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Business Insider reports:
With a perfect ACT score and 13 Advanced Placement courses under his belt, Michael Wang applied to seven Ivy League universities and Stanford in 2013.
As an Asian-American, Wang suspected his race might work against him. But but he was still shocked when he was rejected by Stanford and every Ivy League school except for the University of Pennsylvania.
Wang says he worked incredibly hard and excelled in every area possible. But it still wasn't good enough.
"There was nothing humanly possible I could do," Wang told us, explaining that he felt utterly demoralized after his rejections.
After Wang was rejected from most of the Ivies, he says he filed a complaint with the US Department of Education alleging Yale, Stanford, and Princeton discriminated against him because he was Asian-American.
[...] Wang isn't alone in his belief that the Ivies discriminate against Asians. A coalition of Asian-American groups filed a lawsuit against Harvard University last month alleging the school and other Ivy League institutions use racial quotas to admit students to the detriment of more qualified Asian-American applicants. The more than 60 Asian groups are coming together to fight what they say are unfair admission practices.
[...] He also stressed that he was not just academically driven, but also a well-rounded applicant who maximized his extracurricular activities. He competed in national speech and debate competitions and math competitions. He also plays the piano and performed in the choir that sang at President Barack Obama's 2008 inauguration.
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Insightful) by vux984 on Wednesday June 03 2015, @04:12AM
This is a no win situation. If they reject some less qualified student of another race then they open a can of worms. If they only accept the 'best candidates' according tom some scoring formula then the only people at an ivy league school will be people exactly like him. And that's not a good thing either.
With a perfect ACT score and 13 Advanced Placement courses under his belt [...] He also stressed that he was not just academically driven, but also a well-rounded applicant who maximized his extracurricular activities. He competed in national speech and debate competitions and math competitions. He also plays the piano and performed in the choir that sang at President Barack Obama's 2008 inauguration.
And, sorry, that is not a well rounded person. He's someone who was simply raised and groomed to go to an Ivy League school, and now feels so entitled to go to one that he's suing the schools themselves because only one of them accepted him?! I don't know him, but he sounds pretty dreadful.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday June 03 2015, @04:38AM
If they only accept the 'best candidates' according tom some scoring formula then the only people at an ivy league school will be people exactly like him.
I think you need to think that through.
It appears to be your own bias, based on your own stereotypes.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by GungnirSniper on Wednesday June 03 2015, @04:48AM
I think the grandparent is saying if you distill everyone down to scores like GPA and number of extracurricular activities, you're going to end up with a single type of overachiever being admitted. There will be no room for the creative, outside-the-box thinkers that promote diversity of thought.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by jmorris on Wednesday June 03 2015, @05:11AM
Except of course diversity of thought is already explicitly forbidden in every institution of higher learning. It is the forbidden diversity, which must not be tolerated by the tolerant for it leads to all manner of intolerance. All races, religions, gender identities come together to think exactly the same goodthoughts; is this not the only possible definition of tolerance and diversity. Sounds like you are engaging in some crimething there Citizen, you need to get your mind right.
And of course it can't be racism to have arbitrary quotas setting maximum levels of Asian (and Jewish) admissions and it is crimethink to even discuss it. Therefore solyentnews is racist for posting this story since it can only encourage doubleplus ungood crimethinkers to come out of the woodwork and criticize the most obviously enlightened policies of The Party. Let all praise The Party's wisdom! Just like it isn't racism to have quotas setting minimum numbers of other racial backgrounds who must be admitted regardless of test scores... because testing is itself racist; this is obvious since all races are exactly equal and the tests (designed by crimethinking white males, can their crime be any more obvious) had disparate impact.
And in the final analysis, since nobody is 'better' in any discernible or measurable way, college itself is pointless since, obviously, there can also be no discernible difference in the before and after scores on the racist tests that don't actually measure anything useful. Wanting to attend a college is probably a sign of feelings of superiority and probably of being a so called 'intellectual'.... eventually The Party will have to purge these malcontents so we can have a more peaceful and harmonious world.
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Wednesday June 03 2015, @05:40AM
Except of course diversity of thought is already explicitly forbidden in every institution of higher learning.
Didn't we just have an article on the failure of multiculturalism. [soylentnews.org]
Many of the sub-top-tier admissions to these schools are expected to flunk out. The school gets the brownie points for admitting them, and the fact that they are gone before the first year is quietly swept under the rug, but the school keeps the federally funded scholarships, and the kid goes home with a mountain of debt.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday June 03 2015, @07:05AM
Yes, but... just for the sake of debating...
So why should be a player suffer because the game organizers realized their mistake and changed their minds? (he who was that one so stupid to say "GPA and extra-curricular activities matter the most" is at fault)
.
(for the record, one of my tenets is "Life is not meant to be fair. Should be enough if it's interesting to worth living it". So, don't accuse me of being a SJW tribe member, I'm only pointing that the reductionism of "using metrics to assess value" is a dumb and slippery path - because this world/life is by far more complex than anyone can hope to constrain in a few metrics. Unfortunately, a dumb thing proposed quite a while ago and widely embraced by the education sector [wikipedia.org] - you can see TFA as an example of it)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2015, @09:29AM
it's not the fault of the person who says "Tell me how you measure me and tell me how I'll behave", but it's the fault of the ones that came up with a stupid metric.
Are you sure it's not the fault of the idiot who thought they were serious about the silly metric? As Admiral Ackbar, who never went to no silly Ivy League school, said: "It's a trap!"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by vux984 on Wednesday June 03 2015, @04:50PM
I think you need to think that through. It appears to be your own bias, based on your own stereotypes.
Which bias or stereotype are you referring to? By "exactly like him" I simply mean people who spent their whole life padding their ivy league application forms.
I expect he is the ultimate example of someone who was "taught to the test". Where the "test" is getting into Ivy League schools. I expect the school's applications team spotted him a mile away; I expect he's not genuinely more intelligent, or more creative, or more well rounded than the average; and that they were right to reject him; recognizing him not as actually exceptional, but merely exceptionally scoring due to a life spent working on getting an exceptional score.
Yes, I see he's Asian, and yes there is a stereotype there, and yes I am inclined to think his parent(s) were heavily involved in his academic and extracurricular activities with the objective of getting him into an Ivy League school. But that's really beside the point. Regardless of race or parenting style, perhaps the Ivy League applications simply saw him as someone who had gamed their scoring systems; and they decided they wanted someone else.
That's not to say I agree with racial quotas; I don't. But even in the absence of racial quotas I'd want the school to feel free not to accept someone simply because they scored "best".
In some sense its like a job interview; the best candidate is not necessarily the one who has all the certifications, contributes to open source projects, has a game on the app store, has a copy of the openGL 'red book' in his bag, has participated in RFCs, and has a perfectly inoffensive facebook page showing him kayaking, cycling in a marathon, and celebrating raising $10,000 for cancer. That might be a great person, and a great hire... but what if you start to get the sense that the entire thing is staged -- he didn't accomplish these things in the pursuit of any actual interests or passion for them -- he accomplished these things precisely so he could list them on his resume; and rather than being exception he's entirely average (he's perfectly competent but no more so than any of dozens of other applicants); albeit with his spare time dedicated to making a CV to wow HR drones.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Adamsjas on Wednesday June 03 2015, @04:54AM
"And, sorry, that is not a well rounded person".
So you've met him then?
If not, what kind of judgmental prick could make such a pronouncement based on a thin summary of a thin story?
You pronounce him "dreadful" ?? Who even uses that word with regard to another human being?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2015, @10:36AM
What kind of a judgmental prick could call someone else a judgmental prick based on a nine word quote?
Dreadful is commonly used to describe people by those that have been taught or read British English. "That person is dreadfully boring." for instance. The word means unpleasant, like you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2015, @01:46PM
You pronounce him "dreadful" ?? Who even uses that word with regard to another human being?
Hypocrite much?
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Wednesday June 03 2015, @03:45PM
So you've met him then?
No. I said I hadn't. My post wasn't that long.
If not, what kind of judgmental prick could make such a pronouncement based on a thin summary of a thin story?
Pigeon hole principle. He doesn't have enough time in a day to be a well rounded person. Perfect academics, plus piano, choir, debate club, math competitions, speech competitions... that's not well rounded, that's someone who has exactly one characteristic ... padding his ivy league application forms?
You pronounce him "dreadful" ?? Who even uses that word with regard to another human being?
Dreadful is a perfectly cromulent word here.
(Score: 4, Funny) by penguinoid on Wednesday June 03 2015, @05:36AM
Dreadful is a bit harsh. But I would go as far to say that Mr Wang sounds a bit like a dick.
RIP Slashdot. Killed by greedy bastards.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday June 03 2015, @07:13AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2015, @11:45AM
You misspelled "ka-ching".
(Score: 3, Touché) by FatPhil on Wednesday June 03 2015, @02:05PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 5, Insightful) by VLM on Wednesday June 03 2015, @12:49PM
raised and groomed to go to an Ivy League school
No, he wasn't. We don't have much class migration or class mixing so its hilarious watching middle class folks try to figure out what upper class folks do in order to sneak into upper class institutions. Its a game, the school only wants upper class / aristocracy kids, so they select for upper class / aristocracy hobbies and even more importantly stuff only upper class can afford. Meanwhile the aspirational middle class "tiger" moms force their kids to do stuff that would have gotten them into an ivy maybe a generation or two ago. And the rigid class structure means the tiger moms don't know WTF they're doing, its very similar to security theater, in that getting in is a PITA so any random PITA must be a way to get in, thus play the chello and sing to the loser-in-chief. Some of the confusion is the admissions folks say a lot of politically correct BS about what they want, but what they really want is different.
Some things that rich white young upper class americans actually do in 2015:
Disaster / eco tourism. Its very expensive to take a summer off and fly to the other side of the planet and basically sit around getting in the way of actual aid workers while posting to twitter and facebook and tumblr about how you're personally saving starving kids in africa or doing earthquake relief in haiti or WTF. Make LOTS of social media posts of your well fed self and starving kids, and be sure to include the experience in your admissions essay. You'll have to wave about $10K to $20K in the face of starving 3rd world people so don't actually interact with them which would be awkward, just post the F out of it on facebook while in camp. There's a whole subculture of rich kids who talk about which disaster tourism site is better just like middle class kids talk about which spring break florida beach is better.
Don't do cheap sports or activities, lower class poor people can afford a soccer ball or afford to sing (wtf?) but only upper class can afford horse sports like that horse agility deal or WTF its called where they leap over hurdles or obviously polo. The admissions committee will understand you're the "right" kind of person if you own your own polo horse and better if dad owns the local polo field. Telling them you own your own soccer ball is not exactly the aspirational conspicuous consumption they're looking for.
Water sports. I believe this means something else in the fetish community. What I'm talking about is super expensive hobbies like sailing or water ski-ing. Make sure the admissions essay explains your parents own the $5M lakefront estate, not trailer you to a public access (ugh) lake. When I sailed as a teen in my used $1K (or so) sailboat at my uncles inherited family lakefront estate I met tons of rich kids who got a $20K new boat from their dad made of exotic tropical hardwoods instead of foam and fiberglass and their dad owned the $5M lakefront estate they sailed from, often multiple estates. I should have dated and married that ugly rich chick and become a trophy house-husband. Oh well.
Fundraisers. Forget joining the scouts. I mean its cool, but if you want to hang out with the upper classes you need to get into the fundraising racket. Its all a scam but nobody cares. So find a group that does nothing but collect money and pay fundraising exec salaries, its not THAT hard, most "charities" are like that, and get documented (important! Get documented!) as being THE guy who coordinated the "its for the children, Inc" fall fundraiser event or WTF. As a bonus these things swarm with bored upper class trophy MILF housewives who need something (someone?) to do, so you can get recommendations (Admissions person sees the wife of the president of Caterpillar Inc likes him, oh he must be OK). Also if you're a girl you can get a bored trophy wife MILF to take you under her wing which might help socially (let me introduce you to my sorta-daughter I never had) and if you're a teen boy surrounded by bored trophy MILFs I don't think a teen boy needs much explanation for what he can do "in the pool changing room" or at her house in the hot tub with her or whatever, just for gods sake don't get caught.
I can't believe tiger mom thought singing to obummer would get him in, like WTF Mom? Analysis failure of the 1st degree.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday June 03 2015, @02:28PM
This is...disturbingly astute.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2015, @02:38PM
What planet are you posting from?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2015, @04:20PM
Water skiing? I think of that as a white trash sport, not upper crust.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday June 03 2015, @07:20PM
Water skiing? I think of that as a white trash sport, not upper crust.
You're probably thinking more $75K bass boat and $75K truck to haul it parked in front of the $25K mobile home. Or a 200 HP fishing boat towing a skier. Or jet skis. I can't entirely disagree, those are stereotypical "took out the home equity loan" purchases.
A ski boat is more useful when the applicant owns a truly ridiculous one (like banker bonus size, not home equity loan size) and $5M of waterfront property to moor it. Lets say a 45 footer with triple 1500 HP engines, I donno maybe 70 knots top speed for something like that? The kind of thing where the fuel tank is measured in hundreds of gallons? Big enough to be an ocean cruiser if it didn't have giant 4500 HP of engines so its really just for going fast around the coast?
I guess the cruddy SN car analogy would be I'm not talking about the guy with a honda civic having a giant 6 inch exhaust tip and $10K stereo, 4 foot tall spoiler and no other mods at all, but more like a classic 80s Ferrari collection.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday June 03 2015, @04:24PM
Darn +5 cap... I may have to mod you overrated just so I can mod you Uber-Insightful
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Wednesday June 03 2015, @05:00PM
raised and groomed to go to an Ivy League school
No, he wasn't.
[...]
I can't believe tiger mom thought singing to obummer would get him in, like WTF Mom? Analysis failure of the 1st degree.
It sounds more like you are saying -- "Yes, he was. He just wasn't as good at it as he thought."
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday June 03 2015, @06:53PM
Mom must have watched some episodes of "beverly hillbillies" to think she learned about upper class culture providing some really weird ideas, then went into alpha tiger mom competition against the other tiger moms to be the very best at some fairly ridiculous tasks that unfortunately have very little to do with actually getting in.
The tiger mom's do have a limited point in that you can try to get in as upper class material, either wanna be or faking it, or you can try to get in via the diversity token admission, where they try to emulate "the village people" and accept exactly one of each. Just realize that there's maybe 10 CEO's kids, maybe 20, for each token quota admission so you're probably better off trying to get in as "almost a CEO's kid" than trying to be the one hardworking middle class asian kid, or the one goth kid or the one green skinned kid or whatever. So she was clearly hoping he'd get in as the diversity applicant for chello playing or maybe singing to obummer. That lotto ticket didn't pay off. Shoulda tried to get in as a psuedo-CEO's kid.
If you watch TV you'll learn that the only way to get thru difficult military training is having a family member killed on 9/11 or overseas, or believing Jesus told you, or being really poor and trying to escape a dangerous neighborhood, be a sociopath or psychopath or a meat head, or all kinds of ridiculous shit that makes for really compelling TV for people who've never been in the .mil and don't know anyone who was ever in the .mil. My personal experience is you really only have to be stubborn, patient, and at least moderately skilled at figuring out how to get from point A to point C by passing thru point B, and never panic, which has virtually nothing to do with the skills TV says you need. The details of this example aren't important, the point is its just another cultural example that a group of people who don't know anything will invent their own hierarchy and mythology of the right way to do it that usually has little if any relationship to reality. I suppose we could talk religion, workplace politics, maybe plain old politics, relationships, all on exactly the same topic of "so lost they don't even know they're lost".
(Score: 1) by wikkiwikki on Wednesday June 03 2015, @04:44PM
And whats wrong with Penn? its Ivy League... so who cares