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lakelady
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The Scholar
« on: Jun 6th, 2005, 7:51am »		 Quote Quote Modify Modify
Premiers tonight.    
 
The Scholar: Contestant Breakdown  
by Wesley Rice -- 06/06/2005  
RNO
 
Wesley has found out some information about the ten Scholars competing on ABC's new reality show The Scholar Monday night. Who has the highest grade point average? Who was accepted to Harvard? And who is the favorite to win? Find out inside!  
 
In my preview article for The Scholar, I briefly mentioned some details concerning a couple of the contestants. But that’s hardly enough to familiarize you with them. So here’s an overview of each contestant and my thoughts concerning their possible motivations and their chances to win the full scholarship.
 
For those wondering what the show is about, check out the preview article. As for the rest of you (or those returning from having just read the other article...howdy again folks), here are the contestants:
 

 
 Max is from Oakland, CA. He has a 4.0 GPA and took courses at a local community college in addition to his high school work. He has already gained early admission into Columbia University and hopes to use his higher education to give back to his community. Max eerily reminds me of my cousin. Maybe it’s the long hair and micro-moustache. At any rate, I think Max will stick around for a few episodes, but I don’t expect him to win. His intentions seem noble, but he’s also a self-admitted ladies’ man. And in an academic contest, the ladies might be a distraction he can’t afford.
 

 
Gerald comes to us from Commerce, TX. His 3.914 GPA is actually among the lowest of the contestants (that’s right, lowest). However, some of those were AP courses, so it’s nothing to sneeze at.
 
Gerald can also play four different instruments (saxophone, piano, drums, and guitar - he's a one man band!) and performed as his high school mascot. Color me biased, but I love mascots! Anybody who has the guts to dress like a giant cartoon animal and go nuts at a ball game has earned my admiration. Gerald's dream is to make it on Broadway. I’m pegging Gerald for a top three finish. (Top two if that mascot was a squirrel).
 

 
Scot, from New Freedom, PA, is the enigma of the contest. He has a 4.0 GPA, but he’s home-schooled (Not to insinuate that home-schooling is a bad thing, but as a former high school English teacher, I’ve dealt with both kinds of formerly home-schooled students. Some come into the classroom with a brilliant understanding of the subject being taught. Others stumble in with an elementary education. Parents of both, however, claim that their kids were 4.0 students at home).  
 
He has near perfect SAT scores, but some students test well and are horrible at studying (I speak from personal experience here). He’s a hard worker, who’s worked 80 hours a week to support his family and save for college, but he lacks career focus (doesn’t know whether to become a lawyer or a beatnik poet). From the sheer volume of things he’s accomplished, it would appear that Scot is the favorite to win. I think he’ll do well, but I’m not sold on him yet.
 

 
Milana is a student from the Bronx High School of Science in New York. The ABC website lists her GPA as an astonishing 98.31! Gosh, I bet the other competitors are just ashamed now with their lousy 4.0 GPAs. Obviously, that should have read 98.31 Grade Average, not Grade Point Average, but one wonders why the ABC website wouldn’t have made all the scores comparable.
 
At any rate, Milana impresses us by being able to speak three languages (Spanish, Russian, and English) and by doing stem cell research. However, her goal statement to “find a cure to cancer” seems a little too cliche, kind of like Miss America telling the judge that she wants “world peace.” I get the feeling she’ll be eliminated early.
 

 
Melissa hails from Tarzana, CA. And let me say right away, that I love the name of her town! Tarzana! At any rate, beyond her town, however, Melissa doesn’t really impress me that much. Sure she has a 4.2 GPA (but really, in comparison to everyone else in the competition, minor variances in GPA are just that). And sure she had surgery to fix her scoliosis which helped her focus on school, but once again, all the contestants are focused on school. So I don’t see where she has an advantage.  
 
Her bio says that she wants to pursue a career in ethnic studies and return to her community to give something back. This seems noble enough, but I’m somewhat unsure how a career in ethnic studies could help her give back to her community in the same way that a career in medicine or education could. I feel that she doesn’t have any clear plans, and that could hurt her. After all, Anakin said that he’d go back to Tatooine to free the slaves, but he didn’t have a clear plan either. And we all know how that turned out.
 

 
Jeremy from Westminster, CA is my favorite to win the competition. First of all, as Dat Phan from Last Comic Standing proved, you can never underestimate the abilities of the Vietnamese. Jeremy’s parents moved from Vietnam to America to provide a better life for him, and based on his academic accomplishments alone, it seems that he doesn’t want to let them down.  
 
Secondly, he has a ridiculously high GPA of 4.6! 4.6! Forget about what I just said in Melissa’s preview. That’s just insane! Third, he’s a six-time medallist in Academic Decathlon and an orator (read debater). Remember Andy from Apprentice 2? Remember how poised he was under pressure? That’s the kind of poise developed in debate and academic contests. Finally, there’s just something about this guy that screams success to me. So here he is, my pick to win it all!
 

 
Elizabeth is an only child from Buhl, ID. She has the obligatory 4.0 GPA, and her ABC bio describes her as studying “discreet math.” I have no clue what this means, so if anybody would like to clue me in, please do. It sounds like some secret agent-type math that they only teach to FBI children.
 
 She also wants to leave her small town behind and go to an Ivy League university in the big city. I think Elizabeth has “party-girl” written all over her in giant neon orange crayons. And because of that, I don’t think she has a real shot at winning. She may make it halfway through. But at some point, she’s going to distract Max, or he’s going to distract her, and between all of the distractions she’ll end up on the short end of the TV scholarship.
 

 
Davis is another 4.6 student, this one from Memphis, TN! Where do they find these kids? Everything about this guy yells politician. He was president of his school’s Junior Statesman Club, Editor-in-Chief of the school newspaper, an active member of his local political community, and an accomplished Eagle Scout. In fact, he describes himself as the “future President of the United States.” He definitely thinks highly of himself, and he’s aware that some perceive him as cocky. I’m really unsure about this guy. Everything is in place for him to succeed, but the headstrong attitude could do him in. I’m going to go against my better judgement and say he’ll be one of the first to go.
 

 
Alyssa comes to us from Yuba City, CA. And this one tops them all with a chart-topping 4.67 GPA! In your face, Davis and Jeremy. I’ve got your seven one hundredths of a point right here! Seriously, though, with all AP and Honors courses that is some darned good learnin’. Alyssa volunteers with her local church and participates in Native American drumming (I’ve seen this done in person before, and it can be very enriching and exciting. I hope we get the opportunity to see the contestants show off some of their talents themselves). Her academic goal is to receive a degree in aerospace engineering. I’m picking Alyssa to be one of my solid final three candidates, since she seems to have her head on straight and knows where she’s going.
 

 
Our final academian, Amari, is from St. Charles, MO. She’s got all the right statistics in all the right places: 4.0 GPA, near perfect SATs, numerous AP courses, Chief Marshall of the NHS at her school. She’s also a lover of languages, having pursued studies in Spanish, Ancient Greek, and Latin (those last two will certainly help the Verbal score on the SAT). She’s also got an early acceptance letter from Harvard. However, I think there’s something missing from her bio that may end up hurting her in the competition, non-academic activities. The premise of The Scholar states that the contestants will compete in multiple areas (not just academic), so her academic qualifications may not be enough to pull her through the entire competition. I predict an early exit.
 
So there you have it, your scholars. They’re an odd bunch, but all relatively brilliant. I’ve predicted Gerald, Jeremy, and Alyssa for the final three, and I’m keeping an especially close watch on their performances. Of course, these are all preconceived notions that might very well change once I see them on television. Additionally, I’m assuming elimination will be decided by the three-person Scholarship Committee that I discussed in my previous article. If elimination is partly (or completely) in the hands of the contestants (a la Survivor), those results could be dramatically different.  
 
Nonetheless, I’m excited to get the show started. A brief sidenote – ABC’s website claims that it’s giving “school seniors from economically disadvantaged backgrounds -- who might not otherwise have an opportunity to attend one of America's top universities” a chance to compete for a full scholarship. I’m sorry, but does that seem off to anybody else? Looking at their bios, every one of these students could get a full scholarship to any number of top universities. Just something to think about. These kids will probably succeed no matter where they each fall in the competition.
 
The show will be airing starting this Monday at 8/7 Central on ABC. And I’ll check back in with you all soon after with the first of my recaps.  
 
Wesley is a writer and former English teacher from Tulsa, OK. He can be reached with questions, comments, and snide remarks at [email protected].
 
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teri_t
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Re: The Scholar
« Reply #1 on: Jun 7th, 2005, 11:21am »		 Quote Quote Modify Modify
it was okay, but really just another clone...
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Re: The Scholar
« Reply #2 on: Jun 27th, 2005, 10:11pm »		 Quote Quote Modify Modify
Ok, I've actually gotten hooked on this show (mainly because there's nothing else on!)
 
I'm rooting for Scot, the homeschool kid - I just like him.. Smiley
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Re: The Scholar
« Reply #3 on: Jun 28th, 2005, 9:18am »		 Quote Quote Modify Modify
on Jun 7th, 2005, 11:21am, teri_t wrote:
it was okay, but really just another clone...

 
A clone of what? I've never seen the show, but it sounds interesting. I like the format. It's nice to see a show where people don't vote each other off for a change. I think that the Scholarship Committe is kind of meh.
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Re: The Scholar
« Reply #4 on: Jun 28th, 2005, 2:17pm »		 Quote Quote Modify Modify
I also like the fact that the final group will all have a $50,000 scholarship from Walmart.  It may not take them to the "ivy league college of their choice".. but there are many state colleges where that would pay a huge percentage of the tuition, especially if they lived at home and not on campus or on their own.
 
I know when Scot won his round, he cried - saying that the $50,000 was all he'd hoped for.  Getting that was enough to get him into a good school without burdening his parents.  Winning would just be icing on the cake, so to speak.  Made me like him all the more.. Smiley
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Re: The Scholar
« Reply #5 on: Jul 11th, 2005, 8:08pm »		 Quote Quote Modify Modify
I love it when the cocky fall... and Davis was just WAAAAAAAY too full of himself!  The man clearly said "what two presidents were assassinated in the 20th century?" Because my immediate thought was, ok 1900's... Kennedy and.... before I could think of the other one he says "Lincoln and Harrison"... ?? HUH?  Apparently his brain went 1900's and thought 19th century... but he was sooooooo cocky going into this.. "no one knows as much as me about presidents"... what's that about pride and falling??.. Smiley
 
Final five - Milana, Amari, Elizabeth, Melissa and Scot - as for me, I'm rooting for Scot!!
 
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Re: The Scholar
« Reply #6 on: Jul 18th, 2005, 7:15pm »		 Quote Quote Modify Modify
Tonight is the final - Amari, Melissa and Scot are now the final three.  They now have to have one of the other contestants speak on their behalf...
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Re: The Scholar
« Reply #7 on: Jul 19th, 2005, 9:51am »		 Quote Quote Modify Modify
We watched it last night after missing the previous weeks.
 
I like all of the 3 finalists a lot and was rooting for Melissa or Scott to win. Not that I had anything against Amari, I just like the other two better.
 
I need to hit the web site for the college she will be going to as I have never heard of it before. Was it Pomony?
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Re: The Scholar
« Reply #8 on: Jul 19th, 2005, 10:33am »		 Quote Quote Modify Modify
Pomona. Isn't there a Pomona Beach in California?
 
I think it's great that with the scholarships they received they'll all be able to go to the college of their choice.  I was really rooting for Scot, he was a very down to earth kid, and will be the first in his family to attend college... Smiley
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