Using creativity to differentiate a student when applying to colleges ...

1. Preparing for the US College
Admissions Process
A Malaysian Parent’s Perspective
On Preparing His
12 Year Old US-Born Daughter
Mark Lee
daddy@laurenlee.org (bio)

2. Perspectives
On Filling an Elite US University
Entering Class

3. “Smart” Perspective on Filling an Entering Class
Admit The Smartest Student Applicants
(IQ scores)
168 152 172
166 180 148
Elite US Universities Can Fill Their Entering Classes Entirely
with Valedictorians (#1’s), But THEY DON’T

4. “Diverse ” Perspective on Filling an Entering Class
Admit Smart And Diverse Students
148 138 140
130 134
136

5. Diversity Prediction Theorem
- Cognitive Diversity Leads to Better Results -
“Most of the time”
the diverse group
outperforms the group of the best
by a substantial margin.
Crowd Error = Average Error – Cognitive Diversity
Avoid Similar
• Perspectives
• Categorization
• Heuristics
• Predictive Models

6. Admissions Impact Upon US-Born Asian Applicants
to Elite US Universities
“Diverse” Perspective
“Smart” Perspective
16.1% About 1/3
19.1% 40+ %
used to be 20%
17.6%
15.5% Asians
5% of the US Population
Class of 2013 Statistics

7. SAT Scores by Ethnicity for Elite US Schools
Asians 1550
140
1997 study
Caucasians 1410
For US-Born
Applicants
300 (max SAT Score is 1600)
Blacks 1110

8. Differentiating by Being “Creative”
Useful to All Students
(including US-born or Malaysian)

9. Cultivating Creativity Because it’s Doable!
(only 30% is attributable to genetics)
A famous study on identical twins aged between 15 and 22 …
while 80% of IQ differences were attributable to genetics,
only around 30% of the performance on creativity tests
could be explained that way.
… there’s Creativity as in genius
(the 30% that goes with your genes) and
creativity as in attitude and mindset
(the 70% that you can do something about).
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/03/creativity_with_a_small_c.html

10. Creativity <> Intelligence
high test scores and great grades
do not necessarily set creative people apart,
especially when young.
Nor does precocious talent.
Far better to look for evidence of
a playful imagination and
a habit of making and exploring.
http://www.creativitypost.com/psychology/almost_everything_you_ever_wanted_to_know_about_creativity

11. Genius IQ is usually at least 120
(necessary but not sufficient condition)
Intelligence and creativity
are related up to a modest IQ
score of about 120,
But for IQ score above 120,
there is hardly any correlation
http://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4860&context=etd_theses
What is Richard’s tested IQ?
Richard Feynman
1965 Physics
Nobel Prize Laureate
IQ: 170-228

12. Cultivating Creativity
Is a Parental Responsibility

13. Teachers Do NOT Actually Want Creative Students
While the teachers said
they wanted creative kids in their classroom,
they actually didn’t.
when they were asked to rate their students on a variety of
personality measures – the list included everything from
“individualistic” to “risk-seeking” to “accepting of authority” –
the traits mostly closely aligned with creative thinking
were also closely associated with their “least favorite” students.
“Judgments for the favorite student were
negatively correlated with creativity
judgments for the least favorite student were
positively correlated with creativity.”
http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2010/04/classroom_creativity.php

14. Thinking and Doing Like Geniuses
Thinking Doing
LOOK AT PROBLEMS MAKE THEIR THOUGHTS
IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS VISIBLE
THINK IN OPPOSITES PRODUCE
PREPARE THEMSELVES
THINK METAPHORICALLY
FOR CHANCE
MAKE NOVEL COMBINATIONS
FORCE RELATIONSHIPS
http://www.creativitypost.com/create/how_geniuses_think

15. Practicing
Different Perspectives
with my Daughter

16. What Does this Wuzzle (Word Puzzle) Say?
Think Verbal, Think Spatial

17. What Does this Wuzzle (Word Puzzle) Say?

18. One Set of Answers
Think Verbal, Think Spatial

19. One Set of Answers

20. Nurturing My Daughter’s Creativity

21. Luck Does Help!
David Henry Hwang

22. Lauren’s Hodge-Podge 1: Creative Writing

23. Does Sakae Sushi Encourage Cannibalism?

24. Creativity for Business Professionals
the No. 1 skill
that separated innovators from noncreative professionals
was “associating”–having an ability to successfully connect
seemingly unrelated questions, problems or ideas from
different fields.
The three-year Harvard research project
confirmed what Jobs had told a reporter 15 years earlier:
“Creativity is just connecting things.”
The key to thinking differently
is perceiving things differently.
To perceive things differently,
you must be exposed to divergent ideas, places and people.
This forces your brain to make connections
it otherwise might miss.
http://www.forbes.com/2010/10/19/steve-jobs-innovation-leadership-managing-
creativity.html?boxes=HomepageSpecialStorySection

25. If You Aren’t Making Mistakes, You’re Not Creative
Go and make interesting mistakes,
make amazing mistakes,
make glorious and fantastic mistakes.
Break rules.
Leave the world more interesting for your being here.

26. A Loving 12-year Old Daughter
(or as much love as she can muster)

27. Other Ways to Help Your Child(ren)

28. The Value of a College Education
The ballooning cost of a college degree is driving the need for a new school system.
Outstanding student debt in the U.S. is upwards of $1 trillion.
www.noodle.org

29. Johns Hopkins’ Study of Exceptional Talent
http://cty.jhu.edu/set/

30. Freeing Your Child to Learn …
"We have prepared the path for the child
instead of the child for the path"

31. Elite US Universities Want a
“Diverse” Student Population
Admit Smart And Diverse Students
148 138 140
130 134
136

32. ? √
Mark Lee
daddy@laurenlee.org