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…

realized the black sheep story had been a lie built out of other people’s fear.

I kept reading with tears already beginning to burn behind my eyes. Amanda wrote with a clarity that felt older than seventeen, and more dangerous. She was not simply praising me. She was dismantling the ideology she had inherited. She wrote that she had spent her life trying continue reading …