Monday, July 14, 2014

University of choice is Stanford. Am I good enough? Help Please!!?


University of choice is Stanford. Am I good enough? Help Please!!?
I am a 16 year old coming up on her Junior year of high school. I want to major in Political Science at Stanford and hopefully go to law school there as well. My dream job would be to become a divorce/family relations lawyer. I would say that I am pretty smart. I really really really fucked up my sophomore year of high school. Bringing my class rank from 27 to 69 (I'm still top 10%) and my cumulative GPA from 4.4 to 4.0. But my junior year is coming up and I've heard that's the most important. I am taking two honors and an AP class. Now I know it's not much but senior year I'm going to take three AP and three honors. I'm pretty involved in school. I'm in thespians, the musical, speech team and hopefully student council and prom committee. If I pull myself together and get straight A's and bring my class rank down back to the top 5%, pull my cumulative GPA to over a 4.3 and I kick some butt in the entire admission process, do you guys think I could make it? And if not Stanford University, maybe Colombia University? That is my second choice. I would really really appreciate your honesty and advice! Thank you so much.
Higher Education (University +) - 1 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Going to a college doesn't help you getting into their law school, and you do not need to attend a top law school to be a divorce lawyer. That job often doesn't pay very well, so you're much better off at a state school where the program would be much cheaper - there are tons of out of work lawyers who can't pay off their student loan debt, and 7 years at Stanford would cost a ridiculous amount of money. Same for Columbia (Colombia is the country, Columbia is the university). Anyway, everyone applying to Stanford has the highest grades in the hardest classes and very high test scores, and they take less than 10% of applicants. Also, they want unweighted GPAs. Right now, you're not competitive for a top school.

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Monday, July 7, 2014

Can i get kicked out?

Can i get kicked out?
20 right now and gonna be 21 in June next year (2011). Was wondering if my legal guardians could kick me out if they wanted to. Thing is I have been living for 3 years here since I moved from Colombia for my studies and due to some personal issues (mainly between her and my mom) she wants me to move out and i got student loans to pay and it is really hard to get a decent job because i have not graduated yet... Was just wondering if they decided to kick me out of the house (she has done so many times, but i havent moved my things) and move my things out to the street. ty :x
Other - Yahoo! Messenger - 3 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
They can kick you out at 18.
2 :
Once you are 18 they can kick you out. No more legal ties.
3 :
im pretty sure your you own guardian when you turn 18. so yes they can kick you out when ever they want. but i think they have to give you some notice.

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Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Good schools to transfer to from a community college?

Good schools to transfer to from a community college?
I am a community college student with a gpa of around 3.6, (doing my best to bring that number up). I have a decent amount of extra cirriculars (also doing my best to bring that up). I'll be applying to schools this fall, I was wondering which schools, private and public, I should be applying to. I'm not worrying so much about tuition. So far I'm going to apply to some local private colleges, like Pomona College and UCI,UCLA,UCSD,UC BERKELEY (yes i'm from socal-don't mind going to the east coast for college). I also plan on applying to Colombia, Caltech, Cornel, Princeton, USC and ... University of Chicago (<-- the loser from the east side d: ) [: Really would appreciate a list of nice schools to look at and apply to-even more obscure private ones (anything that might ease my transition into medical school-if i even get in O;-lol ;D).
Higher Education (University +) - 2 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
You need some backup schools. All of the schools you're applying to are very hard to get into. And it's not that I don't think you'll get in... it's that it's smart to have backups, because you never know. You'd want the backups to be strong schools that do a great job of preparing students for med school. I'm thinking maybe Baylor, SUNY Stony Brook, Vanderbilt, Emory, U Florida, U Maryland College Park, UMass Amherst, Rutgers New Brunswick, UConn, U Rochester, George Washington, Auburn, Bucknell. These are well ranked schools that have great reps in the sciences, but which aren't quite as "woah" hard to get into as those you've listed. In addition, some top flight schools that I think you may want to look at: Johns Hopkins, Holy Cross, Washington U in St. Louis, Carnegie Mellon, Tufts, Georgetown, Villanova.
2 :
The main reason I wanted to answer was to caution you. First off, you are applying to too many schools. It costs money to apply and doing a scatter shot across 20 schools hoping that you get into one of them is expensive and unlikely to work out well. I would pick 10 at most, and pick them from different tiers, going from schools you know you can get into to ones that you wish you could. On top of that, your second list of schools seems out of reach for you. For example, Caltech accepts only a handful of transfer students and those students all have top grades from top schools. A 3.6 GPA, if it came from Harvard, would likely be too low to transfer into Caltech. A 3.6 GPA from a community college will have no chance. I do not mean to be mean, just realistic. If you are getting B's at a community college, you will be getting F's at Caltech. I can't speak with as much authority on the rest of those second-list schools, but I would guess that a 3.6 GPA from a community college will not be competitive at any of them (USC being the only one that may still be an option). These are, after all, highly selective universities. I strongly encourage you to think realistically about your applications, as it will save a lot of time and money. As far as your first list goes, I think a lot of those are real stretch schools for you as well. I'm sure you can find a school to transfer to, but I would be looking more at the level of UC Davis or Cal Poly rather than Berkeley. I don't think that you will find it any easier to transfer into a school than it would be to have applied straight out of high school. I would recommend you pick up a copy of the US News college ranking issue and that will give you an idea of what the relative strengths of different schools are what there admissions requirements are. There are literally hundreds of schools that will fulfill your needs, so you need to come up with a more restrictive set of requirements to narrow your search. But, please, be realistic with yourself.

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Saturday, June 28, 2014

European Union supports communist dictators while lecturing everyone else about freedom?


European Union supports communist dictators while lecturing everyone else about freedom?
This is a recurrent topic (at least in me) but I feel its worthy to post about it because today the Honduran president got ousted (or so we have been told, at least). I am not from Honduras or anything of the like. I was born in Europe but since very small lived in various Latin American countries. And this message is not a reply to what I have seen in Honduras, but more of a generic reflection overall. This time, I will not talk about the United States, everyone talks about them everyday anyways. Today, the European Union, the United Nations, the Organization of the Americas States, they are all condeming the (coup?) against Zelaya. In the past, they had also reacted in a similar way regarding Chavez, and regarding Ecuador before Correa. They also seem to criticize the way Colombia takes ahead its internal war, but hey, its a war, not a Disney Park. Its fine, its OK to criticize coups and such. But the problem with these organizations is that, in reality, they are useless, and if anything, they help dictators. I will say it very simple. -Where the fuck is/was the European Union / United Nations when thousands of people were executed in Cuba by Castro? Nowhere! -Where the fuck is/was the European Union / United Nations in front of the fact that Fidel Castro has been the king of Cuba, in power for 50 years? Nowhere! What did Europe do about Fidel? Reward him by building hotels! -Where the fuck is/was the European Union / United Nations when Burma fell under a big dictatorship? Nowhere! -Where the fuck is/was the European Union / United Nations in front of the events at Darfur? Nowhere! -Where the fuck is/was the European Union / United Nations during Tianan Meng (spelling?)? Nowhere! -Does the European Union or United Nations care about North Korea? No, all they do is blame each other. Does the European Union / United Nations care that Chavez wants to stay in power until 2050 no matter what anyone says? No. Do they care that Chavez ordered to throw tear gas and jail any student or whoever protests? No. Did they care when the Human Rights watch representative got expelled from Venezuela with no reason? No. What does the European Union do? They pretty much support Colombian guerrillas and Peruvian guerrillas, and any government that puts a stop to them is quickly criticized. -Where the fuck is/was the European Union / United Nations when three white men were shot in Bolivia for political reasons? Nowhere! Did they even bother trying to investigate if the claims of a potential magnicide were true? Not at all. -If Zelaya was not ousted, or if he comes back to power, and manages to stay in power for 30 years, will the European Union / United Nations do something about it? You guessed it, they won't. So all the democracy and freedom talk done by the European Union, United Nations, and OAS, is pretty much garbage, all they have achieved is to reward dictators and wannabe- dictators, without any real concern about freedom for people. The European Union and the United Nations and the OAS are made up of a bunch of guys who drink wine and who don't give a crap about the foot citizen. Thats the truth about them. All of these groups could be abolished, and the World would not be very different, except that dictators would not have anyone to support them (internationally). The World can go without them. They only defend freedom in paper. United Nations: They are as useless, or maybe more, than the League of Nations in the 1930s.
Government - 3 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
In international politics, there always is a double standard (except in India's case, which is bad). Have you not wondered, the US has always had soft corner to all the dictators of the world! They have routinely taken refuge there. And, it talks of DEMOCRACY.
2 :
All very well but what exactly would you have either the United Nations or the European Union DO? Do you think they would send in troops? Neither has a standing army, all require an agreement of all members to get involved in fighting - which is why France and Germany (very sensibly) stayed out of the Iraq mess. It's easy to condemn and say "they should do something" - how about saying what it would be possible for them to do?
3 :
The United Nations is not going to do anything. One of the goals of the New World Order is to have Global control. This means that all nations throughout the world be under their control. The United Nations, a brainchild of the New World Order, is helping to implement a One world government, and is one of the avenues being used to implement global slavery.

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Saturday, June 14, 2014

How many friends do I really have?

How many friends do I really have?
OK So i have lots of ppl who I consider "friends," but now that I think about it a lot of them seem to be superficial. I will tell u about each of them. WHich ones do u think r genuine friends? Jake Czekaj: The class clown. Jake is really fat but also really nice, although he always plays pranks and stuff on me. He likes making fun of me, but then again he makes fun of almost everyone. He is a lot bigger than me and likes to give me noogies and stuff, not realizing they actually hurt. I like to help him out but he's only helped me out about once. Julie Amuleti: An exchange student from Italy, Julie is Jake's gf and a very nice girl. I hang out with her too, although she speaks poor english. She likes to make fun of me too, but only when her bf is around, and she looks like she kinda regrets it. She likes to gossip a lot with these other European girls, and one time I heard them giggling and mentioning my name. I think she may have a crush on me. Santiago Velasquez: A Latino from Colombia who doesn't fit the Hispanic stereotype at all. Santiago is studious, intelligent, and unbelievably wealthy. He has a quick temper though and is easily angered. He hates having bad grades and gets all twitchy and flinchy if he gets a 95% on a test. He has an unbelievably hot mom, who Jake often mentions, and Santiago gets angry at that disrespect. His near-perfect life is often a source of jealousy, although he is also unbelievably nice, and loves to help others, particularly me. He is a hypochondria. He is very uptight and ancy, sometimes he even wears suits! When angry or startled, he swears in Spanish, then apologizes as if we even knew what he was saying. He talks very fast. Gertrude Wain: The class goth. She is creepy and depressing. Like Jake, she likes other people's miseries, and laughs when I get scared. She still tries to help everyone out though. She dresses scary, too. Mitchell Magyar: Another class clown, Mitchell is a devout Jew, yet despite that he manages to get on EVERYONE'S nerves! He is really annoying!!!!! Santiago dislikes his constant interruption of class, whereas Jake loves it. Who do u think is a real friend? Can u maybe put it like: Jake is a great friends cuz bla bla bla or Santiago is a bad friend because bla bla bla and then u should forget about Julie bla bla bla What do u think? Who is my actual friends and who isn't?
Friends - 1 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Jake: He is a jerk. Leave him. Forget about him. Julie: I think she was saying something about u to her friends. U should try to talk to her. Her acts of friendship do seem genuine, and the reason she seems pained to make fun of u is probably because she doesn't want to. Its her horrid bf's fault, i think. Santiago: Great kid, don't leave him. He seems a little stressed though, maybe u could help him see there's more to life than books and numbers? Gertrude: Creepy! Try talking to her. U didn't explain her too well, maybe she is friendly maybe she isn't Mitchell: Another Jake. Get away from those two!

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Saturday, June 7, 2014

Should I get a CELTA, TEFL, or Bridge-IDELT?

Should I get a CELTA, TEFL, or Bridge-IDELT?
I have a Bachelor's degree in Int'l Business, a US passport and citizenship, an excellent understanding of languages, but no formal teaching experience. I would like to teach abroad for a year or two (preferably in Spain, where I have already spent some time, Portugal, Italy, Argentina, Brazil, or Colombia - my ABC's ;), and be able to earn enough to cover my basic cost of living, in addition to making some small payments on student loans. I'm a native English speaker, but I also speak Spanish and am learning Portuguese. :) That said: can you recommend what certification I should get? I want to be able to teach well, but I think a CELTA might be overkill. Is BridgeTEFL a reputable organization (I've already seen the www.teflcoursereview.com site, but that's just one source)? Let me know if you have any personal experience with these types of programs. I have a friend with the same basic credentials (American, bachelor's degree, non-EU passport) who teaches in Spain, so it can be done. It's an interesting point, however, that the best pay is to be found in Asian countries - I'll take that into account. Thanks!
Teaching - 5 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
teaching in those countries isn't super profitable. you want to make those little tudent loans pays be thinking of korea or china, and tefl is fine for anywhwere you go
2 :
The fact that you speak the languages will work in your favor, but the other answerer is correct in that Asian countries pay better. (But the cost of living is also higher: Tokyo is considered the most expensive city in the world to live in.) While you may think that CELTA is overkill, the more respected your qualifications the better the job you can get. I spent 9 months doing an RSA Diploma, although I was a qualified teacher with an MA, and I never had any trouble getting work.
3 :
Keep in mind that to teach in Europe you need a EU passport. CELTA, Trinity CertTESOL and TESL Canada are the best courses in the industry because they require course providers (Many of them colleges and universities) to offer an advanced level of training and include a teaching practice module.
4 :
To get an entry level job in all those countries you'll need a degree and a TEFL Certificate. The degree you already have so that's no problem. As for the TEFL Certificate, any certificate from a reputable school will suffice. You can take it either in-house or online at your own pace which is a much cheaper option (see http://icalweb.com). I would advise against CELTA at this stage as in my opinion it's for teachers with at least a couple of years experience. It's a very intensive course and without previous knowledge of the subject many students flounder. As for working in Europe, yes a passport from a European country would help a lot and although it can be done without, it is much harder to find work. There's a link below with much more information on this subject.
5 :
I think CELTA would be just right for you - you're obviously fairly smart and hard-working. It's a tough course, but if you prepare for it by doing some pre-course reading, you should be fine. I don't know if you think it's 'overkill' in terms of time or money, but it will be much more widely accepted when job-hunting.

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Sunday, June 1, 2014

War on Drugs: people are dying because of drugs trade?

War on Drugs: people are dying because of drugs trade?
What's your opinion on the following? My political science professor is pretty much all for it. The current violence going on in Mexico and South America is directly accredited to the street demand of drugs and narcotics in the United States. He wouldn't state his opinion on marijuana, but he did say that particularly the Mexican drug cartels is behind most of the marketshare of the weed sold on the streets in the US. Those same cartels also grow and traffic meth to a certain extent and cocaine. The cocaine itself is grown and processed in mostly Colombia but the cartels down there sometimes work with Mexican groups to get their merchandise into the United States, which has the most demand. The cross-border shootings, kidnappings and murders are accredited to Mexican gangs financed by the drug trade. Many of these kidnappings are also related to human trafficking- another income source for these gangs. He also mentioned he had a student from middle school who was kidnapped in 2005, and hasn't been heard from since. One of these gangs known as Los Zetas is for lack of a better term a paramilitary force who are sometimes better equipped than the Mexican government. They're comprised of corrupt and disgruntled Mexican military (a lot of the times corrupt Mexican special forces as well) and operate just across the border from Texas. Their business is warfare, and if you cross the border it is literally a battleground. Even on the US side you hear stories of bombings, high-profile murders and shootings in broad daylight. This group is directly financed by the same Mexican drug cartel trafficking mainly marijuana but crack/cocaine as well. He goes on to say that he doesn't care for people who think drugs should be legal and all. He has his own personal opinion about them and would rather not share it. Moralities aside, in the end people are dying and it's because of the drug trade. Thoughts?
Other - Politics & Government - 5 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Capital punishment for addicts will end the drug trade. They are the cause of the problem. No addict and there is no profit from drugs for cartels to kill over.
2 :
and people are dying from car crashes
3 :
All drugs should be legal. You should be able to get 10 lbs of crack at CVS for $10. If someone wants to kill themselves go ahead. Killing all the drug dealers will just be replaced by other drug dealers and raise the price for drugs. 70% of the money spent in the criminal justice system is spent on drug enforcement. They release violent offenders from prison to make room for drug dealers. Last year in the local paper a man that committed armed robbery received less time than a man convicted of dealing drugs. This is just stupid! The drug laws have hurt society more than the drugs themselves. But drugs will never be legal, look how much money the government makes on them. There is some evidence that the government is importing it. The anti drug people believe that anyone that says drugs should be legal is a dope head. I'm not. Never have been. I don't like taking prescription drugs.
4 :
There would be less crime if we had free flowing marijuana, meth and xtasy? Only a druggie would buy that line.
5 :
prohibition didn't work for alcohol and it doesn't seem to be working for drugs. i had always thought that the Hippocratic oath was to do no harm. however pills have been prescribed that have done harm. did the doctors that prescribed them resign in shame? legalize them all and then spend some of the drug war budget on intelligent information.

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