Hired by Google as L4 but rejected by top colleges

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ummm, I’m at Google do you have any idea how hard it is to get hired as a L4 SWE at Google? The kid is obviously brilliant. L4s have an average salary of 250k/yr and 4 years work experience after grad school. We are talking hundreds of applicants for one L4 slot.

You people are spectacularly ignorant. Stick to counting beans in your cubicle, not pontificating on “big tech” (boomer word as well).

This exactly. And I want to add that the fact he got hired by google should negate the ideas suggested on this board, such as he lied about his app, he had bad essays and teacher recs and that his grades weren't stellar compared to classmates.

This kid is brilliant and his work must be "real" or google wouldn't have hired him (I am assuming the folks at google are smart enough to figure out if his father designed the program). I assume he had to pass numerous interviews and that his high school transcript was scrutinized.

The problem isn't Stanley, it is the college admission system that is the problem. I wish that this was the focus of this discussion instead of trying to rationalize why a kid like this got rejected from so many schools.

It is not hard for me to both believe he is very talented and a great fit for Google, and that he also could have written crap essays and just "phoned in" his college applications. In fact, that seems more likely as to what happened.

He likely would be bored at college and the real value is building his peer/social network...but I am not sure he needs that since he probably has a decent network in the SV area.

I disagree. I think he was probably amazing. But there are a lot of amazing kids applying to those schools. Being rejected doesn’t mean you aren’t smart or amazing.

Wasn’t the Valedictorian of his school which means if you separate out the “I started a business” element he was beaten out by several kids stats-wise at his own school.

The dissonance between the schools saying “well we actually want to see leadership and real world achievements from applicants” and then they reject a kid who started a real commercial business (not a tiny nonprofit or a lemonade stand) and could demonstrate skills mastery to the extend that Google onboarded him as a senior hire at age 18.

He will be fine, but would love to know what happened in those Admissions Committee meetings where they went “hard pass”.

They see a lot more applicants than I do so I’m unwilling to second guess them, but to outsiders it looks like we are missing part of the story. From both sides.

Soft quotas on Asians even at UCs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ummm, I’m at Google do you have any idea how hard it is to get hired as a L4 SWE at Google? The kid is obviously brilliant. L4s have an average salary of 250k/yr and 4 years work experience after grad school. We are talking hundreds of applicants for one L4 slot.

You people are spectacularly ignorant. Stick to counting beans in your cubicle, not pontificating on “big tech” (boomer word as well).

This exactly. And I want to add that the fact he got hired by google should negate the ideas suggested on this board, such as he lied about his app, he had bad essays and teacher recs and that his grades weren't stellar compared to classmates.

This kid is brilliant and his work must be "real" or google wouldn't have hired him (I am assuming the folks at google are smart enough to figure out if his father designed the program). I assume he had to pass numerous interviews and that his high school transcript was scrutinized.

The problem isn't Stanley, it is the college admission system that is the problem. I wish that this was the focus of this discussion instead of trying to rationalize why a kid like this got rejected from so many schools.

It is not hard for me to both believe he is very talented and a great fit for Google, and that he also could have written crap essays and just "phoned in" his college applications. In fact, that seems more likely as to what happened.

He likely would be bored at college and the real value is building his peer/social network...but I am not sure he needs that since he probably has a decent network in the SV area.

I disagree. I think he was probably amazing. But there are a lot of amazing kids applying to those schools. Being rejected doesn’t mean you aren’t smart or amazing.

Wasn’t the Valedictorian of his school which means if you separate out the “I started a business” element he was beaten out by several kids stats-wise at his own school.

The dissonance between the schools saying “well we actually want to see leadership and real world achievements from applicants” and then they reject a kid who started a real commercial business (not a tiny nonprofit or a lemonade stand) and could demonstrate skills mastery to the extend that Google onboarded him as a senior hire at age 18.

He will be fine, but would love to know what happened in those Admissions Committee meetings where they went “hard pass”.

They see a lot more applicants than I do so I’m unwilling to second guess them, but to outsiders it looks like we are missing part of the story. From both sides.

Very good chance that his essays were just not the best/what the AO was looking for. Perhaps his recommendations were not as stellar as you'd expect. So many things that can move the needle. Fact is he's applying to schools where the acceptance rates are SINGLE digits and often only 2-3% for his MAJOR (CS). Applying to 20 schools with acceptance rates of 5% does not increase your chances for admission significantly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ummm, I’m at Google do you have any idea how hard it is to get hired as a L4 SWE at Google? The kid is obviously brilliant. L4s have an average salary of 250k/yr and 4 years work experience after grad school. We are talking hundreds of applicants for one L4 slot.

You people are spectacularly ignorant. Stick to counting beans in your cubicle, not pontificating on “big tech” (boomer word as well).

This exactly. And I want to add that the fact he got hired by google should negate the ideas suggested on this board, such as he lied about his app, he had bad essays and teacher recs and that his grades weren't stellar compared to classmates.

This kid is brilliant and his work must be "real" or google wouldn't have hired him (I am assuming the folks at google are smart enough to figure out if his father designed the program). I assume he had to pass numerous interviews and that his high school transcript was scrutinized.

The problem isn't Stanley, it is the college admission system that is the problem. I wish that this was the focus of this discussion instead of trying to rationalize why a kid like this got rejected from so many schools.

It is not hard for me to both believe he is very talented and a great fit for Google, and that he also could have written crap essays and just "phoned in" his college applications. In fact, that seems more likely as to what happened.

He likely would be bored at college and the real value is building his peer/social network...but I am not sure he needs that since he probably has a decent network in the SV area.

I disagree. I think he was probably amazing. But there are a lot of amazing kids applying to those schools. Being rejected doesn’t mean you aren’t smart or amazing.

Wasn’t the Valedictorian of his school which means if you separate out the “I started a business” element he was beaten out by several kids stats-wise at his own school.

The dissonance between the schools saying “well we actually want to see leadership and real world achievements from applicants” and then they reject a kid who started a real commercial business (not a tiny nonprofit or a lemonade stand) and could demonstrate skills mastery to the extend that Google onboarded him as a senior hire at age 18.

He will be fine, but would love to know what happened in those Admissions Committee meetings where they went “hard pass”.

They see a lot more applicants than I do so I’m unwilling to second guess them, but to outsiders it looks like we are missing part of the story. From both sides.

Soft quotas on Asians even at UCs.

Not true at all. Admissions at UC's don't know kids race or name.

The fact that he was rejected by UCs and CalPoly means he probably has some sort of disciplinary or behavorial issue. Those schools are not rejecting a kid with these stats and accomplishments.

There's definitely something else at play here that is not disclosed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ummm, I’m at Google do you have any idea how hard it is to get hired as a L4 SWE at Google? The kid is obviously brilliant. L4s have an average salary of 250k/yr and 4 years work experience after grad school. We are talking hundreds of applicants for one L4 slot.

You people are spectacularly ignorant. Stick to counting beans in your cubicle, not pontificating on “big tech” (boomer word as well).

This exactly. And I want to add that the fact he got hired by google should negate the ideas suggested on this board, such as he lied about his app, he had bad essays and teacher recs and that his grades weren't stellar compared to classmates.

This kid is brilliant and his work must be "real" or google wouldn't have hired him (I am assuming the folks at google are smart enough to figure out if his father designed the program). I assume he had to pass numerous interviews and that his high school transcript was scrutinized.

The problem isn't Stanley, it is the college admission system that is the problem. I wish that this was the focus of this discussion instead of trying to rationalize why a kid like this got rejected from so many schools.

It is not hard for me to both believe he is very talented and a great fit for Google, and that he also could have written crap essays and just "phoned in" his college applications. In fact, that seems more likely as to what happened.

He likely would be bored at college and the real value is building his peer/social network...but I am not sure he needs that since he probably has a decent network in the SV area.

I disagree. I think he was probably amazing. But there are a lot of amazing kids applying to those schools. Being rejected doesn’t mean you aren’t smart or amazing.

Wasn’t the Valedictorian of his school which means if you separate out the “I started a business” element he was beaten out by several kids stats-wise at his own school.

The dissonance between the schools saying “well we actually want to see leadership and real world achievements from applicants” and then they reject a kid who started a real commercial business (not a tiny nonprofit or a lemonade stand) and could demonstrate skills mastery to the extend that Google onboarded him as a senior hire at age 18.

He will be fine, but would love to know what happened in those Admissions Committee meetings where they went “hard pass”.

They see a lot more applicants than I do so I’m unwilling to second guess them, but to outsiders it looks like we are missing part of the story. From both sides.

Soft quotas on Asians even at UCs.

It's not really a "soft quota" on asians. If an asian wants to major in non-stem/non-premed, so say perhaps English lit or philosophy, I bet there is space and those students would gain admission with high stats. It's more about that most asians are STEM focused and quite frankly there are only so many spots for those students....the acceptance rates for CS at most of those schools are less than 5%, some are only 2-3%. So yes, plenty of asians will get rejected along with plenty of whites, blacks, hispanics, women and men

So what many claim is "racial motivated/racist" is much more likely not enough spaces in a competitive major. And yes, the university does not want 100% asians in the CS dept, just like they don't want 100% Males or 100% white students or 100% students from NY or MD or WA or MI or any state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ummm, I’m at Google do you have any idea how hard it is to get hired as a L4 SWE at Google? The kid is obviously brilliant. L4s have an average salary of 250k/yr and 4 years work experience after grad school. We are talking hundreds of applicants for one L4 slot.

You people are spectacularly ignorant. Stick to counting beans in your cubicle, not pontificating on “big tech” (boomer word as well).

This exactly. And I want to add that the fact he got hired by google should negate the ideas suggested on this board, such as he lied about his app, he had bad essays and teacher recs and that his grades weren't stellar compared to classmates.

This kid is brilliant and his work must be "real" or google wouldn't have hired him (I am assuming the folks at google are smart enough to figure out if his father designed the program). I assume he had to pass numerous interviews and that his high school transcript was scrutinized.

The problem isn't Stanley, it is the college admission system that is the problem. I wish that this was the focus of this discussion instead of trying to rationalize why a kid like this got rejected from so many schools.

It is not hard for me to both believe he is very talented and a great fit for Google, and that he also could have written crap essays and just "phoned in" his college applications. In fact, that seems more likely as to what happened.

He likely would be bored at college and the real value is building his peer/social network...but I am not sure he needs that since he probably has a decent network in the SV area.

I disagree. I think he was probably amazing. But there are a lot of amazing kids applying to those schools. Being rejected doesn’t mean you aren’t smart or amazing.

Wasn’t the Valedictorian of his school which means if you separate out the “I started a business” element he was beaten out by several kids stats-wise at his own school.

The dissonance between the schools saying “well we actually want to see leadership and real world achievements from applicants” and then they reject a kid who started a real commercial business (not a tiny nonprofit or a lemonade stand) and could demonstrate skills mastery to the extend that Google onboarded him as a senior hire at age 18.

He will be fine, but would love to know what happened in those Admissions Committee meetings where they went “hard pass”.

They see a lot more applicants than I do so I’m unwilling to second guess them, but to outsiders it looks like we are missing part of the story. From both sides.

Soft quotas on Asians even at UCs.

Not true at all. Admissions at UC's don't know kids race or name.

The fact that he was rejected by UCs and CalPoly means he probably has some sort of disciplinary or behavorial issue. Those schools are not rejecting a kid with these stats and accomplishments.

There's definitely something else at play here that is not disclosed.

Actually, yes they are rejecting kids with those stats, because everyone applying for CS/Eng has similar stats and resumes and most are getting rejected (because CS has single digit acceptance rates at most of those schools). But I do agree that there is likely something off with his application that is not being disclosed. Perhaps he did not fully invest in the essays and it shows....doesn't take much when an AO has 2-3 mins at most with the application and 95% of the applications have the same stats and overall resume---he somehow did not make himself stand out, or his essays and recommendations were weak

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ummm, I’m at Google do you have any idea how hard it is to get hired as a L4 SWE at Google? The kid is obviously brilliant. L4s have an average salary of 250k/yr and 4 years work experience after grad school. We are talking hundreds of applicants for one L4 slot.

You people are spectacularly ignorant. Stick to counting beans in your cubicle, not pontificating on “big tech” (boomer word as well).

This exactly. And I want to add that the fact he got hired by google should negate the ideas suggested on this board, such as he lied about his app, he had bad essays and teacher recs and that his grades weren't stellar compared to classmates.

This kid is brilliant and his work must be "real" or google wouldn't have hired him (I am assuming the folks at google are smart enough to figure out if his father designed the program). I assume he had to pass numerous interviews and that his high school transcript was scrutinized.

The problem isn't Stanley, it is the college admission system that is the problem. I wish that this was the focus of this discussion instead of trying to rationalize why a kid like this got rejected from so many schools.

It is not hard for me to both believe he is very talented and a great fit for Google, and that he also could have written crap essays and just "phoned in" his college applications. In fact, that seems more likely as to what happened.

He likely would be bored at college and the real value is building his peer/social network...but I am not sure he needs that since he probably has a decent network in the SV area.

I disagree. I think he was probably amazing. But there are a lot of amazing kids applying to those schools. Being rejected doesn’t mean you aren’t smart or amazing.

Wasn’t the Valedictorian of his school which means if you separate out the “I started a business” element he was beaten out by several kids stats-wise at his own school.

The dissonance between the schools saying “well we actually want to see leadership and real world achievements from applicants” and then they reject a kid who started a real commercial business (not a tiny nonprofit or a lemonade stand) and could demonstrate skills mastery to the extend that Google onboarded him as a senior hire at age 18.

He will be fine, but would love to know what happened in those Admissions Committee meetings where they went “hard pass”.

They see a lot more applicants than I do so I’m unwilling to second guess them, but to outsiders it looks like we are missing part of the story. From both sides.

Soft quotas on Asians even at UCs.

Not true at all. Admissions at UC's don't know kids race or name.

The fact that he was rejected by UCs and CalPoly means he probably has some sort of disciplinary or behavorial issue. Those schools are not rejecting a kid with these stats and accomplishments.

There's definitely something else at play here that is not disclosed.

If he’s a discipline or behavioral issue, why was Google willing to overlook it? Are they stupid?

They don’t have problems recruiting talent, they can get who they want. They wanted this kid.

It’s an unusual story just because of the Google hire otherwise it’s just another kid with great stats who was unlucky, those are a dime a dozen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ummm, I’m at Google do you have any idea how hard it is to get hired as a L4 SWE at Google? The kid is obviously brilliant. L4s have an average salary of 250k/yr and 4 years work experience after grad school. We are talking hundreds of applicants for one L4 slot.

You people are spectacularly ignorant. Stick to counting beans in your cubicle, not pontificating on “big tech” (boomer word as well).

This exactly. And I want to add that the fact he got hired by google should negate the ideas suggested on this board, such as he lied about his app, he had bad essays and teacher recs and that his grades weren't stellar compared to classmates.

This kid is brilliant and his work must be "real" or google wouldn't have hired him (I am assuming the folks at google are smart enough to figure out if his father designed the program). I assume he had to pass numerous interviews and that his high school transcript was scrutinized.

The problem isn't Stanley, it is the college admission system that is the problem. I wish that this was the focus of this discussion instead of trying to rationalize why a kid like this got rejected from so many schools.

It is not hard for me to both believe he is very talented and a great fit for Google, and that he also could have written crap essays and just "phoned in" his college applications. In fact, that seems more likely as to what happened.

He likely would be bored at college and the real value is building his peer/social network...but I am not sure he needs that since he probably has a decent network in the SV area.

I disagree. I think he was probably amazing. But there are a lot of amazing kids applying to those schools. Being rejected doesn’t mean you aren’t smart or amazing.

Wasn’t the Valedictorian of his school which means if you separate out the “I started a business” element he was beaten out by several kids stats-wise at his own school.

The dissonance between the schools saying “well we actually want to see leadership and real world achievements from applicants” and then they reject a kid who started a real commercial business (not a tiny nonprofit or a lemonade stand) and could demonstrate skills mastery to the extend that Google onboarded him as a senior hire at age 18.

He will be fine, but would love to know what happened in those Admissions Committee meetings where they went “hard pass”.

They see a lot more applicants than I do so I’m unwilling to second guess them, but to outsiders it looks like we are missing part of the story. From both sides.

Soft quotas on Asians even at UCs.

Not true at all. Admissions at UC's don't know kids race or name.

The fact that he was rejected by UCs and CalPoly means he probably has some sort of disciplinary or behavorial issue. Those schools are not rejecting a kid with these stats and accomplishments.

There's definitely something else at play here that is not disclosed.

If he’s a discipline or behavioral issue, why was Google willing to overlook it? Are they stupid?

They don’t have problems recruiting talent, they can get who they want. They wanted this kid.

It’s an unusual story just because of the Google hire otherwise it’s just another kid with great stats who was unlucky, those are a dime a dozen.

DP. Would they be looking at teacher/counselor recommendations?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ummm, I’m at Google do you have any idea how hard it is to get hired as a L4 SWE at Google? The kid is obviously brilliant. L4s have an average salary of 250k/yr and 4 years work experience after grad school. We are talking hundreds of applicants for one L4 slot.

You people are spectacularly ignorant. Stick to counting beans in your cubicle, not pontificating on “big tech” (boomer word as well).

This exactly. And I want to add that the fact he got hired by google should negate the ideas suggested on this board, such as he lied about his app, he had bad essays and teacher recs and that his grades weren't stellar compared to classmates.

This kid is brilliant and his work must be "real" or google wouldn't have hired him (I am assuming the folks at google are smart enough to figure out if his father designed the program). I assume he had to pass numerous interviews and that his high school transcript was scrutinized.

The problem isn't Stanley, it is the college admission system that is the problem. I wish that this was the focus of this discussion instead of trying to rationalize why a kid like this got rejected from so many schools.

It is not hard for me to both believe he is very talented and a great fit for Google, and that he also could have written crap essays and just "phoned in" his college applications. In fact, that seems more likely as to what happened.

He likely would be bored at college and the real value is building his peer/social network...but I am not sure he needs that since he probably has a decent network in the SV area.

I disagree. I think he was probably amazing. But there are a lot of amazing kids applying to those schools. Being rejected doesn’t mean you aren’t smart or amazing.

Wasn’t the Valedictorian of his school which means if you separate out the “I started a business” element he was beaten out by several kids stats-wise at his own school.

The dissonance between the schools saying “well we actually want to see leadership and real world achievements from applicants” and then they reject a kid who started a real commercial business (not a tiny nonprofit or a lemonade stand) and could demonstrate skills mastery to the extend that Google onboarded him as a senior hire at age 18.

He will be fine, but would love to know what happened in those Admissions Committee meetings where they went “hard pass”.

They see a lot more applicants than I do so I’m unwilling to second guess them, but to outsiders it looks like we are missing part of the story. From both sides.

Soft quotas on Asians even at UCs.

Not true at all. Admissions at UC's don't know kids race or name.

The fact that he was rejected by UCs and CalPoly means he probably has some sort of disciplinary or behavorial issue. Those schools are not rejecting a kid with these stats and accomplishments.

There's definitely something else at play here that is not disclosed.

Wow page after page of wild excuses/rationalizations because so many people are desperate to believe in this crappy system. Guess what your emperor actually has no clothes and all your $90,000 tuitions are a complete con. People who can learn in the real world will do so and people who can’t will go to college. companies will catch on quickly and the colleges’ greed will put eventually drive them into obsolescence. Its too bad it’s come to this, entirely the colleges’ own fault.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ummm, I’m at Google do you have any idea how hard it is to get hired as a L4 SWE at Google? The kid is obviously brilliant. L4s have an average salary of 250k/yr and 4 years work experience after grad school. We are talking hundreds of applicants for one L4 slot.

You people are spectacularly ignorant. Stick to counting beans in your cubicle, not pontificating on “big tech” (boomer word as well).

This exactly. And I want to add that the fact he got hired by google should negate the ideas suggested on this board, such as he lied about his app, he had bad essays and teacher recs and that his grades weren't stellar compared to classmates.

This kid is brilliant and his work must be "real" or google wouldn't have hired him (I am assuming the folks at google are smart enough to figure out if his father designed the program). I assume he had to pass numerous interviews and that his high school transcript was scrutinized.

The problem isn't Stanley, it is the college admission system that is the problem. I wish that this was the focus of this discussion instead of trying to rationalize why a kid like this got rejected from so many schools.

It is not hard for me to both believe he is very talented and a great fit for Google, and that he also could have written crap essays and just "phoned in" his college applications. In fact, that seems more likely as to what happened.

He likely would be bored at college and the real value is building his peer/social network...but I am not sure he needs that since he probably has a decent network in the SV area.

I disagree. I think he was probably amazing. But there are a lot of amazing kids applying to those schools. Being rejected doesn’t mean you aren’t smart or amazing.

Wasn’t the Valedictorian of his school which means if you separate out the “I started a business” element he was beaten out by several kids stats-wise at his own school.

The dissonance between the schools saying “well we actually want to see leadership and real world achievements from applicants” and then they reject a kid who started a real commercial business (not a tiny nonprofit or a lemonade stand) and could demonstrate skills mastery to the extend that Google onboarded him as a senior hire at age 18.

He will be fine, but would love to know what happened in those Admissions Committee meetings where they went “hard pass”.

They see a lot more applicants than I do so I’m unwilling to second guess them, but to outsiders it looks like we are missing part of the story. From both sides.

Soft quotas on Asians even at UCs.

Not true at all. Admissions at UC's don't know kids race or name.

The fact that he was rejected by UCs and CalPoly means he probably has some sort of disciplinary or behavorial issue. Those schools are not rejecting a kid with these stats and accomplishments.

There's definitely something else at play here that is not disclosed.

Wow page after page of wild excuses/rationalizations because so many people are desperate to believe in this crappy system. Guess what your emperor actually has no clothes and all your $90,000 tuitions are a complete con. People who can learn in the real world will do so and people who can’t will go to college. companies will catch on quickly and the colleges’ greed will put eventually drive them into obsolescence. Its too bad it’s come to this, entirely the colleges’ own fault.

Not everyone expects to "work for a living" and, frankly, not everyone has to. The reality is that there is a class of people that goes to college purely for the social connections. They could care less whether or not there is a FAANG job waiting for them. Their portfolios are all the FAANG they need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ummm, I’m at Google do you have any idea how hard it is to get hired as a L4 SWE at Google? The kid is obviously brilliant. L4s have an average salary of 250k/yr and 4 years work experience after grad school. We are talking hundreds of applicants for one L4 slot.

You people are spectacularly ignorant. Stick to counting beans in your cubicle, not pontificating on “big tech” (boomer word as well).

This exactly. And I want to add that the fact he got hired by google should negate the ideas suggested on this board, such as he lied about his app, he had bad essays and teacher recs and that his grades weren't stellar compared to classmates.

This kid is brilliant and his work must be "real" or google wouldn't have hired him (I am assuming the folks at google are smart enough to figure out if his father designed the program). I assume he had to pass numerous interviews and that his high school transcript was scrutinized.

The problem isn't Stanley, it is the college admission system that is the problem. I wish that this was the focus of this discussion instead of trying to rationalize why a kid like this got rejected from so many schools.

It is not hard for me to both believe he is very talented and a great fit for Google, and that he also could have written crap essays and just "phoned in" his college applications. In fact, that seems more likely as to what happened.

He likely would be bored at college and the real value is building his peer/social network...but I am not sure he needs that since he probably has a decent network in the SV area.

I disagree. I think he was probably amazing. But there are a lot of amazing kids applying to those schools. Being rejected doesn’t mean you aren’t smart or amazing.

Wasn’t the Valedictorian of his school which means if you separate out the “I started a business” element he was beaten out by several kids stats-wise at his own school.

The dissonance between the schools saying “well we actually want to see leadership and real world achievements from applicants” and then they reject a kid who started a real commercial business (not a tiny nonprofit or a lemonade stand) and could demonstrate skills mastery to the extend that Google onboarded him as a senior hire at age 18.

He will be fine, but would love to know what happened in those Admissions Committee meetings where they went “hard pass”.

They see a lot more applicants than I do so I’m unwilling to second guess them, but to outsiders it looks like we are missing part of the story. From both sides.

Soft quotas on Asians even at UCs.

Not true at all. Admissions at UC's don't know kids race or name.

The fact that he was rejected by UCs and CalPoly means he probably has some sort of disciplinary or behavorial issue. Those schools are not rejecting a kid with these stats and accomplishments.

There's definitely something else at play here that is not disclosed.

If he’s a discipline or behavioral issue, why was Google willing to overlook it? Are they stupid?

They don’t have problems recruiting talent, they can get who they want. They wanted this kid.

It’s an unusual story just because of the Google hire otherwise it’s just another kid with great stats who was unlucky, those are a dime a dozen.

DP. Would they be looking at teacher/counselor recommendations?

I don’t think you get hired anywhere for a $200k job at a global leading firm without someone checking references. At least I hope not. They aren’t going to be calling his English teacher, they are calling his clients and business partners.

MIT famously rejected a kid who built a nuclear reactor in their garage several years ago. They even talk about it on their admissions blog. Reactor sounds cool, but no thanks we don’t want you.

Every once in a while there is going to be an individual (as in one guy) with a mega super accomplished resume who gets rejected from elite schools and everyone says “hey that’s weird”.

It’s a funny feature of a very very (very) selective system with arbitrary black box selection processes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:companies will catch on quickly and the colleges’ greed will put eventually drive them into obsolescence.

If you were correct, demand/application numbers would be dropping. Nothing has suggested that's happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ummm, I’m at Google do you have any idea how hard it is to get hired as a L4 SWE at Google? The kid is obviously brilliant. L4s have an average salary of 250k/yr and 4 years work experience after grad school. We are talking hundreds of applicants for one L4 slot.

You people are spectacularly ignorant. Stick to counting beans in your cubicle, not pontificating on “big tech” (boomer word as well).

This exactly. And I want to add that the fact he got hired by google should negate the ideas suggested on this board, such as he lied about his app, he had bad essays and teacher recs and that his grades weren't stellar compared to classmates.

This kid is brilliant and his work must be "real" or google wouldn't have hired him (I am assuming the folks at google are smart enough to figure out if his father designed the program). I assume he had to pass numerous interviews and that his high school transcript was scrutinized.

The problem isn't Stanley, it is the college admission system that is the problem. I wish that this was the focus of this discussion instead of trying to rationalize why a kid like this got rejected from so many schools.

It is not hard for me to both believe he is very talented and a great fit for Google, and that he also could have written crap essays and just "phoned in" his college applications. In fact, that seems more likely as to what happened.

He likely would be bored at college and the real value is building his peer/social network...but I am not sure he needs that since he probably has a decent network in the SV area.

I disagree. I think he was probably amazing. But there are a lot of amazing kids applying to those schools. Being rejected doesn’t mean you aren’t smart or amazing.

Wasn’t the Valedictorian of his school which means if you separate out the “I started a business” element he was beaten out by several kids stats-wise at his own school.

The dissonance between the schools saying “well we actually want to see leadership and real world achievements from applicants” and then they reject a kid who started a real commercial business (not a tiny nonprofit or a lemonade stand) and could demonstrate skills mastery to the extend that Google onboarded him as a senior hire at age 18.

He will be fine, but would love to know what happened in those Admissions Committee meetings where they went “hard pass”.

They see a lot more applicants than I do so I’m unwilling to second guess them, but to outsiders it looks like we are missing part of the story. From both sides.

Soft quotas on Asians even at UCs.

Not true at all. Admissions at UC's don't know kids race or name.

The fact that he was rejected by UCs and CalPoly means he probably has some sort of disciplinary or behavorial issue. Those schools are not rejecting a kid with these stats and accomplishments.

There's definitely something else at play here that is not disclosed.

If he’s a discipline or behavioral issue, why was Google willing to overlook it? Are they stupid?

They don’t have problems recruiting talent, they can get who they want. They wanted this kid.

It’s an unusual story just because of the Google hire otherwise it’s just another kid with great stats who was unlucky, those are a dime a dozen.

DP. Would they be looking at teacher/counselor recommendations?

I don’t think you get hired anywhere for a $200k job at a global leading firm without someone checking references. At least I hope not. They aren’t going to be calling his English teacher, they are calling his clients and business partners.

MIT famously rejected a kid who built a nuclear reactor in their garage several years ago. They even talk about it on their admissions blog. Reactor sounds cool, but no thanks we don’t want you.

Every once in a while there is going to be an individual (as in one guy) with a mega super accomplished resume who gets rejected from elite schools and everyone says “hey that’s weird”.

It’s a funny feature of a very very (very) selective system with arbitrary black box selection processes.

So if he had issues at school they may have been apparent during the interview process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ummm, I’m at Google do you have any idea how hard it is to get hired as a L4 SWE at Google? The kid is obviously brilliant. L4s have an average salary of 250k/yr and 4 years work experience after grad school. We are talking hundreds of applicants for one L4 slot.

You people are spectacularly ignorant. Stick to counting beans in your cubicle, not pontificating on “big tech” (boomer word as well).

This exactly. And I want to add that the fact he got hired by google should negate the ideas suggested on this board, such as he lied about his app, he had bad essays and teacher recs and that his grades weren't stellar compared to classmates.

This kid is brilliant and his work must be "real" or google wouldn't have hired him (I am assuming the folks at google are smart enough to figure out if his father designed the program). I assume he had to pass numerous interviews and that his high school transcript was scrutinized.

The problem isn't Stanley, it is the college admission system that is the problem. I wish that this was the focus of this discussion instead of trying to rationalize why a kid like this got rejected from so many schools.

It is not hard for me to both believe he is very talented and a great fit for Google, and that he also could have written crap essays and just "phoned in" his college applications. In fact, that seems more likely as to what happened.

He likely would be bored at college and the real value is building his peer/social network...but I am not sure he needs that since he probably has a decent network in the SV area.

I disagree. I think he was probably amazing. But there are a lot of amazing kids applying to those schools. Being rejected doesn’t mean you aren’t smart or amazing.

Wasn’t the Valedictorian of his school which means if you separate out the “I started a business” element he was beaten out by several kids stats-wise at his own school.

The dissonance between the schools saying “well we actually want to see leadership and real world achievements from applicants” and then they reject a kid who started a real commercial business (not a tiny nonprofit or a lemonade stand) and could demonstrate skills mastery to the extend that Google onboarded him as a senior hire at age 18.

He will be fine, but would love to know what happened in those Admissions Committee meetings where they went “hard pass”.

They see a lot more applicants than I do so I’m unwilling to second guess them, but to outsiders it looks like we are missing part of the story. From both sides.

Soft quotas on Asians even at UCs.

Not true at all. Admissions at UC's don't know kids race or name.

The fact that he was rejected by UCs and CalPoly means he probably has some sort of disciplinary or behavorial issue. Those schools are not rejecting a kid with these stats and accomplishments.

There's definitely something else at play here that is not disclosed.

If he’s a discipline or behavioral issue, why was Google willing to overlook it? Are they stupid?

They don’t have problems recruiting talent, they can get who they want. They wanted this kid.

It’s an unusual story just because of the Google hire otherwise it’s just another kid with great stats who was unlucky, those are a dime a dozen.

DP. Would they be looking at teacher/counselor recommendations?

I don’t think you get hired anywhere for a $200k job at a global leading firm without someone checking references. At least I hope not. They aren’t going to be calling his English teacher, they are calling his clients and business partners.

MIT famously rejected a kid who built a nuclear reactor in their garage several years ago. They even talk about it on their admissions blog. Reactor sounds cool, but no thanks we don’t want you.

Every once in a while there is going to be an individual (as in one guy) with a mega super accomplished resume who gets rejected from elite schools and everyone says “hey that’s weird”.

It’s a funny feature of a very very (very) selective system with arbitrary black box selection processes.

Megacorps don't check references. They only verify employment history.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kid is clearly amazing if he got hired in as an L4 at Google at age 18.

I have a friend who was hired at Google in the first 50 employees while he was in high school. He was low income, not particularly stellar in HS, and had a busy single mom. They hired him because he had built out multiplayer gaming servers in his free time. So clearly a hardware "cloud" expert before he finished high school in the early 00s.

Crazy if you think about it.

That is crazy amazing!!

Right place at the right time. Growing up low income in northern Central Valley, just south of the Bay Area. I think he had met Googlers through the multiplayer gaming chat rooms and tech forums; they knew he was hosting servers but no one had any clue he was only 16. He built out Google's first server farms.

Must’ve been the Aspie son of that Pied Piper business in Gilroy just kidding of course
Great for him

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:companies will catch on quickly and the colleges’ greed will put eventually drive them into obsolescence.

If you were correct, demand/application numbers would be dropping. Nothing has suggested that's happening.

Colleges are charging double in tuition what they lost in state funding so they can renovate Italian villas:

https://news.yahoo.com/finance/places-just-devouring-money-us-110000217.html

Everyone buying into that system is a chump. The higher Ed crash is coming and the kids holding the student loan bills will be the biggest losers, sadly.