College App

   My family is funny , together and happy. I have two sisters and two brothers three of which are younger than me.  Plus, the woman that runs the show, my mother Elizabeth Lewis.

The community in which my family and I live in is a place where I would have to say that I would not want my kids to live in. Sometimes, it can be a little wild.

I come from a world in which my family is my main source for moral support.  Each and every day , they inspire me to become the best person I can be. My family is a huge influence in my life.

    As a young boy , i remember laying down in my bed staring at the ceiling. I remember getting out of bed  and my feet touching the ice cold floor. and me slowly walking down stairs. At the end of the stairs i walk into the room and see my mother siting in a chair watching Television. my eyes scan the room as quickly as possible in search of my father but him not being there.  My warm heart slowing turning cold and me feeling the tingles in my hands and feet.  That's when i knew for sure that my father had left.
    In the year 1998 i did not see my father for a few months. He was in the Navy and he worked on the flight deck and sometimes even as a rescue swimmer. When he would leave he would be gone for months at a time.  Then when he would come back it fely as if he would stay for only a few days.  Yet as a five year old boy i was just happy to see him when he came around. When ever he would return from being over seas he would always bring back gifts. One time he had brought me back this really cool picture of the ship that he worked on. It had a ton of air planes ,jets  and even a few coppers. Then one day after staring at the poster hanging on my wall came up with the idea of becoming one of those people who flew the air planes and jets. That way i would be able to spend time with my father while he was at work on the ship and still be able to fly back home to my mother and sister.
    So my father was a huge inspiration to my life. By him being in the Navy and leaving to over seas months at a time help me shape my dreams of becoming  a pilot.  Ever since then i always wanted to become a professional aviator.

    Ever since i was in elementary school i loved playing sports.  In the third grade i would discover the game of basketball and every break time outside that's what i would play basketball. From the third grade on i would play basketball and it would become a talent of mine as well as an accomplishment near and dear to my heart.
   

Throughout elementary school i would play basketball , dream about basketball and just fall straight in love with basketball.  That was until I had graduated from elementary school and that's when it all changed.  Middle school was so much different in so many ways.  There was different classes ,people and even real sports teams. There was a basketball team and i thought that it would be really fun just to play on the team. The only problem was that i had to make the team first and that meant that i would have to try out first.

    I was a very small young boy who did not have a clue how to play on a real team. I only use to play for fun. That was a huge reason why when people heard i was trying out they gave me no chance to make it. They where shooting out put downs quicker that a built leaving  a gun when its fired.  Yes i must say that the tryout was very hard and it was a huge amount of running involved but i was just happy that i did not give up on my self because other people said i should. That next Monday was when the list was posted with the names of the people who made the team. I remember walking up to the list and seeing my name on it.  I ran as quick as i could to the gym to meet up with my teammates. yet when i walked it i got the feeling as if they did not wont me there. I still greeted all of my new teammates with a handshake and a smile. The coach the spoke he said “Welcome to the chipman cougars 06-07 basketball season” and that's when-it began.

    About two weeks later was our first game and i was extremely nervous. I had got my jersey with the number 30 on the back in gold writing and that's when i got even more nervous. At tip off i found my self siting on the bench until the second quarter. When i entered the game a teammate passed me the ball and it felt like a rock I was wide open for a shoot but was too scared to take it because if i missed then they would just be very mad at me so instead i tryed to pass it and it ended up getting stolen and i had to ride the bench until the third game.
    In the third game i did not play until the second-quarter. I remember hearing yelling and hearing a voice say “just play hard”. Then i looked up in the crowd and saw my mother smile at me.  From that point in the game all the way up tell now when ever i step on the court i make sure that i always play hard and just remember that felling of when my mother smiled at me.

book review rough draft

Book Review

            · What was the author's purpose(s) in writing this book, and how can you tell? How well was this purpose achieved?

  For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?)

The title of my book is “The Last Mission” and the author name is Harry Mazer. It is about a young boy who joins the army during world war two. He is only 15 years old and ran away from home. His name is Jack Rabb and he dreams of being a hero and this is the way he best could think of doing it by joining the United States air crops which Is kind of like the air force.  The author’s purpose in writing this book was to add a twist to the real world war two stories.

          The author's purpose in writing this story is to bring up a different way of what could have happen during world war two, almost as if he wanted to predict what would happen if this young 15 year old kid was a part of the air force. its a action filling what’s going to happen next type of book. I think that the author of this book must have been around during this world war two times otherwise he probably would have not had these strong details about the war and he would not be able to add that war like twist to his story with the young boy trying to be the hero.

In my opinion the strengths in this book are the fact that’s the kid is only 15 years of age yet he has a huge desire to be a guy that can say he help fight in the war. I think the weakest point in this book so far is when they kind of come up with this idea that because the parents are polish they are sending these care packages to Poland because of what is going on. I think that was really a weak point that the author put in this story. Yet overall this is a very interesting book and I feel like I am in for a surprising ending with this action filled book.

          The second part of the book is about Jack travel to Florida for a few weeks for relaxation before he gets shipped overseas soon. During that time he meets this girl that is from New York just like he is. So they talk for a while about small things and soon enough they go on a mini date where they hang out. They go to the beach, eat shaved ice and ride bikes. Her name is Dotty and she is from Brooklyn. So after the day was done and she had to leave she gave Jack her address so that way he could write her and she also gave him her phone number so that way they would be able to talk on the phone.        

          A few weeks later Jack had got moved to Louisiana and the crew was given a few days before heading overseas to go home. Before jack and his pals went home they had stopped in New Orleans to check out the place.  Hours pass and two of jack’s friends pick up a few girls and walked with them down a street and jack was all alone. So he ended up calling Dotty and they began to talk and that’s how their relationship grew.

          Now the authors purpose to adding a girl into 15 year old jacks life was to one give this story plot a twist and the other reason is because it shows how the author  wants to add some what of romance to a war book. I think when the author gives jack his age it makes the story really different because he is very young and left his family is more than likely home sick. Then he adds a girl into his life to try to help balance both the home sick load and also help jack fill in his shoes. So that is what I think the author second part of the book is about.

           The type of audience in which this book was written for was people who like to read about war times and the romance that can be involved in it. I feel like there is no set age group when it comes to a book such as the one like this.  Now the way in which I can tell is by reading this book and figuring out how the author in other books writes about the same general l topic.  So that is the audience I think in which this author was aiming for.

           

The Last Mission-part 1

In the book The Last Mission by Harry Mazer , it talks about a young man who joins the army during World War Two where he later would join the air force and become a hero.

A little background information  during this time is during world war two the war was almost over and Hitler was at his end yet there was still one last air mission to put him away for good. The main character name is Jack and he is only 15 from New York. He had lied about his age just so he can become apart of the air force. He knew he wanted to stop Hitler and this was the best way he could do it.

The author's purpose in writing this story is to bring up a different way of what could have happen during world war two, almost as if he wanted to predict what would happen if this young 15 year old kid was apart of the air force. its a action filling whats going to happen next type of book. i think that the author of this book must have been around during this world war two time otherwise he probably would have not had these strong details about the war and he would not be able to add that war like twist to his story with the young boy trying to be the hero.

In my opinion the strengths in this book are the fact thats the kid is only 15 years of age yet he has a huge desire to be a guy that can say he help fight in the war. I think the weakest point in this book so far is when they kind of come up with this idea that because the parents are polish they are sending these care packages to Poland because of what is going on. i think that was really a weak point that the author put in this story. yet overall this is a very interesting book and i feel like i am in for a surprising ending with this action filled book.

Family history response

Two stories that some what connect to mine is Jackson's story which is about who came back from the American war to protest. Another story that connects to my story lightly is Andy Lau's story which was about how  mother moved from china to the United States to get away from the hardship and raise her son. What both of theses story show is how hard they will work to try to achieve that "American Dream".
  In Andy Lau's story he also talks about how his mother had to live and grow up in hard places.

My mom described how their family had to go to the local public shower rooms that were created for people who did not have showers or toilets in their houses. She described these as dirty and filthy places that she hated going to."

To me this would motivate me to try my best to move out of such a place because i want a better life for my children and for them not to experience such hardship in their lifetime. I think this is why Andy mother did what she did and move to the states.  she was looking for the American dream.After reading a strong quote from Jackson it really did statr to connect even more.

"After leaving, he, along with many of his friends, etc. began to protest the war. I guess you could say at one point he became the classic image of a “hippie."

 I think that in both of these stories is is rather important to see how them coming to a different place was because they where searching for better experiences.  It really shows what people around the world tend to think about America. After reading a lot of stories i notice one think that seems for the most part to be the same and that is how the parents want to seek opportunity. I think these patterns are starting to become is because of what America is being views as and that is anything is possible here in the states. Thats to me is also a huge reason why more and more people are coming to the united states. They want to live that American dream and feel it for there self's.

cycles-joy luck club

family essay

My family has a lot of stories that were past down for a long time. There is one story that really

gets to me every time i hear it. It's the story my grandma told me not to long ago and i can 

remember it word for word.  The way in which my grandmother tells the story replays in my mind just like a movie.

My grandmother's grandparents lived in Texas. They where two school teachers who had about a 12th grade education. At that time in Texas for African American people that was considered to be rather high. My grandmother said that her grandfather was a very dark man and his wife was a light skin black women. her skin almost looked as if she was white. that was because her mother was raped by a slave owner that why her skin is so light.  so anyways back to the story, my grandmothers grandparents had this friend named Jim. Jim had been friends with them for a long time he would always help the children during school. That was because my grandmothers grandparents could use a little help every once in a while. so that is what Jim offered to them.

Oneday Jim had came running into my grandmothers grandparents house begging them to give him mercy and hide him somewhere. the reason in which he was needed to behind en was because he had been accused of raping a white women. in the state of Texas at that time would mean that a black man would be lynched. so my grandmothers grandparents hid there friend jim under theses floor boards. if Jim was to be found in my grandmothers grandparents house all three of them would be lynched because they where apart of hiding this man. For them to avoild that from happening they moved to the state of California.

When my grandmothers grandparents moved to the state of California they had lost their teaching jobs. they moved to a small town called allens's town which now is know as Fresno.in this small town their was a lot of black families moving in. now in a near by town there where white people in which they did not want black families to live next ti them. Now for them to stop black families from coming into this town they poisoned their water. that caused them not to be able to have clean drinking water which simply had met that they would have to move to another town. The town in which my grandmothers grandparents was down in southern California where they would own a farm.  

That is where my grandmother said her mother would move to a city called Bakersfield. That is where my grandmother would spend  her childhood. 

The reason this story has lasted so long in my family i think is because it shows the moral of friendship and also courage. What i learned about my self after hearing this story from my grandmother was i was not sure if i would be brave enough to do the things they did to save this mans life. i do not know if i would be able to handle that risk.In a way though i feel like if that was me back then i still would have had to do my best to save the life of my friend. 

Amy Tan and Amy Chuan

I think that there are many similarities and connections in The Joy Luck Club. in the story tiger mom Amy tan is both of the  authors. Amy tan was talking about how strict her mother was and how hard she was pushing her so she can become really smart. also how she did not allow her to live her life by not letting her do things like watch TV and kick it with the friends and stuff. in a way i think this made Amy Tan feel as if she had no freedom in her life because her mother was controlling it.

In the third chapter of the Joy Luck Club it talks about how hard the moms treat there daughters. an example would be when Wavarly mother was making her play chess. This then makes her feel as if her mother is asking to much of her and she doesn't like that at all.  That probably the reason why she gives up playing chess. Its almost as if Wavrly mother is pressuring her to much. this is just like Amy Tan mother when she was pushing her to be good at everything. This si the reason why Waverly stop playing chess.

I think thats moms have more past life experiences both good and bad so thats why they want there daughters to do somethings and not others. It is so they dont make the same choices as they did. Although  i think sometimes you should let people make there own mistakes because thats how they grow as people.  In the story of "rice husband" lena's mom always notices that things are not going right. she seems to struggle a lot. anyways the experiences the moms have should not be connects to there daughters. 

the joy luck club

the purpose of Amy Tan introduction to the second section of the book is that it was explaining or foreshadowing what will occur in the next two stories , "rules of the game" and " the voice from the wall". the introduction talks about a book , the 26 malignant gates,that speaks about the 26 bad things that can happen. the intro is the mother speaking to her daughter not to ride her bike. "it is a book , the 26 malligant gates , all the bad things that can happen to you outside the protection of your house"(87).

In the end of the introduction page , the daughter does not listen to what her mother told her not to do. the little girl got on her bike and before reaching to the Conner she falls. this goes to show that everyone should listen to thier parents in order to stay away from danger.

this foreshadows what happens in the next chapter of the joy luck club, "the rules of the game". the little girl did not listen to her mother and then she ran away for a while. when she returned the entire family was ignoring her and they did not eat the feast with her.

this to me is rather harsh. if i was that girl and i had run away and then came back and the family was still being jerks i would have more than likely ran away again and this time have not come back. its almost as if they want the girl to run away and to not return. i guess the family would feel bad then.

joy luck club quick write

In the Joy Luck Club, one of the main characters, Shuyuan Woo tells her daughter June Woo different stories all the time. The one that stuck out the most to her daughter was the Kweilin story. Shuyuan tells her daughter of how she made her club, the Joy Luck Club. She changed her stories a couple times. The first version to the story is when she ends it with talking about the Joy Luck Club and how it was formed, she tells about the other women who were involved in the club and how they kept each other up in hard times.

Another ending to the story was when she won money from playing a game with the women of the Joy Luck Club and how she used that to buy rice. That rice turned into porridge and then that gruel for two feet of a pig. Then the feet became eggs and the eggs became chickens.

The last version to the story was when she tells her daughter that she had to leave her children back in her country. A man told Shuyuan to leave Kweilin because the Japanese were coming. After this, she ran and she was only carrying two bags that had food and the other that had clothes. On her arms, she carried her two babies. After days of running away, she dropped the bags because her hands became bloody and then when she was too tired, she also left her babies behind. Then, that was when she arrived to America to have a new life with new children.

Shuyuan Woo changes the story that she tells her daughter because she does not want her to know of the type of mother that she was. She had to sacrifice her children in order to be safe. She didn’t want her to know about her two other children and especially not that she had to leave them on the way. It was her way of hiding things from her daughter in order for her to be able to still have that good life that she always wished for her daughter to have.

why chinese mothers are superior-quick write

If a Chinese child gets a B which would never happen—there would first be a screaming, hair-tearing explosion. The devastated Chinese mother would then get dozens, maybe hundreds of practice tests and work through them with her child for as long as it takes to get the grade up to an A.

If it was me i wouldn't know want to do because if i had gooten lower than an A i would be in big trouble.
this for me is scary to really know that there are parents out there that will scream at their kids for not getting the highest grade in the school. I know for some people like some of my friends they say this is true. i was shocked to hear that. at first when they told me this i thought they were liking because they where barging about their grades. i always wanted to know why and how the Chinese got these straight A's and the thing about that is they would say i never studied for this. so i thought that the teachers would cheat for them because they where Chinese. so to hear about something like this is very sad but hey if your getting good grades then theirs nothing really you can complain about. Right?

For me i don't agree with this because in my family we for sure don't think like that and we do not have this structured life like the way these Chinese  mothers described it. it is really kind of boring and can be very streesful on the kids because i think no one wants to learn that way. i feel like kids want to try something new because thats how they learn. yeah they might learn by what their parents say beut really who wants to learn like that if they have the chance to learn in a more fun way.


Over all after reading this i kind of thought it was both funny and a waste of my time. why would any one say something like this because to me i do not thing it is kind of useful to stress out your kids over school work. yeah school work is important but so is having a life. so yeah that my take on this article.
 

quick write about A.F and Egypt

       After reading the book animal farm by George Orwell and hearing about the events in Tunisia and Egypt some of the connections these two make are more well seen in some cases such as the want change. in the book the animal farm the animals take over the farm and throw out their leader which is the human. this is the same for what is going on in Egypt they are throwing out there old unused full government and they already threw out their leader. the leaders of these two have been where there at for a long long time and the people want a change they want something new. they want the real happiness.

       something else that is common between both animal farm and what is taking place in Egypt is the fact that they really want to get rid of the leaders. they both would do just about anything and every thing to say that got rid of this person. there are some examples of this happing already such as people sleeping in between the tracks of tanks just knowing that if these tanks move a few feet there bones would turn into red color pancakes. yet they are OK will knowing the fact how close they are to death. they just want change in this world and would risk there lives to get it. they know its all for the better of the goverment the country and most importanly the people.

      these people where tired just like in the book the animal farm because the choices there governments and or leaders are making was more for the benift of them and less of the people. which might i say make up a country.

animal farm essay

John H. & Jasiu M.

9 February 2010

Conrads! Worst has come to worst! The humans have started a campaign that is to invade us any moment. They never were our friends. They just tried to trick us so they could take control over our precious windmill! So let us stand up strong so that we once again can defeat those traitors.”
It was by the end of breakfast the invasion started. After reading the Art of War, napoleon developed some new tactics that could help him win. He and the other pigs set up the animal into companies and squads based on their race and abilities. They had a feeling that all will go by easily.
          The humans finally came in sight, but this time they came with a much greater speed. They were unexpectedly riding on horses. Fear began to tremble the animals, but the pigs just stood there.
“Sheep, forward march!” shouted napoleon with great anger.
“2 legs bahad, 4 legs good”
But the sheep did no good. Once they came in contact with the humans on horses, they got ignored as if they were stones. “2 legs bahad, 4 legs good”
“Ducks, take off!” shouted napoleon as they became airborne.
They dropped eggs from above but little was achieved from that. The humans just wiped it off. Now the riders where very close. Napoleon on board a horse (as were the other pigs) gave order to open fire. One human down. Now the tides were turning. Victory was now shining on the animal’s side while the humans were being crushed. With no doubt were they to win. Then, unexpectedly, napoleon fired at a rider’s horse. Clover approached the shot horse and recognized the face. It was Mollie.
“Napoleon! How could you of shot one of our old friends?”
“She is not our friend! She is fighting against us! Comrade, this is no time to ask such silly questions! The horses are to be killed too!”
When clover heard this, he was furious. “I shall not betray my own race! Everyone save yourselves! We cannot defeat these humans! And why should we betray our former friend! I say, I cannot obey this nasty napoleon!”
This brought question to the minds of all the animals. They could not believe napoleon shot Mollie! So they stopped attacking. Napoleon no was angered and terrified. No longer were the animals supporting him. So he started to flee. The other pigs then followed him.
“After them!” shouted clover. Everyone, including the farm animals, chased the pigs. They ran and ran, but their old age limited their distance. They approached the pigs and one by one they were killed.
They returned to Mollie’s body. There she lay, breathing unevenly but alive. She was injured, but only in the leg with some broses.

Seven years later, day and night came and the short animal lives escaped. There then came a time when no longer they remember the rebellion. Jessie, pincher, bulebell, Murel and Jones had all died. But Jones had died in a really sad way he was killed on the other side of the country. Also molly was willing to help the other animals and the way that was going to happen was by killing Napoleon. So that’s what happen and once napoleon was gone the plan was to cut the pig up and serve it as bacon and sausage. The plan was to open a mini restaurant where the served bacon all day long. The name of it would be called wernersnzial.  And that would be the end of napoleon.

Rebuttal

Animal farm-part2

In the story animal farm by the author names "Gorge Orwell" there is a fight for equality. the farm gets taking over by a pig named Napoleon. there is leadership which many desire. yet some abuse that power while some like to use it for good. to make things better. in the book the pigs are kind of seen as the leaders but the pigs all share different views. that's what make all the pigs different about each other. yet in some weird way they are kind of the same. maybe because they are all pigs.

in the farm there was aboar who was kind of the planner of the rebellion ageist the humans. his name was Major. Major passes away kind of soon in the book. in major speech the day before he dies he talks about how the animals should get rid of the humans. major believes all of the animals should be treated equal. all of the animals should in fact be friends. the way major talks is kind of motivating to the other animals and his speech seems to work.

there is the pig who named is snowball. snowball is kind of towards the beginning part of the story. he was the pig who created the seven commandments that he thinks major would most likely want if he was still alive.

i think that the pigs include all the animals as well as consider the animals. when major had spoke all of the animals was able to understand what he was saying. snowball seems to speak in a way that all of the animals don't really seem to understand. snowball tries to keep Major's dream alive which is for all animals to be equal. for some reason snowball always finds a solution to help out animals. he was an effciveespeaker but i feel not how major was.

in conclusion snowball and napoleon was two different kinds of leaders. yet they both where still leaders who choices where good for the animals. after reading the whole book i must say i did like it. i was happy to read a book like thisbook was one that was worth my time. so thanks to sutherland for picking this book.

opening statement-child stars

Should child actors in shows marketed to younger audiences be expected to serve as role models for people their age?

Child stars on TV today should know better than to put themselves out there like that.

Today, there are many teen stars in the media out there doing shows that are meant to be for little kids, but then again, there are the kid stars who think they can do what they want. Such stars in Disney Channels go out in public and they do all sorts of stuff that little kids should not be watching. There is specifically one star that everyone knows about and that happens to be Miley Cyrus. Miley Cyrus has done it all as you can say. In the past years, we has seen her grown more and more out of control. At first, she started coming out with pictures that leaked on to Myspace of her basically half- naked. Then she showed up on T.V. dancing around on a pole and in her music video for ‘Party in the U.S.A’, she was also wearing little to no clothes on. Also, she was dating a guy who happened to be a little older than her. He was 20 while she was only 16. The most recent news on Miley Cyrus was that she was smoking out of a bong and the drug was supposedly salvia. Miley Cyrus is not a good role model and for that reason, she should not be able to even be on Disney Channel because of all her previous behavior. Parents would not want their children to be watching everything that she does when she is supposed to be a child star.

The Disney Corporation should not let stars such as Miley Cyrus ruin their name. A teen star such as her makes it seem like that is what all of the Disney kids are doing which is not true. It would not be right if little kids would suddenly want to be just like Miley Cyrus simply because they look up to what she does because she is on Disney Channel. I think that they should just basically not allow these kids to be on the shows where millions of kids a day see them and then later see them on some other type of news doing something that they shouldn’t be doing.

Political power

Writing Prompt: In your opinion, does political power corrupt the people who attain it? Also, how do you think George Orwell would answer this question?

first i would like to say that political power is a very important thing ans should be treated as such. i would also like to say that somehow when it comes down to power it all ways finds a way to get miss used. i really am not sure why that is. there is all ways something wrong when it comes to political power.

after starting reading the book Animal farm i came up upon this quote. which said "man is the only real enemy we have. i was shocked to hear that. i think partly because how i was looking at the story which was in a realistic view. some one told me not to look at the book that way because thats not how the book was written.  so what i think this might be trying to say is anyone with power may have or does have problems.

now the animals say that they will not become like the humans and not follow the humans way. fir some reason i have a hard time believing that. i feel like every new person or animal in this case just says that type of stuff to kind of motivate the people into thinking these people or animals will change how this policy works. and they can only make it better. so thats why i do not agree this will work out and the animal thing will have trouble.

it will be very interesting to see how this works out and i think the author does a good job with keeping the reader guessing and making predictions. i really am enjoying the book so far and i am glad we are reading this for class because there is no other way i would have read this book. but i am glad i am reading it.

free blog post

response post

i found this off of vincent liu blog.

“Childhood is a period of time that I think is the most important moment of a person's entire life. The life of being a kid is such a wonderful and beautiful thing to have… Childhood is the time where we experience many things for the first time… Without a beginning, how can there be a middle or an end? Everything has a beginning and have to start somewhere. For us, our Childhood is where it all begin.”

i really like what vincent said. i do agree that childhood is a big part of every ones life even mine. i think i had a wonderful childhood. it was so good i sometimes wish i can go back in the past and relive the fun of my childhood. i know that for my childhood i did expernce things for the first time. mater of fact that was true for the most of my childhood. a lot of what i know now is becasue of myu childhood.

one of the big things that i can remember from my childhood is school. i learned a lot of new things in my frist few yyears of school. some of the most important things i have learned so far in my life was from my childhood. some of those things where to never give up and allways try your best. now that can go a long ways. those few things really seem to fit into everything in my life. thats why it is so important.

also from my childhood i remember i use to play outside alot. i spent almost the hold day outside. some of the things i use to do was play basketball , football play tag or even just hang out. back then it was so much fun and stress free. i think that may be because i had little homework and a lot of freetime on my hands. i some times wish i still have a lot of time on my hands just so i could have some time to sleep and relax.

so yeah thats my response post about childhood. i would just lie to say that i had a really great childhood to bad it couldent be longer.

Elite college

when the time comes and you have todeside to go to a college one question you may have is which colege should i go to? an elite college or does that even matter. now what people seem to think is that if you go to a elite college somehow your life will be so much better.  well i dont really agree with that. i think as long as you go to college and get your degree thats all that matters.

the response that i feel like that made the most sense was "skip the admissions game" by kevin carney. it talks about if you have a lot of money and can pay for an elite college then do so. while some people may not have a ton of money and can not pay for those expensive elitle colleges they might have to go to smaller name colleges. like i said before the key is to got to college.

"If you're among the small handful of students who have stellar SAT scores and parents with several hundred thousand dollars to spend, you should seriously consider going to an elite college or university... But most students -- about four out of five -- attend colleges that have modest resources, are easy to get into, and are relatively obscure. Lacking any other way to distinguish among these choices, these students usually attend whichever college is cheapest and closest to home."

anyone who is able to go a elite college then of course you should go. but if you can not go to a elite college because of money reasons that does not mean you can not get a college degree.