howard ng

Review of CATS Academy Boston

CATS for me was an ok experience; however, there a...

CATS for me was an ok experience; however, there are just some constructive advice I would like to offer the administration to make CATS a school that truly offers a world-class education. In addition, I truly want graduates to feel unashamed to say that they graduated from CATS, but it really has to change!!! At first, I would like to give a brutally honest experience of what led me to choose CATS. When I was studying in the U.K., I felt like the experience was just not right. I then browsed through Litz USA, a company in Hong Kong to help students study abroad in the U.S. What instantly caught my eye was the statement LITZ USA made: "All of the teachers graduated from top universities in the United States, including Harvard University, Columbia University, Brown University, New York University, Boston College, and Washington University." Just based on this statement, I thought "wow" this is really great school I would want to invest three years of my life in. However, when I got to CATS, I felt like I was misrepresented!!! In fact, none of the teachers went to these universities except our wonderful Econ teacher who went to BC. Indeed, I do not blame businesses desperate for money to use euphemism as a way to attract consumers. Another statement I read was that "CATS Academy Boston aims to prepare students to enter the world's top universities". Unfortunately, I feel like CATS only aims to help a few select students with full scholarships to enter into these top universities. In reality, some of these free riders are my really close friends who did end up in top unis; however, I could say they could do well just by themselves regardless on which high school they go to, it's just this full scholarship thing appeals to them and therefore gives CATS the right to use them for marketing material, deceiving students who are interested think CATS help every student get into the top unis. The first advice I would give CATS is that I would rather see CATS give equal attention to all students and advertise students that came in as a mediocres and finally get matriculated into the top unis. Advertising students that came in as already high achievers does not show how CATS improve students and prepare them, because these free riders are already prepared. The second advice I would like to give the admin is that CATS should really stop being the D-league of the NBA, teachers come and go. The metaphor to describe this would be, all the teachers come in and train, when they are doing so well, the NBA offers them a higher salary, they leave. Speaking of teachers, CATS should STOP hiring teachers straight out of college with no teaching experience, the AP computer science class was hit really hard felt like they got duped because of this. I know CATS wanted to cut costs by hiring straight-out-of-college teachers that get paid industry starting salary, but vowing to "shape global leaders" and give students a "world class education"........ I know CATS is a for profit business not a charity, compassion is not something they should prioritize. However, at least they could stop misrepresenting people. I strongly urge CATS not to be covert, but to be transparent to its consumers and not price discriminate based on race. On the flip side, I feel grateful about the scholarship i got at CATS, fantastic friends i made and the good teachers I had the chance to learn from. I am also grateful about my dorm parent who have been an awesome big brother to be. To be frank, because of these red flags, teachers and students come and go, the turnover rate for teachers is just crazy. The loyalty to CATS is just in tatters!!!! many students come for a year and feel like they want to transfer after being misrepresented by their agents. I honestly want to be successful one day and feel proud to tell my friends about CATS, but now, I'll hold that thought until CATS experiences a change to become an honest and transparent institution.