High school senior writes scathing letter to Ivy League colleges that denied her

by nevada Fri Apr 05, 2013 1:42 pm

http://blog.sfgate.com/sfmoms/2013/04/04/high-school-senior-writes-scathing-letter-to-ivy-league-colleges-that-denied-her/?plckItemsPerPage=10&plckSort=TimeStampAscending&plckFindCommentKey=CommentKey:f74c4fdf-1f05-4d09-a4ac-0a7cd80dfe58

Meet Suzy Lee Weiss. This high school senior from Pittsburgh, Pa., has a 4.5 GPA, an SAT score of 2120 and experience as a U.S. Senate page.

If you were an admissions director at an Ivy League school would you mail her an acceptance letter?

Turns out that none of the Ivies that Weiss applied to accepted her and she decided to express her grief and ire in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece titled “To “All” the Colleges That Rejected Me.”

In the biting piece that ran on March 29, Weiss says that she was rejected by Princeton, Yale, Vanderbilt and the University of Pennsylvania because she’s not a minority and her parents failed to force her to take up more hobbies.

The letter has been quoted by news media outlets ranging from the British Daily Mail to Forbes.com, and Weiss appeared on the Today show this morning.

Now the whole world seems to be weighing in on whether the senior at Taylor Allderdice High School is a hero, an entitled spoiled brat or maybe even a racist.

Weiss opens her piece by saying that she and millions of other high school seniors who didn’t get into the college of their dreams were all “lied to.”

Weiss writes:

Colleges tell you, “Just be yourself.” That is great advice, as long as yourself has nine extracurriculars, six leadership positions, three varsity sports, killer SAT scores and two moms. Then by all means, be yourself! If you work at a local pizza shop and are the slowest person on the cross-country team, consider taking your business elsewhere.

Weiss goes on to highlight three things she should have done—but didn’t—that would have gotten her that welcome letter from Yale.

1) Being more “diverse.” She writes, “For starters, had I known two years ago what I know now, I would have gladly worn a headdress to school. Show me to any closet, and I would’ve happily come out of it. ‘Diversity!’ I offer about as much diversity as a saltine cracker. If it were up to me, I would’ve been any of the diversities: Navajo, Pacific Islander, anything. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, I salute you and your 1/32 Cherokee heritage.” (Note: This is the section of the essay that’s leading some people to call Weiss racist.)

2) Starting a fake charity. “I also probably should have started a fake charity,” she writes. “Providing veterinary services for homeless people’s pets. Collecting donations for the underprivileged chimpanzees of the Congo. Raising awareness for Chapped-Lips-in-the-Winter Syndrome. Fun-runs, dance-a-thons, bake sales—as long as you’re using someone else’s misfortunes to try to propel yourself into the Ivy League, you’re golden.”

3) Having a Tiger Mom. “As the youngest of four daughters, I noticed long ago that my parents gave up on parenting me,” she writes. “It has been great in certain ways: Instead of “Be home by 11,” it’s “Don’t wake us up when you come through the door, we’re trying to sleep.” But my parents also left me with a dearth of hobbies that make admissions committees salivate. I’ve never sat down at a piano, never plucked a violin. Karate lasted about a week and the swim team didn’t last past the first lap. Why couldn’t Amy Chua have adopted me as one of her cubs?

Weiss also complains that she attended summer camp instead of going to Africa and holding that suffering child for a photo oop and she never got that “precocious-sounding” internship title such as “Assistant Director of Mail Services.”

Weiss’s admittedly bitter story sparked mixed reactions. Many attacked her for being entitled, whiney and spoiled.

One Twitter user wrote:

Choking on the petulant privilege of Suzy Lee Weiss & hoping she matures out of her ignorance rather than being bolstered by a book deal.

Another chimed in:

Your letter reveals your republican homophobic leanings and hatred of others not exactly like you. Grow up.

Others applauded Weiss for being honest and accurate and shedding light on the ridiculously competitive college admissions process. She received a lot of Tweets along the lines of “Love this kid!” “Awesome!” and “Thank you for saying everything on my mind.”

One of her fans wrote on Twitter:

As cynical as it might be, Suzy Lee Weiss makes brutally accurate assessments of college admissions.

Weiss got the idea to write the letter on a day when she received numerous rejection letters and she was crying to her mom. Her mom told her to stop complaining and talk to someone else. Weiss called her sister who told her to write down her feelings. This led to the article. (Weiss’s sister is a former assistant editor of the WSJ Op-Ed section.)

On the Today show, Weiss shared that her piece was meant to be fun and sarcastic.

“It was a joke,” she said. “It’s a satire. That’s the point. Just like ’30 Rock’ is a satire, which pokes fun at things that are politically correct. That’s what I was trying to do.”

She also said that diversity is a “wonderful thing,” although she thinks “In this day and age, we’re being judged on things that we cannot control as opposed to things that we can.”

While Weiss has certainly been attacked with fierce messages through social media, she shared on Today that she has received job and internship offers as a result of the letter. And she was accepted into Pennsylvania State, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin—not Ivy Leagues but still prestigious.

by southindian Fri Apr 05, 2013 1:56 pm

I'm happy she's not pretending to be politically correct and speaks her mind.

by Petrichor Fri Apr 05, 2013 2:14 pm

The movie, Admission, had it right -

Ivies are saying two things - Be Yourself and the secret for getting in is something personal that you must find the secret yourself.

The problem with this is that being yourself is usually being lazy, listless, and going through pre-teen and teen years 'having fun'. In this country, there are limitless opportunities to have fun, be distracted and get lost in mindless peaks of normal curve activities without a lot of passion. Then there are the creative few who are also lazy enough to privately fund photo ops in Africa, redeem grandparents' villages in India.

Given the same amount of time to everyone in the pool, what makes you stand out, what have you got to show for your life so far, what difficulties did you surmount, what passions do you bring to the table etc. These are what the adcomm votes finally measure.

Being a saltine cracker is not bad per se - being entitled and leading a humdrum life, not differentiating yourself is.

Add some cheese to your life -

High school senior writes scathing letter to Ivy League colleges that denied her Img-twist-widget-wedges

by Nila Fri Apr 05, 2013 3:17 pm

Many deserving students get rejected by Ivy League colleges every year and not everyone go about poorly ranting and get unwanted attention. Aint Lee supposed to be a last name? Whatever!

by garam_kuta Fri Apr 05, 2013 3:30 pm

Muezzin-Bar'chu wrote:The movie, Admission, had it right -

Ivies are saying two things - Be Yourself and the secret for getting in is something personal that you must find the secret yourself.

The problem with this is that being yourself is usually being lazy, listless, and going through pre-teen and teen years 'having fun'. In this country, there are limitless opportunities to have fun, be distracted and get lost in mindless peaks of normal curve activities without a lot of passion. Then there are the creative few who are also lazy enough to privately fund photo ops in Africa, redeem grandparents' villages in India.

Given the same amount of time to everyone in the pool, what makes you stand out, what have you got to show for your life so far, what difficulties did you surmount, what passions do you bring to the table etc. These are what the adcomm votes finally measure.

Being a saltine cracker is not bad per se - being entitled and leading a humdrum life, not differentiating yourself is.

Add some cheese to your life -

is true that in some of these schools, when lots of applicants have dead-heat, almost identical quantitative merit, the selection committee draws lots? i don't know what I would do when lots of students have near equivalent profiles and scores

by Impedimenta Fri Apr 05, 2013 3:34 pm

what's for lunch?

by garam_kuta Fri Apr 05, 2013 3:36 pm

Impedimenta wrote:what's for lunch?

laddu

by Impedimenta Fri Apr 05, 2013 3:42 pm

garam_kuta wrote:
Impedimenta wrote:what's for lunch?
laddu

how was it? BTW, ungalukku aruna sairam pudikuma?

by garam_kuta Fri Apr 05, 2013 3:56 pm

Impedimenta wrote:
garam_kuta wrote:
Impedimenta wrote:what's for lunch?
laddu

(a) how was it? (b) BTW, ungalukku aruna sairam pudikuma?

a.thevittA inbam- innoru mottai kooda pOdalAm

b. sure. a bit imposing and less bhakthi - very recently heard an elaborate version of uma ramanaN in podhigai last week captivating technically but nowhere near KVN's version.
However, a singular exception may be her 'rangapruvihAra' - beats vintage DKP , IMO

by Impedimenta Fri Apr 05, 2013 4:12 pm

LOL for a. I will send you a link to a CM rendition by someone who is infinitely better than her and anyone else in the music industry, at least IMO:-) look for it in your inbox by the end of sunday, hopefully.

by garam_kuta Fri Apr 05, 2013 4:29 pm

Impedimenta wrote:LOL for a. I will send you a link to a CM rendition by someone who is infinitely better than her and anyone else in the music industry, at least IMO:-) look for it in your inbox by the end of sunday, hopefully.

Thanks, I look fwd to. recently, i have been lisening to another female vocalist cudaloor janaki ramanujam. quite impressive singing for her age

by Idéfix Fri Apr 05, 2013 5:57 pm

If she thinks she is entitled to a place at one of those universities for being herself, and needs to blame those who beat her to those places in order to feel better, she deserves this disappointment early in life so she can readjust her mental picture of her relationship with the world. But now that her whining has gotten a lot more positive attention than her admission applications did, she will probably take the wrong lesson from this whole story and make a career of whining. She might have a fine career as a whiner.

by Petrichor Fri Apr 05, 2013 6:05 pm

garam_kuta wrote:

is true that in some of these schools, when lots of applicants have dead-heat, almost identical quantitative merit, the selection committee draws lots? i don't know what I would do when lots of students have near equivalent profiles and scores

The short answer is no one really knows...but I believe the way it works is pretty accurately portrayed in Admission. There is a committee that meets for days on end, with a powerpoint or some other projection, there is a case officer (or two) who advance a candidate, questions are asked, and then the committee votes up or down. If there is a tie, robert's rules probably applies and the chair gets the decider. Whether dart boards or straws are involved, no one knows.

by Idéfix Fri Apr 05, 2013 6:10 pm

I never understood how high school students can have GPAs in excess of 4. Isn't the entire point of grading on a curve that you don't score more than 100%?

by Petrichor Fri Apr 05, 2013 6:32 pm

Unweighted GPA is on a 4.0 scale. Weighted GPA is on a 5.0 scale.

Subjects S1 and S2; school gives numerical grades.

S1 - 95 (school published scale translates this to A)
S2 - 85 (translates to B)

A = 4.0 unweighted grade point in S1
B = 3.0 unweighted grade point in S2

GPA is 3.5 and this is unweighted.

Say, S2 is an accelarated or Honors level course.

B in an honors level course is same as a regular A for gpa purposes.

so, this student then has 4.0 in S1 AND S2.

His weighted GPA is 4.0.

If his S1 was accelarated as well, then his A would have counted as a 5.0 in the weighted gpa.

(at a 85% confidence level on all this)

by Marathadi-Saamiyaar Fri Apr 05, 2013 8:21 pm

Impedimenta wrote:
garam_kuta wrote:
Impedimenta wrote:what's for lunch?
laddu

how was it? BTW, ungalukku aruna sairam pudikuma?

along JFK lines, Aruna Sairam-kku ungalai pidikkuma ?

P.S. note the spelling.. It is not pUdikkuma but Pidikkuma... Wink

by Guest Fri Apr 05, 2013 8:38 pm

funny satirical article. i would not necessarily call it whining. Every rejected student ponders over possible reasons, and she came up with her rejection reasons and her reactions in a funny way.

by Marathadi-Saamiyaar Fri Apr 05, 2013 8:47 pm

Vidya Bagchi wrote:funny satirical article. i would not necessarily call it whining. Every rejected student ponders over possible reasons, and she came up with her rejection reasons and her reactions in a funny way.

Agree.... funny and written while angry, that is one situation people speak the reality openly (next to being under drunken state).

I agree completely with her, and an 18 yr old is expected to be as politically correct as a presidential candidate? my foot. They need to first develop the guts to speak their mind. If they dont do it in their teenage years when will they ever?

In US, Quotaism has gone berserk....worse than in India - except here there is no limit and it is practiced at all levels right upto CEO.

by Kris Sat Apr 06, 2013 1:44 am

Vidya Bagchi wrote:funny satirical article. i would not necessarily call it whining. Every rejected student ponders over possible reasons, and she came up with her rejection reasons and her reactions in a funny way.

>>> I wouldn't either, but this whole ivy league mania has gotten out of hand. If the girl is bright, which she appears to be, she should go to a school she gets into and pick up a couple of solid skills. She will be fine.

by Marathadi-Saamiyaar Sat Apr 06, 2013 11:44 am

Kris wrote:
Vidya Bagchi wrote:funny satirical article. i would not necessarily call it whining. Every rejected student ponders over possible reasons, and she came up with her rejection reasons and her reactions in a funny way.

>>> I wouldn't either, but this whole ivy league mania has gotten out of hand. If the girl is bright, which she appears to be, she should go to a school she gets into and pick up a couple of solid skills. She will be fine.

Wisconsin and Michigan are as good as any of the schools - not at all easy to get in as an out of stater. Few people - at the UG level - seem to be concerned about the subject they want to study and the ranking of the school in that area.

I saw someone who got admission to MIT, Harvard, Columbia, Stanford and Cornell, but still going to Georgia Tech bcz in Biomed Engineering it is ranked #2 ahead of all others. He told me that he applied to all those and saved the admission letters so that he could shut up anyone who blabbered about IVY league. His mom told him she would buy an apt in Atlanta and move closer to him, and the guy told her to keep away - otherwise, he would go to Harvard (All moms behave the same way).

Of course, he is an Iranian kid and not a Desi.

by Kris Sat Apr 06, 2013 1:41 pm

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:
Kris wrote:
Vidya Bagchi wrote:funny satirical article. i would not necessarily call it whining. Every rejected student ponders over possible reasons, and she came up with her rejection reasons and her reactions in a funny way.

>>> I wouldn't either, but this whole ivy league mania has gotten out of hand. If the girl is bright, which she appears to be, she should go to a school she gets into and pick up a couple of solid skills. She will be fine.

Wisconsin and Michigan are as good as any of the schools - not at all easy to get in as an out of stater. Few people - at the UG level - seem to be concerned about the subject they want to study and the ranking of the school in that area.

I saw someone who got admission to MIT, Harvard, Columbia, Stanford and Cornell, but still going to Georgia Tech bcz in Biomed Engineering it is ranked #2 ahead of all others. He told me that he applied to all those and saved the admission letters so that he could shut up anyone who blabbered about IVY league. His mom told him she would buy an apt in Atlanta and move closer to him, and the guy told her to keep away - otherwise, he would go to Harvard (All moms behave the same way).

Of course, he is an Iranian kid and not a Desi.

>>>> I think if you have a strong interest in a subject, it makes sense to go to a school that is ranked high in the field, public or private, that you can get into and among the schools you can afford. If you don't have a consuming passion, of course your pool is broader to choose from. The prestige issue of big name schools is becoming close to being irrelevant, as the job market shrinks and the emphasis is now on marketable skills. My sense is that this college racket has especially gotten out of hand over the past decade, with children coming under a tremendous amount of pressure during their high school years. As this girl says, you are now required to game this extra-curricular thing and also contribute to diversity, the latter not something you have control over. I am also not sure what value this "diversity" adds, unless you are in a specific major like sociology or some such thing, where different perspectives could enrich the educational experience for everyone.

Of course, the asian/indian immigrant subset has taken this to a new level with this tiger mom business and assorted nonsense. This is just unnecessary stress for the average (and even above average) kid.

by Marathadi-Saamiyaar Sat Apr 06, 2013 1:57 pm

Kris wrote:
Of course, the asian/indian immigrant subset has taken this to a new level with this tiger mom business and assorted nonsense. This is just unnecessary stress for the average (and even above average) kid.

There is a critical test here: Is the Mom dragging the child everywhere or the child dragging the mom everywhere?

As long as the child is dragging the mom everywhere, the mom should try to keep up.

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