation is rampant here as a result of gentrification and absolutely no rent control in most neighborhoods. As a result, the loop, river west and north, the near north and north side are pretty un-diverse. This is somewhat dissappointing, but not unlike most major cities these days. Gentrification (while I don't think its all bad, just in need of some control) is ruining the diversity of many neighborhoods in all the major cities.

A perfect example in Chicago is Wicker Park on the near NorthWest side. About a decade ago, it was a hugely diverse neighborhood that was the artistic heart of the city. The rent was cheap enough that artists could live and work in the same section of the city along side a diverse range os city-folk. Within the last decade, the neighborhood has gentrified and rents have soared. It is now in the top 5 most expensive neighborhoods in the city resembling the also-gentrified SoHo in NY. This has pushed most of the artists out and a bunch of yuppie condo owners in. The surrounding neighborhoods are still quite diverse (Logon Square, Humboldt Park and Ukrainian Village are all quite ethnic neighborhoods), but Wicker Park itself is becoming less and less diverse as the last of the buildings go condo and the last few reasonably priced apartments are rehabbed and re-priced.

Hopefully the gentrification trend will simmer down in the coming years. I mean how many yuppies can there be??

BTW--I would probably be considered quite the yuppie myself...something I'm hoping to change in the near future. There are a lot of neighborhoods in the city outside the "safe" north side. I've been exploring them lately and they seem like much more vibrant communities than the Starbucks patronizing, Jetta driving trixies and yuppies of the high-rent north side.

Taft

[kettle]

Originally posted by wwworry


I'm not sure I know what you are talking about. I thought you were neither racist or irrelevant.

I think that time is the only solution and no one can rush the process. If I seem a little annoyed it's because I think too many people are trying to form the way I live and think. The problem is, their change is made by law and the pressures of guilt (a lot like a religion would do things) television and the P.C. movement. The times I notice this most are when I feel down about myself and the whole world, my usual solution is to switch off the T.V. and the radio and avoid anything that resembles "on the hour" reporting of how crap the world and its contents are today. I would like to have 16 proper conversations in a day not get spouted 16 HYPER NEWS reports running us all down one by one compartment by compartment. Switch off the news for one working week and I promise the world starts to feel much better, any news good or bad and someone here will mention it. Good or bad you'll only have to read it once. Also, because I've not been watching too much news I have had pleanty of good feeling to spare I've sent it to the lost souls on the Space Shuttle, I heard about it first on this forum before it hit the news in the U.K. Feeling good spreads undetected much like yawning, speaking off which I'm sure I sound a little dull by now. Anyway, I come here to find peoples opinion on everything. I think you're all lovely for spending time here too.

[bousozoku]

Originally posted by mcrain
I personally can't stand the bubble "race" questionairs on some tests and forms...

The current population of the earth is 6.246 Billion people.

The population in "Asia," excluding the pacific rim (arguably part of Australia), is 3.66 Billion.

Just shy of 60% of the people on this planet have to fill in the "Asian" bubble!

That's awfully silly if you ask me.

I'm just happy that it's Asian instead of Other, which I filled so many times. Two choices, white and other--no diversity there. That didn't change until the early 1980s in Indiana.

I am Japanese-born, but half-white as well--possibly Italian American (another noodle eater.) My adoptive family is Hungarian-Cherokee Indian on my mum's side and Irish-English-Norweigen on my dad's.

Orlando is not very diverse. Many Anglos, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Blacks, and Vietnamese. There are quite a few more Hispanics due to hurricane Andrew which prompted their move from Miami.

[lmalave]

Originally posted by jefhatfield


wow. jump in on the political threads if you have not already ;)

your sat score is amazing...you are ivy bound if you so choose...20+ yrs ago at my hs, we had someone score in the low 14s who chose not to go to college until much later and did only 2 yrs and dropped out and became very successful instead but his score was a record at the public hs...but there were private hs kids that did 15, but i never heard of 1550 on west coast

you can go to harvard and swap stories with john123 here:D

Dang, that SAT score IS amazing! Keep in mind, though jefhatfield, that a 1550 now is not the same as a 1550 when you and I took it (cause of recentering or whatever). For example, at MIT 1/3 of students now score a 1600!! (and over 50% are ranked #1 in their class). When I was there I only met one kid who scored a 1600 (he also graduated from H.S. when he was 15 and could recite pi to 200+ digits).

Even with the recentering 1550 is a great score, tho :eek:
(I think current average for students attending MIT is about 1500, I'm sure Harvard's is lower :D )

[lmalave]

Dang, jefhatfield your family is DIVERSE :eek:

Well, all my family is from Puerto Rico which isn't culturally diverse but is very genetically diverse. If you divide the races into broadly speaking "caucasoid", "negroid", and "mongoloid" (asian), then it is one of the very few places in the world mix of all 3. Though I would say Brazil is even more diverse since it has a much larger native american population (in Puerto Rico all the native americans were wiped out within 100 years). Racially speaking my family ranges from fair skinned and green eyed (me, my mother, and her father), to completely black (my great-grandfather and cousins on my father's side).

In terms of city, well I live in NYC :D
Which is now officially less than 50% white, by the way.

[lmalave]

Originally posted by bousozoku

Orlando is not very diverse. Many Anglos, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Blacks, and Vietnamese. There are quite a few more Hispanics due to hurricane Andrew which prompted their move from Miami.

Hehehe. I think you'd find there are more Puerto Ricans and fewer Cubans than you might think. In the 90's several hundred thousand Puerto Ricans moved from the island to Florida, many to the Orlando area. We're takin' over, man :p

[lmalave]

Originally posted by marcsiry
Not sure why the SAT score is relevant here. I could post how much money I make, which I'm reasonably sure is more than most people on this board, but what purpose would it serve other than to piss some people off?

Anyhow, I'm half Puerto Rican, half Dominican, and 100% New Yorker :-) My wife is Nisei Japanese from Los Angeles. We live in Manhattan, which is as diverse as it gets.

..and we're both Mac users, as our future kids will be too, dammit!

Awright a Puerto Rican earnin' some cash! We could use more Boricuas like you :D

What's Nisei Japanese?

And hey, man, the guy posting his SATs is just a kid. Cut him some slack, will ya :)

[Doctor Q]

Nisei Japanese means a 2nd generation immigrant, i.e., a child of emigrants from Japan, usually born in the country to which the parents moved. Sometimes it includes those born in Japan who moved with their parents as babies.

Nisei = 2nd generation
Sansei = 3rd generation
Yonsei = 4th generation
Gosei = 5th generation

[MrMacMan]

I'm white.

My dad is german.
My mom's side of the family is polish & austrian.

My mom is Jewish. My dad is lutheran.
I am jewish, by definition. :rolleyes:

There is not much more to be, but if you call me a racist against myself I'll get pissed off.

(Note to slow people: Look at what place my dad comes from & my religion.
My dad was like 2 when it happened.)

[bousozoku]

Originally posted by lmalave


Hehehe. I think you'd find there are more Puerto Ricans and fewer Cubans than you might think. In the 90's several hundred thousand Puerto Ricans moved from the island to Florida, many to the Orlando area. We're takin' over, man :p

Yeah, wasn't that because of hurricane Hugo? I was living in Philly until 1996 and we had a huge influx of PRs in the early 1990s.

Taking over? I'd say so. They want the schools to teach in Spanish here instead of English. It's just a good thing I can mumble Spanish well enough to confuse people really well. :D

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by lmalave


Dang, that SAT score IS amazing! Keep in mind, though jefhatfield, that a 1550 now is not the same as a 1550 when you and I took it (cause of recentering or whatever). For example, at MIT 1/3 of students now score a 1600!! (and over 50% are ranked #1 in their class). When I was there I only met one kid who scored a 1600 (he also graduated from H.S. when he was 15 and could recite pi to 200+ digits).

Even with the recentering 1550 is a great score, tho :eek:
(I think current average for students attending MIT is about 1500, I'm sure Harvard's is lower :D )

i know they made the test easier by 50-100 points...i got a mediocre 1150 which is the equivalent to today's 1210...which sounds better but still would not get me into an elite school

but i went to a california state school where many did not reach 1000 on the SAT

[MacFan25]

My family, I would say is not very diverse. We are almost all white. My, city, however, is pretty diverse. We have Whites, African Americans, and it seems like the Hispanic population is growing. I live in the United States, and it is very diverse.

[lmalave]

Originally posted by jefhatfield


i know they made the test easier by 50-100 points...i got a mediocre 1150 which is the equivalent to today's 1210...which sounds better but still would not get me into an elite school

but i went to a california state school where many did not reach 1000 on the SAT

Yeah, the elite schools are so hard to get into now. Private colleges are so expensive that students feel it's not worth to pay that much unless it's an elite college, so applications to both elite colleges and state colleges have surged (not that they're mutually exclusive - just in your state your have Berkelely, UCLA, Riverside)

Oh, and BTW I just realized that the data I gave above for MIT was NOT for all students. That data is for those admitted under early admission. Still one freakin' third of 'em having a 1600?!? That's crazy! I think before the recentering fewer than 10 kids a year nationwide got a 1600...

Oh, and you'd be surprised how many kids with your SAT scores I've met that went to elite schools. The thing is they went to top private schools, though. Kids at private schools aren't necessarily smarter, but at private school they learn discipline and how to push themselves to the limit. That's why kids from Exeter or Andover will often get higher grades at whatever Ivy League school they go to than they did in high school. So there's some food for thought for the nature vs. nurture debate.

Oh, and BTW, that's one of the reasons schools started giving more weight to the SAT. A few decades ago Ivy League schools were used to just accepting from the usual list of top private schools. SAT was a way to compare students from schools that they didn't know anything about, so they could start accepting a lot more kids from public schools. I think a school like Harvard is still well over 50% private school kids, though. When my brother went there 10 years ago, he only met one other kid that was on financial aid.

[Chad]

I live on Maui
its mostly human with a few idiots that have moved here thinking they are super cool surf dudes now
they usually last a few months then are out of here
a few other kinds of people those that love to move here to take advantage of people and try to scam the tourist type

I would say %15 dikheads
sadly %%25 - %40 crackheads wacked out on ice (including some of the above diks)
the rest of the %60 are human
we dont count the people that move here and are gone in 3 months

seems that race crosses all boundries of the above type so hard to say ;)

I figure I am human thats my race ;)

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by lmalave


Yeah, the elite schools are so hard to get into now. Private colleges are so expensive that students feel it's not worth to pay that much unless it's an elite college, so applications to both elite colleges and state colleges have surged (not that they're mutually exclusive - just in your state your have Berkelely, UCLA, Riverside)

Oh, and BTW I just realized that the data I gave above for MIT was NOT for all students. That data is for those admitted under early admission. Still one freakin' third of 'em having a 1600?!? That's crazy! I think before the recentering fewer than 10 kids a year nationwide got a 1600...

Oh, and you'd be surprised how many kids with your SAT scores I've met that went to elite schools. The thing is they went to top private schools, though. Kids at private schools aren't necessarily smarter, but at private school they learn discipline and how to push themselves to the limit. That's why kids from Exeter or Andover will often get higher grades at whatever Ivy League school they go to than they did in high school. So there's some food for thought for the nature vs. nurture debate.

Oh, and BTW, that's one of the reasons schools started giving more weight to the SAT. A few decades ago Ivy League schools were used to just accepting from the usual list of top private schools. SAT was a way to compare students from schools that they didn't know anything about, so they could start accepting a lot more kids from public schools. I think a school like Harvard is still well over 50% private school kids, though. When my brother went there 10 years ago, he only met one other kid that was on financial aid.

there are tons of good schools in california...we have the second most highly funded public college system in the united states after new york and their suny system...if you went to cal or ucla, people say..."ok fine, who didn't?"

you go to stanford or usc, people either say, "wow, you are smart or rich or both and i will give you prefernetial treatment for the rest of your life"

this is why people shell out the extra dough...it's not fair but in a capitalistic society, you get what you pay for

same goes with computers...i could get a pc laptop, thin 1" model pentium III-M at 1 ghz for $1449 or get apple's version of a 1 ghz laptop for much more, even though they both use the same type and amount of ram, same size hard drive, and combo drive, and same mobile video card

the apple product costs more, is a little better, but in the end, guess which one turns heads?

as a middle aged person and former hr officer, the exclusive, private, strong academic universities turn the heads, get the jobs, get the promotions, and all that stuff 99 percent of the time

[Rower_CPU]

Here's something that's going on in the CSU system (or at least SDSU):

The universities are getting crowded and many programs have become impacted. This causes the admission standards to go up. Higher high school GPA and test scores are required to get in the door now.

I'm pretty sure the only difference between a CSU and a UC right now is the price tag...;)

[lmalave]

Originally posted by jefhatfield

there are tons of good schools in california...we have the second most highly funded public college system in the united states after new york and their suny system...if you went to cal or ucla, people say..."ok fine, who didn't?"

you go to stanford or usc, people either say, "wow, you are smart or rich or both and i will give you prefernetial treatment for the rest of your life"


Heh, it's safe to say California gets a lot more bang for their buck, though - the SUNY schools haven't exactly distinguished themselves in the academic world, whereas the California system is widely recognized as the finest public university system in the U.S. and therefore the world.

Are you serious, in Cali USC is considered more prestigious than Cal or UCLA? That just makes no sense to me, man. That's depressing, but I guess money talks, like you said. I will tell you, though, that USC is not considered an elite school on the East Coast, so maybe it's just a Cali thing. As far as I know the only 3 West Coast schools that get a lot of recognition nationally are Stanford, Berkeley, and UCLA in that order, with Stanford being way ahead of Berkelely and Berkeley being way ahead of UCLA. USC would be below even the University of Washington, maybe on the same level as UC Riverside or UCSD. All USC is known for nationally is football, really.

<edit>
Oh, dude, I totally forgot about CalTech! They would be below Stanford but ahead of Berkeley in terms of national prestige. All the other small schools like the Pomona colleges don't get a lot of national recognition.
</edit>

[lmalave]

Originally posted by Rower_CPU
Here's something that's going on in the CSU system (or at least SDSU):

The universities are getting crowded and many programs have become impacted. This causes the admission standards to go up. Higher high school GPA and test scores are required to get in the door now.

I'm pretty sure the only difference between a CSU and a UC right now is the price tag...;)

Not surprising considering I've heard that in some Cali high schools you get dozens of kids in a graduating class with perfect 4.0 GPAs. What's with that grade inflation, man? They gotta bring that under control. And what's the point of all these kids breezing through high school? How about making classes more challenging? Those kids are just gonna get spanked at the college level if they were never challenged in high school. Oh wait, what am I saying? I forgot about the rampant grade inflation in college where typically in most classes the professor just gives the top half of the class A's and the bottom half B's :rolleyes:

[Rower_CPU]

I think you missed my point.

The entry requirements are harder now, meaning the average academic level goes up.

I doubt the schools are crowded due to grade inflation. At approximately $1000 a semester, the CSUs are dirt cheap.

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by lmalave


Not surprising considering I've heard that in some Cali high schools you get dozens of kids in a graduating class with perfect 4.0 GPAs. What's with that grade inflation, man? They gotta bring that under control. And what's the point of all these kids breezing through high school? How about making classes more challenging? Those kids are just gonna get spanked at the college level if they were never challenged in high school. Oh wait, what am I saying? I forgot about the rampant grade inflation in college where typically in most classes the professor just gives the top half of the class A's and the bottom half B's :rolleyes:

in the book, the best 342 schools by the princeton review, suny makes the cuts as does the cal state and uc system...the stanford, harvard, yale's of the world still have the better reputation and west and east coasters can agree on that

if you think ucla and cal berkeley have a better reputation than the university of southern california, a private university...only second to stanford...then you must be from another area of the country....he he

academically, according to newsweek, usnwr, and princeton review...all three schools, cal, ucla, and usc are top 50 out of 1500 schools nationwide

but in southern california, you will find that ucla is full of people who got rejected by usc

and in northern california, you will find the cal berkeley is full of people who got rejected by stanford

i have never heard of someone, except once, that chose berkeley over stanford if they got accepted to both

in the one case i heard, it was a german phd student who chose cal over stanford because cal scored a 99 and stanford scored a 98...and paying out of state fees anyway, both schools pretty much cost him the same amount of money

he had no idea which school had the better reputation in his chosen field of being a college chemistry teacher, he just knew that an american phd would help the resume when he got back to germany

as a human resource officer, i told him the difference but in his case thousands of miles away, i don't think some school administrator or hr type in germany would really even care...cal or stanford

rower, i am largely a product of the california funded school system with two california jcs, sonoma state university, and cal poly under my belt and never did anyone think that the more expensive university of california, publicly funded also, was way better

only usc and stanford raised the eyebrows

and if you were an engineer, cal tech and embry riddle

and if you really knew your elite schools above and beyond the publicly funded institutions, there was university of san francisco, university of san diego, university of the pacific, cogswell, pepperdine university, and several others

but for the rest of us with sat scores below 1300 or 1400 with less than 100k in the bank, the state funded universities and junior colleges in california are an excellent education and i am more than happy to pay taxes here if they go to such a good cause

[Phil Of Mac]

I, my family, and my town are not very diverse at all. We are almost all US citizens.

[lmalave]

Originally posted by jefhatfield

if you think ucla and cal berkeley have a better reputation than the university of southern california, a private university...only second to stanford...then you must be from another area of the country....he he

academically, according to newsweek, usnwr, and princeton review...all three schools, cal, ucla, and usc are top 50 out of 1500 schools nationwide

but in southern california, you will find that ucla is full of people who got rejected by usc

and in northern california, you will find the cal berkeley is full of people who got rejected by stanford
....

only usc and stanford raised the eyebrows


Dude, what can I say, I'm still flabbergasted at realizing the status of USC in California. I grew up in Oregon, so I can tell you that USC's status doesn't extend even to adjacent states. Looking at the U.S. News and World Reports rankings (which is by no means indicative of quality but *is* probably the best gauge of a college's national reputation):

#4 Stanford and CalTech (tied)
#20 Berkeley
#25 UCLA
#31 USC

As a basis of comparison:

#17 Brown
#21 Carnegie-Mellon
#24 Georgetown
#31 UCSD and Univ. of Wisconsin (tied with USC)

So actually, Cal is ranked lower and USC higher than I had thought (I thought Cal was maybe 5 places higher and USC five places lower), but still, if you look at the schools that Cal is ranked with and the schools that USC is ranked with, you'd have to say that Cal definitely has a significant advantage over USC in terms of national reputation. So those USC grads better stay in California to milk their local rep for all it's worth ;)

Being a private school isn't everything, man. Of course on average a private school (be it college, high school, or whatever) will be better than the average public school, because of higher student selectivity, financial resources, etc. But the best public schools like Berkeley, Michigan, etc. still beat most private schools.

I grew up going to great (in my opinion) public schools in Oregon and ended up scoring higher on my SATs than most private school kids who spend their whole lives devoted to that crap and whose parents spent tens of thousands of dollars on private schools, SAT prep courses, etc. Not that I think SATs are the end all and be all, but they *are* useful to compare different schools, especially schools as different as a top private school vs. a typical public school.

And I do admit I get some satisfaction out of debunking the myths that some private school kids have - often they are brainwashed into believing their own exalted status (especially since in private school they tend to only meet people with the same background as them). I've seriously had conversation with private school kids where they're, like, "teachers at my school were so good, they were actually interesting lecturers - that's what you don't get at public school." And I'm, like, "umm...my teachers were pretty darn interesting." And they're like "yeah, but we read *real* literature like this and this and that". And I'm like, "uhhh, yeah, I read all those..." And they're like "no, but we really had class discussion". And I'm like "ummm...so did we." And they're like "Yeah, but in private school we get to see different viewpoints, and you can discuss controversial issues that would get whitewashed in public school. Like did you know what happened to native americans in this country?" And I'm like "ummm...not only did we discuss it but we specifically discussed how it gets whitewashed. And speaking of different viewpoints, in my 10th grade history class we spent 1/3 of the time studying non-western history such as China, the Middle East, Africa, etc." And then they look at me incredulously like "you actually learned about China, the Middle East and Africa?!?"

Hehe - I've had some variation of the above conversation numerous times, since there were a lot of private school kids at my college plus there seem to be more prep school kids on the East Coast in general. I will say this about prep school kids, though - they're definitely more well rounded on average, since they're usually required to do sports and also almost everyone by their senior year has at least one leadership position in their team, club, etc.

[X-Baz]

i'm english, born of an indian family. my family contains many english, german, french and indian members. my dad's family is mainly "mongoloid" (ie "oriental" asian) whereas my mum's family is mainly "aryan" (ie indian asian). that's cos we're from assam (look it up).
and i live in leeds, which is full of muslim indians, west indians, poles and greeks. as well as yorkshire types (yorkshire is often considered to be its own country, atleast by yorkshiremen). no native americans though.
(sorry, I thought this was much too yank-based).

[RndmAxess]

deleted

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by lmalave


Dude, what can I say, I'm still flabbergasted at realizing the status of USC in California. I grew up in Oregon, so I can tell you that USC's status doesn't extend even to adjacent states. Looking at the U.S. News and World Reports rankings (which is by no means indicative of quality but *is* probably the best gauge of a college's national reputation):

#4 Stanford and CalTech (tied)
#20 Berkeley
#25 UCLA
#31 USC

As a basis of comparison:

#17 Brown
#21 Carnegie-Mellon
#24 Georgetown
#31 UCSD and Univ. of Wisconsin (tied with USC)

So actually, Cal is ranked lower and USC higher than I had thought (I thought Cal was maybe 5 places higher and USC five places lower), but still, if you look at the schools that Cal is ranked with and the schools that USC is ranked with, you'd have to say that Cal definitely has a significant advantage over USC in terms of national reputation. So those USC grads better stay in California to milk their local rep for all it's worth ;)

Being a private school isn't everything, man. Of course on average a private school (be it college, high school, or whatever) will be better than the average public school, because of higher student selectivity, financial resources, etc. But the best public schools like Berkeley, Michigan, etc. still beat most private schools.

I grew up going to great (in my opinion) public schools in Oregon and ended up scoring higher on my SATs than most private school kids who spend their whole lives devoted to that crap and whose parents spent tens of thousands of dollars on private schools, SAT prep courses, etc. Not that I think SATs are the end all and be all, but they *are* useful to compare different schools, especially schools as different as a top private school vs. a typical public school.

And I do admit I get some satisfaction out of debunking the myths that some private school kids have - often they are brainwashed into believing their own exalted status (especially since in private school they tend to only meet people with the same background as them). I've seriously had conversation with private school kids where they're, like, "teachers at my school were so good, they were actually interesting lecturers - that's what you don't get at public school." And I'm, like, "umm...my teachers were pretty darn interesting." And they're like "yeah, but we read *real* literature like this and this and that". And I'm like, "uhhh, yeah, I read all those..." And they're like "no, but we really had class discussion". And I'm like "ummm...so did we." And they're like "Yeah, but in private school we get to see different viewpoints, and you can discuss controversial issues that would get whitewashed in public school. Like did you know what happened to native americans in this country?" And I'm like "ummm...not only did we discuss it but we specifically discussed how it gets whitewashed. And speaking of different viewpoints, in my 10th grade history class we spent 1/3 of the time studying non-western history such as China, the Middle East, Africa, etc." And then they look at me incredulously like "you actually learned about China, the Middle East and Africa?!?"

Hehe - I've had some variation of the above conversation numerous times, since there were a lot of private school kids at my college plus there seem to be more prep school kids on the East Coast in general. I will say this about prep school kids, though - they're definitely more well rounded on average, since they're usually required to do sports and also almost everyone by their senior year has at least one leadership position in their team, club, etc.

are public schools as good as private schools...in the top 200 or 300 schools, i am sure they are comparable...but that's not really the point that will make the difference in life

as a human resources ba graduate and a former hr person, i will tell you straight away that carnegie mellon and georgetown, even though ranked after cal berkeley in the above survey, will get, retain, and move up in the job in the "game of life" better than cal...make no mistake...even though cal is a great school and most of my friends and family are cal graduates

ucsd and wisconsin, both public schools, are as good as usc...on paper...but a toyota early 90s mr2 gets better gas mileage than a 250,000 dollar bently...if given the chance to get one car as a free gift, i would take the bentley and not worry about gas mileage stats...which these college rankings are anyway

one of my alma maters, cal poly san luis obispo, a california state college at 2k a quarter or something reasonable, tied cal tech in some aspect of undergraduate engineering and it was all over the news in southern california and great bragging rights for cal poly for sure...but thank you again, i will take the private college over cal poly...again, beyond college rankings, think how your college decision will affect your post-college life

i love the cal poly alumni roster where they have graduates excel to vp levels in medium and large companies...some of them excel even further to start their own businesses to become millionaires
...and when a cal poly mustang makes it, i am happy because they beat all the odds to get where they are and truly deserve it

then take the private college which i also went to...no better on paper...but some of the alumni are retired ceo/chairman of bank of america, chief of staff of the air force, former president of microsoft and now a ceo of large silicon valley firm, ceo of sgi graphics, cio of wells fargo, shuttle astronauts, a lawyer that first broke big tobacco for over a billion dollars+, a former mayor of san francisco who built the city into what it is today, etc...

the more well rounded and more well connected people at private prep schools and colleges hang together and as life progresses, the rich become richer and the poor become poorer and usually a ticket into the "club" can at the very least be ivy league credentials or midwestern private school credentials like university of chicago, or west coast credentials like usc and stanford

this inside, almost fraternity, good ole boy network is not fair and probably not ethical, but in the united states (a young country) we have not stayed too far from the english system of power and their oxford-cambridge monopoly on power

heck, just look at the joggers where i live...in the poor area they have some college sweatshirt that says (insert here)-state where the ones working out at the private tennis club have their stanford, usc, and harvard sweatshirts on...having played tennis my whole life, i have never seen a cal berkeley sweatshirt there...some may have graduated from cal and are in the tennis club...but they don't advertise it and let the stanford/usc types do that...and also remember, the best and the brightest of cal were originally rejected from stanford and usc...cal is the holding tank for those who didn't quite land that private school acceptance letter...with that private school letter, come the loans and grants...like nobody's business ;)

private schools grads, by and large, donate tons of money per person to their alma mater...this is not the case with publicly funded schools

this is my observation as an hr professional, not my recommendation on how things should be with the convoluted way of the rich and powerful;)

ps- in a perfect world, i can see cal as a even choice with usc if my kid were accepted to both

...and of course, this post has nothing to do with the thread...and one i started to boot:p :p