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…

right credentials and lost the one thing I had finally found: a place where my instincts were useful, where my strange attention to language and structure and hidden potential was not an inconvenience but a gift.

The first manuscript I truly fought for arrived in a box so battered the corners had split. It came from an agent nobody in the office took continue reading …