Hasn't he tried to learn any programming on his own? I would a prospective CS major to have some programming experience. He can try Scratch, Python, or some other language.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/sports/before-athletic-recruiting-in-the-ivy-league-some-math.html Before Recruiting in Ivy League, Applying Some Math By BILL PENNINGTON New York Times December 24, 2011 According to http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/12/25/sports/25ivy-GFX.html?ref=sports the academic index is computed using either (1) SAT scores and the GPA OR (2) SAT and SAT II scores and the GPA There is a minimum academic index for recruited athletes. The Ivies have discretion in how much weight they give the academic index for other students. If one has higher SAT II scores than SAT scores, the academic index computed using (2) will be higher than using (1).

My 8yo boy really enjoys the LoF books, but primarily as fiction, which is ok, since it is not his main math curriculum. If a child likes LoF stories, what are some other adventure stories he would probably like?

ARISTOTLE’S NICOMACHEAN ETHICS Translated By Robert C. Bartlett And Susan D. Collins 339 pp. The University of Chicago Press. $35. is favorably reviewed by HARRY V. JAFFA in the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/books/review/book-review-aristotles-nicomachean-ethics.html?ref=books . 'Some time in the 1920s, the Conservative statesman F. E. Smith — Lord Birkenhead — gave a copy of the “Nicomachean Ethics” to his close friend Winston Churchill. He did so saying there were those who thought this was the greatest book of all time. Churchill returned it some weeks later, saying it was all very interesting, but he had already thought most of it out for himself. But it is the very genius of Aristotle — as it is of every great teacher — to make you think he is uncovering your own thought in his. In Churchill’s case, it is also probable that the classical tradition informed more of his upbringing, at home and at school, than he realized. In 1946, in a letter to the philosopher Karl Löwith, Leo Strauss mentioned how difficult it had been for him to understand Aristotle’s account of magnanimity, greatness of soul, in Book 4 of the “Ethics.” The difficulty was resolved when he came to realize that Churchill was a perfect example of that virtue. So Churchill helped Leo Strauss understand Aristotle! That is perfectly consistent with Aristotle’s telling us it does not matter whether one describes a virtue or someone characterized by that virtue. Where the “Ethics” stands among the greatest of all great books perhaps no one can say. That Aristotle’s text, which explores the basis of the best way of human life, belongs on any list of such books is indisputable.' <end of excerpt>

Congratulations. Could you list the books she used to study world history?

The link you posted showed that the college sending the most students to Washington's medical school (after Washington University itself) was Harvard. Well, Harvard students had great SATs and GPAs in high school, and its pre-meds proably do very well on the MCAT, because of their intelligence and motivation. If your kid gets into Harvard but enrolls in a flagship state university to save money, I doubt his medical school admissions chances go down appreciably.

How old is your son, and how did he do on the SAT or ACT? If he is 17yo or more, and if he did poorly on these tests, then the poor CC grades may indicate college is not for him. If he is young, maybe he needs to mature. If he has good scores but poor grades, maybe he needs to work harder or more effectively.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/19/the-college-majors-that-do-best-in-the-job-market/ New York Times May 19, 2011, 12:44 pm The College Majors That Do Best in the Job Market By CATHERINE RAMPELL In my article today on the job market for recent college grads, I mentioned that academic majors seem to have a big effect on whether students are employed — and employed in jobs that use their college degrees — after they graduate. In 2009, the Labor Department’s American Community Survey began asking people what discipline they majored in, if they graduated from college. Andrew Sum, a labor economist at Northeastern University and leading expert on the youth labor market, has analyzed the resulting answers, and then looked at what types of jobs graduates of each major held. If the type of job is one that typically requires a college degree (based on other Labor Department data), he categorized these people as being in the “college labor market.” Here’s a look at his results, which show 2009 employment rates for college alumni under age 25. (We won’t have 2010 data until this summer, unfortunately.) <rest of article at link> Looking at the graphs, I am surprised that the earnings for "physical science" majors are so low, even below those of communication and business majors.

Thanks to Kathy for her informative reply. I will look at the Hartshorne geometry book. It gets good reviews on Amazon, but I suspect its primary audience is undergraduate math majors. The AOPS algebra math book I bought looks approachable to me, and I will probably get the AOPS geometry book.

There is an Epsilon math camp for children ages 8 to 11 who are highly gifted at math. The rationale is described at http://www.epsiloncamp.org/why_epsilon.php and copied below. Many parents cannot afford such a camp (both the fees and the cost of being away with the child for 2-3 weeks). I wonder what books would be good for teaching young students gifted in math. Geometry is mentioned in the bolded section below. What would be suitable geometry books? <beginning of excerpt> The acute minds of the few dozen mathematically profoundly gifted students in the nation demand intervention and direct instruction. The MathPath summer program takes these kids provided they are at least 11 years of age during camp. Presently, the math summer camps for those under 11 years are not designed for the Epsilon-gifted. The new Espilon camp is an enrichment camp for students who are at least 8 years but under 11 years while at camp. As at the MathPath camp, Epsilon gives the early experience appropriate for a future mathematician. If they choose a different profession, this early experience is likely to help than hinder. In fact, the role of the camp is to provide the setting for these students to grow in both social and academic domains. We are guided in this by the universal phenomenon of the musical banter between a mother and infant, enabling the infant to grow emotionally as well as to acquire the mother tongue. As the banter is not scripted prescription, so the topics covered at Epsilon are not the ones in the designed accelerated curricula. The topics, however, are to be mathematically relevant enrichment via interactive instruction where the mother is replaced by the mathematician, the theoretical physicist or the theoretical computer scientist. A question arises. If MathPath caters to this kind of student, why can not the child wait till he/she is old enough to go to that camp? (The writer is the founder of MathPath.) The answer is that there are many issues that need to be addressed even earlier than at the MathPath minimum age. One issue is the need to do a critical study of Euclidean Geometry - a confident familiarity with the Elements as well as its shortcomings (proof-wise). This is pure mathematics accessible to the Epsilon-gifted at this tender age. And we must show them what a certain property is really saying. For instance, the most popular theorem, the Pythagorean Theorem is more than what it appears. It is a statement concerning similarity. In fact, it is more than a statement about similarity. It is a statement of self-similarity under scaling, a property not shared by other Riemannian metrics of constant curvature! This is too much for the youngster of the 21st century, but at least we can take them up to self-similarity under scaling. Further, at every opportunity these students must be shown the wider context - the general as it applies to the particular! Just as it is the instinct of a mathematician to inquire if a property or a statement holds in a more general context, it is a goal of instruction at the camp to show the more general context! Some properties hold in a general context, some do not! Both aspects are useful, particularly the latter for understanding. Granted, the instructor must take the student only to that generality that the student at the tender age at this camp can grasp. Professor Robert Hunt, Deputy Director of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences and a Fellow of Christ's College, University of Cambridge, commenting on Samantha Imafidon, a 9-year old math prodigy, stated: "Mathematics is a subject which some children latch on to very young - unlike, say, English Literature which requires a deeper emotional maturity - and they should always be encouraged to follow their interests, preferably through enrichment of the school curriculum." Early intervention in mathematics is necessary for the Epsilon-gifted, for children become set in their ways - note how people grow up with the same religious belief that their parents have. The creative mind must be an inquiring mind which stands a better chance at pushing the boundary rather than accepting the boundary as the boundary. The way of mathematics - proceeding from answers to questions [1] - must become natural for the Epsilon-gifted at an early age. They must become comfortable early with the crisp language of mathematics that informs the reader with carefully chosen words and economy of expresson. Almost all students up to grade 3 are interested in math; Epsilon Camp takes the Epsilon-gifted and endeavours with suitable instruction to blossom their early interest in to a passion. Of course, some students already arrive with the passion. But many do not, although they are interested. It is a tragedy not to find one's passion, but the greater tragedy is not pursuing one's passion. The Epsilon-gifted need to meet their intellectual peers who are of their age. This is their most suitable social networking ... and they do not need to explain themselves to the peers! Parenting the Epsilon-gifted has many challenges. The Epsilon camp also runs a parallel workshop on the same campus for the parents.

I am skeptical of admissions officers' ability to judge who "really loves learning". Every applicant will say he does on his application. By contrast, AP, SAT I, SAT II, and ACT scores are objective and less easily fudged.

Two of the schools listed as having the highest ROI are Harvard and MIT. Yes, their graduates earn more on average than graduates of other schools, but I think it's primarily because those students are on average more intelligent, hard-working, and ambitious than the typical college student. The relevant question for a prospective MIT student is the ROI of the extra expense of MIT compared to a less expensive school, where he may get a partial or full scholarship. If his family is poor and MIT gives him a free ride, he should attend MIT. If his family is affluent and needs to pay more than $50K/year for him to attend, maybe he is better off pocketing the $200K and using it for medical school or an MBA or lots of beer :001_smile: a few years later.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/education/10swift.html Kate Swift, Writer Who Rooted Out Sexism in Language, Dies at 87 By WILLIAM GRIMES New York Times May 9, 2011 ... Ms. Swift and Ms. Miller went on to write two attention-getting essays on the subject in 1972: “Desexing the English Language,†which appeared in the inaugural issue of Ms. magazine, and “One Small Step for Genkind,†which was published in The New York Times Magazine. “Words and Women: New Language in New Times†followed in 1976. An updated version was published in 1991. The book illustrated the implicit biases in spoken and written English, highlighting the time-honored phrases “all men are created equal†and “land where our fathers died,†the persistent identification of women by Miss and Mrs., and the journalistic habit of describing women as divorcées or blondes, who might be pert, dimpled or cute. Some of the authors’ proposals gained traction. Many newspapers, textbooks and public speakers avoid “fireman†and “stewardess†nowadays. Other ideas fell by the wayside, notably “genkind†as a replacement for “mankind,†or “tey,†“ter†and “tem†as sex-neutral substitutes for “he/she,†“his/her†and “him/her.†<end of excerpt> Reading the obituary above makes me wonder if Kate Swift's crusade for non-sexist language was a good thing. I prefer "mankind" to "humankind", "waiter" or "waitress" to "server", and "Mrs." or "Miss" to "Ms." . I don't have a strong opinion about the generic "he" vs "he or she", but reading "every child should their homework" instead of "every child should do his homework" irks me, because child is singular and their is plural.

There are lots of high-income families, where one or both spouses is a doctor, lawyer, banker etc., who will pay $50+ K a year to send their children to a "good" school so that they can (the parents hope) follow in the same path. Harvard/Yale/Princeton etc. know this and set the sticker price accordingly.

My wife and I talked to our 7yo boy yesterday about Osama bin Laden and 9/11 . I explained that there are Muslims who hate America and mentioned some of the grievances of people like bin Laden, such as U.S. support of Israel and the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia. My mentioning those grievances does NOT mean I think they are justified. 9/11 was not a one-off event. It is part of a jihad that includes such attacks that Ft. Hood shootings by Nidal Malik Hasan and many other terrorist attacks, either completed or foiled. Too many Americans are willfully blind about the connection between terrorism and Islam. I don't want my children to be ostriches.

The universities that make available these course materials deserve a lot of credit. The cynic/realist(?) in me says they won't change college much, because college is largely about getting a credential, and employers don't care if you have done the work for a Yale political science course. They care if you have a Yale degree. I hope this changes eventually but don't expect it to happen soon.

Do you think those are the only or even the primary factors? Getting in to Oxford requires certain scores on the A-level exams, and it is likely that children of Oxbridge graduates are more likely to achieve those scores. An article mentioning the A-level requirement is http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/8444418/David-Cameron-brands-all-white-Oxford-University-a-disgrace.html

Suppose homeschoolers of average children in the early grades spend 2 to 3 hours a day on academic work. Homeschooled gifted children will progress through more than one grade of material per calendar year if they spend the same amount of time per day. They are not being pushed but are working at the pace appropriate for their intellects. There is still plenty of time left in the day to "be a kid".

Regarding tuition, Harvard magazine http://harvardmagazine.com/2011/05/reenacting-early-action says In conjunction with the announcement, the College released the tuition, room, and board costs for the 2011-2012 academic year: a total of $52,560, an increase of 3.6 percent from $50,724 this year. Undergraduate financial aid will increase 1 percent, to $160 million. (Since 2008, the College has borne the full cost for undergraduates from families with incomes of $60,000 or less; from that level to $120,000, the annual cost scales up from 1 percent to 10 percent of family income, and remains at that upper level for those with incomes up to $180,000.) Peer institutions have announced diverse tuition and financial-aid strategies for next year. Princeton—citing the economy and its own strong endowment and fundraising results—will raise undergraduate costs 1 percent (its lowest increase in 45 years), to $50,689. Yale, on the other hand, raised its term bill 5.8 percent, to $52,700, while boosting its financial-aid budget 8 percent (to $117 million) and redirecting that aid: students from families with incomes of $65,000 or less (formerly $60,000) will now receive full scholarships, while those with incomes from $130,000 to $200,000 will now pay an average of 15 percent of their income (up from 12 percent previously); those in the cohort between these ranges pay about 10 percent of income. <end of excerpt> If Harvard costs $53K, and if a family making $180K is only expected to pay 10% of that ($18K), I wonder what the families making a bit more than that, say $200K, are supposed to pay -- the whole $53K? If the college bill rises by $35K when income rises only $20K, that is effectively a more than 100% marginal tax rate imposed by the college -- on top of federal and state income taxes. Looking at a Harvard financial aid web site http://www.fao.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k51861&pageid=icb.page244023 , I see this: 'Is it true that families with incomes of between $60,000 and $180,000 will have an average expected parent contribution of 10% of their income, regardless of the number of children or of other extenuating circumstances? While students from families in these income ranges will typically find that their expected parent contributions are roughly 10 percent of their family’s total income, we will continue to take individual circumstances into consideration in our assessment of their financial need. Our financial aid policy is to scrutinize all sources of income and expenses for all families applying for financial aid, and those families with unusually high medical or sibling educational expenses may find that they are expected to contribute less than this percentage of their income, while those with extraordinary wealth will find that they are expected to contribute a higher percentage. Factors such as family size, health care costs, sibling educational expenses, and other non-discretionary expenses that place a drain on family finances are considered carefully in our assessment of a family’s need for assistance, and there is no income cut-off for our need-based scholarship eligibility. Currently there are a number of families with incomes greater than $200,000, who because of extenuating circumstances, receive need-based financial aid.' <end of excerpt> If only families with income of $200K in "extenuating circumstance" get financial aid, I infer that a typical family earning $200K IS expected to pay $53K, while a family earning $180K pays $18K. This is ridiculous but consistent with a "punish the successful" philosophy held by many institutions. A family with income around $180K may be better off reducing its income while the children are in college. I put "financial aid" in quotes, because I really regard the tuition policies of the Ivies as price gouging.

Colleges want students who will create a better campus environment and who will contribute more to society after they graduate. I think it is reasonable to give SOME weight to non-academic criteria such as sports, music, and volunteer work. If two applicants were the same except that one had an SAT of 2110 and nothing else and another had an SAT of 2100 and significant accomplishments in many other areas, I would prefer the 2100 SAT applicant. Often, universities use "holistic" admissions just as a backhanded way to give racial preferences. That I object to.

http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/29/legacy-2/ New York Times April 29, 2011, 8:14 am Debating Legacy Admissions at Yale, and Elsewhere By JENNY ANDERSON True or false: Admitting legacies to colleges and universities is, a) unconstitutional b) unethical c) smart business practice or d) legitimate, since legacies perform better at certain elite institutions? The answer — at least according to a panel discussion about legacy preferences in college admissions convened at New York University Thursday morning — is actually e) all of the above. Jeffrey B. Brenzel, dean of undergraduate admissions at Yale University made the case that legacy preference at Yale College is diminishing and what remains is grounded in financial reality. Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and Daniel Golden, an editor at large at Bloomberg who wrote “The Price of Admission: How America’s Ruling Class Buys its Way into Elite Colleges — and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates†argued that the practice of giving advantages to alumni is both widespread and harmful. Mr. Kahlenberg, citing research from his book “Affirmative Action for the Rich: Legacy Preferences in College Admissions†made the case that getting into good schools matters — 12 institutions making up less than 1 percent of the U.S. population produced 42 percent of government leaders and 54 percent of corporate leaders. And being a legacy helps improve an applicant’s chances of getting in, with one study finding that being a primary legacy — the son or daughter of an undergraduate alum — increases one’s chance of admission by 45.1 percent. Mr. Brenzel argued that Mr. Kahlenberg’s data was too broad. At Yale, legacies make up about 10 percent of the 2010-11 undergraduate class compared to 31.4 percent in 1939, he said. “We turn away 80 percent of our legacies and we feel it every day,†Mr. Brenzel said, adding that he rejected more offspring of the school’s Sterling donors than he took this year (Sterling donors are among the most generous contributors to Yale). He argued that legacies scored 20 points higher on the SAT than the rest of the class as a whole. Mr. Golden contested this figure, pointing out that the figure for the class as a whole was skewed by other preferences, including those for athletes and underrepresented minorities. Mr. Brenzel made the case that low-income students represent an increasing size of Yale’s undergraduate class, even though they have less of a track record of success at the university. About 14 percent of the incoming class is supported by Pell Grant students, he said, saying that with respect to preferences, “the trend is down for legacy and up for underrepresented minorities.†<rest of article at link> It's interesting that legacies scored 20 points higher than the rest of the class.

I'd recommend either the Dolciani or Art of Problem Solving (AOPS) series of math textbooks for math up to (and in the case of AOPS, including) calculus . Both series have been discussed before on this board, so you can search.

http://www.boston.com/jobs/news/articles/2011/04/19/for_these_tech_grads_the_job_choice_is_theirs/ For these tech grads, the job choice is theirs By Hiawatha Bray Boston Globe April 19, 2011 ... For many Wentworth students, finding a good, well-paying first job is proving to be a lot easier than it was a couple of years ago. As the US economic recovery appears to gather steam, a new survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that companies expect to hire 19 percent more college graduates this year than in 2010, the biggest one-year increase since 2007. And most of those new jobs are concentrated in Wentworth’s sweet spot: engineering and computer science. About 90 percent of Wentworth’s students have a job, or are in graduate school, within six months of graduation. “We’re seeing a lot of hope and a lot of changes since the recession in most of the disciplines our students go into,’’ said Gregory Denon, Wentworth’s director of career services. In Ristaino’s specialty of computer networking, “we have more jobs than we have graduating students,’’ Denon said. More than 130 companies showed up to recruit students at Wentworth’s annual career fair last month, 40 more than in 2010. And employers have posted 408 jobs on the college career website, compared to 182 last year. The surge is strong at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, know for its engineering programs. “We definitely have seen recruiting pick up this year,’’ said Melanie Parker, MIT’s executive director of career services. The university’s spring job fair last week was packed, with recruiters from 35 would-be employers; another 30 companies were turned away for lack of space. There’s intense demand for top students from top schools — and those students “are definitely in the driver’s seat right now,’’ said Scott Dunlop, founder of the Bivium Group, a Belmont company that recruits workers for high-tech firms. “There’s definitely some significant bidding wars out there, but I wouldn’t say it’s as crazy and over the top as it is on the West Coast.’’ <end of excerpt> A New York Times article Silicon Valley Hiring Perks: Meals, iPads and a Cubicle for Spot By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER and JENNA WORTHAM March 25, 2011 is at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/technology/26recruit.html I will encourage my children to major in computer science rather than Greek. Once you can earn a living you can pursue intellectual hobbies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html Is Sugar Toxic? By GARY TAUBES New York Times, April 13, 2011 On May 26, 2009, Robert Lustig gave a lecture called “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,†which was posted on YouTube the following July. Since then, it has been viewed well over 800,000 times, gaining new viewers at a rate of about 50,000 per month, fairly remarkable numbers for a 90-minute discussion of the nuances of fructose biochemistry and human physiology. Lustig is a specialist on pediatric hormone disorders and the leading expert in childhood obesity at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, which is one of the best medical schools in the country. He published his first paper on childhood obesity a dozen years ago, and he has been treating patients and doing research on the disorder ever since. The viral success of his lecture, though, has little to do with Lustig’s impressive credentials and far more with the persuasive case he makes that sugar is a “toxin†or a “poison,†terms he uses together 13 times through the course of the lecture, in addition to the five references to sugar as merely “evil.†And by “sugar,†Lustig means not only the white granulated stuff that we put in coffee and sprinkle on cereal — technically known as sucrose — but also high-fructose corn syrup, which has already become without Lustig’s help what he calls “the most demonized additive known to man.†It doesn’t hurt Lustig’s cause that he is a compelling public speaker. His critics argue that what makes him compelling is his practice of taking suggestive evidence and insisting that it’s incontrovertible. Lustig certainly doesn’t dabble in shades of gray. Sugar is not just an empty calorie, he says; its effect on us is much more insidious. “It’s not about the calories,†he says. “It has nothing to do with the calories. It’s a poison by itself.†If Lustig is right, then our excessive consumption of sugar is the primary reason that the numbers of obese and diabetic Americans have skyrocketed in the past 30 years. But his argument implies more than that. If Lustig is right, it would mean that sugar is also the likely dietary cause of several other chronic ailments widely considered to be diseases of Western lifestyles — heart disease, hypertension and many common cancers among them. <rest of article at link> I wonder what reactions people have to this and similar articles about sugar. Orange juice has almost as much sugar as Coke, so the sugar-is-bad logic would frown on orange juice, too. If I live to average American life expectancy of about 80, that should be ok (but it's a lot easier to say that when you are half that age.)

In part because my parents paid my way through an expensive, elite college and thus helped me to get a good job, I will backstop them if they run out of money. If their attitude had been that I was completely on my own at age 18, I would be less inclined to help them.