Hired by Google as L4 but rejected by top colleges

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Looking at where his classmates got in. No wonder. That’s who he was competing against.

Yup -- rich, connected, smart kids with likely an overrepresentation in computer science applicants because their parents all work in tech. The school sent over 100 students to just Stanford and Berkeley over the last 4 years. No doubt a lot of legacies as well as just some stellar candidates.

There is likely some flukiness to this as well -- probably some combination of schools yield protecting AND having too many highly qualified candidates from the same school. The Ivies, for instance, are a total crapshoot for a candidate like this from a school like this. It's not like they are hurting for CS applicants, and if they get 30 applications from this high school and one of them is interested in majoring in History and plays the oboe, that student will likely standout (assuming excellent test scores and GPA as well). Or you might just have a legacy or two and then that's it because an Ivy isn't going to take 10 kids from one high school in California.

Meanwhile a lot of the state flagships likely viewed him as unlikely to attend based on his background and industry connections. And honestly, were the wrong? If he got into Harvard and Michigan, where would he go?

It's hard to get super worked up about a kid like this. He's fine, he'll be fine. He got into two good schools, he's got massive industry connections, he's clearly very smart and talented and hard working. Does he need an elite school to help pave the way for an elite career? Nope. And they have plenty of other very qualified students applying who will likely get more out of their time there and for whom that degree could transport them to another life.

It don't know what I'm supposed to be worked up about. I also bet you that all those schools that rejected him admitted a large percentage of Asian kids, just FYI.

It’s scary to a lot of people here to see what an actually superior applicant looks like and then they look at how even he couldn’t get into these ridiculous schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hold up. We all know many students accepted to CS at these colleges (not all of them, but many of them) with similar academic stats and without the addition of his coding and business accomolishments. There is something else going on here.

Honestly sounds like he doesn’t need college at all and I bet that was a factor.

Why admit the guy who is definitely going to drop out year two to run his unicorn startup when you can give the seat and financial aid to someone who actually needs the education?

I’m sure the professors would be thrilled to have him in class as well when he already knows more than them and has superior accomplishments.

It’s a rational admissions decision, candidate is overqualified.

Grades and test scores are irrelevant, candidate is performing as a superior working professional in the field already; put him in the file for faculty hire instead.

Because those drop outs bring the university prestige and often end up donating large amounts of money. If I ran an admissions office, I'd take 100 of those kids before I took any kid who needed massive aid and planed to major in classics or gender studies

I'm guessing this kid wrote something just like that - denigrating the classics and/or gender studies in their Common App essay(s). And then had the applications tossed. Nothing else really explains the outcome except some kind of egregious self-inflicted injury. The "Asian" argument doesn't hold up that well because other Asian kids with less going for them got into all these places.

Yes - but those Asian admits likely were either admitted before Zhang was denied, or those applicants offered something different than what Zhang was offering - it is not always because the application had a deficit. Not every stellar Asian (or white) applicant can be admitted, especially if they are male. Every week, there is a post about this very topic on DCUM.

There is no data behind your "likely." That road leads to an imaginary place. And I see no deficit whatsoever to Zhang which leads me to imagine (like you imagined) that Zhang submitted something that was serious enough to offset his incredible profile.

Or if not "serious" then just one of those things that irritates admissions committees.

For what it is worth I saw a company fire its best programmer because they found out he lied on his resume. The owner was super pissed off but had a zero tolerance policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hold up. We all know many students accepted to CS at these colleges (not all of them, but many of them) with similar academic stats and without the addition of his coding and business accomolishments. There is something else going on here.

Honestly sounds like he doesn’t need college at all and I bet that was a factor.

Why admit the guy who is definitely going to drop out year two to run his unicorn startup when you can give the seat and financial aid to someone who actually needs the education?

I’m sure the professors would be thrilled to have him in class as well when he already knows more than them and has superior accomplishments.

It’s a rational admissions decision, candidate is overqualified.

Grades and test scores are irrelevant, candidate is performing as a superior working professional in the field already; put him in the file for faculty hire instead.

Because those drop outs bring the university prestige and often end up donating large amounts of money. If I ran an admissions office, I'd take 100 of those kids before I took any kid who needed massive aid and planed to major in classics or gender studies

I'm guessing this kid wrote something just like that - denigrating the classics and/or gender studies in their Common App essay(s). And then had the applications tossed. Nothing else really explains the outcome except some kind of egregious self-inflicted injury. The "Asian" argument doesn't hold up that well because other Asian kids with less going for them got into all these places.

Yes - but those Asian admits likely were either admitted before Zhang was denied, or those applicants offered something different than what Zhang was offering - it is not always because the application had a deficit. Not every stellar Asian (or white) applicant can be admitted, especially if they are male. Every week, there is a post about this very topic on DCUM.

Please, if he was a URM, he would have gotten into every one of those schools. His application is so ridiculous that it may be worth his time to sue and let those schools explain why he is less qualified for admission than their URM admits

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hold up. We all know many students accepted to CS at these colleges (not all of them, but many of them) with similar academic stats and without the addition of his coding and business accomolishments. There is something else going on here.

Honestly sounds like he doesn’t need college at all and I bet that was a factor.

Why admit the guy who is definitely going to drop out year two to run his unicorn startup when you can give the seat and financial aid to someone who actually needs the education?

I’m sure the professors would be thrilled to have him in class as well when he already knows more than them and has superior accomplishments.

It’s a rational admissions decision, candidate is overqualified.

Grades and test scores are irrelevant, candidate is performing as a superior working professional in the field already; put him in the file for faculty hire instead.

Because those drop outs bring the university prestige and often end up donating large amounts of money. If I ran an admissions office, I'd take 100 of those kids before I took any kid who needed massive aid and planed to major in classics or gender studies

I'm guessing this kid wrote something just like that - denigrating the classics and/or gender studies in their Common App essay(s). And then had the applications tossed. Nothing else really explains the outcome except some kind of egregious self-inflicted injury. The "Asian" argument doesn't hold up that well because other Asian kids with less going for them got into all these places.

Yes - but those Asian admits likely were either admitted before Zhang was denied, or those applicants offered something different than what Zhang was offering - it is not always because the application had a deficit. Not every stellar Asian (or white) applicant can be admitted, especially if they are male. Every week, there is a post about this very topic on DCUM.

There is no data behind your "likely." That road leads to an imaginary place. And I see no deficit whatsoever to Zhang which leads me to imagine (like you imagined) that Zhang submitted something that was serious enough to offset his incredible profile.

Or if not "serious" then just one of those things that irritates admissions committees.

For what it is worth I saw a company fire its best programmer because they found out he lied on his resume. The owner was super pissed off but had a zero tolerance policy.

Do you honestly think that all slots are for Asian and white males? You do not sound very bright.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He's way better off.

Google L4 makes at least 250K/year. He does not need any of the colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doesn’t seem well rounded. Very one dimensional. All he does is computers.

Well, he is applying for CS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hold up. We all know many students accepted to CS at these colleges (not all of them, but many of them) with similar academic stats and without the addition of his coding and business accomolishments. There is something else going on here.

Honestly sounds like he doesn’t need college at all and I bet that was a factor.

Why admit the guy who is definitely going to drop out year two to run his unicorn startup when you can give the seat and financial aid to someone who actually needs the education?

I’m sure the professors would be thrilled to have him in class as well when he already knows more than them and has superior accomplishments.

It’s a rational admissions decision, candidate is overqualified.

Grades and test scores are irrelevant, candidate is performing as a superior working professional in the field already; put him in the file for faculty hire instead.

Because those drop outs bring the university prestige and often end up donating large amounts of money. If I ran an admissions office, I'd take 100 of those kids before I took any kid who needed massive aid and planed to major in classics or gender studies

I'm guessing this kid wrote something just like that - denigrating the classics and/or gender studies in their Common App essay(s). And then had the applications tossed. Nothing else really explains the outcome except some kind of egregious self-inflicted injury. The "Asian" argument doesn't hold up that well because other Asian kids with less going for them got into all these places.

Yes - but those Asian admits likely were either admitted before Zhang was denied, or those applicants offered something different than what Zhang was offering - it is not always because the application had a deficit. Not every stellar Asian (or white) applicant can be admitted, especially if they are male. Every week, there is a post about this very topic on DCUM.

Please, if he was a URM, he would have gotten into every one of those schools. His application is so ridiculous that it may be worth his time to sue and let those schools explain why he is less qualified for admission than their URM admits

You are 100% trolling

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you his mom? Why do you have all of this personal information?

Not the OP, but it is all over Chinese social media. Have not seen any news article though.

[Anonymous]

Since when do they want well rounded?

I thought they wanted pointy kids…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Since when do they want well rounded?

I thought they wanted pointy kids…

Some parents claim to know which schools want what, but that is impossible to answer, and some parents do not like that.

[Anonymous]

He lives in Palo Alto. Half the people in his neighborhood/school have 1 or 2 programmer parents at big companies or startups, including founders with VC investment funding.

https://www.bizapedia.com/ca/rabbitsign-inc.html

His father is a veteran of Amazon and Google and a past VC-funded startup founder.

It's interesting that successful startup founders end up as regular employees at BigCos.

Unless he wants to go get a PhD, which he probably doesn't, he has no interest in college and colleges don't need him.

[Anonymous]

Somebody needs to get and post the essays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Somebody needs to get and post the essays.

Have they been released? The college could get into a LOT of trouble for that.

[Anonymous]

College admission is stupid.

This kid was on the front page of Washington Post with the secretary of defense in 2016, and he did not get into CMU or his top choices. Now he is an L6 at Google.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pentagon-cyber/teen-hacks-pentagon-websites-gets-thanked-for-finding-bugs-idUSKCN0Z32IU

[Anonymous]

This kid looks perfect. Why did so many other less perfect Asian applicants get accepted over him??? Something is missing from this story