High-School Senior Controversial WSJ Article

[WakeUpEchoes]

Lots of unqualified Masters in Journalism people/regional writers are dogging this article. I think its awesome.

Suzy Lee Weiss: To (All) the Colleges That Rejected Me - WSJ.com

 

[sparkyND]

It certainly is well written.

 

[Rack Em]

She just ripped every collegiate admissions committee a new a$$hole! That was awesome.

 

[Redbar]

I don't get it? What exactly is she owed? Sounds like a lot, or at least a spot at an Ivy. I guess that's not to much, I mean she was born.

 

[Jebediah Springfield]

AT least she didn't go for blackface.

 

[WakeUpEchoes]

I mean she admits in the article she is entitled. But I cannot IMAGINE being in high school right now and trying to compete. What I did as a junior in college to increase my human capital must now be done at age 14-15.

I am all for providing gateways for those that were relegated for many years. Hell, I went to one of the most diverse schools in the country and am half-lebanese. I just like the spunk, and honesty, of the article.

 

[Jebediah Springfield]

I mean she admits in the article she is entitled. But I cannot IMAGINE being in high school right now and trying to compete. What I did as a junior in college to increase my human capital must now be done at age 14-15.

I am all for providing gateways for those that were relegated for many years. Hell, I went to one of the most diverse schools in the country and am half-lebanese. I just like the spunk, and honesty, of the article.

Nah spunky would have been writing that as an admission essay.

 

[gkIrish]

You go girl

 

[BeauBenken]

And now she gets accepted to any big time college because her article appeared in the Wall Street Journal. hahaha

 

[Bubba]

I guess I'm in the minority here, but quit crying about it. Sure, it's well written, maybe she has a future in journalism. But life is not fair. What counts is what you do and how you react to obstacles or failures. Don't trip and fall looking back at something you've already passed. Move on. Don't play the victim.

 

[military_irish]

Best article I have read in a very long time. No political correctness. Just straight to the point and 100% truth.

 

[Buster Bluth]

Beautiful.

 

[DSully1995]

If i become very rich im going to begin a **** Sullivan Memorial scholarship for regular kids, just to **** around

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

Good writing.

 

[IrishinSyria]

I can just taste the bitter tears of failure in the article. She blames her parents, her minority peers, the SATs, admissions counselors, and society in general for her failure to get into a school she felt entitled to. Breaking news Suzy, colleges wouldn't be elite if they let everybody in! If it's so important to her to go to an elite school, she can take a year or two to do something interesting (suggestion: enlist,) work to raise her SAT scores, and reapply as a more well-rounded candidate instead of as an average candidate with high scores on snark and entitlement.

 

[Irish YJ]

Not knowing her specific situation around GPA/Scores, I can't comment on the whole sour grapes thing.

What I can say, are my general thoughts about educational institutions in general.

• If they are truly places of higher learning, they should be more about grades and scores than anything else.
• Basic forms of higher education should be free to all.
• State/Federal funded institutions should be about GPA/Scores, and that's it.
• Private institutions should be free to require community service and leadership type requirements
• I don't think any institutions should have race/gender/etc. or any diversity type quotas. I just believe fundamentally students admissions should be all about the work you put in, and what you have achieved, not what color you are, what your sexual preference is, where you came from, etc..

 

[IrishLax]

Nah spunky would have been writing that as an admission essay.

I actually did something similar to this for my essay for Georgia Tech (disclaimer... I would never have had the balls to do this for a school I was worried/really cared about getting into) where the prompt was "what is the hardest challenge you've had to overcome?" or something to that effect.

I wrote that my hardest challenge was writing this essay when I've had a normal, stable life devoid of serious tragedy or hardship or unique challenges. I said my parents didn't get divorced, I don't have any medical conditions, we were middle class with a small house and a yard growing up, etc. and the worst things to happen to me were some bad sports injuries that probably happen to tens of thousands of people each year. So short of putting myself actively in a situation that was intentionally dangerous/strenuous (i.e. having parents who are mountain climbers and take you up Everest at 16) or having fate take a cruel turn against me it was impossible to respond to this prompt with anything that they would want to read or would set me apart from other applicants.

I closed by saying that it was surprising to me that an admissions board would pose such a question when it has little to no bearing on my future academic prospects as an engineer AND is something that applicants have very little control over in their young lives. That in evaluating whether or not someone deserves a spot at Georgia Tech or can handle the academics rigors of being an engineer you'd think the prompt would somehow try to measure the applicant's aptitude.

So I can definitely identify with what this girl is saying... unless you have a serious diversity card to play, had to smuggle yourself out of North Korea in a box, have a strikingly unique gift, have insanely wealthy/powerful parents (forget the 1%... think .0001%), or loaded up on heart warming extracurriculars to make yourself look like a saint... you're at a serious disadvantage.

 

[IrishLax]

BUT

At the same time, schools should be trying to select whomever they think are the subjectively best applicants. With simply perfect grades and SATs (things you as an individual have complete control over) you can get into a lot of elite schools, and you don't need a "kicker." So I can't defend the general feel of this article that something is "owed" to her... because through objective measures, there is a way to earn it.

 

[autry_denson]

turns out her sister was an editor at WSJ - you couldn't make this stuff up.

- despite every advantage in the world, she has done nothing unique and is not particularly talented
- she is also angry that someone doesn't think she's special enough to go to the best university, when all of these other people who do have talents or drive or who have overcome major disadvantages get to be treated so special
- so in response she draws on her family background to get her article in one of the best newspapers in the world, paving the way for a jumpstart to her career.

absolutely classic.

 

[Grahambo]

Join the military!!

Lax - You ever hear from GA Tech?

 

[rikkitikki08]

Its a really well written article. Also i love her dry/ UN-politicaly correct humor

 

[GoIrish41]

This girl has a lot to learn about life. Perhaps she will learn it in community college with the rest of the kids who didn't apply themselves in high school but believe they want a degree. She comes off as bitter, far more so than most high school seniors have enough time to become.

 

[Polish Leppy 22]

1) I enjoyed the article and her no BS approach.

2) She seems bright enough to go go on to higher ed. I don't tihnk she'll be working at Target for the next 40 years.

3) In grad school we looked at numerous studies by big time colleges. The objective was to determine what carried more weight in predicting academic success in college: SAT's or high school GPA.

SAT's correlation to success in college was only about 20%.

High school GPA was in the 70's.

 

[BurningRiver]

As a fellow high school senior who's seeing my friends rejected from schools in favor of less qualified students who meet certain.. uh.. quotas, I think this is hilarious and spot on. So what if she's acting entitled? College admissions should be 100% about getting the most qualified applicants, and should have absolutely nothing to do with race, sexuality, situation, etc. I know that's not the popular thing to say, but lessening admissions standards to admit a minority is plain wrong.

I do think, though, that the fact she doesn't have a better GPA, test scores, extracurricular resume, etc. is 10000% her fault and she only needs to look in a mirror for that one.

 

[jimmymac]

As a fellow high school senior who's seeing my friends rejected from schools in favor of less qualified students who meet certain.. uh.. quotas, I think this is hilarious and spot on. So what if she's acting entitled? College admissions should be 100% about getting the most qualified applicants, and should have absolutely nothing to do with race, sexuality, situation, etc. I know that's not the popular thing to say, but lessening admissions standards to admit a minority is plain wrong.

I do think, though, that the fact she doesn't have a better GPA, test scores, extracurricular resume, etc. is 10000% her fault and she only needs to look in a mirror for that one.

I see what your saying, and it's my understanding your going to ND next year?, just wait until you get on campus. The lack of diversity here is borderline atrocious, and I can't even imagine what it'd be like without the administration pushing for diverse students even if they are less qualified. I hated the idea of affirmative action coming of high school, but now that I'm at ND I can see why we do it at least. And I know how much affirmative action sucks, it's almost impossible to get into the top ivys as a white male, but if you have good grades and scores you'll be able to easily get into some good school.

 

[GoIrish41]

As a fellow high school senior who's seeing my friends rejected from schools in favor of less qualified students who meet certain.. uh.. quotas, I think this is hilarious and spot on. So what if she's acting entitled? College admissions should be 100% about getting the most qualified applicants, and should have absolutely nothing to do with race, sexuality, situation, etc. I know that's not the popular thing to say, but lessening admissions standards to admit a minority is plain wrong.

I do think, though, that the fact she doesn't have a better GPA, test scores, extracurricular resume, etc. is 10000% her fault and she only needs to look in a mirror for that one.

While I'm unaware of any special admission accomodations that are made on the basis of a students' sexuality and believe that is just another in a long line excuses the author of the article lays out, lets look at sexual orientation fairness in this country. Just last week, in 2013, there were two supreme court cases that may well determine if homosexual citizens are viewed as equal under the law when it comes to marriage. The Civil Rights Act was signed in 1964.

As to your "quotas" comment. White students by and large attend better funded, safer schools with better paid teachers. They have extremely important advantages that most African Americans do not have. Those advantages often, not always but often, lead to better performance in high school, which several in this thread are suggesting should be the only criteria for getting into college. How is that fair? The reason college admissions reach out to minority groups is because of this nation's horrendous record of fairness to the very groups that you point to in your post. And there is still a long way to go before there is anything close to a level playing field. If we don't reach out to minority groups, there would be an even more profound ratio of whites with higher education than blacks than exists today. You should make an attempt to understand the history behind the laws before making these types of statements. You are in the generation that is coming of age, and could be the one that finally brings racial fairness to this country. Don't let the language you hear on this topic from previous generations cloud your own judgment. Those generations ALL got it wrong.

 

[gkautz10]

Great article! It seems that those of us that are in college or have been in college in recent years agree with this article, atleast I do. It's not that she is necessarily saying she in entitled to anything, she is saying that kids makes $hit up to put on their resume. It's great to say that you volunteered in a reading program, but if you only did it 1 time, that doesnt count! Having gone through admissions stuff 4 years ago and now a job search (that has been successful and I have a full time job in South Bend 2 months before graduation) she is exactly right. If you think she is entitled, go and apply to the school of your dreams with good scores, but you didn't start some bullshit organization and see who gets in, you or the other person who did.
Oh and GPA's are a poor indicator of success or knowledge, they mean you can memorize and spit out info onto a sheet of paper. One of my professors who is a tax attorney and a CPA says that students with lower GPA's were almost always more successful and ambitious than those with 4.0, in his 35 years of professional experience.

 

[Rack Em]

I see what your saying, and it's my understanding your going to ND next year?, just wait until you get on campus. The lack of diversity here is borderline atrocious, and I can't even imagine what it'd be like without the administration pushing for diverse students even if they are less qualified. I hated the idea of affirmative action coming of high school, but now that I'm at ND I can see why we do it at least. And I know how much affirmative action sucks, it's almost impossible to get into the top ivys as a white male, but if you have good grades and scores you'll be able to easily get into some good school.

I understand where you're coming from here, but from purely historical/geographic perspective Caucasians are the predominant racial groups of Catholics in the country, aside from Hispanics. Also, the majority of ND's applications come from the Midwest, which is predominantly white.

So, yes, there is very little diversity at ND but some of that is out of their control. Secondly, it's always been my understanding that the purpose of Catholic education is to educate individuals within the Catholic tradition. That likely doesn't appeal to Lutherans, Evangelical Protestants, Methodists, etc. especially when some have their own universities (although maybe not as 'prestigious'...but that is beside the point).

Diversity can be a good thing, but there isn't anything wrong with being committed to an ideal (Catholicism in higher education) that doesn't necessarily attract diversity. Sometimes it's good to have a small, homogeneous group committed to that ideal so they can take it out in the world and spread it (and then donate lots of money back because they strongly believe in it).

 

[Rack Em]

Great article! It seems that those of us that are in college or have been in college in recent years agree with this article, atleast I do. It's not that she is necessarily saying she in entitled to anything, she is saying that kids makes $hit up to put on their resume. It's great to say that you volunteered in a reading program, but if you only did it 1 time, that doesnt count!

That is exactly her point.

 

[gkautz10]

That is exactly her point.

I know, I was reiterating in different words, because some on here were missing her point.