Tiger Mom's Kid Gets Into Harvard

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"I don’t think my parenting had anything to do with it" But your fifteen minutes of fame sure did. Congrats to Sophia. I hope her experience in Harvard is memorable. I wonder if the the Tiger Mom will stop controlling her child's academic life in college. Silly me! That's not likely to happen. When doest it end tiger moms?

Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld Admitted by Harvard, proving wrong most American parents' point that Tiger Cubs under Tiger Mom's discipline and hard work only have proficiency without critical thinking and creativity. http://blog.tigermoms.net/2011/03/sophia-chua-rubenfeld-admitted-by.html

Good for the Tiger Mother's kid. I'm sure she'll do well wherever she ends up. That said, higher education is a bubble, just like housing was, with too many people going into too much debt for a good whose value is far overpriced in 2011. More people are starting to figure this out: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/03/an-anti-college-backlash/73214/ Higher education is more about social hierarchy than education, which is partly why degrees are a Giffen good - as price increases, demand increases, because enough people believe that price signals quality that elites are drawn to more highly priced institutions, which increases the reputability of the institutions, despite that they can add minimal educational value while increasing the value of their brand. The price (in time and money cost) of a degree is extortionate, but for anyone who wants to be, say, an electrical engineer, 4 years of "seat time" is required for certification to prove competence. http://www.ted.com/conversations/1650/in_2011_is_it_possible_to_mak.html http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html http://www.ted.com/talks/chris_anderson_how_web_video_powers_global_innovation.html http://www.jove.com/ http://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/electricCircuits/ So even though we can recreate all videos, textbooks, interactive tutorials, etc. at zero marginal cost, and learning is now cheaper than ever, people have to pay X years and tens of thousands of dollars any time they want to switch careers, just so they can get the degree/license/certification to do whatever they're already capable of doing. Licensing/certification can easily be made much, much cheaper, but don't expect that idea to come out of academics, licensing institutions, or the guild professions. That's one fix for the economy that isn't on most people's radar - get rid of unnecessarily expensive barriers to entry.