He didn’t earn the grades and scores that went into even being considered with a hook? Get over it.
Wow, I am really surprised at the negativity here. This was a college kid thinking on his feet - not an adcom, not someone on a college admission panel. A kid that was singing and thinking the Q&A would be on singing or something else. I can see why he chose to emphasize that he had a kid’s life when he was in middle school. Not sure the singers would think it was appropriate to tell the audience the kind of questions they could ask.
I would agree if he had replied honestly, but he deliberately deceived, “half-truths” to “play” with the moms. The world has enough nastiness in it to avoid adding to it intentionally.
I think the negativity comes from the image of a 19 year old college student “putting the tiger moms in their place,” which sounds arrogant. It also reinforces pre-existing views, ironically, since both groups (tiger moms and ivy league students) are heavily stereotyped. It’s just not funny to me, but it had the OP “laughing out loud.”
Some of us are also offended by the not subtle racial and cultural bias in the incident. It is an example of a very privileged young person.
When my post started to take a negative tone, I decided to just let it go without responding to any of it. However, given @roycroftmom’s twisted and insistent crusade to make something really sinister out of the benign post, going so far as to picture my son as a liar and a deceiver, I need to respond.
Based on @roycroftmom’s posts here on CC that I’ve run into on numerous occasions, I could feel the bitterness and resentment that run through the posts with consistency, in particular when it comes to the subject of “elite” colleges. Why, I can only conjecture, but I’m not a psychoanalyst and I refuse to come to any conclusion about anyone without even knowing the person, just as @roycroftmom doesn’t know anything about my son (or me) and she shouldn’t have come to certain conclusions about a kid all based on a post. Here’s a bit of the background about him.
As I clearly indicated in the original post, my son’s motivation was to protect the kids of Tiger moms, not to disrespectfully lie and play with them just for the fun of it. Why? Because one of his close Asian friends, who my family has known for more than a decade, nearly committed suicide. It had directly and everything to do with this kid’s Tiger mom, who I happen to know very well. This kid’s a very sweet and intelligent person, yet her life was so miserable and devastated by her experiences that her future is uncertain. And she’s not the only Asian kid that my son has had a close friendship with. There are others and there are many, not at the level of being suicidal perhaps, but miserable nonetheless, “tortured” lives, my son would say.
My son should “try humility,” is “arrogant,” “judgmental” and “privileged”? You got ALL that from the original post? Let me tell you just a couple stories about him.
Last year, just about around this time, he took a bus ride from Princeton to Yale for a football game. On the way to the Yale stadium, the bus lost its breaks and crashed into a building. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt except the driver who wasn’t moving amid the tremendous amount of debris and glasses and wood planks that were smothering him. While all the passengers were emptying out of the bus in a hurry, only my son and his friend remained and sprung quickly into action by lifting away all the debris and wood planks so the driver could breathe. The driver survived and the boys were credited with saving his life. It didn’t surprise me a bit upon hearing about the news. That’s the kind of son I know.
This past January, Princeton University Orchestra, which my son’s a member of, went on a tour of Spain. One of the members had an accident just a few days before the tour but still decided to travel along with the group on crutches. When they arrived in Spain, an electric wheelchair was arranged for this girl. In between the concerts, the group were set free to enjoy the sightseeing. Realizing that this girl in wheelchair wasn’t able to catch up with the group, my son and his male friend decided to stay behind with her and assist her with her needs. At one point, the electric wheelchair broke down. Wasn’t able to wheel it, my son and his friend took turns carrying the heavy wheelchair about a half mile left on their restaurant destination. The rest of the group was already at the restaurant laughing and having fun. When my son and his companions arrived, tired and exhausted, they asked, “hey, where have you guys been?” with not an iota of care and totally oblivious about the girl’s plight.
The funny thing about this last story is that my son never even liked nor considered the girl in a wheelchair as a friend because my son doesn’t look favorably upon “spoiled” kids. There are many spoiled kids at Princeton, according to my son, but she’s one level worse. He did what he did because he just happened to see someone in need of assistance. Realizing that no one was interested in helping the girl, he took it upon himself along with his friend to do the “right thing.” He was there for her for the whole duration of the stay in Spain, thereby basically sacrificing his chances to do all the sightseeing the rest of the group was able to enjoy to the fullest.
Even since he was a child, I recognized one strong trait in my son, and that’s compassion. More than anything else. It is because of this trait that he’s now a pre-Med at Princeton. He didn’t choose this track because of money, the topic he abhors with passion, but because he wants to do “good” with his life.
I hate discussing about these personal traits of my son in any forums full of people I’ve never met personally and I don’t know anything about them. In fact, I don’t even like to talk about such with my own relatives and friends. In this particular case, I’m going to make an exception. I feel I need to uphold my son’s honor and integrity by speaking out. And this is going to be my last post about this matter.
I do not doubt your son is a fine young man of character. The original incident you chose to share does not reflect that. Signed, a fellow tiger, class of 84.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
I have to say that I find the Mean Girls comments to be well beneath a bunch of you. This brings back memories of the HS cafeteria - and not in a good way. Since the OP has responded, I think we have reached a natural ending spot. Closing.