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Searching U.S. Colleges, Doubt Creeps In Amid the Confidence

By SUSH KRISHNAMOORTHY
Higher EducationThe Choice on India Ink

Choice LogoGuidance on American college applications for readers in India from The Times's admissions blog.

The Envelope, Please

student photo

Sush Krishnamoorthy, a student at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, in New Delhi, is one of eight high school seniors around the world blogging about their college searches.

Nothing can quite convey the roller coaster of emotions of applying to college - bewilderment, elation, dejection, hope, fear - as powerfully as the voices of the applicants themselves. And so, as in years past, The Choice blog has selected eight high school seniors to tell their stories throughout the new school year as part of the latest installment of a first-person series we call “The Envelope, Please.”

As their predecessors in the series have, they will invite Choice visitors into their college application process through blog posts and videos, beginning this week and continuing through May.

Jacques Steinberg, who edits The Choice, and I are especially excited about this year's group of bloggers because, for the first time, we are featuring two students from around the world.

Sush Krishnamoorthy, from New Delhi, attends Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, a private school in India. She is part of a “Choice” class that includes student-bloggers from Nairobi, Kenya; Topeka; Seattle; Rogers, Ark.; Las Vegas; New York City and Hunting Valley, Ohio.

We encourage you to follow Ms. Krishnamoorthy on The Choice on India Ink. Her first post is below. - Tanya Abrams

In fifth grade, I knew I wanted to study computer science when I grew up. My school did not offer much in that subject, so I spent my time building Web sites and silly apps on Visual Basic, and exploring random software. In high school, when I could finally take programming classes, I fell in love with programming. It was the perfect mix between art and science. I knew just what I wanted to do.

In the past three years of high school, I have been one of the few people with unwavering answers to the never-ending questions about college.

“What do you want to study?”

“Computer science.”

“Where do you want to go to college?”

“I'm applying to colleges in the United States.”

Many people found that hard to believe, for many reasons. For instance, I did not know a single soul in the United States until recently. It is halfway ac ross the world from my home in India, and a universe away from the life I have always known. Also, being the only daughter of protective parents doesn't help.

There are other factors. The colleges in which I want to apply are known for being extremely selective. Also, my family cannot afford to pay for them.

Considering these odds, I have often been subjected to discouraging talks. The acceptance rates are low. My test scores are supposedly not good enough for international students. International students do not get financial aid. Someone my neighbor knew was denied a visa.

Thankfully, the stories do not discourage me. I grew more confident when I was accepted for a selective science program this summer in New Mexico in which the costs were minimal for my parents. I learned not to take statistics too seriously.

But after that monthlong science program, I began to doubt my inclination toward science and technology. I did not want to spend my days star ing at a digital screen. But how could that be? I had dreamed of it for as long as I can remember. With college applications finally here, I am unsure of my once resolute choices.

Staring at my CommonApp profile, I think maybe I should give “linguistics and foreign languages” as my tentative, intended major. I am multilingual, I grasp new languages easily, and I want to learn more of them. That would also give me opportunity to travel the world and experience other cultures. I have always wanted to do that. Or how about journalism? I love writing and have strong opinions on current affairs.

I have never been more indecisive. Maybe “Undecided” makes sense.

Then I look at the colleges in which I want to apply. It's not easy to accommodate all of these amazing schools on my list of eight. One day, I strike a college off my list, and the next day, it's back there. I am applying to many selective colleges. What if none accept me? What if I don't get enou gh financial aid anywhere? Maybe I should consider that less selective college. But do I really want to go there? Every decision is an endless debate between dreams and reality.

I am certainly not the girl with the answers anymore. But in the next few months, I hope to rediscover those answers as I take my final steps toward college.

Ms. Krishnamoorthy, a student at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya in New Delhi, is one of eight high school seniors around the world blogging about their college searches for The Choice. To comment on what she has written here, please use the comment box below.



Protests Spread Across Middle East as Anger Over Video Mounts

September 13, 2012, 4:37 pm
By CHRISTINE HAUSER and JENNIFER PRESTON

Protesters outside the American Embassy in Yemen captured in a video uploaded to YouTube by MediaCenterSanaa.

Protests spread across the Middle East and North Africa on Thursday, most of them directed at American Embassies and offices linked to United States diplomatic activities, as anger mounted over a video denigrating the Prophet Muhammad.

As our colleagues, Nasser Arrabyee and Alan Cowell report, protesters attacked the American Embassy in Yemen and scuffled with the police for the third straight day at the American Embassy in Cairo.

In Yemen, protesters set vehicles at the embassy on fire and tore down an American flag.

The state news agency in Egypt reported multiple injuries among protesters in Cairo, where the Egyptian police fired tear gas.

Two days after assailants killed four Americans in Libya, including the ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, protests were also reported at American missions in Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia, where the police fired tear gas to disperse crowds.

Reuters reports that 200 protesters gathered outside the American Embassy in Tunisia.

In Morocco, protesters gathered in Casablanca to demonstrate against the contentious anti-Islamic video that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton described as “disgusting and reprehensible.”

A militant Shiite group in Iraq, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, once known for its violent attacks on Americans and other Westerners, reportedly said the anti-Islamic video would “put all American interests in danger.”

In Iran, protesters converged at the Swiss Embassy, where the United States has an interests section. (Washington does not have formal diplomatic ties with Tehran.) The Fars News Agency said that demonstrators burned a United States flag.

The turmoil is likely to spill into Friday after the main communal prayers in the afternoon. Yassin Musharbash, a writer who monitors forums where statements are posted by militant groups, wrote on his Twitter feed @abususu, that Jordanian Salafists were calling for protests after Friday Prayer.

Police and protesters clashed in Cairo as can be seen in dozens of photos shot in Tahrir Square and uploaded to Flickr by Mosa'ab Elshamy.

On Twitter, Mika Minio-Paluelo shared several images from Tahrir Square.

As protests filled Cairo's streets, Egyptians were talking on Twitter about an online confrontation between those posting for the official account of the Muslim Brotherhood and the American Embassy there.

In a message to the United States Embassy, IkhwanWeb, which uses the handle @ikhwanweb, expressed its relief that embassy staff members were not harmed.

In response, a post on the American Embassy's official account thanked them for their well-wishes, but expressed dissatisfaction with what the Brotherhood had been writing on its social media sites in Arabic. The embassy account did not provide details.

The exchange unfolded over Wednesday and Thursday, and continued until the Brotherhood asked the embassy for clarification of its specific concerns.

The American Embassy did not respond on Twitter, but The Egypt Independent offered some clues, noting that Brotherhood had expressed its support in Arabic for the protests and called for more.



Image of the Day: September 13

September 13, 2012, 11:21 am
By THE NEW YORK TIMES

A Rush for Reform in India May Be Blocked Again

September 13, 2012, 9:29 am
By HEATHER TIMMONS

India's central government hopes to push through significant financial reforms in coming weeks aimed at kick-starting the country's slowing economy, but Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal's chief minister, may again stand in the way.

The United Progressive Alliance government, led by the Congress Party, faces corruption scandals, paralysis in policy making and a foreign investor backlash to recent tax proposals. In coming weeks, it has a long “to do” list: open up the aviation, broadcast, pension, insurance and retail industries to foreign investors, approve stake sales of government-controlled companies, and trim fat from some social programs in the budget, analysts and advisers to the government said in interviews over the past two days.

Cabinet officials and government spokespeople have been quietly speaking to the press about their plans, generating a flurry of optimistic, mostly unsourced news reports and propelling the Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex Index to a seven-month high Thursday morning.

A formidable opponent of foreign direct investment in the retail sector, one of the most high-profile of these proposed changes, may not have budged, though.

“Our party is guided by the philosophy ‘For the people, of the people, with the people,'” Derek O'Brien, chief whip in the upper house of Parliament, who is from Ms. Banerjee's Trinamool Congress Party, said by e-mail on Thursday afternoon in response to questions. “Our considered views on F.D.I. were not formed overnight; they have been an integral part of our manifesto on which the voter has placed their trust and confidence in us. We will not let them down.”

< p>Late last year, the government withdrew a proposal to allow foreign investors into India's retail sector after Ms. Banerjee, who is part of the governing alliance, objected.

Many issues on the government's long to-do list have been around for months (or, in some cases, years), but resolving them is expected to be a high priority at a cabinet meeting Friday evening and a full meeting of India's Planning Commission, which formulates five-year plans for the country, on Saturday, government spokespeople say.

Analysts and investors have been clamoring for change. “Domestic demand, especially investment demand, is suffering both due to global economic uncertainty and, importantly, lack of structural policy reform,” analysts from HSBC Global Research said in a report Wednesday. On Thursday, HSBC cut its 2013 economic growth projections for India to 5.7 percent, from 6.2 percent earlier.

The next few weeks represent a unique, finite window to usher in reform, analysts and government administrators say. If they are not accomplished by mid-October, they could be punted into next year.

By mid-October, Election Commission rules come into effect ahead of elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, which prohibit any standing government from announcing significant policy decisions in the run-up to the contests. Then the winter session of Parliament begins in mid-November, but Parliament's last session was disrupted nearly every day by opposition parties.

Many of these reforms can technically be signed into existence by the commerce minister, Anand Sharma, but on a more practical level they need the support of cabinet ministers and the Congress Party-led coalition's allies, like Ms. Banerjee.

Government advisers and officers say that there has been a stepped-up effort to attract foreign investment and address India's budget deficit since the former Home Minister P. Chidambaram took over as finance minister in late July .

“There has been a breath of fresh air in North Block,” said Mukesh Butani, chairman of BMR Advisors, which advises corporations on taxes and deal-making, and a member of a recently formed committee advising the Indian government on tax policy.

Yet many remain pessimistic about near-term changes. “With a string of state elections round the corner and leading general election in 2014, progress on structural reforms is likely to remain slow,” HSBC said on Wednesday.

Some are downright cynical. Asked whether he thought the government would relax rules for foreign direct investment in civil aviation, one Indian airline executive said: “I'll believe it when I see it.”



India Has World\'s Worst Child Mortality Rate

September 13, 2012, 9:22 am
By SRUTHI GOTTIPATI

The world welcomed a piece of good news today: The number of children dying under the age of 5 has steadily dropped over two decades, according to a report by United Nations Children's Fund.

In India, that news was tempered by the fact that the country accounts for a significant number of those deaths.

Across the world, the number of children dying under the age of 5 was estimated to be 6.9 million last year - a notable drop from almost 12 million in 1990. The decline is attributed to effective interventions to fight diseases like measles, malaria and polio, as well as HIV.

With 1.7 million under-5 deaths, India alone accounts for nearly a quarter of those dea ths worldwide, according to Unicef. Although the number of such deaths has fallen in India over the years, the pace of the decline has been much slower than in other countries.

“The decline has been insufficient,” said Pavitra Mohan, a health specialist with Unicef in India “Based on the current trend, it appears unlikely that India will achieve the Millennium Development Goals” set by the United Nations.

Mr. Mohan said India has had the highest number of under-5 deaths for years partly because of the sheer number of births in the country. He notes that roughly a quarter of those deaths are in the populous state of Uttar Pradesh.

Mr. Mohan said the killers in India include infections and low birth weight that plague babies in their first month, and diarrhea and pneumonia once they're older. The government and development agencies have responded by expanding community-based intervention, newborn care in households and treatment of diarrhea and pneumo nia, he said.

In Thursday's report, Unicef said that under-5 deaths are increasingly concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. In 2011, 82 percent of under-5 deaths occurred in these two regions, up from 68 percent two decades before, the agency noted.

“The global decline in under-5 mortality is a significant success,” Unicef's executive director, Anthony Lake, said in the report. “But there is also unfinished business: Millions of children under 5 are still dying each year from largely preventable causes for which there are proven, affordable interventions.”



Academy Finds Mixed Climate Impacts on Himalayan Glaciers, Water Supplies

By ANDREW C. REVKIN

Given all the oversimplified assertions over the years about Himalayan glaciers in a warming global climate, it's great to see a committee assembled by the National Academy of Sciences weigh in on the question with some data-based findings in a new report, “Himalayan Glaciers: Climate Change, Water Resources, and Water Security.” The bottom line - in sync with other recent analysis - is that the region is seeing a mix of changes, with glaciers growing in some places and shrinking in others and impacts on water supplies mostly inconsequential for decades to come. In most regions, monsoon patterns, population and consumption pressures and dependence on groundwater pumping will remain the dominant source of water-related risks, the report concludes. Read on for an excerpt from the news release and link to the full report, followed by related background:

Himalayan Glaciers Retreating at Accelerated Rate in Som e Regions but Not Others; Consequences for Water Supply Remain Unclear, Says New Report

WASHINGTON - Glaciers in the eastern and central regions of the Himalayas appear to be retreating at accelerating rates, similar to those in other areas of the world, while glaciers in the western Himalayas are more stable and could be growing, says a new report from the National Research Council.

The report examines how changes to glaciers in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region, which covers eight countries across Asia, could affect the area's river systems, water supplies, and the South Asian population. The mountains in the region form the headwaters of several major river systems - including the Ganges, Mekong, Yangtze, and Yellow rivers - which serve as sources of drinking water and irrigation supplies for roughly 1.5 billion people.

The entire Himalayan climate is changing, but how climate change will impact specific places remains unclear, said the committee that wrot e the report. The eastern Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau are warming, and the trend is more pronounced at higher elevations. Models suggest that desert dust and black carbon, a component of soot, could contribute to the rapid atmospheric warming, accelerated snowpack melting, and glacier retreat.

While glacier melt contributes water to the region's rivers and streams, retreating glaciers over the next several decades are unlikely to cause significant change in water availability at lower elevations, which depend primarily on monsoon precipitation and snowmelt, the committee said. Variations in water supplies in those areas are more likely to come from extensive extraction of groundwater resources, population growth, and shifts in water-use patterns. However, if the current rate of retreat continues, high elevation areas could have altered seasonal and temporal water flow in some river basins. The effects of glacier retreat would become evident during the dry season, par ticularly in the west where glacial melt is more important to the river systems. Nevertheless, shifts in the location, intensity, and variability of both rain and snow will likely have a greater impact on regional water supplies than glacier retreat will.

Melting of glacial ice could play an important role in maintaining water security during times of drought or similar climate extremes, the committee noted. During the 2003 European drought, glacial melt contributions to the Danube River in August were about three times greater than the 100-year average. Water stored as glacial ice could serve as the Himalayan region's hydrologic “insurance,” adding to streams and rivers when it is most needed. Although retreating glaciers would provide more meltwater in the short term, the loss of glacier “insurance” could become problematic over the long term. [Full news release. Full report (clunky viewing method, but it's all there).]

There's a slide and graphics presentation accompanying the new study. [Justin Gillis has an overview of the study over on the Green blog.] Richard Harris of NPR filed a good report on Himalayan ice, water and climate earlier this year. Mike Ives took a close-focus look at the implications of Himalayan glacier changes for China for Yale Environment 360.



Delhi Don\'ts: High Heels in Khan Market

September 13, 2012, 3:03 am
By SUJATA ASSOMULL SIPPY


Khan Market looks like many other outdoor markets in Delhi â€" a crowded inner lane, uneven pavement, spontaneous potholes and an occasional pile of garbage or stray dog. Like the others, this U-shaped market is not the easiest to navigate, but many of its patrons wouldn't dream of shopping there without the “right” footwear â€" high, high heels.

Khan Market is famously known as India's most expensive real estate for retail. Stores carry everything from bridal outfits to electrical appliances to fancy groceries. The stores include fabulous eateries and top-shelf international brands, which are frequented by expatriates and wealthy locals.

Delhi women love to dress up for any occasion, and it seems Khan Market is no exception. There, I have seen women vegetable shopping with a Hermès Birkin (retail price $10,000 or so), tottering up and down the bumpy, narrow lanes and climbing scary outdoor staircases in sky-high stilettos.

Clearly, this market is not just about shopping, but also about being seen in your finery, pavement be damned. Radhika Jha, a jewelry designer and a well-known fashion stylist in the city, who said Khan Market was one of her favorite haunts, explains: “Some women's social life is centered on Khan Market, and they feel they need to look stylish whenever they go to Khan. Slipping on a pair of heels is a way of achieving this.”

After all, there is nothing like a pair of heels to make you feel dressed up. With Khan market right in the middle of Delhi's most expensive residential area, it is important for a girl to put her best foot forward, even if that might cause her to stumble on the m arket's uneven paths.

Mrs. Jha observed that most of the sky-high heel wearers are women who do not work, and their day job is to look their best at all times. Whether it is Khan Market or a visit to the mall, heels are simply a must.

Christian Louboutin seems privy to that information. The French shoe designer's store opened in Delhi's luxury mall Emporio earlier this year, and it stocked only high heels. Even though his international collection does include mid-heels and flats, these styles were absent during opening week.

But doctors say these high heels should come with a health warning, especially when they are combined with the shoddy pavements in Delhi.

Rajiv Thukral, senior consultant at Max Hospital, has worked in both Delhi and Mumbai, and said there are more injuries like broken ankles and back and knee problems in the capital, thanks to Delhi women's love of stilettos. “If you must wear heels, try and wear them for no more than half an h our a day,” Dr. Thukral said. (And not where the pavement isn't flat.)

Many of Delhi's young fashionistas do not want to listen to this advice, he said. “There needs to be more understanding on the impact of heels,” he said.

Thankfully, some shoe designers believe that comfort can coexist with fashion. Nayantara Sood, who is based in Delhi, started her footwear brand, Taramay, with a line of ballet shoes in December 2010. She is happy to report that as some women are becoming more confident in their own style, they are starting to see that flats are a more practical option for market and mall dressing.

“You have to remember high street brands are new to India,” she said. “Finding casual dressing that was not sloppy was difficult before high street brands so women dressed up all the time.”

But she admits there is a certain amusing charm to the fact that there will always be women who will insist on wearing heels to Khan Market. “It is e nduring, and it is part of Delhi's love of the good life,” she said. There is no doubt that these women in high heels make for great people-watching. Without them, Khan market would now seem under-dressed.

Sujata Assomull Sippy now lives in Delhi via London, New York and Bombay. A stylelista since a teen, she never cried over the break up of her first boyfriend, as the thought of her mascara running was too scary!



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