Editors note : it used to be academics ,good grades , a strong essay, some extra curricular
This New Jersey student’s unconventional approach to applying for college paid off for him.
On his Stanford University application, Ziad Ahmed was posed the question “What matters to you, and why?”
The 18-year-old activist from Princeton, New Jersey, decided to use the opportunity to write “#BlackLivesMatter” 100 times.
To his surprise, the answer caught the attention of the California school’s admissions office and Ahmed received his acceptance letter on Friday.
“I didn’t think I would get admitted to Stanford at all, but it’s quite refreshing to see that they view my unapologetic activism as an asset rather than a liability,” Ahmed told Mic.
“To his surprise, the answer caught the attention of the California school’s admissions office and Ahmed received his acceptance letter on Friday.” That says it all.
The decline of the western world.
The decline of the western world? This is what you get when all your information comes from Fox News. What do you think, that he just wrote ‘Black Lives Matter,’ 100 times, and that alone was enough to gain him admission to Stanford? Did you know that he was also accepted to Yale and Princeton? One minute – one single minute! – of research is all it took for me to find this: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/teen-accepted-stanford-after-writing-blacklivesmatter-100-times-application-n742586
And that minute included reading the Fox article. You know, a little homework might make you realize that he’s actually a quite remarkable young man.
If you peered out of your Fox bubble, just once and a while… nah, who am I kidding? You saw brown skin, a foreign sounding name, and BANG! – The end of the western world. Did it ever occur to you, that this sort of bias and willful ignorance is what is causing whatever decline may be occurring in western civilization? No, of course not. To quote who was undoubtedly your pick for the Oval Office – SAD!
See…even complete douchebags ( as evidenced by the photo and who’s in it ) and the fact that he’s a Muslim punches your ticket to Stanford. How utterly disgraceful it is to see the liberals do whatever it takes to destroy America .
The fact that he is a Muslim did not punch his ticket. His record did. Don’t we desperately need intelligent, well-educated Muslims to speak to their people and try to explain how democracy works (or used to)? I get tears in my eyes knowing that people who write these ignorant, hate-driven comments (5:09, 5:17, 6:57) live in my town. Please relax. Decrying “liberals” will get us nowhere and doesn’t even make sense.
6:43 – despite all your research, you totally missed the point. Good luck
“live in my town” Really 7:09 it just your town and no else belongs hear if they have a opinion that differs from yours. Do you need to go to safe place after you read these posts.
6:43 obviously a Clinton supporter who is still in denial.
This is clearly a case of reverse discrimination.
6:43 – Yes, folks like you are responsible for the decline of western civilization.
He did not gain admission on the basis of stellar academic performance, outstanding research accomplishments or genuine sign of interest in an education.
He gained admission for being louder than others in pedestrian activism, only louder than the many others engaged in the same. He worked on a progressive election campaign, hung out with another and was invited and ‘honored’ by a third.
The juvenile act of writing that hashtag a hundred times should in itself have automatically placed his application where it belonged – in the trash. Unfortunately, we live in different time, where screaming a few proper words and being the right color/religion matters more.
And here is the rub – Stanford is a world famous institution mainly for its scientific and medical discoveries, NOT for brainless activists latched onto the cause of the day. One can do that at the local community college too.
7:09 – ‘Intelligent’ and ‘well-educated’ people do not pull juvenile things like writing a hashtag 100 times to convey their feelings.
Likewise, “intelligent” people do understand the concept of irony, and know better than to talk about income inequality when they themselves shun a (very well rated) public school and go to a $40k/yr private school.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a very well educated, intelligent muslim women. To top it, she did not grow up in a rich white NJ suburb going to a fancy private school. She was poor, a refugee and a victim of political oppression since childhood.
However, liberals have gone to all extremes to keep her from even talking, including at many of these top ranked US universities. Because they do not like what she has to say about islam, out of personal experience no less.
So what liberals want is not educated intelligent muslims. They want nominally brown muslims, who will talk incessantly about how bad white people and America are being to them.
Gotta give the kid credit where it is due. Son of hedge fund manager who grew up in exclusively white+asian NJ suburb, attending a fancy private school, expertly trolls progressives with his faux activism. And they fall for it hook, line and sinker.
Bravo kid. Bravo. Take a bow.
So, supporting a criminal, racist organization like BLM is an asset to getting into Stanford?
Good to know.
#FancyWhitePeopleMatter
Agree 12:01. This was a clever calculation to separate himself from the thousands of brilliantly written, edited and polished essays with which he was competing. Just like the article in the NYT where a kid got into an Ivy with a recommendation from his school janitor. Know your audience, be original. don’t be afraid to fail.
When this kid started planning for college admissions back in 2013, BLM was not even a thing and not even something he was focused on (plenty of google history on him). He was generically focused on racism etc. Makes sense – what does a son of privilege (private school going son of hedge fund manager and ex-top prop trader at Morgan Stanley / Citi) know about black lives matter or income inequality?
But he figured out over the past two years that BLM something to be latched onto. So now, this is the single thing he cares about in his life (per his Stanford response!)
He is just a smart marketer who figure out how to expertly troll his targets – progressive politicians and the admissions crew at all these ivy league schools. And he did it perfectly! He has a great future in marketing and politics.
The bigger deal is that all these progressive politicians, administrators, and clearly more than a few residents of this village applaud white bashing by a rich, privileged kid because he happens to be brown and muslim. And then they wonder why poor whites don’t vote for their party.
7:09 – The problem is that you see brown and muslim and immediately start thinking of poverty and refugees. Meanwhile, this kids is part of the 0.0001% you progressives love to hate.
Maybe you should reflect upon what that says about you and your views on race.
As long as they pave Brookside, Fairfield and North Pleasant this spring I don’t care what happens in Palo Alto…
6:43 – Bless your heart. And I just remembered, isn’t Stanford Rurik’s alma mater? How did he gain admission?