What is Digg?131 Comments
- mightyarmenian, on 10/11/2007, -2/+67I am a freshman at Stanford now and i've seen this girl around; lemme be the first to say that she seemed verryyy strange. There's actually a movement called "Free Azia" going on right now on campus trying to get this girl legitimate student status...
- MCMookie, on 10/11/2007, -0/+58"Friends aren’t sure of her motive for sneaking onto campus and living a lie, but many speculate that she felt pressure from overbearing parents to attend Stanford — regardless of whether she was admitted."
Wow. That's pretty ***** up. - stcmoose32, on 10/11/2007, -1/+53The title missed out on the biggest point:
Kim was successful in her ruse FOR EIGHT MONTHS!! A true feat, albeit illegal.
Also, the comments after the article are pretty ridiculous. Never in my life more than now have I wanted a "sort by most diggs" option. - Mooco, on 10/11/2007, -5/+54@mightyarmenian
I don't see why not... she seemed to be Stanford material if she was able to fool that many people, and go through such measures. Although I don't exactly applaud the con, I do applaud the skill and technique it takes for the con.
Although I do find it comical, the students saying 'they don't feel safe.' Oh, get over yourself. It was one smart girl that learned how to slip underneath the radar. A lot more dangerous things out there to worry over than a squatter. - benijuana, on 10/11/2007, -2/+49I don't think asians are being demonized in the article. I'm sure the reaction would be pretty similar no matter what ethnicity the student was
- obf213, on 10/11/2007, -6/+47one. she was not a high schooler. She had graduated from Troy High School in Fullerton, CA. Her lie was exposed the first week of a school by a girl in my dorm who went to school with her who was convinced that she had not been accepted to Stanford. Kim told a girl in my dorm that she was rooming with the girl from her school. Unfortunately for her she was talking to the roommate of the girl she was claiming to room with. This threw up red flags. After a while the girl did some investigating, followed her to classes, and her dorm etc, then told our RA, who check with the first dorm Kimball, to find out she had moved dorms to Okada, the Asian theme dorm. Thats when they contacted housing and the rest is history.
- Blakovitch, on 10/11/2007, -8/+40(@obf213)
Hello everyone,
Just wanted to apologize for the inaccurate title: Yes, she did indeed graduate from high school, which is reflected in the story description. The story title was a typo; sometimes when I submit a bunch of stories in a day, I make a mistake or two. I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. - Comatose51, on 10/11/2007, -1/+28I'm not sure any group is being demonized. I'm Asian and if I had to pick a group who would be the most likely to be pressured to such great lengths to not let his/her overbearing know the painful truth, it would be Asians for two reasons:
1. Asians are crazy overbearing, over-achievers! I don't know how I managed to not kill myself. Even if our parents didn't drive us, we drove ourselves to death. Everyone, including ourselves, expect us to be the best and that's just not healthy. Yes that's a stereotype but if you surveyed Asian students, I bet most of them would agree with this. This attitude goes away quite a bit if the kids are 2nd generation Americans but mercy on 1st generations with immigrant parents!
2. Asian cultures have a different view on truth. Truth to the East Asian cultures depends a lot on what other people believe. Asians have very collectivist cultures that doesn't encourage truth independent of perception.
Actually I had a cousin who did something similar but to a lesser degree. He flunked out of college and didn't tell his parents for a year. They found out at the last minute when they were getting all set to go to his graduation. I bet this happens more often than we suspect because of #2. My aunt and uncle hid the fact that their son flunked out from everyone else in the family. The only reason I know is because my cousin told me and asked me for advice. To me, the only thing he has to be ashamed off is that he lied to his parents for so long. Everyone makes mistakes. So what if you flunked out? Just take a break and if you feel like it later, try again.
I hate to say it but East Asian culture is really screwed up in some ways. It's just not healthy for the individuals. - WestonP, on 10/11/2007, -0/+22Wow, that's kind of sad that she felt pressured enough to go to such lengths.
- Stonedonkey, on 10/11/2007, -1/+20I don't understand why the people she knew at Stanford responded with aversion when they found out. It's obvious that she was under incredible pressure get admission. I think there's some underlying class division going on, like they believe she wasn't worthy to be there. I find such reflexive ostracism to be pretty disappointing. Personally, I think she would make a great covert operative. I'm only half joking.
- benijuana, on 10/11/2007, -0/+16@albiniak
uhh, yah, same article
they say she's a "quiet, tall asian girl" and lived the asian themed dorm. Those are facts, not opinions on asians. What sentences make it look otherwise? - ataxiaverge, on 10/11/2007, -0/+15You might want to reconsider:
http://photos-996.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v81/129/4/687506038/n687506038_81996_1681.jpg - hiPpymIck, on 10/11/2007, -3/+18isnt this how Steve Jobs learned Calligraphy at USC (hence the eye-friendly Apple interface)
..no longer a student hanging around campus taking classes
at least i think thats what he said in his Stanford graduation speech 2005 - brufleth, on 10/11/2007, -0/+15Self segregation is a weird thing. I went to a very large university with a large population of foreign, Asian-American, and Jewish students. Rather than supporting integration and culture sharing most of the school sponsored activities and general student behaviors worked to keep groups apart.
Foreign students were allowed to show up two weeks before everyone else and hang out with other foreign students which just meant they formed social groups which excluded "everyone else" right from the start. They could at least give domestic students the option to show up early too so they can start settling in and making friends.
Asian clubs and groups didn't even publicly advertise their activities. In general if the student had grown up in the US they didn't subscribe to the same social circle as students who had grown up in Japan, China, etc. This was almost certainly a language/culture barrier thing. The "support" groups definitely didn't work to help integrate though. I could easily see something similar happening with English speaking students at a foreign university.
The on campus Jewish organizations might as well have been a mini mafia. Many required that you be Jewish (I'm not really sure how they decided if you were or not). Programs supporting trips to Israel were strictly Jews only (I personally inquired about one of them). The kosher dining hall was completely separated from any of the regular dining halls. It was in the Hillel house which was not exactly inviting if you were a "gentile." I had quite a few Jewish friends but it always seemed weird to me that they wouldn't even date non-Jews ("What's the point?" they would say since they couldn't marry them). I also know for a fact strings were pulled to help out Jewish students that were on their way to failing out.
I guess I was just jealous there wasn't a comparable support group for your average US mutt who didn't have a particular cultural/religious platform. The justification I usually hear is that since "we're" the majority we don't need an organization specifically to support us. At least in college I don't think that's exactly true. Especially when many of the other organizations have additional tutoring and job placement resources and the generally available resources are less than super. Maybe it isn't politically correct to feel that way. - Comatose51, on 10/11/2007, -0/+14@michaelinnotts: We can look at the issue from both sides. As an Asian myself I've noticed a lot of other Asians tend to self-segregate. At my alma mater, someone wrote an op-ed piece on "Asian tables", which are basically tables in the dining halls that consists entirely of Asians. I think it's terrible that Asians tend to segregate themselves from other groups. It's strange sometimes that as an immigrant I'm more "Americanized" than many natural born Asian Americans because I grew up in a town where we were the only Asian family. In some ways, that was good because I don't have the natural tendency to seek only Asians as friends. I have a pretty diverse group of friends but mostly white because that's just the population make up of this country. Now on the other hand, someone retorted to that op-ed piece by noting it's unfair that no one will say anything about "white tables" where the entire table consists of white students, which to everyone seems pretty natural. One can say, well it's not like the white students don't let other people sit at their table. It's just no one happened to have sat there. Definitely true but likewise with the Asian tables. It is just as easy for someone of another race to reach out to Asians as it is the other way around. For me personally, I think having friends of every race and color taught me to ignore race and skin color and treat people as individuals. I bet you will end up with friends of all sorts of nationality, race, and believes if you do that.
- ch33sehead, on 10/11/2007, -0/+14Reminds me of the movie Accepted. Overbearing parental pressure to go to a good university.
- calvmari, on 10/11/2007, -1/+14obf213, I present you the honorary stalker award. May the binoculars be with you!
- Nickatnite101, on 10/11/2007, -1/+14"Personally, I don’t feel safe now that Stanford allowed this to happen and that they’re not doing anything to ensure the safety of their students"
oh yea this is a very serious security breach.... where did this person live before she went to college? - DarkenKO, on 10/11/2007, -2/+14thats why CAL is a safety school, even for homeless people.
- NSResponder, on 10/11/2007, -2/+14"This is post-modern segregation"
The difference is that 1) it's voluntary, not like when Roosevelt decided to round up all the Japanese Americans for the duration of WW2, and 2) AFAIK they don't keep non-asians from choosing that dorm if they want to.
-jcr - ozzum, on 10/11/2007, -1/+13Steven Spielberg instead of going to college pretended he was an employee at Universal Studios and even occupied an empty office. All the guards thought he worked there. - He didn't do too badly!
- DavidDigg, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11He should just come over across the bay. Homeless people often sat in on my math classes at Cal.
- prockcore, on 10/11/2007, -2/+13You want free classes? Look up the syllabuses online and follow along at home. The only reason to actually attend is for the piece of paper they give you at the end.
- Patrick2480, on 10/11/2007, -2/+12This reminds me of the Simpsons ep where Lisa goes to college and takes classes
- Scrollfx, on 10/11/2007, -1/+11OH MY GOD! I feel so unsafe! Some asian girl sneaked into a movie theatre and sat next to me.. She got crazies. I don't understand why anyone would do this!
- orca94, on 10/11/2007, -0/+10People on campus are making such a big stink over this. I really don't see how this is such a big deal.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9No really... This girl need to go on suicide watch. She might hurt herself and cave in to the pressures put on by her family. Being a Chinese American myself I know how bad it gets. Asian familys can be very strict when it comes to their childrens education. I hope she stays strong.
- CoolWind, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9If it was exposed the first week of school, then why did she get away with it for 8 months?
- yellowsnowcone, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8Is it me or does Zhou sound like a complete bitch? The venom she has towards her former roommate is just down right vicious.
- jellygraph, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8The over-reaction in the people involved in this story is hilarious. "OMG OMG OMG..."
Learn to chill out. Amy Kim is a human being like everyone else, not a giant child-molesting monster from Mars. She lied and conned her way through accommodation at the university, but its equally the other students ineptitude which caused this, as they allowed her every step of the way.
They have themselves to blame as well. If they think that's the last time someone will lie to them, they seriously need to face reality sooner rather than later. - LoWang, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8Eight months going undetected, huh? She should get into the intelligence field.
- standinero, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7I actually think she's skilled, it takes much confidence, and intelligence to pull this kind of stuff off. I am sure somewhere along the way she's made contacts to various of important people.I am looking at this in a positive matter, I am sure if there are certain strange agendas she's probably already achieved it.
Basically I am just saying, she's good at being tricky, and being a con-man/woman ain't easy especially in her situation. - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7well, at least her boyfriend doesn't have to worry about a messy break up.
- GinaJuice, on 10/11/2007, -1/+88 months of free classes... Nice.
- phil.busch, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7It was Reed College, not USC.
- leetdood, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Stanford gets pwned.
- undersky, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6i agree with ightyarmenian and would like to be the first here to say this:
i can't get into stanford, and i can't accomplish what she had done either. but i fully wish she could become a stanford student one day, because after all, if a person could go this far out of her way to achieve what she had achieved... this is quite extraordinary. sure, what she did was not honest, but we can't deny that she has talents. and trust me, lots things in this world are not completely black and white, talents like this must not be wasted. with some good education she can be the next bill gates. - DrunkenPirate34, on 10/11/2007, -2/+8Digg took down Stanford
- Teku, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6I know her 'roommate' was hurt by the deception but she sorta came off as a snobby bitch in the article.
- Satertek, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6The school's official statement: http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2007/may30/nonstudent-053007.html
- Hess10, on 10/11/2007, -4/+9and they're charging her something like 42k? if they're going to come down on her so hard they should at least buy us something nice or throw us a huge party or give us a rebate check.
- stanford student - michaelinnotts, on 10/11/2007, -8/+13Maybe the problem is she's Asian-American, living in a dorm with other Asian-Americans, in an Asian-American themed dorm. This is post-modern segregation--how is this any more disgusting than Blacks having to drink from separate fountains in Alabama in the fifties?
- BobbyMC, on 07/21/2008, -0/+5This is REALLY close to the movie Orange County. In it the main character wants to go to Stanford (who like this girl is from Orange County) and eventually Jack Black's character tells him to do almost exactly what this girl did, thought the main character didn't actually go through with it.
- wqwert, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5i was the total opposite my freshman year in college. i was enrolled but never went =)
- iceman0113, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5@michaelinnotts: I go to UC Davis and we have these themed dorms where first year students are able to pick from if they choose to. There's an all girls dorm, all boys, gay and lesbian, asian-american, african american, honors society, and quiet dorms as well. Students willingly choose to self-segregate themselves if they want to, it's not forced upon them and I think Stanford probably has the same program.
- magneon, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4I like how in these articles email accounts are always "hacked". In reality she probably went on her computer which was not password protected and went to the email site/program which had the passwords already automatically filled out, and simply used it. No hacking here, just good old fashioned impersonation.
- bryano, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5were you accepted to stanford ?
- calvmari, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6He gave the talk to USC?
Btw, I'm siding with the girl on this one. Someone who's this determined to get their education is likelier to make something of themselves. She wasn't going there to just get a slip of paper saying she has a degree, she was going there for the honest reason. - djsputnik, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4moral of the story: nothing is secure
- NSResponder, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4So, I guess in a few years we'll hear about how she got a job by lying on her resume and claiming to have graduated from Stanford?
-jcr -
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