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Post by discoprincess on Apr 8, 2015 13:25:28 GMT -4
According to her brother: I wonder whether St. Louis U. will back that notion up.  I like how the article shoots holes through his hypothesis: What's even worse is he's working as a grad school application consultant (among other things). I wonder whether he'd advise others to do the same. |
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thneed
Landed Gentry
Posts: 816
Jun 19, 2006 0:42:40 GMT -4
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Post by thneed on Apr 8, 2015 13:28:28 GMT -4
This whole thing sounds sketchy as hell. I get why someone would want to write a book about affirmative action; it's one of those controversial issues that's always going to get attention. Add that to a narrative where you prove your point by hoaxing someone, which is another thing people can't get enough of, and this sounds like a definite media event. But his story sounds off. In that link, he says he fooled the med school people by shaving his head and trimming his eyelashes. Why? Schools don't ask for a photo when you send in your application. There would be no need for him to change his appearance, but it makes for a better story. And he says the change in his appearance was so startling his frat brothers didn't recognize him? And you'll notice how he elides where he actually went. He says "I became a serious contender at some of the greatest medical schools in America, including Harvard, Wash U, UPenn, Case Western, and Columbia." Right. Of course it's a much better story if the top med schools in the country picked someone with a 3.1 GPA. But . . . they didn't, so what the hell does "serious contender" mean? You either get in or you don't. If he was waitlisted or something I assume he would have said so, so what the hell? Instead, he's showing the generic form letters from those schools they send out to every applicant. And then he got into St. Louis med school, which I'm not an expert on the application process, but in the late 90s, when he applied, wouldn't a 3.1 be enough? Especially if you did your undergrad at a top school? And the photo he's using with the photos of Indian him and "black" him next to each other? Obviously not the same guy.
Ultimately, his whole story is, "Guy with a 3.1 GPA from UChicago doesn't get into top med schools, gets into St. Louis. OMG medical schools are letting in unqualified black students !!!!!1" He really, really, didn't prove anything. And what the hell with that whole "I disguised my appearance" stuff. For who? Medical schools don't request a photo. And then according to the LA Times he . . . just walked around pretending to be black and got harassed by store clerks? Did Vijay just read "Black Like Me" or something?
For that matter, why would Mindy tell the public she's estranged from her brother? Stars don't usually share that kind of detail with the press, unless the relative forces them somehow. If she wanted to avoid giving her opinion on a controversial issue, she'd go with "This is the first Mindy is hearing about a book, but she wishes her brother every success" or some bs like that. So to actually say to the public they've been estranged for years? There must be some issue with him, that this isn't the first time he's tried to cash in on being related to a celebrity.
The whole thing is weird.
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Post by Auroranorth on Apr 8, 2015 17:18:34 GMT -4
I'm guessing she's coming out and saying they haven't been in contact because she doesn't want people thinking she supported him pulling this nonsense.
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Post by Hamatron on Apr 8, 2015 20:13:17 GMT -4
Can he get in financial/professional trouble for lying on an application like that? Also, is there any other sources to back up his claim? Are we just supposed to take his word for it that everything happened just as he says it did?
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thneed
Landed Gentry
Posts: 816
Jun 19, 2006 0:42:40 GMT -4
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Post by thneed on Apr 8, 2015 22:09:45 GMT -4
St Louis Medical school released a statement saying that his race was not a factor in admitting him, that his GPA and MCAT scores were within the range of the rest of his class.
Hamatron, probably not. Vijay didn't break any laws, it was 15 years ago, and it would be a PR nightmare to actually do anything. He didn't apply under any special program for minority students, try to get federal funding, or anything like that. According to him, all he did was use his middle instead of his first name, say he was a member of the black student union (which could have been true. A student can join any club at his school.) and checked off "black" in the optional race section. Only the last one is lying. If this all happened like Vijay said it did, which I seriously doubt.
He's full of it because his so-called social experiment proved the opposite of what he wanted. Even if you take this farce at face value, he showed that a black student with mediocre grades won't get into top schools, but will get into middling ones. (Uh, no offense to any St. Louis graduates). So, the system worked like it's supposed to.
My guess? This guy was a College Republican at a conservative school. He and his friends probably complained about affirmative action, and how when they didn't get into good grad schools it was because they were white or Asian, and joked about applying as a black student and reaping all the rewards and government money and free ponies they'd surely get just for being black. I don't want to get into a debate about affirmative action, but it doesn't work that way. Black students might get chosen over white or Asian ones with the same stats, or slightly worse ones, but nothing on the level of getting into Harvard medical school with a 3.1. (State schools, which have to admit a certain number of students from their own state are a bit different, but even then, we aren't talking about huge gaps. And either way, that doesn't apply here). The quota system for black students was long gone by then. The situation might have been different in 1999 (there have been several high-profile affirmative action rulings since, which all basically ruled against it) but still. His "social experiment" failed.
And none of that explains that whole thing where he claims he altered his appearance. I know I'm harping on this, but I still don't get it. Why would he do that? And then to claim his friends didn't recognize him? It sounds made up after the fact. If you go to his website, he sounds like he's trying to be the next Abigail Fisher. That's a pretty clear sign his life didn't turn out how he wanted.
And none of this has anything to do with Mindy.
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Post by discoprincess on Apr 9, 2015 10:00:33 GMT -4
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Post by Sunnyhorse on Apr 9, 2015 10:12:50 GMT -4
SLUMed is kind of a middling school. Washington University (also in St. Louis) has one of the top med schools in the country, though. Think he applied there as well and got shot down?
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Post by chonies on Apr 9, 2015 10:16:35 GMT -4
And he still didn't graduate, which also proves another point about affirmative action: it opens a door, but it has nothing to do with student performance. And like students of all colors and backgrounds, his subpar academic performance put him in a position of dropping out before he could be forcibly expelled. Bless his heart.
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Post by discoprincess on Apr 9, 2015 10:21:29 GMT -4
If you go to his website, he sounds like he's trying to be the next Abigail Fisher. He actually has a post on his blog titled " Abigail Fisher – The Rosa Parks of our time". Yet, he says, A 3.1 GPA is a weak academic record? Since when? (If he had bothered to put it into proper context, like by saying something like "a less-than-ideal GPA for a med school applicant", I'd give him less side eye.) |
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Post by chonies on Apr 9, 2015 11:19:34 GMT -4
What a tool. The acceptance rate for SLUMed is about 2% and UCLA's Anderson School of Management is 18%, not to mention that the MBA program has no minimum score on their GMAT. If he wants to find redemption in an MBA, that's great, but all he's doing is proving his own point. SLU Med took a chance on a middling candidate and guessed wrong.
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