Guest Post by Mike LaRoche
The Daily Mail reports:
A high school senior who wrote an open letter to the Ivy League universities that rejected her has sparked a firestorm of anger, with readers accusing her of being ‘entitled’, ‘whiny’ and even racist.
But others have praised Suzy Lee Weiss, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the honesty and ‘accuracy’ of her article, which appeared in the Wall Street Journal on Friday.
She said she wrote the piece after she was rejected from a string of schools in one day.
Despite the teenager’s 4.5 GPA, an SAT score of 2120 and work experience as a U.S. Senate page, she was shunned by Princeton, Yale, Vanderbilt and the University of Pennsylvania.
In the Wall Street Journal article, titled “To (All) the Colleges That Rejected Me,” Weiss writes of her biggest obstacle during the application process, one which consistently overshadowed her impressive academic record:
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.
She then adds:
I also probably should have started a fake charity. 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.
Indeed, but I must say, that part about the underprivileged chimpanzees of the Congo troubles me. What about the underemployed orangutans of Southern California?
Right turn, Clyde.
And well played, Suzy.
