What is this nonsense?

[MonkeyGirl18]

I was looking around on youtube, finding something to watch.

One channel I like uploaded a video talking about how this one kid got into Stanford and how the reason is utterly ridiculous and it is.


Stanford requires an essay of 100 words or less on their application.

This kid writes #BlackLivesMatter 100 times and got in. GOT IN! AS IN HE WAS ACCEPTED!



Makes those who worked their butts off into getting into Stanford feel like they did all that for nothing when they could just bs the essay with a stupid hashtag.


I expect better from a highly respected college than this.


Deep down I hope it was a mistake and that they didn't mean to accept him.

[Kitalpha Hart]

Kid prolly fulfilled some outdated and regressive quota and got in via that

[galled]

The education system in California is borked...

[murmurlade]

Stanford supposedly has an acceptance rate of 5%.
I've lost pretty much any remaining shred of respect for it-- seriously. I'm dumbfounded to the point... I have no words.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

did they think he was being creative and thinking outside of the box? ( At another time it would've been interpreted as being insolent) <was he a "minority" or rather "non'white"?>

Mur - I agree with you there, if you can't afford for your parents to pay for you and you have to work and go to school - they should give out scholarships for being steadfast and responsible. Maybe if you had a scholarship a student wouldn't have to work and be able to focus primarily on studies! The whole system is ascrew and its time we stopped catering to those who think higher education means partying and socializing and supporting those who sincerely want to study and learn a trade.

[MonkeyGirl18]

It was a muslim teen i think. Not a black teen. Idk. But he wasnt white.




Hashtags are dumb.

[mdom]

Well, it's not like he was a bad student or anything, he was invited to the white house before for his activistm and interned with Hillary Clinton, also he was accepted in Yale and Princeton as well |D

[Polaris]

You gotta admit that it takes guts to do that. This reminds me of how one kid got accepted into NYU for writing a gutsy essay where he wrote about things he'd "done" and how the one thing he hadn't "done" was "go to college." My former English teacher used to stress how much this guy had guts, but that none of us try to do what he did because 95% of the time college admissions officers will throw it away.

Maybe it's because of the political turmoil the country's going through right now, or maybe they saw something in this kid. These kinds of essays (like writing #BlackLivesMatter 100 times w/o context or trying to be funny in a formal essay) are heavily discouraged, but hats off to those who did it and got in; it takes special skill and a certain kind of charm to do what they did.

More on Ziad Ahmed aka the guy who wrote the essay

[MonkeyGirl18]

Writing a hashtag 100 times doesn't say anything. It loses all meaning.


Is it even an essay? I'd say no.

[Polaris]

Times are changing, I guess. Maybe they knew he was an activist who got invited to the White House and figured out the context of what he wrote before he could explain it to them?

[MonkeyGirl18]

If i were one to determine who gets into college by what your essay says, i would not care what you achieved, if the essay had no effort put into it, you're not being accepted. There is no reason for his acceptance. It isnt hard to copy and paste a hashtag. I could bs it and say i stand for something i don't via hashtag because i know it would get me into Stanford or an ivy league college.

If a young child can write it, its no good.

[galled]

I think if an exceptional student wrote an essay like that, I would reject it because they are obviously not stretching themselves and utilizing their gifts and talents to their potential. Accepting a student that feels they don't need to try is enforcing the bad behavior and arrogance. IMHO, the process is broken (like a lot of taxes and laws on the books). We need to look at the desired behavior such things enforces or rejects. The end results matter in addition to the money or quotas they bring in or meet.

[MonkeyGirl18]

exactly.

Their attempts to be pc, to appeal to the extreme leftists is pretty damaging to their image/reputation.

Colleges need to stay neutral and keep their decisions within reasoning.

[galled]

From what I have read (and I looked into it a bit more), it seems more about ass kissing than being PC. It's like they're more interested in being associated with this guy than anything else. Perhaps funding will flow more readily if he goes to your school since he has Whitehouse connections and media attention. Or the acceptance committee or chairman is just a total nut job.

Anyway, what I would love to see is him turn down acceptance to that school and mock the school for accepting him with something so ridiculous. I would have total respect for him for doing that!

[MonkeyGirl18]

That's what I was trying to get at, lol.

I was hoping Stanford would say something after people were starting to get kinda angry about it and explain their reason.

Yeah, if he did that, props to him. But hopefully, he put more efforts for Princeton and yale than he did stanford.If he put just as much effort as he did that essay, then it's just stupid.