Hired by Google as L4 but rejected by top colleges

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College cost is a non-issue because wealthy don't care and need based aid recipients don't care. Inly people who hurt and protest are donut hole families.

Interesting interview of the student and the father by the local TV station ABC7 News:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzHK8E-k91k

The HS teachers can REALLY cut you off at the knees. Did this kid say something socially awkward that p****d off his teacher or counselor writing the recommendation?

I think they were just biased against Asians.

No, he just applied to mostly highly rejective schools, very highly rejective for his major CS. The fact the father mentions they know a least one kid who got in nowhere and is attending CC because of it. If you build a BALANCED list of reach, target and safeties, this does NOT happen.
However, all of his schools were reaches for CS, and maybe the 2 he got into were high targets for CS. So had he actually had 2-3 more targets (acceptance over 20-25%) and 3-4 true safeties (acceptance over 50-60%) he would have likely gotten into all of those schools had he demonstrated interest.
Main reason for all the rejections is Applying to 20 schools where 18 have acceptance rates of 2-10% for Computer science does not increase your chances of acceptance. It is still still 2-3% at those schools with 2-3% acceptance rates. Then add in, the 40-50 kids ahead of him at his HS likely also applied to many of these schools, so those kids have "better scores/resume" and the school does not want 50+ kids majoring in Eng/CS from the same HS. It's really not that difficult to understand.

I don't think the issue is that he did not apply to enough target/safeties, but that someone with his academics and achievements got shut out of all T15.

-parent of UMD CS major

That’s not how the math works.

+1000

When will people understand that "having high gpa, 10+APs, 1580+Sat, top ECs, top leadership, etc" is what majority have at the schools with single digit acceptance rates. So mathematically 90-95% of highly qualified candidates will get rejected. Mathematically, if I play the lottery, my chances of winning are statistically the same if I purchase 1 ticket or 20. Same for the college application game at highly selective/highly rejective colleges.

Hard for people to understand this unless you have seen it happen to your kid.

It's how math works. Not really that difficult to understand. But I do wish more could understand it and apply accordingly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I absolutely believe this. Is he not Asian? If you are an Asian male or a white male, you are SOL at the top colleges, because colleges are not supposed to accept "too many" of those. If the applicant is a female that is not 100% Asian or 100% white, even if their GPA and test scores were not that strong, they would have been accepted into a STEM program at *all* of those schools. Sad but true.

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/columnists/2022/11/03/race-based-college-admissions-and-its-impact-on-asian-americans/69614232007/
"According to research from Princeton University, students who identify as Asian must score 140 points higher on the SAT than whites and 450 points higher than Blacks to have the same chance of admission to private colleges."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He's as one-dimensional as a number line.

+1 I can't believe how many times people have brought this up in the thread and some can't wrap their head around the possibility that this kid didn't have a strong application outside of working under dad's tutelage.

Essays, recommendations, breadth of curriculum...we don't know about those things. The fact that so many colleges arrived at the same conclusion is a sign that the kid didn't present a good application.

Feel free to believe that. Many things point to that not being the case.

Really? What would those things be?

It's math---he applied to 18 programs with acceptance rates below 5% at all except 1, and that one is ~10%. Majority of applicants for those programs also have similar excellent stats/CV. Simple math, most will get rejected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't someone post this kid got into UTexas Austin? That is a top 30 school and, with almost 4000 colleges in the USA, in the top 1%

How is that a problem?

He got into UT Austin and UMD College Park for CS. Both are top-caliber CS programs - Sergey Brin came out of UMD CS.

But he thinks he deserves to have been accepted into more programs, particularly the public universities in California. He and his dad are calling for an independent audit of college admissions using a random sample of accepted applications. One issue they want to know more about is that he may have been yield protected by schools, particularly the public universities.

Interesting wrinkle that I didn't know - his dad works at Google. So the kid definitely has an advantage over pretty much any other kid: he likely had insight to the requirements of the technical interview and got prepped for that by his dad. I'm not saying the kid couldn't do the work, but I guarantee he was taught-to-the-test by his father.

Folks should really watch the long interview with his dad. They have a soft agenda of attacking universities. Dad is already talking about suing universities if they don't voluntarily get the information they are seeking from the schools.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzHK8E-k91k

And colleges are allowed to "yield protect". The ultimate goal for the college is to have everyone they offer a place accept. So if they think you are not serious about attending, they might accept someone else with similar stats who shows more interest.

Fact is he applied to 18 extremely selective universities (for CS admissions 17 are under 5% acceptance rates, many are 2-3%) and got into TWO. That's a win. He's not entitled to admission at all 18. Majority of those applying for CS have a similar CV yet most get rejected

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He's as one-dimensional as a number line.

+1 I can't believe how many times people have brought this up in the thread and some can't wrap their head around the possibility that this kid didn't have a strong application outside of working under dad's tutelage.

Essays, recommendations, breadth of curriculum...we don't know about those things. The fact that so many colleges arrived at the same conclusion is a sign that the kid didn't present a good application.

We will really never know given how college admissions is an opaque process, and where race can play a part of your admissions, yes, even in UCs. They figured out a way around Prop 209.

The colleges list out what they use in their assessments. Yes, they use activities/awards, so his work would have been seen, but they also use references and essays.

Like it or not, the only activities that really make colleges look the other way on the other stuff is athletics. Sorry, but working with dad on cool projects doesn't mean you go to whatever college you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't someone post this kid got into UTexas Austin? That is a top 30 school and, with almost 4000 colleges in the USA, in the top 1%

How is that a problem?

He got into UT Austin and UMD College Park for CS. Both are top-caliber CS programs - Sergey Brin came out of UMD CS.

But he thinks he deserves to have been accepted into more programs, particularly the public universities in California. He and his dad are calling for an independent audit of college admissions using a random sample of accepted applications. One issue they want to know more about is that he may have been yield protected by schools, particularly the public universities.

Interesting wrinkle that I didn't know - his dad works at Google. So the kid definitely has an advantage over pretty much any other kid: he likely had insight to the requirements of the technical interview and got prepped for that by his dad. I'm not saying the kid couldn't do the work, but I guarantee he was taught-to-the-test by his father.

Folks should really watch the long interview with his dad. They have a soft agenda of attacking universities. Dad is already talking about suing universities if they don't voluntarily get the information they are seeking from the schools.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzHK8E-k91k

And colleges are allowed to "yield protect". The ultimate goal for the college is to have everyone they offer a place accept. So if they think you are not serious about attending, they might accept someone else with similar stats who shows more interest.

Fact is he applied to 18 extremely selective universities (for CS admissions 17 are under 5% acceptance rates, many are 2-3%) and got into TWO. That's a win. He's not entitled to admission at all 18. Majority of those applying for CS have a similar CV yet most get rejected

Now I'm wondering if he even submitted essays to all the schools where he applied, or if he just put in (obvious) minimal effort to the essays.

There is something else weird going on with this kid and his applications, my spidey sense is tingling like crazy. And, of course, the schools themselves cannot push back on this kid or reveal anything about him or they put themselves in legal jeopardy.

[Anonymous]

????

He gets accepted to UMD CS. It is not, apparently, good enough so he declines - then takes a job at Google which was founded by a UMD CS graduate?????

[Anonymous]

Whenever someone challenges admission game to highlight inequality of the system, others start ripping them apart and system wins.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whenever someone challenges admission game to highlight inequality of the system, others start ripping them apart and system wins.

Kind of like free market capitalism

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whenever someone challenges admission game to highlight inequality of the system, others start ripping them apart and system wins.

None of us know what his actual applications looked like. The people who think this kid's case is a sign of something about the system are kidding themselves. You have info this kid (or his dad) put out to get attention. You know nothing verified about his applications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't someone post this kid got into UTexas Austin? That is a top 30 school and, with almost 4000 colleges in the USA, in the top 1%

How is that a problem?

He got into UT Austin and UMD College Park for CS. Both are top-caliber CS programs - Sergey Brin came out of UMD CS.

But he thinks he deserves to have been accepted into more programs, particularly the public universities in California. He and his dad are calling for an independent audit of college admissions using a random sample of accepted applications. One issue they want to know more about is that he may have been yield protected by schools, particularly the public universities.

Interesting wrinkle that I didn't know - his dad works at Google. So the kid definitely has an advantage over pretty much any other kid: he likely had insight to the requirements of the technical interview and got prepped for that by his dad. I'm not saying the kid couldn't do the work, but I guarantee he was taught-to-the-test by his father.

Folks should really watch the long interview with his dad. They have a soft agenda of attacking universities. Dad is already talking about suing universities if they don't voluntarily get the information they are seeking from the schools.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzHK8E-k91k

And colleges are allowed to "yield protect". The ultimate goal for the college is to have everyone they offer a place accept. So if they think you are not serious about attending, they might accept someone else with similar stats who shows more interest.

Fact is he applied to 18 extremely selective universities (for CS admissions 17 are under 5% acceptance rates, many are 2-3%) and got into TWO. That's a win. He's not entitled to admission at all 18. Majority of those applying for CS have a similar CV yet most get rejected

The key issue is did the color of his skin negatively impact him, even though he is a minority.

"According to research from Princeton University, students who identify as Asian must score 140 points higher on the SAT than whites and 450 points higher than Blacks to have the same chance of admission to private colleges."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The key issue is did the color of his skin negatively impact him, even though he is a minority.

You clearly missed the part where nearly half of the students from his HS in Palo Alto are also Asian American, many or most of whom were not negatively impacted and got accepted at the schools where he was rejected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't someone post this kid got into UTexas Austin? That is a top 30 school and, with almost 4000 colleges in the USA, in the top 1%

How is that a problem?

He got into UT Austin and UMD College Park for CS. Both are top-caliber CS programs - Sergey Brin came out of UMD CS.

But he thinks he deserves to have been accepted into more programs, particularly the public universities in California. He and his dad are calling for an independent audit of college admissions using a random sample of accepted applications. One issue they want to know more about is that he may have been yield protected by schools, particularly the public universities.

Interesting wrinkle that I didn't know - his dad works at Google. So the kid definitely has an advantage over pretty much any other kid: he likely had insight to the requirements of the technical interview and got prepped for that by his dad. I'm not saying the kid couldn't do the work, but I guarantee he was taught-to-the-test by his father.

Folks should really watch the long interview with his dad. They have a soft agenda of attacking universities. Dad is already talking about suing universities if they don't voluntarily get the information they are seeking from the schools.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzHK8E-k91k

And colleges are allowed to "yield protect". The ultimate goal for the college is to have everyone they offer a place accept. So if they think you are not serious about attending, they might accept someone else with similar stats who shows more interest.

Fact is he applied to 18 extremely selective universities (for CS admissions 17 are under 5% acceptance rates, many are 2-3%) and got into TWO. That's a win. He's not entitled to admission at all 18. Majority of those applying for CS have a similar CV yet most get rejected

The key issue is did the color of his skin negatively impact him, even though he is a minority.

"According to research from Princeton University, students who identify as Asian must score 140 points higher on the SAT than whites and 450 points higher than Blacks to have the same chance of admission to private colleges."

College admissions is indeed opaque. It is hard to discern why one kid with stellar academics gets rejected by top universities, but another kid with relatively similar or fewer credentials gets admitted to all Ivys.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/31/ivy-league-admissions-college-university/7119531/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The key issue is did the color of his skin negatively impact him, even though he is a minority.

You clearly missed the part where nearly half of the students from his HS in Palo Alto are also Asian American, many or most of whom were not negatively impacted and got accepted at the schools where he was rejected.

+1

And this might be why they have not lawyered up? Forcing their friends and neighbors to disclose their applications, essays, letters of recommendation, etc. would be really awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't someone post this kid got into UTexas Austin? That is a top 30 school and, with almost 4000 colleges in the USA, in the top 1%

How is that a problem?

He got into UT Austin and UMD College Park for CS. Both are top-caliber CS programs - Sergey Brin came out of UMD CS.

But he thinks he deserves to have been accepted into more programs, particularly the public universities in California. He and his dad are calling for an independent audit of college admissions using a random sample of accepted applications. One issue they want to know more about is that he may have been yield protected by schools, particularly the public universities.

Interesting wrinkle that I didn't know - his dad works at Google. So the kid definitely has an advantage over pretty much any other kid: he likely had insight to the requirements of the technical interview and got prepped for that by his dad. I'm not saying the kid couldn't do the work, but I guarantee he was taught-to-the-test by his father.

Folks should really watch the long interview with his dad. They have a soft agenda of attacking universities. Dad is already talking about suing universities if they don't voluntarily get the information they are seeking from the schools.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzHK8E-k91k

And colleges are allowed to "yield protect". The ultimate goal for the college is to have everyone they offer a place accept. So if they think you are not serious about attending, they might accept someone else with similar stats who shows more interest.

Fact is he applied to 18 extremely selective universities (for CS admissions 17 are under 5% acceptance rates, many are 2-3%) and got into TWO. That's a win. He's not entitled to admission at all 18. Majority of those applying for CS have a similar CV yet most get rejected

The key issue is did the color of his skin negatively impact him, even though he is a minority.

"According to research from Princeton University, students who identify as Asian must score 140 points higher on the SAT than whites and 450 points higher than Blacks to have the same chance of admission to private colleges."

College admissions is indeed opaque. It is hard to discern why one kid with stellar academics gets rejected by top universities, but another kid with relatively similar or fewer credentials gets admitted to all Ivys.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/31/ivy-league-admissions-college-university/7119531/

First generation immigrant.
SAT 2250 (1540 on the 1600 scale).
Plays viola
Graduated 11th in his class

Problematic?

This lady was also accepted to all of them. Remarkably similar profile:

https://abc7chicago.com/ivy-league-orange-county-school-of-the-arts-cassandra-hsiao-teen-accepted-to-all-8-schools/1845915/