<p>[YingYing</a> Shang: An Open Letter to Suzy Lee Weiss](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yingying-shang/an-open-letter-to-suzy-lee-weiss_b_3041458.html)</p>
<p>I feel like everyone, ESPECIALLY some of the people on this website, should read this article! It’s a response to Suzy Weiss’s letter from a girl who got into Harvard, Yale, and Princeton this past month. It’s extremely well-written and so very true.</p>
<p>Anyone know what school she’s actually going to attend?</p>
<p>Bravo YingYing.</p>
<p>judging from her fb profile picture, she’s probably choosing harvard.</p>
<p>I thought the open letter revealed the author to be a humorless, condescending and self-important scold. “I’m a little worried about you, Suzy.” Give me a break.</p>
<p>The problem with the open letter is that she took Suzy’s letter seriously.</p>
<p>It’s all about the subtext you bring to it, I guess. I thought YingYing’s letter schooled Suzy pretty thoroughly. She pointed out just the specific things that were wrong in Suzy’s letter–the cheap shots.</p>
<p>It is propagating another stereo type - Asians have to do a lot better. Does not sound too good for me if true.</p>
<p>
True–but she also defended URMs, which is something not all Asian students do when complaining about the apparent admissions disparity between Asian and white applicants.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Exactly. Preachy, boring, nothing creative about it. She obviously didn’t “get” Suzy’s letter.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Exactly. “Random” would mean that the ones chosen were chosen over the others for no reason, no reason at all. </p>
<p>Everyone accepted gets accepted for a combination of reasons. Once the high stats are in place, the reasons for choosing one applicant over another get increasingly subjective - which makes them appear random to outside observers. And there is a certain amount for good fortune involved, say you happen to play the bassoon and are applying in the same year the school orchestra needs a new bassoonist. But no one gets chosen for no reason at all. It’s not actually truly random. It’s just often very hard to know the exact reason(s) why you were or weren’t picked.</p>
<p>Ok, she did not get the Weiss letter. We did not get the letter. </p>
<p>Now, do this. Take the humor out of Weiss letter and what do you have? Take the preaching out of YingYing letter and … </p>
<p>It is pretty simple. You want to cling to the humor? We get that. But that is ALL Weiss offered. Got that? There is no foundation, no great truths, no relevant facts, just a hollow juvenile tantrum. </p>
<p>YingYing might have made the mistake to address the possible foundation of the OP. She countered factless humor with reality. She exposed Weiss vapidity and self-indulgence with a roadmap to that elusive success. </p>
<p>YYing wrote about the value of DOING. Weiss about talking. The results speak volumes.</p>
<p>Xiggi,</p>
<p>I think the reason you don’t get Suzy’s letter is because you’ve never had a 17 year old daughter who was rejected from colleges. For me, the humor is as simple as that.</p>
<p>I like YingYing.</p>
<p>When a kid is rejected, it is normal to look around and see who did get in, and try to future out what they had to offer that you didn’t. Suzy never said that the NA kids or gay kids or kids with fake charities didn’t deserve to get in. She is saying that if she could do it all over, and change what she had to offer, she’d add those things because the ones who got in had them. Not that she could, it’s a 17 year old rationalizing an ego bruise. That is all.</p>
<p>Bay, I am wondering if you really read anything I wrote about this issue with any desire to see the point made. </p>
<p>I do not have a child of 17. I am, however, a peer of plenty who were and are.</p>
<p>I agree with MommaJ, Flymetothemoon, and Bay. I am more worried about this kid’s holier than thou preachy and condescending attitude than I am about a kid who knows how to laugh at herself and will hone those skills going forward. </p>
<p>I’m going to reread the original letter, for the 3rd or 4th time, because I see humor and self-deprecation there along with a healthy dose of skepticism for the way this process operates. My own post-college age daughter (who loathed the arrogance and elitism of her Ivy league school and openly acknowledged the role of connections, money, and preferences) was horrified and angry at Suzy’s letter. I kind of think she’s humorless too on this subject but I’m willing to look again. But then, I laugh at controversial humor. I loved George Carlin and love Lewis Black. I’ve sat at performances where others didn’t so much as crack a smile.</p>
<p>That was a Freudian psychological term and not to be taken concretely and literally. I guess some don’t get it … :(</p>
<p>Is little girl also a banned word ? just wondering…</p>
<p>Skepticism is the weapon of choice of the ignorant. Self-deprecating humor ceases to work when the subject becomes “the others!”</p>