 Asians with incredible resumes are still getting rejected from colleges that they probably should get into, so let's talk about why. Yeah, if I knew that my song had to be interesting and cool to a liberal-wide admissions-wide lady, I would raise him a little differently. Alright guys, we gotta talk about Stanley Jones, his story is going viral right now because he had an amazing resume as far as the numbers, the GPA, the SAT, even some of his extracurriculars as far as his computer science background goes, but he still got rejected not only from some top schools, but from just kind of some mid-tier schools. Yeah, so he got rejected from MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, Caltech, that kind of makes sense, right? Because a lot of people applying to those schools, they probably have great resumes, let's be honest. However, he also got rejected from Cal Poly, San Luis Obisbo, the University of Illinois, UC Davis, UCSB, UCSD, and where we went, the University of Washington. What? He got rejected by there? The same college I went to? No, I would say his GPA, 4.42, weighted 1590 on the SAT, so definitely he looked like he should have got it more. He started Rabbit Sign, which is a competitor to DocuSign, but free, so basically he started his own app that people can use right now. Right, now before we feel too bad for him, he just got a job at Google, so shout out to him, congrats. But regardless, he probably should have gotten to more colleges, David, we're gonna delve into the comments section of what a lot of people were saying in our own perspective, so please hit that like button and check out other episodes of the Hot Pop Boys. You know what? It's not underrated by white liberal admissions officers though? Smala sauce, guys. You can get this right now. Pre-orders are still going on. We gotta refill the bottle. This is, has truffle, Sichuan peppercorn. A lot of people are enjoying it. Please check out the Instagram to find more content and see all the foodies and chefs that are trying it. Yeah, I mean, is it true that colleges in 2023 are looking at Chinese nerd, brainiac, computer science, wants in on my computer science program? I got too many Chinese male nerds, brainiacs with like incredible resumes. Reject, reject, reject, reject. Like, they just don't want it even though it qualifies because it's like overrepresented. Man, I mean, dude, even if he is a cookie cutter, let's just say he is a cookie cutter. He's probably like a pretty decent cookie cutter, so he should be able to get into more of these colleges. Now my thing is that I think some of these colleges like, you know, and I'm not saying these are bad schools, but these are probably schools that he probably qualified to get into. UC Davis, Cal Poly, UCSB, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin. He probably should have got into those, but I'm saying like those schools might have been thinking, oh, he'll get other opportunities. He'll get into other top schools. We don't need to give him a spot here. Maybe that's what they're thinking. So then, but if every school thinks like that, then he's not getting into any. Do you think though that it's true that a lot of the colleges did not think that he was going to add to the social environment of the university? And clearly, let's be honest, Andrew, he has a software engineering job. He's going to be paid six figures his first year. He already started at Google. So he like Google doesn't care if he like played sports or was like speaks other languages, right? Or is like cool and adds to the social diversity of Google because he's going to be working from home in front of three screens. They just want him to get the work done and add to the bottom line profitability of the company. Right. In a way, the private company is going to recognize his immediate value even maybe more than a lot of college campuses are. But I still think it's wrong because I'm like, is he not part of diversity? Like you need also the nerds on campus along with maybe some not as nerdy people. I understand that, but it doesn't really make a lot of sense to me. It's kind of weird. And what message are we sending if we're rejecting kids like this from, you know, just like UC Davis, even. Yeah, like how much does being a stereotypical Chinese brainiac that probably would not be the life of the party at happy hour? How much should that count against you? I'm not say like if the college just want to make a case that it counts against them like a tiny, tiny micro bit. I would still disagree with it, but I think that's within their realm of like, you know, standard deviation. But if they're like, oh my gosh, he started rabbit sign. That's such a Chinese knockoff of docu sign like typical Chinese. I mean, what I want to hang out with Stanley Tung probably not to be honest, but is that the metric that colleges are judging people on in 2023? We know like, listen, guys, you guys know we're not political like that. But if there's liberal white female admissions officers and they're like, I'm just looking for a little bit more spice here. Stanley Tung does not seem like somebody who's very like cool or anything like that. I'm like, wait, since when the colleges care about that so much. Yeah, I mean, listen, I don't know exactly why he got rejected. I mean, some people speculate you'll see in the comments. They're speculating about his personal essay, you know, but I was like, how bad is his personal essay? Like, holy, like there was red flags in it. But anyways, let's get into the comment section because I think that there is some other interesting analysis. Somebody said it's because he's Asian. They want more diversity. Nobody can tell me otherwise. I think him being Asian and maybe particularly having the Chinese name played a little against him. I don't know if that's the only reason. I don't know. I'm not going to say that's the only reason. But I think in a way it's messed up right now. But a lot of people are looking at the zone name, the song name, the Liu Lin, whatever, Lee, like, you know. But he had the mainland last name too. That's extra what they don't want. Man, I don't know, man. I would hate to think that that is more than 20% of the reason. I don't know. I just think that an archetypical computer science Chinese male is so from Palo Alto, which is an upper middle class like tech zone to be raised from. That's where Jeremy Lin is from as well. That is like not what they want in their computer science program because they feel like that just waits it in favor of like probably the dominant archetype. I guess somebody says you are going to see stuff like this way more commonplace moving forward. The higher education bubble in the U.S. is deflating. College enrollment peaked in 2011 has been sliding off a cliff since 2025. I don't even know what that means to be honest. Somebody says transparency is fair because why have all these requirements? But why is there no transparency and why somebody doesn't get in? Yeah, so here's my thing and I am totally, I'm chairing for transparency on why people don't get into some extent. Because listen, why have all these requirements when you apply for college? If you're not going to tell them why they got rejected if they hit all those requirements. You know what I mean? Like maybe there should be a list of 30 different responses that more fit the reason why he got rejected that the person who's rejecting them can choose from like a dropdown list. Like which reason is closest to why he got rejected? But what if the reason was just too many Chinese nerds? Then they need to even put like that needs to say like oh too much fits into a stereotype into our engineering department or something. Like you got to say something because this kid is wondering here and this is his future at stake and he spent so much of his life in academia caring about his grades and then now he's sitting there wondering like yo I got rejected from like 14 out of the 16 schools I applied for. How? He said glad it worked out for him because he ended up getting a six figure job at Google right out of high school. However, I feel awful for the kids who do everything right from K to 12 and don't get into any of the colleges that they want to. Yeah. So you need to start telling kids to like what be cool. I mean he already did some extracurricular. Does he have to be varsity sports like all three years to as well as creating his own app as well as a high GPA as well as a high SAT. Like what just tell people what the metrics are what you're looking for. Yeah. I mean to be honest from judging from the interviews I watched of Stanley Chung. He may not have had the best essays because he does. He's not going to have an essay filled with like hardship or anything specifically regarding identity because Palo Alto is heavily Asian and it's heavily more high income. So they probably wanted a little bit more like struggle. Man, but I just think having all those schools reject them is crazy. Somebody said I don't think grades are the only factor anymore. You need to play sports. You need to be in school related groups. You need to get into internships. It's always been like that to be honest. Somebody was saying he literally had a startup in actual profitable company his sophomore year. Sports and other stuff cannot compare to that. Somebody said yeah, but it just didn't get him in because like that's not what they're looking for anymore. Yeah. And I'll say this. Listen, if you're going to reject him, you need to like I don't know. Someone needs to tell him like hey Stanley, you got rejected from MIT, but you should just go on and pursue a career right now. Because you could go work in the industry. Right. Because you're saying the yes or no answer. It's like so discouraging, right? Like it's not really providing any sort of context for like, oh yeah, you'd be better off getting a six-figure job right now with a stack in your income. It is not the admissions office job to tell you what you should do with your future. I understand that. But I think it is fair that they give a little explanation or someone in his circle. Maybe it's his dad who was like pushing him to go get the job at Google. Or maybe someone at Google that day knew through a family friend was like hey Stanley, what if I just throw your name into, you know, my boss, you know, maybe you could join the team or something like that. Yeah. I mean, that's never going to happen, but I see what you're saying. Somebody's saying I changed the ethnicity of my kid momentarily just to get into college because a lot of white kids, not all obviously, are legacy or have family connections to get into college or get into companies. And then a lot of black and Latino people have affirmative action. Asians got to study 200% harder just to get treated like an unlikable brainiac nerd that is not going to add to campus culture. Damn. All right. I think that this is a little bit exaggerated, but it's essentially there's some truth to it. All right. So how about this? You, if you have a, I hate to say this, if you have a typical nerdy name, Stanley Tone. What if you just added Zhongliya to the last name and you just spelled it Z O N G L I A. And it's like, it's not really a different ethnicity. You're not actually lying about who you are, but you're just making your name like, like just stand out and then don't click the declare ethnicity. Don't declare your ethnicity. But they're not supposed to be obviously discriminating against you for being Asian, which is crazy. That's already been ruled. Like, I guess if you add a bunch of like different letters to your name, would it even like increase your chances? Yeah. I mean, it's sort of like the NBA or NFL. Imagine if they discriminated against like black American players because they were just, you know, making up 70, 75% of the NBA or NFL. But they're just like, oh, yeah, we just need it's like, there's not enough diversity amongst like the looks of the people. Right. But it's like, yeah, I get it though. Those are also sports. It's not education. So I do think that that's a valid argument as well. Somebody's saying tech is blessed where you don't see formal education, but you where you don't need a formal education necessarily, but just a skill set and a mindset. Candidates in tech have to pass the grueling interviews process, which mirrors an elite university method, but with a white board where you just have to do the work in front of the people. So it is true that ultimately, do you think Stanley Tung was more suited to just get a six figure job out of high school and ultimately like, but it's kind of crazy because you're denying them the opportunity of like college. Which is pretty fun. Yeah. And I mean, that would help him develop in certain ways. I'm sure working at Google is going to help him develop in a different way. Develop his bank account for sure. Yeah. No, I mean, develop. I mean, being in a work environment, if he goes into the office, he's around older people. He doesn't have to deal with the college things, but maybe he's going to miss those too. And those are really interesting. Somebody said what a nerd and someone said he's going to be your landlord in the USA in the future. I mean, you know, it's funny because America is very anti-nerd. Would you agree? Yeah. And it's so funny because for decades now we've been saying, oh, well, our students, math scores are too low. Our students are reading levels too low. And then here's these kids who fall into that group of kids that are leading the way as far as math, science, computer skills. And then you're not showing them love at the colleges. Like what message are the colleges sending by rejecting him? Yeah. No, it's true. That's like saying. Those are the areas that America is statistically in a macro level weak at. Let's think about it in a dating sense. All right, David, you know, you're on the dating apps and you're like, hey, you're trying to write your profile. I'm a nice guy. You got a picture with a dog. You're just like, you got a good smile. You look trustworthy. You got maybe a couple of mutual friends with this person. And and then the person still like you're just trying to make yourself as good as possible. But that person keeps rejecting you or a bunch of people keep rejecting you. Obviously, you're going to second guess why, you know, you're like, wait, wait, are like good guys getting treated like this? Like what's going on? Like I don't understand. You know what I mean? So what what message are they going to second guess the whole system outcomes of the system of what you've been told? Yeah, you're going to you're going to you're going to question the whole metric system of why how you're being graded. You know, and yeah, it's weird. Last comment Andrew, somebody said, this is really why I love America, a genius Asian kid in the U.S. I can still chase my dreams and possibly even sue if my dreams are halted. Whereas genius Asian kids in Asia, ah, man, it's depressive AF screw my dream. I'm just going to work for my parents company as a last resort and I'm broken. So they're kind of just talking about the way systems work over there versus over here. I do agree that and this is like kind of on a deviation from what we've been talking about. America has more like backup plans, right? Like he can go directly to work for industry and things like that. Yeah, I mean, listen, there's plenty of college dropouts and people didn't go to college that made world changing companies. But I think my opinion is that he probably shouldn't have been rejected from all those schools. That's no, no, no, no, for sure. What's your overall takeaway, David? I would say that this is kind of just where we're at in 2023 because like these upper middle class Asian nerds and let's be honest, a lot of them disproportionately are Chinese. You know, we went to a Chinese church growing up. I've seen it over and over again. You know, I've seen the whole spectrum, but like, yeah, this is a pretty significant portion of the Chinese population to be honest. And it's like, man, it's like, it's just viewed as something that's so whack, but nobody can explain why it's whack. You know what I mean? People are just like, oh, that's not cool, but that's what America needs to remain competitive on a geopolitical scale. I would rather if you're getting rejected for being a whack nerd, if that's the reason why I think people need to say it. Because how are people supposed to understand why you're rejecting them if you don't tell them? Should Asian nerd families, let's be honest, and I don't use that word derogatoryly, like, what should they? Academically focused Asian families, yeah. Yeah, because if you guys look at the interview, like his dad was also, I believe, a compside major. So I'm saying we kind of come from like, not to the extent of him, but a similar type of family. And it's like, should they raise their kids differently? Because they are kind of raising their kids like very strongly. I mean, he works at Google now. I think he's actually on a path to being successful, but he was slightly robbed of certain opportunities they probably deserve. It's not the worst in life. It's hard for people to cry for him. I'm not crying for him, but I am like, well, this is weird. You know, I'm not crying for him. His life is fine. I get it. He's going to be a rich nerd. He's going to be a rich nerd. He has plenty of opportunities, but he seems tall, whatever. But I'm just like, yeah, this is weird. I feel his pain a little bit. And I'm just like, you know, so, yeah, I mean. Anyway, guys, this is going viral in the Asian community right now, also outside of the Asian community. It kind of just speaks to like where everything is at culturally. I'm not blaming anybody. I'm not even mad about it, but it is interesting to go, oh yeah, man. If you're from that certain type of family background, you could put 115% of your effort, your whole life to getting this outcome. And they're just basically saying, yeah, too many of you guys got raised in this type of nerdy family. All right, everybody. Let us know what you think in the comments down below. Until next time, we out. Peace.