So I know I said I wouldn't comment on the
Princeton issue, but I had chosen to join the sea of voices writing letters complaining to the editor of the Daily Princetonian and today I received a response from them:
"Thank you for your Letter to the Editor. I hope you had a chance to read our joint statement with the Asian-American Students Association.
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2007/01/22/news/17158.shtmlThank you,
Anna Huang
Editor, The Daily Princetonian Opinion Page"
And the editorial goes on to say again how the Daily Prince editors "regret" that people were hurt by their joke column and that they are co-sponsoring a discussion forum with Princeton's Asian American Students Association.
What
really gets to me, though, is how those editors don't just
apologize for their stupid mistake and total lack of common sense/foresight. They keep shirking the fact that their joke was in horrible taste and say that people don't understand/have no sense of humor, rather than take responsibility for their actions and acknowledging all of the uproar they caused.
But alas, there is nothing I can do about that. =P
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Separate from the fact that the Daily Prince's editorial staff shows pretty poor judgment, I also wanted to comment on the Jian Li case.
A few random thoughts:
- Despite the fact that I dislike Princeton University, I have to admit that it is a pretty darn hard school to get into-- so Mr. Li is acting a bit presumptuous in feeling that he is *entitled* to a spot in their class of 2010 (at least that's the sense I'm getting from him).
- The school probably has hundreds (if not more) qualified applicants and cannot admit everyone-- and let's face it, the admissions process can be a total crapshoot sometimes (not to mention that extracurricular activities and essays also count a lot, and can be pretty subjective).
- Princeton is nobody's "safety" school and I think he would have a better case if he was rejected from a less selective college (i.e. the charge of racism would be more blatant). - However, I did go to a specialized high school that had an overwhelming minority population (i.e. mostly Asians) and I noticed every year that Princeton would always reject most of the candidates-- including some applicants who were in the top of our class and were easily accepted into all of the other high caliber schools to which they applied (e.g. Harvard, Yale, MIT, Columbia, UPenn, Stanford, Cornell, Dartmouth, Northwestern). But the few students who were accepted by Princeton always seemed to be white (and pretty WASP-ey) or a non-Asian minority. So I definitely felt that there was of something awry in Princeton's admissions policy. (And this is actually one of the reasons that I dislike Princeton to begin with).
- And given the way that the Daily Prince has reacted to Mr. Li's case, I feel that there may be more substance to his charge of racism from Princeton University (although this is not to say that this incident necessarily legitimizes the case).
So I guess my point (at least for now...) is: Although I'm not terribly familiar with Mr. Li's case and feels that his argument is probably not air tight, I have definitely noticed something wrong with Princeton's admissions decisions. Furthermore, I believe that the Daily Prince has only further soiled the school's reputation for being inhospitable to Asian Americans.
NOTE TO ASIAN AMERICAN COLLEGE APPLICANTS OUT THERE:
AVOID PRINCETON UNIVERSITY!!
And here she is, being a fishey (i.e. pescado!!): 
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And here she is, being a fishey (i.e. pescado!!): 
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Here they are, laid out on my bed-- 4 rows of 13 bottles (of assorted flavors), with an extra bottle on top:
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It's a bit difficult for me to understand his case, since I am not quite aware of his extracurriculars or essay, but I can definitely agree with some of his points.
