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

[Anonymous]

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2015/06/04/2015060400888.html



Korean Student Gets Chance to Attend Both Harvard and Stanford
A Korean high-school student has set the enviable record of attending both Harvard and Stanford universities.

Sarah Kim /Newsis
Sarah Kim (18), a senior at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia, was accepted by Harvard late last year and gained admission into Stanford, Cornell and MIT early this year.

Kim initially opted for Harvard, but Stanford wanted her too and struck a deal with Harvard to create a unique program for her. She will study at Stanford during her freshman and sophomore years and then at Harvard for her junior and senior years. She can then choose from which school she takes her bachelor's degree.

Sarah is the daughter of Kim Jung-wook, the managing director of Nexon Korea, a major shareholder of game developer NCsoft.

Kim senior said his daughter's computer project for a programming contest hosted by MIT drew a lot of attention from Harvard and Stanford professors, making it possible for her to attend both top universities.

[Anonymous]

major shareholder of game developer NCsoft.

[Anonymous]

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?

[Anonymous]

Congrats to Ms. Kim!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sarah is the daughter of Kim Jung-wook, the managing director of Nexon Korea, a major shareholder of game developer NCsoft.

Kim senior said his daughter's computer project for a programming contest hosted by MIT drew a lot of attention from Harvard and Stanford professors, making it possible for her to attend both top universities.

That she did aaaallll by herself. The dad's software company had absolutely nothing to do with it.

[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?

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.

[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?

There are many Americans employed in companies in Korea, and just because she is genetically Korean does not mean she cannot be American. I have no information either way, but would not jump to the conclusion you are jumping to. Would you have said the same if her father was an executive in Netherlands?

Secondly, I don't know about her particular situation, but I do know that some public high schools in other states do take foreign students as tuition-paying students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2015/06/04/2015060400888.html



Korean Student Gets Chance to Attend Both Harvard and Stanford
A Korean high-school student has set the enviable record of attending both Harvard and Stanford universities.

Sarah Kim /Newsis
Sarah Kim (18), a senior at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia, was accepted by Harvard late last year and gained admission into Stanford, Cornell and MIT early this year.

Kim initially opted for Harvard, but Stanford wanted her too and struck a deal with Harvard to create a unique program for her. She will study at Stanford during her freshman and sophomore years and then at Harvard for her junior and senior years. She can then choose from which school she takes her bachelor's degree.

Sarah is the daughter of Kim Jung-wook, the managing director of Nexon Korea, a major shareholder of game developer NCsoft.

Kim senior said his daughter's computer project for a programming contest hosted by MIT drew a lot of attention from Harvard and Stanford professors, making it possible for her to attend both top universities.

This story appears bogus in many respects:
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]

The article actually states Kim received offers from both Harvard and Stanford to pay the entire expenses of more than $60,000 per year including Harvard Faculty Scholarship from Harvard which is a need based aid.

[Anonymous]

She seems fake. How can a foreign student attend TJ?

[Anonymous]

How did she get more than $60,000 in financial aid if her father is an executive with a large media company in Korea making ton of money?

[Anonymous]

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.

[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.

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.

[Anonymous]

Isn't it an identity theft if someone used another person's email address without permission?

[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.

How did this person obtain the official TJ class of 2015 school email list? The list is only used by TJ administrators and staff members. Did someone leak the list to someone not affiliated with TJ or someone hacked into TJ email system?