10/16/2023: I Just Want to Be a Nerd

Is there a nerd friendly college?

I just want to be a nerd. 

I am  Asian so I suppose I am not qualified to study CS at Stanford, Ivies or UCs. I started learning coding at 10. I really love it. I learned Python, JS/React, and Expo and my dad helped me sign up for AWS so I can publish some real applications. I am really proud that I built a document signing application that is enterprise grade and has thousands of users. I was hoping it will help my college application because I am not really an athletic child. I am also not really interested in story telling or bragging. I just want to focus on building things people want.

My dad told me I don’t have enough community points to get into a good CS program. I like helping people but all I know is programming. I am obsessed with it. In the end, I started a program to teach kids in the underprivileged community programming. I really enjoyed the experience and I helped coached hundreds of kids. Seeing many of these kids learning things in a different way from how I learn is eye opening. I am so glad that some kids discovered that problem solving is satisfying. I am sure some of them will go on to do great things.

I had a pretty good 4.4 GPA and 1590 SAT score. With the apps I built, the volunteer experience and various programming contests I won, I thought this is good enough to get me into a top CS program. But I was wrong. I was rejected by almost every school I applied to. I am shocked. I am pretty sure I am one of the best programmers my age. Why is this happening? Some of my classmates got into UC Berkeley and Ivies but they are obviously not as smart and hardworking as I am. This makes no sense. My dad told me I have to be more well-rounded. I tried my best but I am a nerd at heart. I can’t force myself to be an athlete or a performative artist. I just want to build cool stuff. I guess I won’t be going to a top CS program then. But I am proud to be a nerd and I will prove to the top colleges that they are wrong and I will succeed without them.

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(The above is fiction based on a true story.)

As a nerd, I am saddened that my fellow nerds are being discriminated against and dehumanized in college admissions. I am so glad I went to National Taiwan University (the top college in Taiwan), solely because of academics. I don’t think I would be able to get into a top American college today because of my ethnicity, my nerdiness and my lack of political correctness. It’s crazy what young people are being subject to these days. But you know what, we don't have to play this game. We can continue to build our skills, think critically and make great contributions without the branding of top colleges. We nerds don’t care about branding anyway. We care about the substance way more.  

Here is some context.