Even Mainlanders think there are too many Mainlanders in Irvine!

woodburyowner

Well-known member
I had a pretty interesting conversation with my mainlander neighbor yesterday.  She moved 1.5 years ago from China in order to get her young kids away from the hyper competitive educational system found in China.  However, when she goes to the park or walks around the neighborhood, all she sees are other people from China.  Our local park usually has 4-5 chinese woman and 3-4 chinese grandparents walking around or watching their kids play.  Even her mom/in-law has friends with people from the same generation.  Everywhere she turns, she sees people from China.  Now she is asking me what other cities would be good to raise kids in that don't have so many Chinese parents.  She knows how competitive they are and moved here just to get away from that.

Just thought it was a pretty funny conversation.
 
They have already adopted the ME FIRST American mentality!
 
TBH, and I know I may sound like a broken record by now, but I truly don't see the competitiveness at this point here, in Irvine. Everywhere I go, that's all I hear, Irvine schools are so competitive, it's so hard, so much work, tiger moms etc.
I'm in a K-8 school, with a 6th grader, super-lazy, I'm going to say smart, but normal kid, would just play video games all day, 5-10 minutes of actual homework a day, the rest is mostly projects, kind of like arts and crafts, and he still got all As, but literally with minimal work, and a 4th grader, super advanced, could easily go to 7th grade with her brother, teachers just shrug and admit she's way above her peers, but in Irvine there is no grade acceleration, not even subject acceleration, so just deal with it! It is such an average environment, that I'm completely baffled hearing about all this competition.
And I just keep bringing this up, because it seems that many parents are misinformed, being told how competitive it is here. Maybe it's a marketing tool, to sell more homes, I don't know, or maybe the area outside of Irvine is o much worse, that Irvine seems like it offers a stellar education. Granted, the schools are nice and clean and new(ish), people are nice and down to earth, no bullying, no stuck up kids, good families, extremely diverse. And I love their orchestra program, free daily music lessons. But academics? Hmm.

And if they mean competitive at the high school level, I just took a look at the Uni High website this morning, because I was curious what their course offerings were for next year. They don't even offer AP Physics 2, not to mention AP Physics C. Only AP PHY 1. For a school that touts itself as STEM excellence, I did not expect that. Really, there is no one at Uni who can handle AP Physics C?

And we're not Asian.
 
RandomG said:
TBH, and I know I may sound like a broken record by now, but I truly don't see the competitiveness at this point here, in Irvine. Everywhere I go, that's all I hear, Irvine schools are so competitive, it's so hard, so much work, tiger moms etc.
I'm in a K-8 school, with a 6th grader, super-lazy, I'm going to say smart, but normal kid, would just play video games all day, 5-10 minutes of actual homework a day, the rest is mostly projects, kind of like arts and crafts, and he still got all As, but literally with minimal work, and a 4th grader, super advanced, could easily go to 7th grade with her brother, teachers just shrug and admit she's way above her peers, but in Irvine there is no grade acceleration, not even subject acceleration, so just deal with it! It is such an average environment, that I'm completely baffled hearing about all this competition.
And I just keep bringing this up, because it seems that many parents are misinformed, being told how competitive it is here. Maybe it's a marketing tool, to sell more homes, I don't know, or maybe the area outside of Irvine is o much worse, that Irvine seems like it offers a stellar education. Granted, the schools are nice and clean and new(ish), people are nice and down to earth, no bullying, no stuck up kids, good families, extremely diverse. And I love their orchestra program, free daily music lessons. But academics? Hmm.

And if they mean competitive at the high school level, I just took a look at the Uni High website this morning, because I was curious what their course offerings were for next year. They don't even offer AP Physics 2, not to mention AP Physics C. Only AP PHY 1. For a school that touts itself as STEM excellence, I did not expect that. Really, there is no one at Uni who can handle AP Physics C?

And we're not Asian.

I guess you have nothing to worry about then.
 
RandomG said:
TBH, and I know I may sound like a broken record by now, but I truly don't see the competitiveness at this point here, in Irvine. Everywhere I go, that's all I hear, Irvine schools are so competitive, it's so hard, so much work, tiger moms etc.
I'm in a K-8 school, with a 6th grader, super-lazy, I'm going to say smart, but normal kid, would just play video games all day, 5-10 minutes of actual homework a day, the rest is mostly projects, kind of like arts and crafts, and he still got all As, but literally with minimal work, and a 4th grader, super advanced, could easily go to 7th grade with her brother, teachers just shrug and admit she's way above her peers, but in Irvine there is no grade acceleration, not even subject acceleration, so just deal with it! It is such an average environment, that I'm completely baffled hearing about all this competition.
And I just keep bringing this up, because it seems that many parents are misinformed, being told how competitive it is here. Maybe it's a marketing tool, to sell more homes, I don't know, or maybe the area outside of Irvine is o much worse, that Irvine seems like it offers a stellar education. Granted, the schools are nice and clean and new(ish), people are nice and down to earth, no bullying, no stuck up kids, good families, extremely diverse. And I love their orchestra program, free daily music lessons. But academics? Hmm.

And if they mean competitive at the high school level, I just took a look at the Uni High website this morning, because I was curious what their course offerings were for next year. They don't even offer AP Physics 2, not to mention AP Physics C. Only AP PHY 1. For a school that touts itself as STEM excellence, I did not expect that. Really, there is no one at Uni who can handle AP Physics C?

And we're not Asian.

Were you under the assumption the high school kids only take classes IN high school? They also take classes at the JCs. Even I did that many moons ago. Completed two years of college calculus before I was 17 and I'm not Asian and this was MANY years ago, maybe before you were born! I also completed a couple years worth of bio and English that transferred to UCI before I graduated from high school as a Junior and it wasn't even in Irvine.

It helped me get thru UCI in 5 quarters (1 year and two quarters). My friends were in their first year of college and I was out with a BS in bio.

How much more do kids do now? Lots for some I bet.

If I had to do it over, I would have taken more time and not rushed thru.
 
It's good to hear there are other options to get your college level classes over with before the end of high school. However, comparing to for example the high schools in the areas I lived in, in FL, I would have thought Irvine high schools were all that and more. In FL, pretty much any decent and above decent high school will offer the highest level of AP in the main STEM subjects. Without having to go the JC way. And FL is nothing special in terms of education.

Anyways, how would a high school student here get those college credits? Do they physically take the classes at the JC, or are the classes offered at the high school they attend? Or can it all be done online? Online would be ideal. Or maybe they enroll over the summer.

And also, do you have to pay for the junior college classes taken while in high school? I would hope not. High school public education should be free.
 
High school students may take community college courses for free, which guarantees college credit when compared to AP classes. AP classes can be very political at the local school and it is run by the for profit College Board. I would strongly encourage any capable high school student to choose local community college courses over the AP and honors courses at their local HS.
 
RandomG said:
It's good to hear there are other options to get your college level classes over with before the end of high school. However, comparing to for example the high schools in the areas I lived in, in FL, I would have thought Irvine high schools were all that and more. In FL, pretty much any decent and above decent high school will offer the highest level of AP in the main STEM subjects. Without having to go the JC way. And FL is nothing special in terms of education.

Anyways, how would a high school student here get those college credits? Do they physically take the classes at the JC, or are the classes offered at the high school they attend? Or can it all be done online? Online would be ideal. Or maybe they enroll over the summer.

And also, do you have to pay for the junior college classes taken while in high school? I would hope not. High school public education should be free.

Don't know any of your answers. Having gone the route of speed thru school myself and later regretting it, I didn't want my kids to do it.

Someone told me recently there is only so many AP classes that can actually count for college credit so you should be sure what you spend your time on is going to count.

Online classes don't necessarily mean it's self taught, read a book, answer test questions, get a grade and credit.
 
RandomG said:
TBH, and I know I may sound like a broken record by now, but I truly don't see the competitiveness at this point here, in Irvine. Everywhere I go, that's all I hear, Irvine schools are so competitive, it's so hard, so much work, tiger moms etc.
I'm in a K-8 school, with a 6th grader, super-lazy, I'm going to say smart, but normal kid, would just play video games all day, 5-10 minutes of actual homework a day, the rest is mostly projects, kind of like arts and crafts, and he still got all As, but literally with minimal work, and a 4th grader, super advanced, could easily go to 7th grade with her brother, teachers just shrug and admit she's way above her peers, but in Irvine there is no grade acceleration, not even subject acceleration, so just deal with it! It is such an average environment, that I'm completely baffled hearing about all this competition.
And I just keep bringing this up, because it seems that many parents are misinformed, being told how competitive it is here. Maybe it's a marketing tool, to sell more homes, I don't know, or maybe the area outside of Irvine is o much worse, that Irvine seems like it offers a stellar education. Granted, the schools are nice and clean and new(ish), people are nice and down to earth, no bullying, no stuck up kids, good families, extremely diverse. And I love their orchestra program, free daily music lessons. But academics? Hmm.

And if they mean competitive at the high school level, I just took a look at the Uni High website this morning, because I was curious what their course offerings were for next year. They don't even offer AP Physics 2, not to mention AP Physics C. Only AP PHY 1. For a school that touts itself as STEM excellence, I did not expect that. Really, there is no one at Uni who can handle AP Physics C?

And we're not Asian.

You want to challenge that child? Two words... Catholic School.
 
I don't know about Catholic high school. You have to take religion classes (mandatory, not elective), for the entire 4 years. In my opinion, that time in school could be better spent. Often they require more religion credits for graduation than they do math credits.

But to stick to the original topic of this thread, can anybody here give me any concrete examples that highlight competitiveness at K-8 level in Irvine (not high school, because I have no experience with that yet)? Anything that you guys have experienced, or heard about from other people, even if it's small things? And only things that occur during the school, not extracurricular stuff that parents supplement at home.

One thing that goes against the theory, for instance (so I am presenting a counter-argument), at least in our school, is that they don't have honor roll assemblies. Everybody gets a little certificate of achievement at the end of the year. I resent that. Since I have kids at both end of the spectrum, I think they would both benefit greatly. The smart one would feel proud and rewarded,for all her hard work would be validated, and the lazy one would get the desire to better himself next year, get a little motivation. I am talking about the case where in a class only 3-4 kids get first, second or third prize, not 85% of the class.
 
RandomG said:
But to stick to the original topic of this thread, can anybody here give me any concrete examples that highlight competitiveness at K-8 level in Irvine (not high school, because I have no experience with that yet)? Anything that you guys have experienced, or heard about from other people, even if it's small things? And only things that occur during the school, not extracurricular stuff that parents supplement at home.

Only competitive component I'm familiar with is getting into APAAS if that's something you want for your kid.

Also, experiences vary considerably from school to school and from teacher to teacher.
 
RandomG said:
I don't know about Catholic high school. You have to take religion classes (mandatory, not elective), for the entire 4 years. In my opinion, that time in school could be better spent. Often they require more religion credits for graduation than they do math credits.

But to stick to the original topic of this thread, can anybody here give me any concrete examples that highlight competitiveness at K-8 level in Irvine (not high school, because I have no experience with that yet)? Anything that you guys have experienced, or heard about from other people, even if it's small things? And only things that occur during the school, not extracurricular stuff that parents supplement at home.

One thing that goes against the theory, for instance (so I am presenting a counter-argument), at least in our school, is that they don't have honor roll assemblies. Everybody gets a little certificate of achievement at the end of the year. I resent that. Since I have kids at both end of the spectrum, I think they would both benefit greatly. The smart one would feel proud and rewarded,for all her hard work would be validated, and the lazy one would get the desire to better himself next year, get a little motivation. I am talking about the case where in a class only 3-4 kids get first, second or third prize, not 85% of the class.

I'm still early on with my kids so I don't know.. but from what I see.. the competitiveness is within the kids and parents.. esp when they get to the HS level.  They all want to be top gun and top of class but doesn't always happen.. ends in tears when college rejection letters come about and they find out Harvard is no longer an option. 
 
woodburyowner said:
I had a pretty interesting conversation with my mainlander neighbor yesterday.  She moved 1.5 years ago from China in order to get her young kids away from the hyper competitive educational system found in China.  However, when she goes to the park or walks around the neighborhood, all she sees are other people from China.  Our local park usually has 4-5 chinese woman and 3-4 chinese grandparents walking around or watching their kids play.  Even her mom/in-law has friends with people from the same generation.  Everywhere she turns, she sees people from China.  Now she is asking me what other cities would be good to raise kids in that don't have so many Chinese parents.  She knows how competitive they are and moved here just to get away from that.

Just thought it was a pretty funny conversation.

It's not hard, just look up local school API rankings.

If you bought a house where the local school API ranking is 950, you got what you paid for -- your kids as guppies in a big lake.  If you wanted your kids to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond, move to places like um... Norwalk, Buena Park, La Palma...
 
It's not about what school you attended or what ranking your school is or was.

Nowadays, success is about who you know and how successful or unsuccessful you are at making connections with those who are in a position to help you. 
 
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