Amazing story : Korean Student Gets Chance to Attend Both Harvard and Stanford

[Anonymous]

An Asian student got into Harvard and Stanford? This is news? Like, happens every day.

Next.

[Anonymous]

No Harvard Professor would say "you guys" in a letter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An Asian student got into Harvard and Stanford? This is news? Like, happens every day.

Next.

The girl claims Harvard and Stanford made a special and first time program where she gets to study at both places roughly 50-50 and she gets to choose which school should have the honor of granting her the degree after 4 years. That was what was the big deal since she claims both schools came up with this special unprecedented program just for her because they both wanted her to attend their school so much.

[Anonymous]

Hoax for sure. Neither school can deny or confirm without violating her privacy rights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The story is obviously false however Sara and/or her relatives are now going to great lengths to fight back against those who are challenging her. This afternoon someone sent an email to most of the members of the TJ class of 2015 claiming to be a math professor at Harvard:

Dear Thomas Jefferson High School Students,

Hello, this is Joseph Daniel Harris from Harvard University.
We've heard various rumors related to Sara, and I am here to put it to
an end.

Jung Yoon (Sara) Kim is a Harvard Class of 2019 student. She will be
studying at Stanford University for 1~2 years, and then will
return.
In addition, we've heard numerous comments related to her research and her
achievements, but we know much more than all of you guys know, so it
needs to stop.

If we hear any other issues, Harvard University and Stanford University
will respond accordingly.

If you have anymore questions, respond to this email and ask me
directly.

Thanks.

Joseph D. Harris

If you hit reply to the email you get a gmail address, not the Harvard.edu address it claims to be from.

Pretty feeble English for someone called Joseph Harris.

[Anonymous]

Apparently, some TJ students contacted the real Harris and Harris confirmed he did not send the email in question.

[Anonymous]

I thought we'd seen it all wrt helicopter parenting, but planting fake news stories in foreign publications is a new low. Or high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No chance this is the whole story. No undergraduate is so special. Neither school has a need or interest to waive their graduation and residency requirements. Its more likely they are just offering a normal transfer or consortium study opportunity or Stanford is letting her defer for 2 years instead of 1.

Second, why does the child of an executive in South Korea attend a taxpayer-funded, public school in Virginia?

Apparently a number of Korean families (or the moms) move here for high school. There are a couple of luxury apartment buildings in McLean full of these families. There are also quite a few Korean students at boarding schools.

That's kind of pathetic.

[Anonymous]

So did she try to pull off the hoax or is someone trying to make her look bad?

[Anonymous]

Apparently, TJ is investigating who has sent the controversial email if it was not sent by Harvard University Math Department.

[Anonymous]

Is she a student at TJ?

I wonder of someone from the AAP forum has any more info. Strange story!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is she a student at TJ?

I wonder of someone from the AAP forum has any more info. Strange story!

This story appears bogus in many respects:
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2015/06/04/2015060400888.html
http://www.dongponews.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=29044

1) She claims she received 2,400 on SAT but she is not on the list of US Presidential candidates for 2015 for Virginia which lists ALL the kids from VA receiving 1,600 in Reading and Math,
2) She claims she received 240 on her PSAT in 11th grade but she did not make the National Merit Semifinalist for Virginia for 2015 which is based on current seniors who took PSAT in junior year which has 221 minimum score cutoff,
3) She claims Harvard offered a "special scholarship" including "Harvard Faculty Scholarship" in the amount of $60,000 a year to pay tuition etc. but Harvard only offers need based aid. If she received a financial aid of $60,000 per year, her father's income would have been approximately $68,000 for 2014 which seems highly unlikely,
4) She claims to have all As and a GPA of 4.6 (presumably as of end of Junior year since senior year grades are not available yet) but that is impossible since the TJ Profile 2014-2015 lists the highest GPA for that graduating class to be 4.588 (after 4 years of As),
5) She claims Mark Zuckerberg called her and said "he wanted to meet her and that to keep in touch frequently since her research could be a significant help in his effort to spread wifi to all parts of the world" which seems unlikely,
6) The article refers to her as "International Student' and TJ does not accept any international students,
7) She claims to have scored 109 on AMC 10 when she was in 6th grade but she is not listed as having achieved high score according to the AMC 10 scores/students record for 2009,
8) She claims to have been selected as "TJ student of the year last year by the teachers" but TJ students have not heard of such recognition.

There are also claims of professors from Harvard and Stanford visiting her personally and constantly calling her to persuade her to come to their school and other claims that appear to be unlikely as well.

Odd story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No chance this is the whole story. No undergraduate is so special. Neither school has a need or interest to waive their graduation and residency requirements. Its more likely they are just offering a normal transfer or consortium study opportunity or Stanford is letting her defer for 2 years instead of 1.

Second, why does the child of an executive in South Korea attend a taxpayer-funded, public school in Virginia?

Stupid question.

there are many korean families in mclean that dads stay in korea and kids are sent to us for school. Langley and Mclean both have these types of families. so they can go to US universities. they work the immigration system to their benefit. They have money so they fit right in.

If the Koreans want to use our schools, we have no right to deny them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The story is obviously false however Sara and/or her relatives are now going to great lengths to fight back against those who are challenging her. This afternoon someone sent an email to most of the members of the TJ class of 2015 claiming to be a math professor at Harvard:

Dear Thomas Jefferson High School Students,

Hello, this is Joseph Daniel Harris from Harvard University.
We've heard various rumors related to Sara, and I am here to put it to
an end.

Jung Yoon (Sara) Kim is a Harvard Class of 2019 student. She will be
studying at Stanford University for 1~2 years, and then will
return.
In addition, we've heard numerous comments related to her research and her
achievements, but we know much more than all of you guys know, so it
needs to stop.

If we hear any other issues, Harvard University and Stanford University
will respond accordingly.

If you have anymore questions, respond to this email and ask me
directly.

Thanks.

Joseph D. Harris

If you hit reply to the email you get a gmail address, not the Harvard.edu address it claims to be from.

My guess is he is someone connected to Sara's father and sent the email per his (Sara's father) request. Can't use harvard.edu b/c he wasn't writing it as official harvard representative. Korean news papers (the one that reported the article) are not very accurate with small stories like this one.

The dubious email that was sent to the entire TJHSST class of 2015 students used "... math.harvard.edu" email address.

[Anonymous]

So is the OP part of this hoax?