When I Dropped Out At 20, My Sister Told Everyone: “She’s The One Who Didn’t Finish.” Twelve Years Later, I’m Yale’s Dean Of Admissions. One Essay Read: “My Family Moved Past My Aunt’s Setback.” The Name? Amanda Chen. My Niece. I Picked Up My Red Pen And…

to study there. Learned what it meant to earn my way, class by class, from the back rows. I had transferred into Northwestern proud of that journey, proud of the essays I had written, the nights I had worked, the small stubbornness it had taken to keep going. But none of that counted tonight. To my father, community college meant I had already needed continue reading …