Try reading the piece again. Or watch the Today show interview with her. You are attaching a lot of unfair assumptions on this very young girl. Her piece was meant to be satire. Satire with the aim of revealing some truths about the admissions process. I personally think it was good satire. But her "tone" was never meant to be taken seriously.- SATIRE. And she is NOT a self deluded loser deserving of sterilization. She has been accepted at other colleges and seems to have a very positive and buyont attitude. My speculation is she will have a very successful college career. Whether you like her piece or not, the ability to parlay Ivy League University "rejection" into a high profile piece that captured national attention is IMO laudable. While other young people may of become depressed or let the rejection lower their self esteem she did NOT. That imo, is part of persevering in the face of adversity.
A quick question that relates to my experience with the local Universities. I found the day classes with the regular faculty was often a mixed bag. Some classes were very insightful but there were a small number who you could tell the lights were on but nobody was home. In particular, I'm thinking of a probability instructor . . . perhaps he thought probability was too trivial? We had gone over the various weighted averaging and I found Gausian distribution extracted a useful signal from noisy data. When I brought some examples to his office hours, I felt I was speaking to a bovine in human form. I was hoping he might share any risks associated this approach but nothing. He had no appreciation for how useful this technique is in the real world. In contrast, I found the evening courses, often taught by grad students working on their advanced degrees, were universally good to great. They brought 'real world' experience so I could ask questions that related to my work and they could relate and actually had pithy insights to share. Bob Wilson
Satire is a fickle thing. If half your audience doesn't get it, you might be doing it wrong. (Someone will always not get it as Swift proved) Given that her audience was essentially every potential employer she will ever have...
The half, or whatever fraction, that didn't get it are probably not able to benefit from her contributions anyway.
Man, you guys talk as if college admissions were any kind of objective process to pick the "best" applicants. It isn't. If you're Asian, you're actively being discriminated against. Many colleges have set forth criteria to reduce the numbers of Asians they admit using criteria similar to those used to keep Jews out in the 30s. Is the Ivy League Fair to Asian Americans? - Conor Friedersdorf - The Atlantic Harvard Targeted in U.S. Asian-American Discrimination Probe - Bloomberg It's been observed that they manage their processes like luxury goods companies. gladwell dot com - getting in
" Whether you like her piece or not, the ability to parlay Ivy League University "rejection" into a high profile piece that captured national attention is IMO laudable." Whether her sisters FORMER employment at WSJ helped get her piece published or not has NOTHING to do with my statement. She STILL was able to write a piece that captured national attention. You do realize a lot of opinion pieces get published in WSJ that come and go without making a ripple. But keep the hate flag waving.... Whatever
The good thing is TVs have both a channel changer and ON/OFF. Some folks enjoyed her 'whine' and I'm OK with that. If they choose to watch FAUX news or read WSJ, good for me. These are the folks whom I compete with on the job or any other market. To me, they are 'dead meat', incapable of making a new plan, attacking in a new direction, or dealing effectively with a problem . . . like this lazy woman. Had she laid out her 'get well' plan, I could have respected and perhaps offered suggestions. But like we used to say, When you discover you are digging yourself a hole, change direction. As a practical example, this is a forum where people who want a fuel efficient car come. We are the opposite of those who like this lazy young lady complain but don't take action. Better still, this forum has a high ratio of those who if the Prius doesn't do exactly what we want . . . we make a new plan . . . and do it anyway. We are not conformists to some collective, traditional car view of how our cars should be. In contrast, she has bought into going to the specific school she wants and can't imagine the rejection that she so richly has earned. Sometimes people change, painful experience is one teacher, and it may be this girl will someday grow-up and get a clue. It may be her nth husband or child or job or military service . . . or maybe not. Her essay tells more about how easily she fails and 'vents her spleen' instead of getting over it and moving on. Of course those who deal with adversity are not WSJ material when they can find a whiner. Bob Wilson
Bob, your whining has brought back my recollections of Huntsville Alabama, the Triple K lumber yard, and the disdain the engineering community there had for their fellow citizens.
Not just engineers as Roy Spencer, the climate change denier, lives in Huntsville. Also, not just Huntsville, Sen. Jeff Sessions is a real piece of work. Then there is our "Ten Commandments" Judge Moore, and a vast number of elected officials in Alabama State government. Bob Wilson
I realize that she was published because of her repub and WSJ connections, and the subsequent publicity is not due to her writing ability but because she (re)ignited the always simmering culture war in the US between the whiney white republican populace and the rest of the country. I also note that you fail to grasp that she was a mediocre applicant and that you prefer to masturbate over the cheap shots she throws out as excuses for her failure. Carry on. Heck, write her a letter. Who knows, with the right encouragement she might be the next Sarah Palin.
Wow, that's all I can say. Can't believe some people are so threatened by a 17 year old girl. I don't really care if you agree with me or not, but to de-evolve to masturbation comments? REAL CLASSY.......
Here is the type of case where sympathy is earned and there are Stupidville' ians (aka. Steubenville): Source: Arrest of 3 teens in assault, suicide opens raw wounds | Detroit Free Press | freep.com I sure have a lot more sympathy for these young women who were raped than some girl who wrote a complaint about her college rejection. There are real victims in this life and college rejection rates in the same range of 'troubles' as being turned down for a date or missing a prom. Bob Wilson
There is about 3-4 orders of magnitude between them. I prefer to deal with real problems and consider a college rejection letter as about as important and bothersome as a gnat. But the 'whining' about it just grates on my nerves. Bob Wilson
Well, I believe this will be my last time commenting within this thread. If only because I believe sometimes in a civil discussion or debate there does reach a point where neither person or side is going to convince or change the perceptions of the other, and it's best to simply move on. But I still believe your reaction to this girls satirical essay is a misjudgment of her intended tone and message. It's not so much her whining about being rejected as it is her using her rejection as a platform to satirically look at the entire admission process and maybe more importantly the sometimes very shallow process of self-promotion that is accepted as being necessary to the personal success of this process. Agree or disagree? That's okay....I think it was primarily meant to be funny. But you then IMO attach a whole lot of unfounded assumptions about this young girl to her. She is suddenly a self deluded loser, quitter, whiner. Some posters (Not You So Much) but others even making assumptions as to a 17 year old girls political party affiliations and/or conservative or liberal tendencies. I think this is reading WAY too much into a single WSJ opinion/editorial piece. What I saw and read, was a piece I thought was funny. I also thought she revealed some valid observations about the whole resume building admission and evaluation process. Since she did not give up, did apply to other colleges and seemed very focused, happy and motivated going forward, I did not perceive the self deluded whining loser you accused her of being. I would say, you or anyone is obviously free to read her piece and not like the tone, not like the presentation, and simply not think it was either funny or contained any valid satirical observations. But the failure is then attaching a whole lot of assumptions about what that means about the author. When you compound those assumptions with a reaction that includes an almost toxic venomous response (Sterilization? I hope you are being Satirical), I have to say, I think you have misjudged the piece and probably misjudged the person as well. You no doubt will disagree with me on this. But Kinto and I don't care....it's time to move on...and not whine about who agrees with me or not. You are correct on one thing...there are bigger battles and greater tragedies to deal with.
