Milton Friedman- Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Milton Friedman- Economics - Essay Example All of these policies generated tremendous wealth and opportunity. They certainly weren’t perfect, but nothing in life is perfect. These were policies that were championed by one of the great economists in the history of the world: Milton Friedman. Today, as the world again plunges into economic crisis and the American government tries to solve all of the world’s problems by itself, Friedman’s lessons are more important than ever before. He has in no way been proven wrong, and those that suggest he has have a very poor understanding of economics and of history. For a long time the world was divided between people who believed in free markets and those who wanted the government to control everything. During this battle both of these ideas became more and more focused. In the United States, one of the main advocates of free markets were those belonging to the Chicago School of Economics. This group was led by Milton Friedman who believed that market economies are stable if left to themselves and can engender much more prosperity and freedom than any other system of government. Problems, he believed, only really occur when governments intervene. Friedman took a lot of the basic principles set forth by Adam Smith and he modernized them in a way. But if he saw President Obama’s bailout packages and the Trouble Asset Relief Program today he would be shocked. Buying up failing companies and giving money to many more, is the opposite of free market economics. The problem, he would probably say, is that too many companies were allowed to get too large and to have too much sway over the American economy. The solution, however, would not be government intervention on the massive scale that is suggest: the solution would be to manage the failure of failing companies, so that the economy as a whole does not collapse. The auto companies for example have for decades refused to adapt to changing market circumstances while simulteanously beating

Cars Versus motorcycles Essay Example for Free

Cars Versus motorcycles Essay In the united states many people buy cars and motorcycles. Some people prefer driving cars rather than motorcycles. Both are very popular types of transportation these days. Cars and motorcycles have many differences in their cost, convenience ,safety, comfort and maintenance. The first difference between cars and motorcycles are the cost. For example, people need to pay a lot of money if they want to buy or lease a car. However, motorcycles are cheaper to rent or buy. Also, cars are more convenient than motorcycles. For instance, cars can transport many people but motorcycles do not do it. Also, cars have air condition and people can listen music while they drive. Other, advantages have a car is another person can drive for someone when he is drunk. Motorcycles are most popular in young people because is most exciting, easy to parking and avoids traffic. The second important difference is safety. For example, cars have seat beats and air bags can protect the drivers. However ,in motorcycles, people only can use helmet, so drivers are fragile. Also, cars have a cage most protectors in case of accident than motorcycles. Although, the car insurance is the most expensive than motorcycles it covers all damage. Also, people in motorcycle need to use sunglasses for protect their eyes. In case of terrible accident people in motorcycle died, so cars are most safety. Other essential differences are comfort and maintenance .Motorcycles do not have comfort because seats are very awkward. However ,cars have soft seats and if it is raining people will not get wet. When people need to change oil and tires, it is very expensive. Also, cars are most difficult to repair and use a lot of gas. However ,motorcycles are too easy repair because do not have a big motor. Motorcycles are not difficult to maintain. In conclusion ,cars and motorcycles are very different in their cost, convenience, safety, comfort and maintenance. A lot of people buy cars or motorcycles, it is a very common type of transportation .Each person buys a vehicle that they like for their features.

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Christopher Pace 3-11-14 Research Paper Harriet Tubman was a woman who cared for others and she also was a hero to many blacks. She had an extremely hard life although it eventually got better for Harriet. She was a very lucky and intelligent girl. However, as a child growing up, she was small, slow and was picked on because of it. She was able to make history even though she was a slave, and for a slave she held her own for a long time enduring beatings and whippings. In the life of Harriet Tubman, her childhood was the first obstacle and there were many to follow. She was born in 1820 into the hard life of slavery. Instead of her real name, she took her mother’s name of Harriet. Her real name was Aramintia Harriet Ross and her nickname was Minty. Her childhood was hard having eight siblings besides her. She had three sisters sold to plantations near Alabama. This was also hard because she was a Christian and was supposed to forgive people for wronging her. Harriet lived in Alabama which was a very hostile slave state in the south. She was also lucky to have two parents. Harriet Tubman’s father’s name was Binate Ross and her mother’s name was Harriet. She became the youngest after her younger brother died. She was a very rebellious girl and even started a rebellion by throwing a stone at the overseer, for which she was punished by getting whipped. Her consequences were getting whipped for hours on end. She had one very hard childhood and every night she had nightmares of the horrifying treatments she was given for doing something wrong out on the farms. She was Pace #2 a tough girl becau... ...ved became fully bound citizens of the United States of America. The greatest known achievement for Harriet Tubman was her escape out of slavery. This gave other blacks courage and hopes to stand up for each other too. Another achievement was when she was able to accept that her husband left her for another woman during her quest to save slaves. It took great courage to continue the work of freeing slaves after her husband married another woman. Harriet also earned the name of conductor of the great Underground Railroad. There were many achievements she had like getting married, escaping slavery, helping others through the Underground Railroad and teaching children. She made a huge mark in the history Pace #4 of the United States and for black Americans. The main thing that she tried to accomplish during her life was to make the rest of the blacks free.

Leader of my life: my mother Essay

An influential leader in my life is my mother because she exemplifies a godly woman in many ways. She is a whole person. She is a cooperative leader in the home. She also understands and accepts her role, despite cultural trends and pressure. She models authentic spirituality. She is the keeper of intimate feelings. She demonstrates and teaches compassion. She desires to complete duties with her heart. Her strong faith in God is contagious in my life. As a whole person, my mother is beautiful, healthy, and wealthy in God. Her beauty radiates from her modest and humble personality and her tastefully modest clothing style. Her desire for nutrition and personal hygiene is key to her amazing health. She knows her wealth comes from God because he blessed her with a strong Christian husband and three daughters. She gives me a beautiful reminder to remember who I am and whose I am. My mother is also a cooperative leader at home. She understands God’s design for marriage. The love and respect she gives to my father is an example of that leadership. She demonstrates cooperation through building a healthy marriage in partnership with my father. Despite trends and pressure from culture, my mother understands and accepts her role as a godly woman. Growing up, my mother taught me the dominant values of Christianity so I can carry those values into my adult life and be a Christian witness to others. She holds to her values at work as an anatomy professor, and sometimes she gets ridiculed for her faith, but she stands strong. My mother models authentic spirituality daily. She understands what is at stake, and I am willing to do anything to stand up for my faith. She invests time to strengthen her walk with Christ, and has instilled that in me as well. Another leadership quality my mother holds is her ability to never share the feelings, fears, and dreams I express to her. She is an excellent listener and provides me with spiritual advice. I like to think that I am a confidant and can be trusted by those who need a listening ear. Throughout my life, my mother has demonstrated and taught compassion. She is the source of my care, protection, nourishment, and sacrifice. Adopted at birth, my mother has sufficiently provided for me out of love. She guards  me with her life to keep me on the right path. She taught me to love healthy and nutritious food so I can do the same for my children. My mother has also made an abundance of sacrifices to make sure I live by God’s design. Finally, my mother desires lasting results with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. She utilizes her wisdom by teaching me the ways of life. She rejoices as I apply her teachings in my life and she understands me. The abundance of knowledge my mother has supplied me with continuously fills my life with rare and beautiful treasures. My mother continually molds me into the person God intends. She shares a special partnership with God that nobody can take away from her. My mother is an influential leader in my life as an example of a godly woman. She is pure and whole in the eyes of God. She demonstrates cooperation by understanding and accepting her roles against cultural trends and pressure. She is a model of authentic spirituality, and provides a listening ear. The compassion she beholds is contagious, and she desires to complete duties with her heart. This is how my mother models leadership.

Mountains, rivers, other features Essay

Mountains in Belgium are: Baraque de Fraiture,Baraque Michel,Botrange. There are many rivers in Belgium such as: The Lys (Leie) in the cities of Bruges and Ghent, The Escaut River (Schelde) in Tournai, Bossuit and Ghent . The Meuse (Maas) and Sambre in the south let you visit Namur also Liege and the Willebroek-Charleroi Canals (The Belgian Tourist Office (BTO) in the US). In northwest of Belgium, there are the coastal lowland, a continuation of the continental shelf lying under the shallow waters of the North Sea. The shore is lined with low sand dunes. Fringing them is a narrow belt of polders, land reclaimed from peat bogs and shallow lakes (Encyclopedia Britannica Online, 2007). Economy How do most earn a living The Britannica Student Encyclopedia (2007) mentioned that: Daily commuting between homes on the farm and jobs in the city is a common practice in Belgium. Many industrial workers are part-time farmers who have strong family ties in the country. A large number of Belgian workers, called frontaliers, travel each day to jobs in France. This shows that Belgian works in both cities and country. Natural resources. Belgium produces many natural products, such as: coal, natural gas, construction materials, silica sand, carbonates (The Belgian Tourist Office (BTO) in the US). Main agricultural products Sugar beets, fresh vegetables, fruits, grain, tobacco; beef, veal, pork, milk (The Belgian Tourist Office (BTO) in the US). Manufactured Goods engineering and metal products, motor vehicle assembly, transportation equipment, scientific instruments, processed food and beverages, chemicals, basic metals, textiles, glass, petroleum(The Belgian Tourist Office (BTO) in the US). Exports Belgium import raw materials and export a large volume of manufactures. Exported products like: machinery and equipment, chemicals, diamonds, metals and metal products, foodstuffs . Belgium has many Exports partners like Germany 19. 9%, France 17. 2%, Netherlands 11. 8%, UK 8. 6%, US 6. 5% and Italy 5. 2%(The Belgian Tourist Office (BTO) in the US). Currency & Exchange rate The currency for Belgium is Euro, the value of the euro in the range of 1. 20 to 1. 40 US$ (Steinbicker, 2006, p. 155). People and Daily Life Race and Religion The Belgian Population is (10,364,388 ). In Fleming 58%, in Walloon 31%and the rest 11% . Religions in Belgium vary from Roman Catholic 75%, Protestant or other 25% (The Belgian Tourist Office (BTO) in the US). City Housing Accommodations vary from usual modern Apartment like in Flanders & Wallonia, to farms and castles just like in Brugge , Ferrieres, Liege and Huy (The Belgian Tourist Office (BTO) in the US). Clothing With simple words The Britannica Student Encyclopedia (2006) says about the Belgian people: Belgians, especially those in the cities, wear modern Western-style clothes. Men who work in offices are expected to wear suit jackets to work. It is generally acceptable for women to wear slacks to work. The ethnic costumes of the Flemings and Walloons are seldom worn today. On some farms women still wear the traditional dark-colored clothing and white aprons, and men wear the old-fashioned. Holidays Other than the regular Public holidays like: New year’s day, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, Labor day(May 1 st),Ascension Day(6th Thursday after Easter),whitsum,whit Monday(7th Monday after Easter), National day(July 21st),assumption(august15th),All Saint’s day(Nov 1 st),Armistice day(Nov 11th) and Christmas day (Steinbicker, 2006, p. 154); there are many crazy festivals held in Belgium like: Ommegang Festival – Brussels Every year in July, the lavish Ommegang procession commemorates the tribute paid to Emperor Charles V and his VIP guests. Richly-colored costumes, horses, embroidered banners, flag throwing and stilt jousting (The Belgian Tourist Office (BTO) in the US). (See Figure 3). Figure 3. Carnival de Binche – Binche For 3 days in February the town of Binche is transported back to the 16th century for this festival. Highlighted by music parades and fireworks, the climax of this event is when the Gilles appear on the Grand Place and throw oranges to the spectators (The Belgian Tourist Office (BTO) in the US). Procession of Holy Blood – Bruges This annual event takes place in May and is divided into 4 parts: Old Testament, New Testament, Historical Section, and veneration of the Holy Blood. Since the 12th century the numerous brotherhoods and associations of the city of Bruges venerate and pay homage to the Holy-Blood (The Belgian Tourist Office (BTO) in the US). Stavelot (Mid-lent Carnival) – Stavelot This event takes place in March and is highlighted by the Blanc Moussi, which means ‘clad in white. ’ Beginning on Sunday, the Blancs Moussis wander the streets of the town putting up their irreverent posters. In the afternoon they step out from the cortege while staying on their floats and shower the crowds with confetti while flogging them with pork bladders (The Belgian Tourist Office (BTO) in the US). Zinneke Parade – Brussels It’s also known as Big Z-Day. It is a street opera of music, choreography, costumes and floats (The Belgian Tourist Office (BTO) in the US). Ghent Festival – Ghent It is held every year in July. People sing, dance, eat and drink, get together and watch theater. (The Belgian Tourist Office (BTO) in the US).

Civil War Inevitability essays

Civil War Inevitability essays THE INEVITABILITY OF THE BREAKUP OF THE UNION The breakup of the Union was inevitable. The south was always going to secede; it was just a question of when. The southern and northern states varied on many issues. There were deep economic, social, and political differences between the north and the south. All of this was a different interpretation of the United States Constitution on both sides. In the end, all of these disagreements led to the Civil War. There were reasons other than slavery for the souths secession.(5) The south relied heavily on agriculture, as opposed to the north which was highly populated by factories. The south grew cotton, which was its main cash crop. Many southerners knew that heavy reliance on agriculture would hurt the south, but their warnings were not heeded.(1) Constitutionally the north favored a loose interpretation of the United States Constitution. They wanted to grant the federal government increased powers. The South wanted to reserve all undefined powers to the individual states. T he south relied upon it for their economic well being. The norths economy was not reliant on such labor. This issue overshadowed all others.(5) Southerners compared slavery to the wage-slave system of the North. Southerners believed the slaves received better care than the northern factory workers did. Many southern preachers proclaimed that slavery was sanctioned in the Bible. Thomas Dew, a professor from William and Mary, said that all of the patriarchs of the bible were slaveholders. Abraham had more than three hundred. (4) After the American Revolution slavery died in the North, just as it was becoming more popular in the South. By the time of 1804 seven of the northern most states had abolished slavery. During this time a surge of democratic reform swept the North and West. There were demands for political equality and economic and social advances. Northerners said that slavery revoke...

An Analysis of Great Expectations Essay Example

An Analysis of Great Expectations Essay Example An Analysis of Great Expectations Paper An Analysis of Great Expectations Paper Essay Topic: Great Expectations Pip feels and how he was treated. I think he also tried to show that it was wrong to treat children badly. In those days it was known that children should be seen and not heard but Dickens thought this was wrong, so he emphasized in the novel that it is wrong to think this. He tried to make people feel sorry for Pip because he always wanted people to feel sorry for him. It was normal for kids In those times to be treated badly, but Dickenss did cause awareness of how badly children were treated. All of Dickens family were In prison because of unpaid debts so he suffered a lot Just eke PIP. Basically Dickens puts all his anger and despair Into Pip, so rich people would help poor people. The word Pip means the seed inside a fruit and these tend to be small, so its like a way of calling Pip small and insignificant. This is a metaphor. This makes you feel sorry for Pip because even his name means he is small. Also you feel sorry for him because his parents are dead, generally you feel sorry for people when one parent is dead and they are older but hes only 7 and both of them are dead, its really sad and it makes you want to look after PIP hasnt been taught well, we know this because he repeats the word and a lot, and this suggests he Is a small child. He doesnt go to school and doesnt get taught at home. He doesnt get taught because only rich people got taught in them days. Dickens really liked education so he emphasized how important education is in his novels, like this one. This makes us feel sorry for Pip because no one really cares about him enough to give him education. He cant even say his real name so he shortened it down to Pip. This proves his sister doesnt look after him well because he should at least help him pronounce his name right. Great Expectations Is about a boy (Pip) whom gets treated badly by everyone and his parents and 5 brothers are dead. In those days there were very high death rates so Its no wonder a lot of his family members died. There were high death rates because people were extremely poor and couldnt afford to drink clean water or food, so they got diseases. He lives with his sister and her husband and she treats him horribly. Pip is in a cemetery one day when a convict (Magnetic) comes and orders PIP to get a Tile Tort Nils leg Ana some T Mage etc tenants PIP. Magellan gets caught and he protects Pip saying he stole all the goods himself. A crazy woman (Miss Having) and her daughter (Estella) bully Pip but Pip still has a crush on Estella. Miss Having gets Pip a Job. One day a lawyer daggers) says to Pip a secret benefactor has given Pip a large fortune. Pip assumes that Miss Having gave him the money and that she wants him to marry Estella. Pip finally gets education with the money he received. We find out it was Magnetic who gave him the money. Pip goes away with his friend Herbert to work. He comes back years later he sees Estella joking sad and he can tell shes become kind, them two get together and walk away holding hands. Chapter one is about when Pip is in a cemetery and is sitting near his mother and fathers gravestone and his 5 brothers. Then an ex convict comes and threatens him and tells him if he doesnt steal a file and some food for him, he will eat Pip. The ex convict is called Magnetic and he also said theres a man in the bushes as well and he is very violent. We dont know if he was making this up but we assume he was. Pip believed him and was very frightened afterwards. This Just added to Pips sadness. Chapter eight is about when Pip goes to see Miss Having and Estella. Miss Having is dressed in all white as if she was getting married, except all her clothes had turned yellow because shes wore it so long. She sounds crazy because she talks to herself and Pip has a crush on her daughter Estella. But Estella is horrible to Pip and Miss Having tells Estella to break his heart a bit like how someone broke her heart. Estella makes fun of the clothes that Pip wears and he gets really upset because he never noticed it before. From the very first chapter of the book the setting is in a graveyard. Just by reading the beginning of the chapter you feel sorry for Pip. Pip (a little boy) is in a graveyard sitting next to his family grave, like that isnt sad enough we find out its Christmas eve and he is alone there. We also find out his sister (who he lives with) hits him, it suggests this in a quotation. We know shes horrible to him because why would he be happy wandering around graveyards alone when he could be home. Also we know that he is poor and is undernourished because he would get small pieces of bread for his dinner, I know this because Magnetic takes his bread from him and bullies him. Its quite sad and really does make you feel sorry for Pip because even though he doesnt get much to eat a grown man has stolen what little food he gets. Another example of how Dickens creates an intimidating setting is how he chooses a little child to go to a cemetery. Cemeteries tend to be scary generally but if youre a child it would be even worse than that. A quote which supports this is l was dreadfully frightened. He was frightened because a convict Just threatened to kill him. If he wasnt in a cemetery it would be less scary because there would be people around and in cemeteries there are only dead bodies. Dreadfully means regretful and sad, so he was sad that he was frightened, which implies he wanted to be brave and not scared but he couldnt help but be frightened. After all hes Just a kid. Dreadfully is a very formal word and shows how frightened he is. He is also using a formal word because it was how they spoke then. Also he is trying to reinforce how scared nee Is. I RSI a Lot Ironic now you ethanol a concur as a sate place, a place were God is watching over you yet a boy is getting threatened outside it. Dickens is creating an image in our head of a small frightened boy, getting threatened in a meters by a big escaped convict. This in a normal situation would be bad enough but a lot of elements are added together to give it the effect Dickens wanted. Magnetic is an escaped convict but he gets caught again in the beginning of the book. Magnetic is fairly rough because he says l will cut your throat. Cut is a harsh, short and snappy word. The letter c is a harsh and rough sounding letter and t is a sharp ending letter. This shows he is very aggressive and full of hatred. He comes across like a monster by intimidating Pip. He is bringing out Pips weaknesses by being so scary. Its cruel saying this too 7 year old because he is only small and hasnt done anything to him for him to say that, but Magnetic is desperate so he has to do it. Magnetic is very dirty and isnt well looked after. We know this because if he has escaped prison and is hiding from the police outside in cemeteries he must be sleeping rough. A quotation from chapter one is The sky was Just a row of long angry, red lines and dense black lines intermixed. Saying the sky is angry is using personification, he is making the sky sound like a person. Lines intermixed this suggest the two colors deed and black get mixed together to make an ugly color, brown. Long angry, red lines and dense black these are dark, evil colors which mean the sky is going to get Pip. This would be very frightening for Pip. Dickens uses a list of three to describe it; long sentences make it sound powerful and engaging. The lines could also suggest it looks like a prison, the prison bars. This means that Pip might be feeling trapped and scared. In addition, an example of how Dickens creates an intimidating setting is how theres a sea close by which make the place sound deserted or if Magnetic chooses o kills him he could Just push him into the sea and no one would ever know. A quote which supports this point would be Down by the river, within, as the river wound, twenty miles of sea. Wound gives the impression that its like a tornado and that once youre in youre going to get wound around and around till youre trapped. A quote which supports that he thinks he is trapped is generally that I was in a low- lived, bad way. The twenty miles of sea makes it even worse for Pip, theres so much water and if he got trapped he would drown or wouldnt be able to make it back because its so long. This makes the reader feel like they should save Pip because it makes him sound so small by saying twenty miles of sea, you can imagine that Pip would be tiny compared to it. Lastly, Dickens made the setting look rough and dirty so it made the place look mysterious and scary. A quote which supports this is that this bleak place overgrown with nettles was the churchyard. The fact that its overgrown with nettles makes it look like anyone could hide and attack Pip behind these nettles and Pip couldnt do anything. Also it looks like its not being looked after so if Pip got attacked no one old come Ana save nil. Blear could mean Tanat nee reels lonely . Nils makes reader feel sorry for Pip because hes Just a small boy and yet he feels so alone. In chapter 8 Dickens describes Stats House as a big place thats really dark and gloomy. In the text it says that the house can be called enough house, which means that the house is big and is enough for people in those days to live in. A quote says theres enough of it in the cellars already to drown the Manor house, this shows they are rich and have a lot of money to make alcohol. In those days they didnt have lean water, so if they were rich they drank alcohol because thats clean and safe to drink. This suggests that Miss Having might have a lot to drink thats why shes a bit crazy. Another quotation which supports this is To stand in the dark in a mysterious passage of an unknown house. This makes the setting sound risky because its dark and Pip doesnt know his way around. Mysterious means odd and unexplained which shows that the place is odd and unexplained because nobody explained to Pip why he is there. It makes the reader eager to know why is Pip there and it makes the reader feel sympathy and feel protective over Pip. As you go throughout the book you get connected to Pip and you dont want him to get hurt. In chapter 8 Dickens has written whether the flower-seeds and the bulbs ever wanted of a fine day to break out of those Jails and bloom. This suggests that even though Pip was talking about the flowers he is relating them to himself. Jail suggests he feels trapped with his sister and her husband. He Just wants to run away because she doesnt treat him right and barely even feeds him. He is using personification here, because the flower seeds are not human but he is making them sound like they are. This links to chapter 1 when it says Down by the river, within, as the river wound, twenty miles of sea because that quote suggests that Pip feels trapped. This again makes the reader feel sympathy for Pip. One more quotation from chapter 8 is that the rank was the garden of the house, and that it was overgrown with tangled weeds. This suggests that no one cares about the garden and doesnt look after it. A bit like Miss Having because she doesnt wash her clothes and leaves everything the same as it was years ago, maybe thats what shes doing with the garden. Also it might mean that Pip is scared f the garden because in chapter one when there were messy weeds and nettles, Magnetic said to him a mean man was behind them. So it might have frightened Pip seeing the tangled weeds because he thinks theres a crazy man behind them wanting to get him. He is also in a strange persons house so it does sound creepy for Pip, this adds to how we feel sorry for him Dickens describes Miss Having as a crazy woman. A quote which supports this is so new to him, so old to me; so strange to him, so familiar to me; so melancholy to both of us! Call Estella! This sounds quite crazy because shes talking o herself in the mirror but it really does sound like shes talking to someone else. I think Miss Having is lonely and Just wants some company thats why she is talking to herself. Had been white long ago, and lost its luster. Because she is wearing clothes Tanat naves Eden waste In a Wendell seen sounds careless Ana alert. In ten TLS quote she used exclamation marks a lot which shows shes a bit hysterical, or maybe shes happy that shes finally got someone to talk to other that Estella. This makes people feel sorry for Pip because on top of how unfortunate hes life is he has a crazy Oman bullying him into playing with Estella and getting rude comments made to him. Dickens makes Estella sound like a mean, stuck up person. He writes Why, he is a common labouringly boy by saying common it suggests that she is upper class. She thinks she is better than Pip because she says boy as if she is older than Pip when really she is the same age as Pip. Estella sounds very rude, an example of this is ah, but you see she dont, children in those days were meant to be seen and not heard. What she said was very rude seeing as she is a lot younger than the man she was talking to. Mr. Bumblebees was very shocked by what she said and he got annoyed with Pip because of it. This makes us feel sorry for Pip because he is getting bullied by Estella but he doesnt really realism it and he is getting really hurt by the things she says. Pips initial reaction to Miss Having and Estella is that they are both a little odd and spoilt. He really likes Estella because he thinks she is pretty, it says this in chapter 8 she is very pretty, he says this to Miss Having when she asks him what he thinks of her. I think he thinks Miss Having is an odd person and he is scared of her, as anyone his age would be. This also makes us feel sympathy for Pip because he likes a girl that is really horrible to him. It is wrong that Pip likes her though because she isnt nice to him at all its Just her looks that appeal to him. Pip was really affected by the end of chapter eight because he got really got upset by what Estella said. Estella said that he was a common labouringly boy and said a lot of other things that were quite nasty. What she said made him think he was common and he never really thought about it before until she mentioned it. By the end of it he felt like he really was common which made Pip really upset and knowing e has to come back in six days most likely made him even more upset. Finally Dickens has used a number of techniques to make us feel sympathy for Pip and they all have worked well, some relate with himself when he was younger. I think Dickens has been successful because when I read the two chapters I did really feel sorry for Pip. People do things to Pip which are Just morally wrong, adults threaten him even though he hasnt done anything wrong and he gets belittled by people his own age. I have an image in my head of him and it is off small boy that is just really unfortunate in his life, this is what Dickens wanted us to imagine.

What Harvards Asian Admissions Lawsuit Reveals About How You Should Approach College Applications

What Harvard's Asian Admissions Lawsuit Reveals About How You Should Approach College Applications SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips The hottest news in college admissions these days is the release of documents from thelawsuit filed against Harvard University for unfair admissions practices against Asian-Americans. For the first time in recent memory, an elite institution's opaque admissions practices have been laid bare. More than 90,000 pages of internal Harvard admissions documents have been made available for use in the lawsuit, with excerpts made publicly available in court filings. In this article, I'll summarize what this lawsuit is about and what we learned about how top-tier schools like Harvard choose which students to accept. (Spoiler: most of it confirms what I wrote about in my How to Get Into Harvard guide. If you haven't read that, I suggest you open it in a tab right now, and read it after you finish this article). Most importantly, we'll cover what this means for how YOU should be preparing for college admissions. Caveats: Since this lawsuit (and admissions in general) has a lot to do about race, I'll talk about race explicitly here, understanding that these are triggering topics for many people. I suggest trying to focus pragmatically on what you can get out of these news. I'm a Harvard alum and also Asian-American, which depending on your personal viewpoint could mean I'm biased in any direction. Generally, I don't have enough information to have a strong opinion about the merits of the lawsuit. As I'll explain below though, my opinion about this lawsuit doesn't matter since we're really looking at the admissions data and what it means for your acceptance rates into Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, etc. What the Harvard Admissions Lawsuit is About First, a very simplistic introduction. A subset of Asian-Americans are frustrated that they are possibly discriminated against in college admissions. More specifically, assuming the same academic achievements - SAT/ACT scores, coursework, and grades - Asians feel they are less likely to be admitted than white, black, and Hispanic applicants. Disgruntled college applicant Michael Wangis a representative example. Despite being 2nd in his high school class, having a 36 ACT score, and several national-level awards, he was rejected by 6 of 7 Ivy League colleges in 2015. "I saw people less qualified than me get better offers...what more could I have done to get into your college? Was it based on race?" Spotting an opportunity, Edward Blum of the Project on Fair Representation pushed a lawsuit against Harvard. The lawsuit alleges that: "holistic admissions" is actually a cover to practice racial discrimination Asian-Americans are discriminated against in admissions - meaning, lower admissions rates controlling for qualifications. In their words, "an Asian-American with a 25% chance of admission would have a 35% chance if he were white, a 75% chance if he were Hispanic, and a 95% chance if he were African American." the % of Asian-Americans in Harvard's student class has stayed the same (~20%) despite increases in the qualifications of Asians, suggesting a strict racial quota This echoes controversy in the 1920s withHarvard's discrimination against Jewish candidates. Now, why should the public care what a private institution like Harvard does? Because it receives federal funding (e.g. in research grants). And Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964prohibits racial discrimination in recipients of federal financial assistance. (If you're interested in the legal aspects of this case,here's an insightful analysis.) While Harvard is the sole defendant in the lawsuit, this is really an attack on admissions practices for ALL top-tier colleges like Princeton, Yale, and Stanford. Harvard, given its reputation and size, is just the juiciest target. In response, Harvard generally defends its admissions practices as promoting diversity, promoting "opportunities to engage with and learn from classmates who come from widely different backgrounds and circumstances...which would leave students ill prepared to contribute to and lead in our diverse and interconnected nation and world." "A significant reduction in the number of African-American and Hispanic students on campus would inhibit...the benefits of a diverse student body and significantly undermine [Harvard's] educational mission." How You Feel About This Doesn't Really Matter for Admissions Results Like most matters dealing with race, this is controversial with a wide spectrum of opinions.You might think Harvard is totally in the right in how it does admissions. Or you might think that discrimination really is happening and the system needs to change. Whatever you believe, the pragmatic question is this - what does this mean for you and YOUR college applications? If you or your child are in high school, you're relatively powerless to change the system in the time that it matters for you, no matter what you believe. The first decision point for you is whether you want to play the college admissions game or not. In the extreme, this controversy might sound so outrageous to you that you become a conscientious objector, and you don't want to support the college admissions machine. This might mean you refuse to apply to possibly discriminatory schools. If so, all the power to you. But most likely, you're likely not in this group. You still want to get into the best college you can because of its impact on your future. This means that you need to deal with whatever disadvantage you're dealt, and make the most of it.You need to learn the rules of the college admissions game, andyou need to prepare yourself for the best chance of success. That's what the rest of this article is about. I'm not going to opine on the morals of the situation, but rather objectively talk about how college admissions at places like Harvard works, and what it means for you. What the Lawsuit Has Revealed About the Harvard Admissions Process I'll cut to the chase. Released legal documents show for the first time that Harvard application readers rate each applicant on a score of 1-6 on these categories: Academic Extracurricular Athletic Personal Recommendation letters (2 teachers, counselor) Alumni (interview) personal and Overall rating 1 is the highest possible score. Each score can also have a "+" or "-", just like A+/A- grades. We'll explain in a second how you get 1's on these categories, but I want to focus on the big picture for now. From my reading of the legal documents, it seems like the first 4 factors are really the most heavily considered (since they're mentioned most often), with the recommendation letter and alumni ratings used as supplementary factors. All of these ratings are combined by the application reader in an Overall rating, again from 1 to 6. This Overall rating is CRITICAL for admissions, as we'll discuss below. The Overall rating is "not a formula" and doesn't involve adding up other ratings. It's a holistic grade. Harvard instructs readers to assign the score by "stepping back and taking all the factors into account and then assigning that Overall rating." (In reality, I suspect the grade is close to your top 2 scores - you can get a 1 on academic and personal and a 4 on athletic, and the 4 won't bring down your total score.) From released legal filings, here's a description of what the overall ratings mean: 1. Tops for admission: Exceptional - a clear admit with very strong objective andsubjective support (90+% admission). 2. Strong credentials but not quite tops (50-90% admission). 3. Solid contender: An applicant with good credentials and support (20-40%admission). 4. Neutral: Respectable credentials. 5. Negative: Credentials are generally below those of other candidates. 6. Unread. The application is given to two readers to give ratings. Finally, a third, usually more experienced reader adjusts the ratings for accuracy. In one example, the first reader gave a student a 1, but the third reader adjusted it downward to a 2+. How strongly does your Overall rating correlate with your admission rate? VERY strongly. Here's a quote from legal documents: "Those who have an Overall score of 3- or worse are almost always rejected. Those who receive an Overall rating of a 1 are always accepted." What are your chances of admission depending on your Overall score? Here's more detail on admissions rates for all domestic applicants across 6 years, in the Classes of 2014 to 2019. This dataset includes only regular decision students (Harvard didn't have early action in years 2014-2015) and excludes special situations (athletes, legacy, Dean's list, faculty/staff kids) and international applicants. Rating Population Population % Admit % Admitted Number 3 56825 47.23% 0.02% 9 3 44472 36.96% 2.35% 1047 3+ 14289 11.88% 9.14% 1306 2+/2/2- 4674 3.88% 65.15% 3045 1 50 0.04% 100.00% 50 To explain the columns: Population: number of applicants with that rating Population %: % of total applicants who have that rating Admit %: % of applicants with that rating who were admitted Admitted Number: number of applicants with that rating who were admitted Through all of this, remember that the total admissions rate is around 6%. Anytime you can beat this number, you have a better shot at getting in. Here are the takeaways: If you get an Overall score of 1, you have guaranteed admission. However, this is very rare - with 30,000 applicants in a year, you can expect only 12 students to get this score. These are truly exceptional people who stand out even among the incoming class. If you get a score of 2+/2/2-, you have a 65% chance of getting in.Furthermore, this comprises the top 3.9% of all applicants - in a group of 30,000 applicants, 1,164 will get a 2 score. These are much better chancesthan average, and much more realistic than a score of 1 for us mortals. I wish they separated out the 2+/2/2- from each other, but this wasn't available. If you get a score of 3+, you start getting into the crapshoot.These get into the well-rounded, but not stand-out students. Even though you're still in the top 15% of all applicants, your admissions rate is just 9%, a bit above the overall average. Furthermore, you're competing against 3,000 other students. If you get a score of 3, you're in the average. Average is bad for Harvard admissions.Your admission rate drops down to 2.4% (just 1 out of 40 people in this group get in). If you get a score of 3- or below, you have nearly zero chance of getting admitted.This is also the most common category to fall into - nearly half of all applicants score a 3- or below. This strongly confirms my framework of admissions for world-class students(from my How to Get Into Harvard guide). The 6% admissions rate is just an average, and it doesn't apply to everyone - the stronger your application, the more likely you are to be admitted. For a select group of ~1,000 students per year, their admission is MUCH better than the average admissions rate.These students are likely to be standouts on a national or international level, not just on a state or regional level. Again, I want to emphasize, this is likely more or less what happens at all elite institutions - including Princeton, Stanford, and Yale. The exact rating scales and criteria may differ, butthis type of grading is a very common model in college admissions. Simplifying your application into a score allows for faster comparisons across thousands of applicants. If you want to get into Harvard, Princeton, or other top-tier schools, you need to try to get into that select top 5% of applicants, with a 2 score. You do NOT want to be part of the masses in the 3+ and below group - this is where the crapshoot happens, and the crapshoot is a terrible place to be. Want to get into Harvard or your personal top choice college? We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in. More Data, for the Data Nerds Here's the table again, this time including early action applicants and special situations (roughly 3,000 per year): Rating Population Population % Admit % Admitted Number 3 61707 44.43% 0.13% 79 3 51483 37.07% 3.97% 2042 3+ 18131 13.06% 13.40% 2429 2+/2/2- 7466 5.38% 74.00% 5525 1 94 0.07% 100.00% 94 The conclusions don't strongly change. By adding in early action applicants (who tend to be better qualified than regular decision ones), you see a higher % of 1 and 2 ratings.In a year with 30,000 applicants, there are 21 students with a 1 rating, and 1,614 students with a 2 rating. We can now take this chart, subtract the Regular Decision students chart further up, and see the admission rates for only early action applicants and special situation students(athletes, legacy, Dean's list, faculty/staff kids): Rating Population Population % Admit % Admitted Number 3 4882 26.29% 1.43% 70 3 7011 37.75% 14.19% 995 3+ 3842 20.69% 29.23% 1123 2+/2/2- 2792 15.03% 88.83% 2480 1 44 0.24% 100.00% 44 A big question on many students' minds is - how much does applying early improve my chances of admission, with the same application? Some things seem clear: The (early action + special situation) population gets much better ratings as a population. 15% of the (EA + SS) pool gets 2 ratings compared to 4% in regular decision, and 20% of (EA + SS) gets 3+ compared to 12% in regular decision. This heavily suggests to me that the early action pool contains more talented students than the regular decision pool. Much of the higher admission rate for early action has to do with self-selection of more talented students.. For the same rating, the admission rate is higher in (EA + SS) than regular decision. For example, a 3+ has an admit rate of 29%, compared to 9% in regular decision. Some part of this is due to the early action effect - because of signaling early interest and commitment to the school, you likely do get a small admissions boost by applying early. However, much of this I believe is still due to the special population. Recruited athletes might tend to get an overall 3+ rating, for instance, but get a huge advantage by being recruited. Likewise, legacy students may tend to apply early AND get higher admissions rates no matter when they apply, which skews the early numbers up. Ideally we'd get the admission rate for the same regular applicants, controlling for special status and application strength. But the data don't go detailed enough to let us do that. For fun, here are statistics on the # of applicants and admit rate for early action as compared to regular decision: Regular Decision Regular Applicant Special Circumstances Year Applicants Admits Admit Rate Applicants Admits Admit Rate 2014 23,176 1,471 6.30% 1,200 515 42.90% 2015 27,016 1,408 5.20% 1,244 515 41.40% 2016 24,968 857 3.40% 728 155 21.30% 2017 22,963 754 3.30% 641 116 18.10% 2018 22,799 709 3.10% 591 108 18.30% 2019 24,134 690 2.90% 623 100 16.10% Early Action Regular Applicant Special Circumstances Year Applicants Admits Admit Rate Applicants Admits Admit Rate 2014 0 0 0 2015 0 0 0 2016 2,982 458 15.40% 600 367 61.20% 2017 3,448 487 14.10% 663 460 69.40% 2018 3,272 520 15.90% 686 451 65.70% 2019 4,238 524 12.40% 755 467 61.90% A few takeaways: for regular applicants, the early action admission rate is higher than the regular decision rate - for class of 2019, it was 12.4% vs 2.9%. a large part of this is student qualification - better students tend to apply earlier. a minor part of this is signaling your interest - Harvard practices Restrictive Early Action (as do Yale, Princeton, and Stanford), meaning you can apply only to Harvard early action. Thus Harvard knows you're more likely committed to Harvard, and since they want to protect their yield rate, this increases admission rate a bit. so while you might get a slight advantage from applying early through signaling interest, it won't be as large a boost as the early action admit rate suggests. special circumstances students get a HUGE advantage over regular applicants. athletes are admitted at 86%. This group makes up about 230 students per year. (Note this means recruited varsity athletes, not just having athletics as an extracurricular.) legacy students are admitted at 33.6%. This group makes up about 774 students per year. (Note these students are usually highly qualified in their own right - they may just get a second look and slightly preferable treatment.) dean and director's interest list are at 42%. (There seem to be no particular criteria for being included on this list, but they include applicants "encountered at recruiting events" and applicants "related to donors to Harvard." I believe this is not mutually exclusive with the other groups - ie you can be a legacy athlete on the dean's list.) If you're reading this, you're most likely not a special circumstances student (nor was I). So you have to make up for it with a world-class application. Matthias Neugebauer/Flickr How Do You Earn a *1* in Each Rating? Now the critical question - what do you have to do to earn a 1 in the Academic, Extracurricular, Athletic, and Personal ratings? Luckily, as we learned fromfilings for the lawsuit, Harvard readers are given a rubric to grade applicants on. Remember that the Overall Rating is a holistic combination of the ratings, not a strict average. I would believe that if you earn a 1 in Academic and Personal ratings, you're likely to get a 2 or above in Overall rating. You only need to be world-class in one way, with a Spike. Academic Rating: 1. Summa potential. Genuine scholar; near-perfect scores and grades (in most cases) combined with unusual creativity and possible evidence of original scholarship. 2. Magna potential: Excellent student with superb grades and mid-to high-700 scores (33+ ACT). 3. Cum laude potential: Very good student with excellent grades and mid-600 to low-700 scores (29 to 32 ACT). 4. Adequate preparation. Respectable grades and low-to mid-600 scores (26 to 29) ACT). 5. Marginal potential. Modest grades and 500 scores (25 and below ACT). 6. Achievement or motivation marginal or worse. This confirms what we already know - getting perfect grades and test scores is not impressive enough to be world-class in academics. As the Harvard Interviewer Handbook says elsewhere, "more than presenting the Committee with superior testing and strong academic records...the applicant admitted primarily for unusual intelligence also presents compelling evidence of creativity and originality." (emphasis mine) Legal documents reveal some useful details: out of 42,749 applicants for Class of 2022, 8,000 had perfect GPAs 625 had a perfect score on ACT; 361 had a perfect 2400 on SAT 3,500 had perfect SAT math; 2,700 had perfect SAT verbal. There are just too many students who perform at the top 1% of academics. With 4 million high school students per year, 1% is 40,000 students! Within academic-type applicants, Harvard is looking for the leading future scholars.To get a 1 in this rating requires demonstration of this in high school, likely through original research that is vetted favorably by a Harvard faculty member. As Harvard Dean of Admissions William Fitzsimmons said, "Several hundred of our admittedstudents each year have the kind of stunning academic credentials- well beyond test scores and grades- that our faculty believe place them among the best potential scholars of their generation. ..." For this, it's not enough just to do research - thousands of students do this every year. It might not be sufficient either to be a minor co-author on a paper. Ideally, you need to show original contributions and ideas, corroborated by your research supervisor (e.g. in a supplementary recommendation). You might also be nationally-ranked in a research competition like Intel ISEFor Regeneron STS. Extracurricular Rating: 1. Unusual strength in one or more areas. Possible national-level achievement or professional experience. A potential major contributor at Harvard. Truly unusual achievement. 2. Strong secondary school contribution in one or more areas such as class president, newspaper editor, etc. Local or regional recognition; major accomplishment(s).[in another filing]: "Significant school, and possibly regional accomplishments: for example, an applicant who was the student body president or captain of the debate team and the leader of multiple additional clubs." 3. Solid participation but without special distinction. (Upgrade 3+ to 2- in some cases if the e/c is particularly extensive and substantive.) 4. Little or no participation. 5. Substantial activity outside of conventional EC participation such as family commitments or term-time work (could be included with other e/c to boost the rating or left as a "5" if it is more representative of the student's commitment). 6. Special circumstances limit or prevent participation (e.g. a physical condition). 2: " 5: "Family responsibilities at home or very limited resources that make it unlikely that the applicant could participate in extracurricular or other activities." A 2 rating focuses on "school andregional accomplishments." To put it bluntly: big fish in a little pond. Remember - there are over 37,000 high schools in the country. Not every school has the same extracurriculars, but just think - in the US every year, there are at least 20,000 student body presidents (and vice presidents, treasurers, etc.); 10,000 captains of the debate team; 50,000 captains of sports teams; 100,000 presidents of clubs. There are a LOT of local achievers. To be world-class, you have to do something that is notable on the national or international scale. This doesn't necessarily mean that you literally need to build an international-level organization with branch offices in Paris. The point is that among all the applicants, your achievements stand out on the national stage - for instance, building a mobile app with hundreds of thousands of active users is likely pretty nationally distinctive. Athletic Rating: This is relatively more straightforward: 1. Unusually strong prospect for varsity sports at Harvard, desired by Harvard coaches. 2. Strong secondary school contribution in one or more areas; possible leadership role(s). 3. Active participation. 4. Little or no interest. 5. Substantial activity outside of conventional EC participation such as family commitments or term-time work (could be included with other e/c to boost the rating or left as a "5" if it is more representative of the student's commitment). 6. Physical condition prevents significant activity. 1 is for recruited varsity athletes. Personally, I was probably a 4 - I got an A in PE and that's it. And that was OK - Harvard stillwanted me! Again, it's not about being well-rounded, it's about having a spikethat makes you world-class. Personal Rating: Here it gets a bit tricky. Here are a few statements in the legal documents that I pulled out: The personal rating "summarizes the applicant's personal qualities based on all aspects of the application, including essays, letters of recommendation, the alumni interview report, personal and family hardship, and any other relevant information in the application." Characteristics include "applicant's humor, sensitivity, grit, leadership, integrity, helpfulness, courage, kindness," whether the person is an "attractive person to be with" and is "widely respected." This is a more subjective category than the other 3 ratings. It's based on the student's background, how the student presents herself (in the essays and interview), and how others perceive the student (recommendations). Note that just like having an Academic Spike, it's possible to have a Personal Spike too. A student might get a Personal rating of 1 (say, for having overcome tremendous difficulties and showing outstanding personal character), while getting non-1 scores for Academic, Extracurricular, and Athletic scores. And this might be sufficient to get the student admitted (though 1's in Personal are rarer than in the other categories). Here's the rubric description, which is not super helpful except for the bottom ratings: 1: Outstanding 2: Very Strong 3: Generally Positive 4: Bland or somewhat negative or immature 5: Questionable personal qualities 6: Worrisome personal qualities This is why the interview is important - no matter how much of a genius you are, Harvard doesn't want jerks in its community. And if you can't suppress being a jerk for an hour-long interview, you certainly won't behave well for 4 years of college. It's also bad to be "bland" - interviewers want to see some sort of spark or joie de vivre, partlysince this is indicative of passion and thus future impact on the world. Nearly all applicants who are admitted went through an interview - as the document says, "those who do not interview are rarely admitted." (FYI: The personal rating is where the lawsuit alleges Asian-Americans are punished. Despite having higher academic and extracurricular scores than any other racial group, Asians received the lowest score of any racial group on personal rating from Harvard admissions staff.) What % of Students Get What Scores? Now that you understand what it takes to get these scores, what % of students actually get these scores? We'll show you the data below, but here are some trends to keep in mind: getting a 1 in even just one section is rare (1% of applicants get it) if you get a 1 in any section, your chances of admission are between 50-70%. getting a 2 in any single section is much more common (20-40%) with a much lower chance of admission (between 12-26%) (Source) Academic Rating Academic Rating 5 4 3 2 1 Applicants 5969 17690 58061 60468 650 % of Population 4.2% 12.4% 40.6% 42.3% 0.5% Admitted 4 175 2429 7500 450 Admit rate 0.1% 1.0% 4.2% 12.4% 69.2% Extracurricular Rating Extracurricular Rating 5 4 3 2 1 Applicants 952 4639 102784 34038 425 % of Population 0.7% 3.2% 72.0% 23.8% 0.3% Admitted 52 187 3957 6147 215 Admit rate 5.5% 4.0% 3.8% 18.1% 50.6% Personal Rating Personal Rating 5 4 3 2 1 Applicants 24 604 112513 29660 37 % of Population 0.0% 0.4% 78.8% 20.8% 0.0% Admitted 0 1 2846 7687 24 Admit rate 0.0% 0.2% 2.5% 25.9% 64.9% Some interesting things to note: Extracurricular and Personal Ratings have a huge mass of people at 3 (above 70%). Per the rubric above, this likely means: their extracurriculars weren't anything special - school-level participation without any major distinction their personal qualities were positive but not extremely strong - of the "top 25%" of the class type Academic Ratings have a smoother spread, with roughly 40% scoring both 2 and 3. Letter of Recommendation Rating: Legal filings show the following scoring for "School Support," with separate ratings for teachers 1, 2, and counselor. 1. Strikingly unusual support. "The best ever," "one of the best in x years," truly over the top. 2. Very strong support. "One of the best" or "the best this year." 3. Above average positive support. 4. Somewhat neutral or slightly negative. 5. Negative or worrisome report. 6. Neither the transcript nor prose is in the folder. 8. Placeholder. 9. Transcript only. No SSR prose. This largely matches what's on the Common App teacher recommendation form: As a reminder, "Top Few" is shorthand for "One of the top few encountered in my career." I'm going to guess that a 1 rating for recommendation letter means all of the below: recommenders rated student as "Top Few" in most categories recommenders are credible and have seen a lot of students (i.e., not rookie teachers) the reader may be familiar with the recommender's historical quality of recommendation the school is a top-tier school (so the student has tough competition for being outstanding) Overall Rating: Let's come back to the Overall Rating, because the lawsuit revealed something interesting about well-rounded students: "Harvard readers use the label 'Standard Strong' to characterize an application that had strong qualities but not strong enough to merit admission." For example, an admissions reader wrote of one Standard Strong student (who was Asian): "busy and bright" but"will need to fight it out with many similar to him." This reminds me of the classic problem with well-rounded students. They're definitely not off-putting - but they're not particularly impressive either.Like thousands of toy balls in a bargain bin, they all look the same.This is where the crapshoot is - the committee has to tear their hair out choosing the last 500 applicants among 10,000 qualified ones. Don't know how to make your college application world-class? We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in. What Do You Do With This Information? Let's put it all together. The Harvard lawsuit has revealed these takeaways about top-tier college admissions: applicants are scored based on how impressive their academic, extracurricular, athletic, and personal achievements are the highest scores are reserved for people who are world-class, distinguishing themselves as some of the top in the nation (or even the world) in what they do the overall rating is NOT an average of all your scores. Most likely, it's weighted toward your most impressive achievement. Therefore, you don't need to worry about being very well-rounded. the higher the score you get, the higher your chance of admission. At Harvard, the average admissions rate is 5% to 6%. But students getting the highest score of 1 have a 100% admission rate; students getting 2+/2/2- have a 70% admission rate personal qualities are important and cannot be ignored. Ideally you are likable, charismatic, honest, kind, and funny - and this shows in your essays, your recommendation letters, and interviews. All of this means that as you become a stronger world-class applicant, your chances of admission become less like a random lottery. You need to spend LESS time trying to be well-rounded, trying to cover all your bases. If you try to be an equally good athlete, musician, debater, scientist, and volunteer all at once, you will be mediocre at them all. Especially if you don't actually enjoy doing some of these activities. There are other people who focus on their area of greatest talent and interest, who will achieve far more than you can. If you want to increase your chances of getting into Harvard, you need to develop a Spike. For a deep dive into how to do this, read myHow to Get Into Harvard guide. I guarantee you'll learn something new that will change how you prepare your college apps. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

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Role of Early Childhood Educator in prevention of Child Abuse - Essay Example 1). Evidently, as the family is unreliable, educators in diverse settings serve as reinforced resources for children to rely on in preventing further abuse. Types and Signs of Abuse Abuse can take a number of form, and not just on physical side, but can be on emotional aspects, neglect, and sexual violations in children. Having close interaction with young children, educators in schools and caregiver institutions should be aware on observable illicit signs of abuse. Physical abuse is not hard to identify, as cruel manhandling may range from burned skin, bruised, and lacerated body parts. Wounds from physical abuse are different from accidental injuries, as the former can occur on soft tissue, like â€Å"cheeks, buttocks, and thigh† while the latter are frequently seen on body areas such as â€Å"knees, elbows, forearms, or brow.† Typically, the material used as physical punishment can be observed on injured areas. Yet, other types of abuse are difficult to detect. Negle ct is the absence of considerable efforts in meeting the children’s biological and emotional needs. There is chronic inattention to well being of children, where parents leave them to inadequately fend for themselves. In emotional abuse, parents resort to verbal attacks and rejection through lack of parental concern and interest--resulting to â€Å"developmental lags, psychosomatic symptoms ... (communication) disorders† (Crosson-Tower, 2003, p. 15, 19). Lastly, there is unacceptable sexual overture in sexual abuse. Extreme behavioral reactions vary; others withdraw from contact with others, while some become sexually aggressive--expressing the type of sexual abuse experienced through drawing or play-acting. Collectively, these are fundamental signs that confirm the type of abuse faced by children. Long Term Consequences Child abuse is a condition that can be carried towards adult life. Subconsciously, the type of abuse received influences the way abused children live. On the physical side, health consequences can irreversibly affect them. As affirmed by DiScala, Serge, Li, and Reece (2000), severe physical head injuries resulted to significant reduction in neurological-dependent activities. Several victims, then, suffered physical disabilities that interrupt physiological capacities in living. Psychologically, such events may lead to several psychiatric (personality and eating) disorders, depressive status, â€Å"posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and substance abuse† (MacMillan et al., 2001, p. 1878). The effects of abuse are more of maladaptive defense copings, where children’s life-esteem is extremely low and academic performance is negatively affected (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2008). As these are treated as abnormal conditions, society shuns them from social activities while insisting that they submit to treatment for such conditions. The society, as large, takes care of such events by funding welfare programs that assist abused children lead normal lives. Citizens in society indirectly fund the negative impact of child abuse, as taxpayers’ funds are drawn to pay community expenditures for juvenile and adult detention cells, and victims of psychiatric conditions. By large, the cost of supporting such expenses can be traced back to the behavioral impact of experiencing the categories of

Money,banking and the federal reserve system Essay

Money,banking and the federal reserve system - Essay Example In order to ensure a balance of the bank reserves and to control the monetary base, the Federal Reserve was established. For efficient use of money in the United States, the Banks and the Federal Reserve work together. Money is the most widely used liquid asset in the world today. Cash is the liquid form of money that is applicable and usable in many of the small and medium business ventures. However, there are other forms of money acceptable in many places. These include traveler’s checks, and checkable bank deposits. Money has the capability of generating gains from trading activities since its nature allows indirect exchange. It also provides a uniform way of transacting given that every product or service can be exchanged with money. It contradicts the barter system of trade (Krugman 412). Money plays three main functions in the United States economy. Firstly, it the sole medium of exchange across the country, it is possible to obtain any goods and services in exchange of money. This medium of exchange lacks the capability to be consumed hence it has to be applied in obtaining consumable goods and pay fro services. Hard economic times have called for use of different monetary forms. This has been evident in some Latin American countries that have resulted into the use of the American dollar, a situation also seen in Eastern Europe where they have used Euros. Secondly, it is used as a store of value, meaning money has the ability to purchase power over a given period. Other assets complement money as a store of value but its uniqueness is that its value appreciates in most cases. Lastly, money is a unit of account. In accounting, money is widely accepted as the medium of setting prices and calculating the value of other assets 413-414. The concept of money has continued to change with time. In historical times, silver and gold were considered as the medium of exchange, this was facilitated by their valuable nature in making of making of ornaments and jewellery. Around independence time in 1776, paper money was getting used to complement the gold and the silver coins. The transition saw the introduction of commodity-backed money that whose value was dependent on the promise that it could be possible to turn it into value on demand. (Krugman 414).To further enhance the monetary form, the United States Dollar was adopted as a generally acceptable mode of transacting in exchange of goods and services. This introduced the so-called fiat money that derives its value from the official status it adopts. This type of money has advantages over the former types in that it does not use other resources apart from the material used in its making and secondly, its supply can be regulated to take care of specific economic needs. However, the challenge remains in production of fake currency (Krugman 415). There are two types of monetary aggregates, denoted by the Federal Reserve as M1 and M2. M1 entails the cash, traveller’s checks and ch eckable bank deposits. Other near-moneys are inclusive in M2. In the United States, year 2011 September, M1 was equivalent to $2,136.9 billions while M2 was $9,603.6 billions of dollars (Krugman 416). Near-moneys are accompanied by interests that the cash dos not, this is the reason why they pay higher interests than checkable bank deposits. Banks plays a critical role in the money industry in the United States and all over the world. It is evident that banks play a role in linking the Federal Reser

Postmodernist Approach to Burial practice Research Paper - 2

Postmodernist Approach to Burial practice - Research Paper Example Notions of the people particular to God, heaven, hell, witches, spirits and souls are also leaded by the same. Conception of the related believes of the individual and society has the consequences on the rituals performed. It is around 10,000 years back that the death ritual is performed among the few earliest rituals of society. Variable practices are followed by the people of diversifying beliefs and one of the main reasons acting behind the burial practice of the people seems to be the one practiced by the ancients of particular group of people [CE11]. From Southern Iberia at Abrigo do Lagar Velho, the human burial of Upper Paleothic was discovered as an evidence of early modern humans in the European society [CD99]. Burial ritual is the found to be the most transformed ritual of the modern society and is very diversified in its nature depending upon a lot of social, cultural and religious factors but some of the anthropologists find the burial ritual as an only ritual which remained the same in practice in respect of the change in human behavior and the growth of the healthy cultural values [JC10]. Two of the postmodernist approach to burial practice includes cremation and embalming [LA04]. Cremation practice is followed almost all around the world. Problem of overcrowded cemeteries in the modern societies is thought to be resolved by the same process. Although cremation practice is relatively low in the American society and is declared as forbidden in the Orthodox Judaism community. Roman Catholic Church recently approved its practice in the Christian community and Hindus are the one who practice cremation strongly as compare all other school of thoughts. Muslim community is also not of the view of burning human and the scattering the ashes in the rivers due to potential health hazards. Cementation practice has involved no rich cultural heritage unless and until

Money,banking and the federal reserve system Essay

Money,banking and the federal reserve system - Essay Example In order to ensure a balance of the bank reserves and to control the monetary base, the Federal Reserve was established. For efficient use of money in the United States, the Banks and the Federal Reserve work together. Money is the most widely used liquid asset in the world today. Cash is the liquid form of money that is applicable and usable in many of the small and medium business ventures. However, there are other forms of money acceptable in many places. These include traveler’s checks, and checkable bank deposits. Money has the capability of generating gains from trading activities since its nature allows indirect exchange. It also provides a uniform way of transacting given that every product or service can be exchanged with money. It contradicts the barter system of trade (Krugman 412). Money plays three main functions in the United States economy. Firstly, it the sole medium of exchange across the country, it is possible to obtain any goods and services in exchange of money. This medium of exchange lacks the capability to be consumed hence it has to be applied in obtaining consumable goods and pay fro services. Hard economic times have called for use of different monetary forms. This has been evident in some Latin American countries that have resulted into the use of the American dollar, a situation also seen in Eastern Europe where they have used Euros. Secondly, it is used as a store of value, meaning money has the ability to purchase power over a given period. Other assets complement money as a store of value but its uniqueness is that its value appreciates in most cases. Lastly, money is a unit of account. In accounting, money is widely accepted as the medium of setting prices and calculating the value of other assets 413-414. The concept of money has continued to change with time. In historical times, silver and gold were considered as the medium of exchange, this was facilitated by their valuable nature in making of making of ornaments and jewellery. Around independence time in 1776, paper money was getting used to complement the gold and the silver coins. The transition saw the introduction of commodity-backed money that whose value was dependent on the promise that it could be possible to turn it into value on demand. (Krugman 414).To further enhance the monetary form, the United States Dollar was adopted as a generally acceptable mode of transacting in exchange of goods and services. This introduced the so-called fiat money that derives its value from the official status it adopts. This type of money has advantages over the former types in that it does not use other resources apart from the material used in its making and secondly, its supply can be regulated to take care of specific economic needs. However, the challenge remains in production of fake currency (Krugman 415). There are two types of monetary aggregates, denoted by the Federal Reserve as M1 and M2. M1 entails the cash, traveller’s checks and ch eckable bank deposits. Other near-moneys are inclusive in M2. In the United States, year 2011 September, M1 was equivalent to $2,136.9 billions while M2 was $9,603.6 billions of dollars (Krugman 416). Near-moneys are accompanied by interests that the cash dos not, this is the reason why they pay higher interests than checkable bank deposits. Banks plays a critical role in the money industry in the United States and all over the world. It is evident that banks play a role in linking the Federal Reser

International Economics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

International Economics - Assignment Example Depreciation increases operation and running costs of an organization, especially if it has a lot of imports or outsourced employees. The real exchange rate between the United States and Europe is given by ÃŽ µ. Consider a scenario in which the nominal exchange rate depreciates by 3%, while the price level in Europe increased by 5% and in the United States, it goes up by 2%. What happens to the real exchange rate? In Munich a bratwurst costs 5 euros, a hot dog costs 4$ at Boston’s Fenway Park. At an exchange rate of 1.05 $ per euro, what is the price of a bratwurst in terms of a hot dog? All else equal, how does this relative price change if the dollar depreciates to 1.25$ per euro? Compared with the initial situation, has a hot dog become more or less expensive relative to a bratwurst? Spain and Germany trade a lot between each other. Germany is running an inflation – low, but inflation – and Spain a deflation. Discuss what is expected to happen with the nominal and the real exchange rates between them. The nominal exchange rates of Germany will decrease while the nominal exchange rates for Spain will increase. This is because an increase in commodity prices will cause an increase in the foreign income that is required to purchase local products. The vice versa is true for Spain where a decrease in the price of commodities will reduce the amount of income earned from foreign countries to buy local products. The real exchange rates of Germany will increase. This is because the real exchange rates appreciate an increase in product prices. On the other hand, the real exchange rates of Spain will decrease. This is because real exchange rates depreciate with an increase in product prices.

Quantum Software Case Study Essay Example for Free

Quantum Software Case Study Essay Quantum Software is a fairly new organization â€Å"No ties, no suits coats, first name only† that was founded by Stan Albright and Erin Barber. The company develops computer software specifically oriented to the needs of independent oil businesses. They’ve had a lot of success over the past 3years and are growing fairly fast. Quantum has gained over 200 employees and has made about 95 million dollars in sales. Currently, Employees at Quantum Software work 16 hour days 6 days a week. In order to keep the morel and sprit up, Quantum recognizes that their employees have been working extra hard and they want to compensate them by having a weekly â€Å"Beer Bust† party. Bill Carter, the corporate attorney, doesn’t agree with the â€Å"beer bust† idea. Instead he believes that serving alcohol at a company’s sponsor party can be a big liability to Quantum. A â€Å"beer bust† sounds fun and relaxing. However Bill Carter makes a good point, serving alcohol at a company’s sponsor party can be a huge liability on the company’s future. Recently an employee by the name of John Hooker lost his balance and fell on the snack table during one of the â€Å"beer bust† events. Luckily John didn’t get hurt. When having these types of events the company cannot guarantee that a person like John will not over drink and possibly drive home drunk and cause a serious accident. These are all things that Quantum needs to take into consideration. Accidents happen all the time and Quantum needs be aware that these â€Å"beer bust† can be a great liability to the company. I can understand that Quantum wants to reward their employees for their hard work. Working long days 6 days a week can get over whelming. What Quantum needs to do is analyze the situation. The company is growing really fast and they need more people. Hiring more programmers can help balance their work load making 8 hour days 5 days a week possible. I don’t think that having a weekly â€Å"beer bust† is a permanent solution. It is obvious that employees at Quantum like to be recognized for their accomplishments and hard work however in the beginning of the case study is it mention the most of the employees drop in to â€Å"unwind† to these â€Å" beer bust† events. Most, meaning that not everyone who works at Quantum shows up or participates in these† beer bust† parties. What I would recommend quantum to do at this point is to pass out an employee surveys and ask their employees what they want or prefer. Some employees might not like the type of environment and rather spend their free time doing something else. Others might like the idea of working fewer hours and having weekends off as a reward. An employee survey can actually help the company out by providing feedback and letting the company know what they like and dislike. The â€Å"beer bust† events have been going on for a while and have become a sort of a company’s tradition. I’m not saying to eliminate the whole â€Å"beer bust† events. The â€Å"beer bust† parties can be a great way to socialize, relax and unwind. Having social events like these can help co workers become closer and share ideas and knowledge which can be beneficial to the company. If Quantum decides to continued the â€Å"beer bust â€Å"parties, what needs to be done is that they need to need to get with Bill carter, the corporate attorney and come up ways to handle a situation if it occurs. Limiting the number of beers a person can have at each event can help by not over drinking or by providing some sort of transportation such as bus or taxi to take employees back home after a â€Å"beer bust† event. These are rules that can be implemented by the company in order to not only save Quantum from a future law suit but also to save a life. The fact that both Eric and Stan are not really listening to Bill’s concerns can and will affect the company’s future. Bill is the corporate attorney and he knows the law. I would recommend bill to talk to both Eric and Stan another day. Eric and Stan are in a relax mode at this point probably had a few drinks or two and might not think that what Bill has to say is quite as important as it really is. Scheduling a meeting with both Eric and Stan and going over what can happen if they don’t start implanting rules.

Analysis of the Korean Retail Sector

Analysis of the Korean Retail Sector 1. Introduction The full market liberalization on the Korean economy in 1996 has a significant effect and has restructured the retail industry to be more efficient. Whereas such liberalization has been evaluated generally positive in terms of economies of scale, intensified competitiveness level, technology innovation, and management efficiency, which determining an enhancement in the total factor productivity of retail industry in Korea. The retail industry has now become crucial as one of nation`s growth engine in Korea providing market to manufacturers and logistics and also playing the role of delivery window for nearly 50 million Koreans. Strategically situated at the crossroads of trade and transport routes in Northeast Asia, Korean market has been attractive as a target country for FDI. In the domestic market, since mid 1990s foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow in Korean service industry has been increasing while its share in manufacturing has been declining. The strong purchasing power has put Korean consumer in the top of range in Asia. The countrys generally wealthy educated base consumers with more sizable middle-income classes are used to exceptionally high customer service levels, and rate price below convenience, quality and choice. The revenue of domestic retail market has been forecasted to attain about KRW183 trillion which increase up to 3.2% from 2008 with the non-store retailing industry and discount stores showing strong growth [1]. Likewise, large conglomerates, often known as chaebols, own diversified business units, and all of them merchandise everything from discount items to luxury goods through various retail outlet options. Their dominance has been characterized Korean retail distribution industry. It is also worthy to note that retailing in Korea contributes for approximately 10% of GDP and 19% of employment (Suh 2003). Naturally, the capital increase contributed to the rapid economic growth, consequently boosted production and consumer expenditure, causing the consumption increase. Korea has been portrayed as a country with a strong consumer base. The Koreans who are savvy consumers, their spending have remained a major contributing determinant in the growth of the domestic market. Therefore, it would be impossible to demonstrate a clear understanding of the Korean economy without considering the distribution sector. Upon reviewing relevant literatures, it is widely accepted that Korean retail industry has been mature and very competitive market. In addition, it has acknowledged that only a few foreign retailers dominate the domestic market which creates fierce competition among local and foreign retailers. This resulted in withdrawals of global leading retailers such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour from Korean market. These have produced growing interests of many researchers to examine the cases. The main target of those researchers is to prove that successful penetration in Korean distribution sector does not necessarily guarantee success in business, and also success which is granted in a home country or globally might not exist in Korean market (Joe and Kim 2007). The failure of those multinational retailers has led to growing number of cross-border merger and acquisition (MA) activities (Yeo et al. 2008). In such unfavorable condition, the strategy of merger might be much preferred such as the mer ger between Tesco and Samsung which could stimulate the innovation in the retail development in Korea. With regard to retail business competition after liberalization, it requires Koreans government supervision to intensify the existing regulation for the benefits of retailers, suppliers and customers and helping small and medium-sized (SMEs) retailers to enhance their competitiveness. The market liberalization in Korea was inevitable helpful for Korean retailers success. As it helps to expand their business and seeks opportunities in foreign markets abroad. This trend has allowed Korean retailers a) to take advantage of new opportunities both in products improvement and process; b) to capture information and to learn strategies developed abroad. As a result, the successful retailers have spread their formats, brands, concepts in all over countries. Because of the very reasons, retail business preserved itself as great potential market. In the mean time, the Korean retail industrial structure has changed and become more advanced nationwide and worldwide stressing to greater competitiveness and higher productivity that make this a particularly interesting thing to study. Prior studies on Korean retail industry however have focused in general on the dramatic increase of Korean retail sector development. However, this study focuses on the exploratory examination of discount grocery stores with special attention to retail internationalization of Korean retailers. In order to conduct a proper analysis of the Korean retail industry, this study will adopt a qualitative approach. Also, this study will provide a competitive analysis of retail sector in Korea. To address the importance gaps discussed above, the Michael Porters framework of competitive and industry analysis known as the five forces of competition model is used on examining the Korean retail industry. This work will allow consideration of how retailing contributes to Korea competitiveness now, how this might change in the future and what needs to be done to maximize the full potential of the sector for the mutual benefit of retailers, suppliers and customers. Furthermore, this study reveals the evolution in the post-liberalization subsequently after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, considering that it is the most important critical point of retail development in Korea. In line with this aim, the study proposes two objectives: 1) to analyze the competitiveness of the retail industry in Korea post liberalization through Porters 5 Forces and to summarize the key issues facing the industry; 2) to provide recommendation for industry and government. Hence, the main questions of this research are: 1) how has the performance of retail industry been in Korea after trade liberalization? 2) What is the relevance of Porters 5 Forces model in explaining the attractiveness of the retail industry in Korea? 3) Whats the implication for the industry and the government? This study outlines a comprehensive overview of the retail industrys development in Korea and focuses on the discount stores as the most leading retail format. The result obtained in this study could provide valuable insights for global retailers willing to develop and expand the business in Korea. The study will also be a considerable interest not only to individual retail companies in Korea in orde r to develop appropriate strategies, but also to researchers wishing to extend the knowledge base of Korean retail industry. Consequently, the main hypothesis of this research is: Korean retail industry possesses a competitive structure in both domestic and global market. Data for this study were obtained from the company websites, research institutes, Korean government and agencies, international institution such as Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), published journals and newspaper articles. The remainder of the study is organized as follows. The literature on Korean retail industry and the 5 Forces conceptual framework are reviewed in Chapter 2. The analysis of Korean retail industry using the framework is described in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 discusses the findings of the study and proposes a number of important implications. Finally, a summary of conclusion is discussed. 2. Profile of Korean Retail Industry Retail sector stimulates production activity in supply chain such as fostering the creation of wider goods and services which have a high value-added and considering the adoption of information technology for production and operation efficiency with quality standards and management skills. Strong retail performance, in turn, helps enhancing international competitiveness and productivity, reduce transaction costs, and finally contribute to economies of scale. This chapter provides an overview of Korean retail industry and retail internationalization. 2.1 Development of Korean Retail Industry Koreas retail industry is regulated by the Korean Distribution Industry Promotional Act, which is enforced by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE). Prior to the 1990s, the retail distribution sector represented as the most backward and the least productive sector in Korea. In line with global development, Koreas retail ind ustry has brought extensive changes after joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1996. Within the implementation of General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the accession to the OECD, Korea was strongly committed to liberalize the retail industry in 1996 which induced multinational retailers to operate business in Korea and buy land in Korea for store construction without limits as to their operation on the number or the size of their establishments. The financial crisis of 1997 also brought notable changes in the emerging discount stores due to consumers preference to low price merchandise. The government liberalized the market to foreign investors in three stages. In 1989, the Korean government opened the wholesale and distribution technology industry. In 1991, the retail industry was opened with a maximum of 10 stores with 1,000 square meters or less of floor space for each foreign-invested company. The third stage occurred in 1993 when the limit of outlets per company was increased to 20 and 2,000 square meters for each store was allowed. As of 1996, the Korean distribution service sector was fully liberalized with no limits on the number of stores and its size (Sternquist and Jin 1998). Thus, in Korea, discount store establishments typically represent with a space of more than 3,000 square meters. In turn, competition in Korean retail markets changed markedly from a manufacturing sector which once was sustained the countrys economic development priority over the past thirty years to emerge rapidly as competitive distribution service industry when foreign retail comp anies enter domestic market. The manufacturing sector has become less favorable while the services sector particularly the wholesale and retail has become more important. As illustrated in Figure 2.1, the number of employment in manufacturing sector decreased while that of in services, particularly in the wholesale, retail, hotel and restaurant business increased rapidly. Furthermore, one of crucial reforms in the wholesale and retail distribution was the expansion of store and space limits for both domestic and foreign retailers which induced rapid FDI inflow following the liberalization. Consequently, the introduction of new types of retail business and the scale of retailers has increased. Retail market sales has gradually changed from 2005 to 2009. Hence the performance of retail market might show a promising trend in terms of sales as it influence the increase of discount stores, department stores and supermarkets more than TV/internet shopping businesses. Furthermore, Boylaud and Nicoletti (2001) point out that since market liberalization, retail industry is becoming intensely competitive and has a large number relative formats. Table 2.1 provides the composition of retail formats in Korea from 2001-2007 which has gradually increased in the last few years. Initially the department stores have dominated Korean market; however in 2003 the discount stores have outperformed department stores with the increase of 2.1% from year earlier. The proportion of discount stores has continued to surge progressively while the department stores and others have experienced slow growth. At the same time Boylaud and Nicoletti (2001) imply that since liberalization, the entry and the exit rates were high among the retailers. Especially, Korea is a unique country where the local retailers dominate multinational retailers. Having invested vigorously in the competition during initial stages, E-Mart has become the number one retailer in Korea. Wal-Mart and Carrefour meanwhile lost their opportunities to lead the market due to passive investment in the beginning of opening market. The retail environment in Korea made it difficult for Wal-Mart to achieve the growth of level and success it desired. The move was also identical for Carrefour because shortly before Wal-Marts withdrawal from the market, Carrefour decided to divest its operation in Korean market. In 2006, Wal-Mart and Carrefour, the first and runner up players in the world, have abandoned their operation in Korea. One of the reasons most frequently cited for this top global retailers to exit were both chains fail ed to localize their system to meet Koreans consumer demands, such as providing eye-catching display outlets, focusing on food and beverage sections, and positioning strategically near to urban areas (Sung 2008). Indeed, the global retailers conducting retail business in foreign countries should be aware and adaptive to cultural differences. In addition, the factor analyses of marketing mix investigated (regarding the firms operation) encountered missteps in product, distribution and promotion strategies that those retailers could not overcome even the low-price strategy. This means that a lower price strategy only did not guarantee success. Up to present, only Tesco and Costco, the foreign retailers which have remained inroads into Korean market. Both of them have penetrated the market through merger and acquisition with local retailers.[2] Apparently, Tesco has been proven very successful in Korea[3] because its speed adaptation to local knowledge by joint-venture with Samsung Corporation to launch Homeplus chains. Also, Costco appears to have successfully differentiated itself from typical retail entities by sourcing American products for Korean market in the warehouse format. Most notably, the Korean market has offered great opportunity for U.S. retailers to export their goods due to the countrys lack of resources th at makes their consumers have heavily dependency on agricultural imports. It indicates that the glocal, a unique combination between global management and adjusting to local style and market reliance has become strategies for foreign retailers to succeed in Korea market. 2.1.1 Discount Store Among the rapidly growing retail formats, the discount store is one of grocery retail concept and is one of dominant player in the country. With this retail format, global retailer has occupied in the foreign operation in the form of hypermarket and membership wholesale clubs (WMC). Through its modern distribution facilities and cost effective strategies, discount stores have been known can offer lower prices than conventional market. 2.1.2 Super Supermarkets (SSMs) Traditionally, the retail sector in Korea characterized in a bipolar retail format of small and mid-sized shops such as mom-and-pop stores and department stores. While department store continues to capture middle up market segment, the survival of mom-and-pop stores and traditional market has been threatened since leading discount stores have embraced another format strategy into smaller store in neighborhood area called à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"super supermarket (SSM). As the last update, Samsung Tesco has been now operating over 162 SSM Homeplus Express stores while E-mart has had the least number of E-Mart Everyday stores. The expansion of these large chains into the small store arena has led to concerns regarding competition with small store owners, and the Korean government has considered introducing a bill to regulate the opening of small supermarkets. 2.1.3 Home Shopping[5] Although this distribution format has been around for about a decade, the industry has grown at impressive rates. Korea is possibly the worlds most wired country with over 90% households having high speed internet access at home and high penetration of cell-phone. With this infrastructure, TV home shopping as well as online shopping malls have grown at impressive rate. TV Home Shopping has expanded at a slow rate fluctuation from USD 1.4 billion in 2005 to over USD 1.5 billion in 2007 (see Table 2.4). The first two TV home shopping operators were LG and CJ, later joined by Hyundai, Woori, and Nongsusan in 2001. While TV home shopping remains a strong and competitive retail channel, the fastest growing channel has been and continues to be the internet. Meanwhile, the sales from online shopping malls have grown incredibly by more than ten-fold from USD 131 million in 2001 to over USD 15 billion in 2007 during just the last 6 years (see Table 2.5). Although this sales value has increased significantly, the actual number of malls has only doubled in the same length period (Sung 2008). Indeed, this again is due to a number of large online malls being owned and managed by Korean conglomerates, and/or the TV home shopping networks mentioned above, that are dominating the market, leaving only a finite portion to smaller online malls operated by individuals. On that account, it does seem plausible if the product is featured in the top ten malls listed below to reach the majority of online mall shoppers in Korea. 2.1.4 Convenience Store The number of convenience stores operating in Korea has increased due to the stores opening in some cities outside Seoul. The increase in complexes within Seoul and its suburban, such as office, subways stations, parks, hospitals, dormitories, etc. has induced the development of convenient shopping. The GS 25 formerly known as LG 25 is the largest convenience store chain in Korea which has a market share of 46.81% in 2007 (see Table 2.7). 2.2 A Review of Retail Internationalization The internationalization of retailing operations is considered as one aspect which is included in retail internationalization conception (Brown and Burt 1992; Dawson 1993; Moore and Fernie 2004) among several other aspects as Clarke and Rimmer (1997) states such as international sourcing, financial investments by retailing firms in retailing chains operating in other countries, and the cross-border transfer of retail know-how, managerial skills and marketing experience. This has emphasized that coping with operating retail business overseas acquires core competencies appropriate for future success. Table 2.1 describes profiles of the world top 10 largest retailers engage in international operation in 2005 which ranked in terms of their sales volume. Among the worlds largest retailers, Carrefour has led the business with operation in 31 countries in 2005. Furthermore as the worlds largest retailer, Wal-Mart and Carrefour by far accounted for 10% and 3% sales respectively in 2005 (Nord?s et al. 2008, 13). Although there was a dynamic outlook of others to international expansion, it is noted that there were 2 world big companies, Kroger and Target which still depended on their home market, the US. This promising trend means that the internationalization strategy on retail industries has been importantly concentrated by most world largest retailers; it can be more developed in the future to other strong domestic players to more profits in the international market or to respond the limitation in the domestic market. Apparently, the emergence trend in the retail sector worldwide has shown dramatic improvement. Although the bias started in European countries, it has spread to other continents in particular Asia. With those opportunities, a new developed country like Korea will improve their economy domestically and from the successful experience in home country, Korea has challenged the retail competition in the global market. In the shock of 1997 financial crisis, the domestic retailers are seeking to leverage new opportunities with global retailers at home and abroad. Large retailers has led FDI outflow into foreign countries increased rapidly and the competition between global retailers has intensified. They undergo increasingly the foreign operation due to the domestic market has reached saturation or limited possibilities for expansion. The international operations have contributed a growing share of their total sales. With the internationalization of retail operation, the sourcing practices have progressively increased as its cost of production is lower which has become primary consideration of the retailers. Sourcing locally is being more structured for a better logistics coordination with compromise to the quality and local taste as well as driving for the consolidation of closer relationship with local suppliers, mainly for food products. The Korean Government has also encouraged the expansion of FDI which is aimed to control and stabilize the domestic market. Most of successful businessmen are making investments overseas due to the relatively high domestic cost including the labor costs and land prices. Thus going international has been inevitable choice for large Korean retailers to look abroad for business expansion. If domestic stores are added on further, it could lead to higher distribution costs and lower efficiency. Big Korean retail chains may prefer to focus on other markets, such as China, rather than stay in Korea when faced with expansion limitations and China for Korean businessmen has been significant as overseas destination to advance into new markets. Furthermore, as Burt (1993) and Pelligrini (1994) point out, the nature of investment primarily in domestic market and later international target market will be similar psychologically proximate to domestic market. Likewise, there will be a borrowing concept or technological system base adapted in the new established market. Considering that a source of competitive advantage of retail can be exploited by a secondary market, Vernon (1966) argues that tertiary market or more advanced market should consider innovations in a different method. Moreover, research by Alexander and Myers (2000) suggests that the concept of technology designs in initial market is a basis to advance the market expansion which may affect the international market. Indeed, there will always be opportunities of entering international market to drive technological innovation and services and further to accelerate respond to meet the changing market condition. 2.2.1 Lean Retailing Concept The notion of lean retailing itself has become an emerging trend in the last decade which previously has motivated apparel and textile industries. Similarly, since its development worldwide, the internationalization of retail concept is built on the concept of lean retailing. The lean retailing strategy can be regarded as spending less of everything to achieve high advantages for better control over the supply chain. According to Evans and Harrigan (2003,1), the lean retailing may represent model for the interaction of time and location and the linkage between retailers and local suppliers in host countries to the nature of retailing and its operation. The lean retailing has critically supported business practice by using information technology systems to reduce inventory cost, minimize inventory risks and yields more profit. With low inventories, stores will not be stuck with large amounts of unsold goods even if demand collapses. In turn, with frequent restocking of inventory, stores will maintain stocks capability. Lean retailing requires: First, Bar codes, which allow retailers to check out the progress of product value chain from raw material until final delivery to sales stores. Furthermore, Abenarthy et al. (1999) observe that the Bar code can provide precise product identification and be the basis for inventory management. Second, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a linked networks system for business-to-business communications, including purchase orders, shipping invoices and funds transfers. The function is not only to reduce paper use when mailing, but it also reduces costs, time delays, and errors associated with the process (Baum and Perrit 1991). Finally, distribution centers which have replaced the warehouse have rapidly channeled goods from suppliers to sales locations. The distribution center involves the just-in-time (JIT) supply, and efficiently reduces the inventory process by providing information in real time to suppliers. Since no goods are stored there, the process is transparent due to no degraded goods in distribution center. Under this condition, it can be implied that the work method of distribution center is unique. Typically a retail store received 40 different trucks transporting the goods, but now needs only 5 trucks. It is because the distribution center can draw thousands of goods from suppliers/manufacturers, and then sort them by retailers orders. Overall, the lean retailing concept has restructured the entire distribution system and help to manage retail efficiency. The advanced techniques in merchandising and inventory management through enhancing ICT investment infrastructure in this globally competitive market as represented by the lean retailing practices have allowed retailers to emulate success. 2.2.2 Development of Private Labels The flourish of retail business is subsequently followed by the strong growth of private label (PB) products. In the recent years, PB or à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"store brand has become an important component in retailers brand. PB is branded and controlled exclusively by retailer. PB is manufactured by retail chains or third party manufacturer. As they deployed effectively, they increase traffic to retail store and lead to consumer store loyalty (Jin and Suh 2005). The PB has enabled the smaller ventures as suppliers to build the partnership with the retailers. The retailers determine the types of products they would consider to make the distinction from the existing products. On the suppliers side, this collaboration presents an opportunity to simplify the distribution channel, while on the retailers side; the PB products will drive more profit margins by selling them under their own brand names at a lower price. According to Kumar and Steenkamp (2007) there are three types of PB as follows: generic, copycat brands and premium store brands. Generic brands appear with lower price and no frills. This might be popular in the situation of inflation when people hunt products with lower price. Copycat brands may try to imitate a manufacturer product in a cheaper price. Premium store brands is a product that have value added and has price near or higher than manufacturers brand. The frugal consumers have considered PB as industrial/manufacturer brand or store/distributor brand which has pushed the growth of PB. According to ACNielsen (2008), among the Asian countries which have undergone the remarkable growth of PB are Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia and South Korea with the average growth of PB accounted for 48%, 30%, 21% and 17% respectively. ACNielsen also finds that the entry of global retailers in those emerging countries is strongly affected the introduction of PB. The development of PB and its impact on retail sales are not only based on the retail structure such as national brand shares, retail concentration, advertising, economies of scale and scope and talent brand matters, but also the consumers attitude toward the PB products (Jin and Suh 2005). Therefore, examining retail structure and consumers preference toward the PB products is necessary to support the retail internationalizations process. Most supermarkets chains offer consumers PB products that is manufactured and mass merchandised. Most products that are sold in PB are consumer goods that have characteristic of low risk manufacture, easy to be produced and basic necessities. The most categories of products that have been have been covered full line in PB are: First, products that are made from paper such as kitchen napkin, facial tissues and toilet tissues. The next category is daily necessities of non-food such as cotton and dental floss. And final category is basic needs such as rice, sugar, oil, fresh canned, frozen and dry foods, snacks, ethnic specialties and pet foods. Furthermore, the PB is to leverage the merchandise of generic gods that are less consumed. With the attached PB on the products, the consumers will have confidence to purchase them. By far, all of the literature reviews highlights the importance of continued research in this area. This study will cover how those global issues affected to Korean retail sector. 3 Theory and Analysis of Korean Retail Industry In todays dynamic environment, the competition is more intense and coming from all aspects of worldwide businesses. Apparently in Korea, Korean retail markets are seeing competition growing both from local and global retailers. The aim of this analysis chapter is to describe Korean retail industry through Five Forces Model of Industry Competitiveness of Michael E. Porter. The Porter methodology uses five basic forces, which are diagrammed in Figure 3.1. Porter stated that there are five categories of forces that ultimately drive an industrys competition and eventually determine the profitability of that industry (Porter 1979). In this study, the forces are represented by different actors along the supply chain. The determinants of power are the suppliers/manufacturers and the consumers, while the existing competition is presented by retailers between large and small retailers. New entrants in distribution are multinational retailers. Substitute can be represented by relatively new retail format, online shopping malls. I. Rivalry among existing firms Traditionally, the retail sector in Korea characterized in a bipolar retail format of small and mid-sized shops such as mom-and-pop stores and department stores. While department store continues to capture middle up market segment, the survival of mom-and-pop stores and traditional market has been threatened since leading discount stores have embraced another format strategy into smaller store in neighborhood area called super supermarket (SSM). Korean retailing is characterized by large discount stores belong to large conglomerates, often known as chaebols. They own diversified business units, and all of them merchandise everything from discount items to luxury goods through various retail outlet options. Due to the increase of discount stores, the competition is more intense and all existing firms compete to expand aggressively to make more share than most of their rivals. The local small-scale merchants strongly resisting the SSMs because the SSMs not only offer a great range of products at low price, but they are also conveniently located inside residential area with close proximity to individual homes. With regard to the penetration of large retail stores operating to a niche market, SSMs has led to the fiercer competition in neighborhood market. The Korea Chainstores Association, which represents large distributors, and Kosamart Co., representing small merchants urged the government intervention to mediate a solution while a few large firms are going to ahead with launching SSMs in some areas. Table 3.1 shows the number petitions between the small-medium merchants and large firms which have urged the Small and Medium Business Administration (SMBA) to raise the issues as mediator to the local government. The domestic competition between retailers is problematic such as SSMs establishment inside residential areas which one hand, SSMs benefits consumers with the range of quality product at affordable prices and somehow lower prices than traditional and small shops. On the other hand, the SSMs stores might pose a threat to small merchants because those neighborhood market chains opera ted by large retailers could discourage their business operations. The giant retailers also have viewed that the expansion of SSMs has contributed to the job creation in the communities. The SMEs has expected that government can protect them