Oh, lord....The man's was admitted to Williams and U. Penn and chose Williams. He applied also to Yale and Princeton, and didn't get admitted to either. He's a minority.
A number of things cross my mind:
- With his academic and extracurricular performance, why the hell didn't he pursue the early-decision (ED) route at the school he most wanted to attend? That's important because schools want to balance their student bodies across an assortment of characteristics -- grade level, non-academic interests, demographics, life experiences, interpersonal skills, comportment, students' longer term goals, etc. With his super high grades, Mr. Wang should have identified the school he most wanted and applied ED. That would have put him better standing for getting admitted because it'd have given him two shots instead of one. He didn't avail himself of his best opportunity to secure admission to the institution he most preferred.
- The man is complaining because he wasn't accepted at several Ivy league schools and then didn't opt to go to the one that did admit him. If he was "dying" to go Ivy, why is he at Williams instead?
- The man, perhaps the press too, is griping about a distinction without a difference. He's an undergrad, not a grad student. Among comparable schools, it doesn't matter where one gets one's baccalaureate degree, with the sole exception of Harvard. (Harvard stands apart for one reason: network.) What does matter somewhat is where one gets their graduate degree(s). For example, a person seeking a graduate degree in computer science probably wouldn't prefer Harvard (aside from the network) over some ten or so other schools, including Stanford, MIT, Princeton, Cornell and UC Berkeley. For a doctoral degree, the best schools to attend are often not even in the "big league" that one would traditionally recognize.
I mention the above because it's almost certain that Mr. Wang will pursue a graduate degree. These days, in most disciplines and in terms of the offing of a fine career, a master's degree is what a bachelors was some 20+ years ago. The two fields I know of that are highly demanded, well paid and that don't bid one to get a master's degree are accounting and engineering, unsurprisingly.
I haven't read the thread posts, but I suspect some anti-affirmative action person has registered their complaint that a minority didn't "apparently" benefit in a college admissions process as a result of being a minority. Go figure....