Help the Needy in Our Community!

Cupertino is a wonderful community. Let us support the needy in our community…

Cupertino Community Services’ Food Pantry needs non-perishable food, including cereal and tuna, and fresh fruits and vegetables - especially potatoes; new winter jackets; unwrapped teen gifts; gift cards, especially for grocery stores; and holiday wrapping paper. Volunteers also needed. Donations may be dropped off at 10104 Vista Drive, Cupertino, 8 a.m.-noon and 1-5 p.m. weekdays, except Thursdays, when the agency is open until 8 p.m. (408) 255-8033, www.cupertinocommunityservices.org.

Google Is Great!

I am so excited to hear Google’s announcement yesterday inviting high schoolers like me to participate in this. See details here - http://code.google.com/opensource/ghop/2007-8/

Having self-learnt LAMP architecture during my 9th grade, I wish Google had initiated this contest three years back. Nevertheless, I am going to submit some very exciting stuff I’ve done recently.

Though I wish that Google gave rewards in the form of their stock rather than cash.

This is just awesome!

Why are top US schools not increasing their admitted student pool?

I am applying to most top schools this winter and have also attended receptions by all these schools in the bay area over the last 4 months. As I absorbed their great presentations and networked with the admission officers, it became clear to me that the volume of applicants to these schools has been steadily increasing over the past few years. In addition to US applicants, it appears that the rapid increase in economies in India and China is also driving significant increases in international applicants as well. Bottom line – it is increasingly getting more competitive for anyone to get into these colleges. With many colleges opting for the common app, this situation is likely to worsen further.

But what is not clear to me at all is whether it is smart for all these colleges to maintain the similar size of incoming student pool with negligible increases over the years. In my wisdom, business 101 has taught me that a greater demand (number of students applying) for a particular service warrants expansion in supply (number of students admitted).

I am noticing that this unmet demand is being accommodated by fresh investments into the education sector in developing economies like India and China – over there, government and private sectors are funding new universities every day. Recently, I met a friend of mine who has decided to pursue medicine in India because he feels that quality of education there is comparable to that in US while being less expensive. If this trend continues unchecked, I fear that today’s top schools could potentially get marginalized 15-20 years down the line.

I wish that the top US schools get more creative by satisfying the increased demands of applications. While increasing the enrollment of students (like Princeton has done this year) will be the simplest, I can understand that many schools have their own constraints. But still, there exist many other creative options. I have many ideas and would welcome inputs from others as well.

Though I know that this thought process would not benefit me as I am entering college next year, but I definitely wish that this chain of thoughts helps the incoming classes over the next few years.

Children don’t have to die like this!!!

I am shocked to read today’s news about the death of a 11 month old baby in Oakland, CA who was left in his car seat for more than 10 hours. I understand the baby’s dad forgot to drop the baby at child care while on his way to work. My heart goes out to the family on this big loss.

What perturbs me even more on this accident is when I read that every year there are about 33 similar deaths in California alone. This is really appalling and something needs to be done urgently.

While I am not condoning what this baby’s dad do in this case, but the act of forgetting is too common among human beings across a wide variety of activities and ideally our systems should be designed accordingly to send suitable warnings in case of any acts like this – specially when there is a life at risk!. As an example, if my dad starts to drive a car without wearing a safety belt, there is an alarm warning in the car – because it is unsafe to drive otherwise.

Extending this logic further, I think the situations like the unfortunate death of this child could have been avoided if auto manufacturers develop a system whereby there is an alarm which rings when the safety belts for the child seat are engaged (which means child is on the seat) AND the engine of the car is switched off for more than 2 minutes. The alarm should ideally be of a special tone and loud enough to alert nearby persons of a potential danger to a child’s life.

I really wish auto companies do something like this or similar and save our children from these unfortunate accidents.

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! I am really excited to finally start blogging.