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…

all that was something simpler and less manageable. For twelve years I had lived without family approval, telling myself I did not need their recognition because I had built something sturdier than their opinion. Then a seventeen-year-old girl I barely knew had written about me like I was a compass. It was too much. Too intimate. Too strange. I picked continue reading …