Talk:Bergen County Academies
For a May 2005 deletion debate over this page see Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Bergen County Academies
Anyone wanna fill out the template to the article (i.e., find out BA's average SAT scores and figure out how to upload a picture of the school logo)? --Classwarrior 02:16, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
The "prestigious" IB programme is nowhere near as big a deal as the schools stellar Math team or student research opportunities, this article (and more importantly and tragically, the schools homepage) need to be rewritten to reflect the strengths of this actually impressive school, in my opinion. Plenty of mediocre schools have IB, and this is no mediocre school. //Jugander
people need to stop bitching about what academies are better. relax will you. // Alexandra
I will maintain that yes, this article was made by students of the Bergen County Academies, amongst those people who cannot be identified as 'unbiased'. As a BCAer myself, I suggest that all BCAers immediately cease boosting or degrading their own or any other academies. The keyword of an encyclopedia article is objective. We only need to provide the most basic information, without any judgments on the levels of education or trivia on certain teachers or random facts. // Kazastankas
- The sad part is that I'll probably be going to BCA. What's it like up there? —MESSEDROCKER (talk) 02:32, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
SUPPOSEDLY, its a good school, and they give you materials and money to make something, if approved...SUPPOSEDLY, it's supposed to be fun. BUT, you need good grades, and that nerdy feature. This is just a guess...Its going to be a while before I get there.
Since when is "battlebots" a boy's athletic activity? I thought it was an engineering club/project seeing as they assemble fighting robots.
OK, I've been trying to make minor changes here and there, but one thing keeps coming up that has to change: the superlative adjectives, unsubstantiated boasts and general editorializing must stop now. Encyclopedia articles contain facts, not opinions.
Also: Where did those SAT scores come from? Do we have a source? They seem to be way too low.
Response to the SAT issue: they're not all that low from my memory. The best source for a current BCA student to use are the school profile sheets that they send out with college application packets. //Ewalt
- Since profile sheets are sent out based on Academy (rather than for the entire class), I am skeptical that any numbers exist schoolwide. That said, they don't see unreasonably low, especially because 2004-05 was the lowest SAT year the school had ever had. 4Bs 01:36, 3 May 2006 (UTC)
- I don't know what's changed, but to my knowledge, the SAT averages which were publicized were generally based on CEEB code, so Sci/Eng had one average, Business was separate, Medical was separate, and the Careers had one average. By this split, either my year ('03) or the one before it, Sci/Eng had the highest average in the nation. Jonpin 02:17, 3 May 2006 (UTC)
In case you haven't been following the news, we at the Academy have our first notable alumni. Kaavya Viswanathan, a current sophmore at Harvard, has just been accused of plagiarism for her book "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life", which she wrote while a student at the Academy. It's all over the web, but here's the NYT link (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/26/books/26book.html?ex=1303704000&en=46bf0d6991bad677&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss). Should it be put in the article?
Response to the Kaavya issue: I don't think that's really appropriate. Her actions don't reflect (I hope) anything about the school in general. Perhaps if we started a "notable alumni" section, it would make sense to include Kaavya's plight. My next comment is going to raise some bias flags... but I think the media focus on Kaavya's failure is somewhat deplorable. Does envy of people like Kaavya make us happy when they fall? I suppose that's neither here nor there. --Ewalt 02:16, 27 April 2006
- Perhaps. Having known Kaavya when she attended the Academies, I could have predicted her fall. She, like, sadly, many others at the Academies, spent much of her time building up the appearance of briliance rather than actually working. And, in her case, it worked for quite a long time. That said... OFF TOPIC. 4Bs 01:36, 3 May 2006 (UTC)
I have added a section on the Arts at the Academies. While BCA is an academic institution, I personally have found that the arts program at BCA is quite surprising good and better than most high schools. Therefore, I think it deserves a separate section. Feel free to edit/add info to it.
Professionals Everywhere and All the Time!
>"The theater arts deparment puts on professional-grade plays and musicals each year on the school stage, which is a professionally-equipped auditorium that seats 1,300 and is rented out to outside professional groups regularly."
3x "professional" is hardly necessary. "Professional-grade plays" seems inherently POV, "professionally-equipped" changed to "well-equipped" (What, was it equipped by professionals? Uses the same equipment as some professionals? Isn't that a huge range anyways?). "Professional groups" remains, since that's easily verifiable and also meaningful. Icewolf34 14:31, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
Schedules, Math, and Stereotypes
I've added sections on scheduling, math, and academy stereotypes. BCA follows what is already a fairly unusual schedule with several unique modifications, and its math curriculum, for those who place high enough in freshman year, introduces topics that are explored in Columbia University's 40— level math classes. As for the academy stereotypes, I hope I have discussed them as stereotypes, rather than as factual information in the body of the article. This is my first major edit, so please do review my work. 0702034 11:14, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
The last edit added Data Structures to the last stage of the calculus sequence, which previously had only Topics in Advanced Mathematics, but in my opinion this is not warranted. Strictly speaking it's not even a math class, but rather AP Computer Science AB with additional topics. 0702034 03:19, 11 September 2006 (UTC)
It might be wise to rework the parts on the schedule conflict and academy stereotypes. They look a tad unprofessional to me. I like the math rework though - very complete //Davrol
I agree with Davrol in that sections of this article appear unencyclopedic. -- A Wang (talk/contrb.) 23:41, 18 September 2006 (UTC)
What is with the colors in the table?!
Is anyone else seeing the green colors of the table, or do I have SCHIZOPHRENIA? What is with it? May it be changed? I do not know how. -- A Wang (talk/contrb.) 00:09, 2 October 2006 (UTC)
The colors have disappeared; never mind. I guess I have schizophrenia. -- A. Wang (talk/contrb.) 21:28, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
ABF should be in the first superset
As a Science student at the Academies, I can truthfully tell you that ABF does not enjoy a lighter schedule, especially not in the junior and senior years. Between the IB curriculum and the in-house economics and management classes, the usual Business schedule starts out busier than the Science schedule. Of course, students can and many do compensate by reducing their electives, but that's an option available to everyone. I'll wait a bit, but if no-one objects, I'm going to change this. 0702034 05:25, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
How is this? Check the edit around 7:36am 11/17 by me. Objections? -- A. Wang (talk/contrb.) 12:37, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
Degree of Selectivity
I'm a little puzzled that anyone would bother to change "highly selective" to "selective," but since it's been done let me point out that in recent years the Academy has accepted 20 - 25% of those who have applied. For purposes of comparison, the Cornell page says "Admission to Cornell is extremely selective. For the undergraduate class of 2010, the admission rate was 24.7%." I'm not sure what "highly selective" means, but it does seem like an appropriate term for Academy admissions. Davost 04:30, 3 December 2006 (UTC)