Student gets into Stanford with #BlackLivesMatter x100

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
221

@hebegebe you said this

Many black and minority students are poor. They don’t have the benefit of test prep classes, fully funded 300k educations, and doing summer research at an Ivy. They simply don’t live in your world. To them they need help and hope. They need to be free from discrimination. I hope you can join in that crusade

This is how you described your world

“A bit of background: D is a high stats kid with nearly perfect PSAT/ACT & SAT scores, is ranked in the top 1% of a competitive high school, and is currently performing research in her chosen field at an HYPMS. So she is in contention for admission into some of the top undergraduate programs, though nothing is guaranteed. Finances are not the ISSUE–her college fund is FULLY FUNDED.”(emphasis added)

222

@collegedad13, I appreciate your thoughtful questions! Please see below:

“I live in California which is an extremely diverse state and in which issues of race and diversity matter a great deal”

  • Yes, as it was when I lived there.

“From your previous answers I understand that you live in a state that is almost all white and you believe problems need simple solutions.”

  • I live in MN which is predominately white. My kids attend schools with a high ethnic and SES diversity level. My youngest's middle school, for instance, has AA as the largest ethnic percentage, with white and Asian about equally in 2nd place. Asian, btw, in MN means Hmong and Vietnamese as much as other groups. My older kids' high school is about a third African (mostly African American but with immigrant African families as well) with many of the remaining ethnic identities consisting of Middle Eastern (muslim), S. Asian (Pakistani/Indian mostly), Hispanic, and E. Asian (incl. Hmong and Vietnamese). And white.
  • Also, you seem to be confusing what I have been saying with what my daughter wrote on one of her essays. To be clear, she wrote that even complex solutions can be broken down into simpler parts - something she likes doing in order to solve the complex problems. And as for simple solutions - yes, Nobel prizes have been given for someone coming up with very simple solutions to seemingly complex and insurmountable challenges, merely by thinking outside the box. Easier said than done of course, but some are able to do it.

“So I completely understand where you are coming from.”

  • doubt it, given that you failed to understand what part of the country I'm actually from, and what sort of ethnic diversity can be found in Minneapolis schools and some of the surrounding areas.

“However not everybody is as fortunate as you to be in a similar situation.”

  • You mean a situation in which one is NOT ignorantly assuming things about other people? Then, yes, I am indeed fortunate :)

“To me diversity and racial injustice are huge issues and are getting worse. I think Ziad is part of the solution”

Yes, you have mentioned that. You obviously admire him. That’s great. He’s not sugar. He won’t melt if someone offers an alternative, less flattering viewpoint. It’s no shame on you or on him. If he’s correct his methods will stand the test of time and criticism. If he’s incorrect they won’t.

“From your perspective where you live maybe its not a problem and the essay was just silly. Why don’t you tell us specifically how you feel?”

  • Sure, be happy to repeat what I posted earlier: His "essay" was beyond silly. If he really felt something for BLM he should have articulated it. Writing something 100 times because you really feel something doesn't take much work. Both Stanford and BLM are worthy of more effort, surely.

In closing, a bit on why I’m pressing you regarding that article: Dean Etchemendy provides some great (IMHO) perspective on how conversations are quickly devolving into accusations (alt right, racist, muslimophobia, and I’m not even sure those labels encompass all you have been tossing at others on this thread). His experience is the academy, of course, but don’t you see the same thing going on here? Or are you so “correct” that there is no need to see anything else?

223

@collegedad13,

You pull a quote from 14 months ago and think you know me and the world I live in?

You seriously don’t know me at all. Here is a bit of my background:

  • My parents were quite poor when I was young. Not homeless or hungry, but my siblings and I slept in sleeping bags because my parents couldn't afford beds for us. No vacations or even eating out until my teenage years when their financial position improved.
  • Even though my parents were on their way to becoming wealthy, I became completely financially independent by age 18 (the value of money was drilled into my head). Paid for college through merit scholarships at the state flagship. Worked 30 plus hours a week from junior year onwards, and took 4.5 years to graduate.
  • Worked crazy hours in multiple startups. Two painful failures along the way, but also some success.
  • Fortunate enough to be able to make annual donations to the flagship that provided for me with a full ride. Hope to endow a scholarship in the future.
  • Work periodically with inner city kids as part of an organization that prepares them for entry level jobs in corporate environments,.
  • Because we have done well, wife donates part of her time providing free medical services to people who cannot otherwise afford it, of which a majority happen to be white. GUESS THEY DIDN'T GET THE WHITE PRIVILEGE MEMO.

I am well aware of how fortunate I am. But I also know very well where I came from.

224

“Many black and minority students are poor. They don’t have the benefit of test prep classes, fully funded 300k educations, and doing summer research at an Ivy. They simply don’t live in your world. To them they need help and hope. They need to be free from discrimination. I hope you can join in that crusade.”

@collegedad13, you’d be interested to know of a 2004 study conducted by two Harvard researchers (both AA) on Harvard admittees who identified as black. What they found to their utter surprise is that only 1/3 of those particular admits were “traditional” AA students (the criteria they used, I believe, was having 4 grandparents who were descended from African slaves). The other 2/3 consisted of international students from Africa, students whose families immigrated here from Africa, and children who were “mixed-race” (white and black). It would be nice to think that HARVARD, of all socially-conscious institutions, was joining the crusade and has changed these percentages a bit in the last 10 years or so. Sadly, that might not be the case: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/01/12/high-achieving-low-income-students-remain-rare-most-selective-colleges

225

You’re all probably way past this point in the discussion, but I feel like that essay does show his personality/beliefs/way of thinking and would be something memorable about him to make him stand out in the reader’s mind…good for him! :slight_smile:

226

@hebegebe There are multiple forms of privilege. White privilege is not the same as socioeconomic privilege. You can have heterosexual privilege, male privilege, Christian privilege, ability privilege, sexual orientation privilege. You really think everyone has the exact same opportunities in life, regardless of all of these things?

White privilege is never having to warn your child about interactions with the police.

White privilege is being able to call the cops without fear that they might just shoot you and kill you out of fear.

White privilege is using drugs at the same rate as black people and being 4x less likely to go to jail for it.

White privilege is never having to worry about being stopped and frisked when some of your fellow black citizens experience it biweekly.

White privilege is getting a 20% shorter prison sentence that a black person who committed the same crime.

White privilege is being able to achieve something without it being attributed to affirmative action.

White privilege is being able to wear your natural hair to work without fear of being reprimanded.

White privilege is being able to wear whatever you want and not have it be a referendum on your character.

White privilege is being able to find things that easily match your skin tone (bandaids, tights, anything “nude”).

White privilege is being able to constantly see yourself reflected in the media and in the government.

White privilege is the media underreporting crimes committed by white people.

White privilege is never having to hear people dismiss institutional struggles and deflect to “white on white crime.”

White privilege is being able to live without thinking race plays a role in your experiences.

Ignorance is living a life without thinking race plays a role in your life experiences.

White privilege exists whether or not you have the wherewithal to acknowledge it.

227

White privilege is being able to lecture others about what white privilege is.

228

A Stanford student’s opinion on the essay.
#AdmissionsDecisionsMatter: The Stanford Admissions Office’s Disturbing Concession

https://stanfordreview.org/admissionsdecisionsmatter-the-stanford-admissions-offices-disturbing-concession-869e735eb3cb

229

Speaking of piety, what if he had written some religious proclamation like “#JesusSaves” or equivalent for any other religion (#GodIsDead for atheists?)? Would he have still been accepted, and if he had, would the same complaint about feeling one’s views are “too pious to explain” be made?

230

Later in the opinion piece, the student clearly says that he thinks an applicant who wrote #GodBlessAmerica 100x would have been rejected.

231

What about #Make America Great Again?

232

No mere student but also a writer for the highly-respected Stanford Review. And who, himself, showed enough respect for the essay prompt to answer both parts of it. Very well-written piece - nails all the essential issues.

233

According to the article, Ziad’s essay response clearly flunked a key aspect of the school’s own intellectual tradition.

234

Looks like Ziad Ahmed will be unwelcome as an activist at Stanford. Poor kid, he may have to give up his dream of activism and join his dad’s hedge fund instead.

235

@hebegebe “God Bless America” is a considerably less controversial and opinionated statement than “Black Lives Matter,” “Make America Great Again,” or something like “ISIS Is Not Muslim.”

236

@malverna at #234. Not really. It would have required an explanation of why he thought that statement was important and most likely would have been judged on its logical and theological components, not to mention the ability to articulate a moral argument for the statement. #BlackLivesMatter is probably an easier one to explain and defend.

237

@JBStillFlying I disagree. Patriotism is strongly enforced and widely accepted in the U.S. Just look at how Pres. Trump’s approval rating rose after MOAB, etc. It’s the rally around the flag effect. I agree that “God Bless America” probably wouldn’t have gotten him in just because it’s kind of a “duh” statement, so it’s not really comparable to #BLM. There’s a lot of animosity in the media towards the Black Lives Matter movement; it would spark more debate.

As for the religious aspect of “God Bless America,” that is again widely accepted as a component of patriotism- Christianity, right or wrong, permeates patriotism in the U.S., from saying “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance to songs like “God Bless the U.S.A.” and, of course, “God Bless America.”

238

@malvernvarna but don’t you think young Ziad felt that he was also stating the obvious - that it was like “duh” to say that BLM is important? He certainly gave that impression from his interview.

239

Also @malvernvarna , your comment in #236 actually makes does make the case that it is harder to explain successfully #GodBlessAmerica without reverting to the “warm fuzzies”. You’ve explained why, perhaps, it exists without saying WHY it would be important to someone. I argued that this is a difficult one to justify not because it’s a “duh” statement but because it adheres so strongly to deep sensibilities that might be hard to explain (because they are so ingrained). Such is definitely NOT the case with the relatively new protest group BLM.

240

It would be really nice if someone wrote"Make America Great Again" 100 times and they weren’t a pathological liar and really meant it . To many of us BLM is synonymous with Make America Great Again.
@JBStillFlying did your child get rejected from Stanford? I am having trouble understanding your attitude towards Ziad