Tag: tryharding

#TRYHARDSZN2025: the transparency is refreshing

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

FOX29: Bensalem teenager accepted into five Ivy League schools

I know I said I probably wasn’t going to be doing any more of these posts without just cause, but this one caught my attention due to the amount of transparency that was provided in the details, that I’m more likely to believe than I would have some of the other Ivy League #TRYHARDs.

This isn’t a story about how a #TRYHARD got the Ivy Sweep and got into all eight of the Ivies, but instead a story about how a kid had (supposedly) applied to seven of the Ivies, and gotten into five of them.  Two were waitlists, but the fact of the matter is that there were zero rejections among them all, which on paper sounds like a tremendous coup.

Now I don’t necessarily believe why someone would apply to just seven Ivies and leave one off, and in the case of this #TRYHARD, the one left out Ivy is Princeton, which means they’re lying and they applied to all eight, or for whatever specific reason, they have reason to beef with, and not apply to Princeton.

However the point remains that although she’s waitlisted to Harvard, she did get into Yale, which means even an Asian parent could find some solace in that monumental win, and on top of that, still got accepted into Columbia, Cornell, Brown and Penn, which are just the cherries on top for parental bragging rights.

Either way, the reason I felt some compulsion to write about this story is the fact that it hasn’t been outright fluffed to the point where they proclaimed that they got into five out of five Ivies, and actually have disclosed that they didn’t get into some of them.  A waitlist isn’t necessarily a rejection, but I’ve always been under the impression that it’s basically like 66% a no, since these are schools that are waiting on other #TRYHARDs to make a choice, and if they get bypassed, then they hit the waitlist and pull from there. 

And seeing as how with the Ivies, it’s probably nothing but other #TRYHARDs in all the pools of acceptances, waitlists and rejections, along with their absurdly low acceptance rates, I’m going to go ahead and say that those waitlists are basically no.  But seeing as how this #TRYHARD has already declared leaning towards Yale, it’s not like it really matters that she’s getting the axe from Harvard and Dartmouth, and might as well keep on saying fuck Princeton.

#TRYHARDSZN2025: This is point of the #SZN where I’m getting tired of doing this

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I don’t know what it is with this #SZN, because we’ll going through stretches where there’s no news (at least that I can find) of any #TRYHARDs flaunting their college acceptances, and then a weekend will pass, and then bam, there’s suddenly multiple #TRYHARDs that have emerged and the news outlets will have said that these have been reported since two weeks ago and I’m like wtf.

Anyway, because we’re at the point of the #SZN where I’m getting tired of writing about these #TRYHARDs unless they’re truly exceptional, these next #TRYHARDs have the unfortunate distinction to being lumped into an aggregate post, because frankly none of them are particularly exceptional compared to some of the other #TRYHARDs of the #SZN, and I don’t feel like dedicating an entire post to each and every one of them.

WIFR: Louisiana teen accepted into 75 schools, amassing over $1M in scholarships

Nothing out of the ordinary here.  No SAT scores listed, no GPA listed, no extracurriculars listed.  Just a 27 on the ACT which is impressive, but just 75 school acceptances, and just $1M in scholarships is pretty low in comparison to some of the other #TRYHARDs of the #SZN.  That’s basically a $13K per acceptance average, which wouldn’t even be a year at community college, given the escalating prices of tuition and school expenses.

Naturally, she’s going with the HBCU that in all likelihood has given her a free ride, but hey free education is always a win, so who really cares what I think anyway.

MSN: Austin, Texas teen accepted into 22 schools, amassing over $1M in scholarships

Compared to the aforementioned girl from Louisiana, $1Mish out of just 22 acceptances is a far high average, at $45.5K per acceptance, but in the #TRYHARD game it’s not just about the average, as much as it is the sheer volume of acceptances, which makes this one kid very much average in the grand spectrum of the game.

But the article is interesting in that it not only discloses that he got into 22 schools, it said out of 24 applications, so the #TRYHARD actually did suffer a little bit of rejection.  However, for as high-character as this kid seemed as far as grades, extracurriculars and altruistic side-hustles, seems like a low bar to have only applied to just 24.  I feel like if this guy truly #TRYHARDed and applied to 155 schools, he’d probably have gotten into like 140 of them, and amassed $6M in scholarships.

And for such low ambition, boy is but an aggregate footnote in the #SZN.

NBC41: Georgia teen accepted into 110 colleges, earning $5.2M in scholarship money

I think it’s safe to say that no matter what comes from the rest of #TRYHARDSZN2025, there’s no place where the game is played harder anywhere in the country as it is in Georgia.  It’s not even just a Southside Atlanta thing either, because we’ve had several documented #TRYHARDs from various other Georgia towns like this one, where they’re shooting for the moon and applying to every school under the sun, and succeeding.

110 colleges and $5.2M isn’t the biggest haul of the #SZN, but it’s also nowhere near the smallest, and it absolutely obliterates every  #TRYHARD that’s been found outside of the state.  She would probably be agitated if she ever found out about the girl in Georgia that cleared 155 and one in every state, but that’s what she gets for not #TRYHARDing enough.

What’s interesting is the factoid that of her 110 acceptances, it’s revealed that 86 of them offered scholarships, meaning 24 schools just simply said yes but no relo.  That being said, that clears up her average scholarship value at $60.5K per, which isn’t bad at all.  I’m going to assume that of the 24 schools that accepted with no offer, they’re probably the Power-5 conference schools that were the moonshots, and of the 86 that offered up some coin, these are the more average-tier schools, and seeing as how she’s already committed to Mercer, seems to be a fairly accurate assessment.

But hey, nursing.  The country definitely needs more of them, and as most of us are very well aware, nurses are really the real nuts and bolts that hold the entire medical profession afloat.

TapIntoPatterson: New Jersey teen accepted into multiple Ivy League schools; but not all of them

Okay, my sub-thing this #SZN is calling bullshit on all the extra #TRYHARDs who don’t just shoot for the moon, but shoot for Milky Way, by aiming for nothing short of the Ivy Leagues.  So this kid, gets into Harvard and Yale, as well as Princeton, Columbia and Penn, all on full-rides no less.  But what about Brown, Cornell and Dartmouth?

I have a hard time believing anyone in this position is so selective of which Ivy League school they want to go to, that they don’t apply to all of them, and I feel like I have to call bullshit on any of these uber #TRYHARDs when they brag about getting into a select number of Ivy League schools, but not all of them, but pretending like they only applied to just the ones they got accepted into.

Don’t get me wrong, the backstory on this particular #TRYHARD is pretty impressive, and it seems apparent that he’s qualified for all of the schools he got into, but I just don’t buy that he only applied to only the five Ivies that he got accepted into, and it’s extremely easy for him, his family, or the news to twist the truth just a little bit to make him sound more impressive than he already is.  Everyone has a little bit of ego at some point, and there’s something less shiny than disclosing that he was “accepted into five of eight Ivies,” versus “accepted into five Ivy League schools.”

The funny thing though, is that this #TRYHARD’s desired academic path is all about robotics, engineering and mathematics.  I’m sure he could pursue such educational paths at any of the Ivy League schools, but when the day is over, this kid’s real optimal school is probably MIT.  Frankly, he should be taking into consideration what the kid from Texas did, and use his Ivy League acceptances as leverage to possibly get MIT to sweeten the pot for him, before also pulling an nWo and revealing his MIT shirt on selection day.

Maybe he already is.

But because he didn’t get into ALL the Ivies like the Texas #TRYHARD did, he’s relegated to shared aggregate acknowledgment in the brog.

And I think I might be done for the #SZN, barring some truly exceptional #TRYHARDing.  But never say never, because there’s little end to the lengths some of these #TRYHARDs #TRYHARD.

#TRYHARDSZN2025: What’s the beef with Cornell?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

7onMySideNewark: Newark teen accepted into seven Ivy League schools

My first thought when I saw this headline was, haha seven, why not eight?  Which of the Ivies rejected him?

But according to the article, for whatever reason, the #TRYHARD alleges that he only applied to seven, and was accepted into all seven of them, which leads me to think, why the fuck didn’t he go ahead and apply to all eight at that point?

The odd Ivy out in this case was Cornell, and considering the #TRYHARD wants to study political science, I’m thinking why the fuck didn’t he go ahead and apply to Cornell as well?

I mean, he can’t use distance as a reason, Ithaca is closer to Newark than Boston is, and Dartmouth might as well be on the moon in comparison to most of the other Ivies, so I can’t really wrap my brain around why this #TRYHARD would apply to every single Ivy except for Cornell.

Either way, acceptances are one thing, but there’s no information given about scholarships, or if there were any scholarships even offered at all.  As impressive as gaining entry to 7/8 Ivies might sound, the real question is how he and his family are going to manage to pay for it, because scholarships are always disclosed in these #TRYHARD articles for further flexing, and his family runs a pizza shop.  Going to imagine it’s going to be quite the difficulty for he and his family to support the gargantuan tuitions and supporting expenses college is going to be, even if Harvard allows for certain financial thresholds to attend for free.

No matter though, good on this #TRYHARD for almost completing the Ivy Sweep.  I don’t necessarily believe that he didn’t apply to Cornell, because if you’re going to shoot for the moon, there’s little reason why he wouldn’t have gone after all of them, and it’s like a marketing tactic.  If 4/100 people like a product, it can still be spun that 4/5 like it, and toss the other 95 testers out, just like this kid can say he only applied to seven Ivies, and throw Cornell out.

Doesn’t compete against some of the more notable #TRYHARDs of the #SZN, but anyone who can get into multiple Ivies, let alone one, is still worth mentioning.

#TRYHARDSZN2025: Asians just try harder

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

VNEX: Vietnamese student secures fully-funded PhD scholarships from three different continents

So the sheer volume of schools isn’t going to clear the 155~ mark previously set earlier this #SZN, and no idea what the dollar amount is going to be exactly, probably not clearing $6M cumulatively.  But if there’s one flex that this kid, and I use that term loosely considering he’s a 22-year old undergrad already, can make is that he pulled full rides from schools in three separate continents, from Asia, Australia as well as the United States.

Obviously context matters, and sure he didn’t get acceptances from North Dakota A&M or Idaho Tech, but some of the offers that he turned down were from Nanyang Technical University in Singapore and the University of Sydney in Australia, both of them ranked among the world’s top 20 universities.

Here’s the kicker, and the primary reason why I’m making this post work in #TRYHARDSZN2025: the school he ultimately did end up picking to pursue his PhD at is none other than Virginia Tech. 

That’s right, boy genius from Vietnam going to be a Hokie.  He won’t help the football team or the basketball team suck any less than they have over the span of the last decade, but I’ll take a Hokie W in quidditch much less getting some super boy genius from another country.

But seriously, he definitely does fall into the category of #TRYHARDing, because the boy wanted to improve his station in life, and he understood that education was his best means to do so, and instead of staying in Hanoi, he had bigger aspirations and goals, and worked his ass off in order to achieve them.  Wasted little time at flicking those applications out overseas, and clearly his resume and credentials speak for themselves, if all sorts of colleges are coming out and offering full rides.

All the same, in the grand spectrum of the #SZN, it’s impressive that can flex multiple continents for amassing college acceptances, but he’s also 4-5 years older than most of the teen #TRYHARDs I’m putting him up against.  It’s like when Japanese players out of 5-6 years of NPB go to MLB and are considered rookies, against true untested prospects fresh out of high school and the minor leagues, shit just doesn’t really match up.

But I’m still pleased to read of his overall story, and to know that he’ll be going to Virginia Tech, and hopefully raising their stock in something, even if it’s not athletics.  I support all Hokie success, wherever it may come from.

#TRYHARDSZN2025: The ultimate flex and power move

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

KHOU: Houston teen achieves the rare Ivy Sweep – accepted into all eight Ivy League schools, then proceeds to turn them all down and pick MIT

I know there was a #TRYHARD who had 155+ acceptances and $6M in scholarships that I already declared the queen of the #SZN, but let me introduce y’all to the king.  It really doesn’t matter how many cumulative schools he was accepted into and how much in scholarships he’s been offered, because he achieved one of the most rarest feats in the game, the Ivy Sweep; as in this nerd was accepted into all eight Ivy League schools, making him the ultimate enemy to slacker Asian kids, because he is the boy that all Asian parents envy and fantasize over having, and measure their own failures of children against.

However, the story gets even better, because not only did King #TRYHARD accomplish the Ivy Sweep, the kid also decided to hold a press conference to announce which school he was going to attend, like he were LeBron James in The Decision, or was some big dick sports recruit picking which school they were going to go play for.

And then, the story continues to get even better, because in the midst of his massive flex, he pulls yet another power move, by stating that he’s not going to go to any of the Ivy League schools he was accepted into, and declared himself to MIT.

He also hid his MIT shirt behind a thick ass coat, and did an unveiling like he was joining the nWo.  But instead of being a jacked wrestler or an athletic blue chip prospect, it’s just some dumpy Asian kid who basically looks like the default build-an-Asian that everyone can imagine in their heads when they think of an Asian nerd.

Y’all can’t imagine the shit-eating smirk of amusement on my face reading about this #TRYHARD and the bullshit he pulled.  I love it all too, because he flexes his academic prowess and superiority by getting into eight of some of the hardest universities on the planet, but then immediately takes a big steaming shit all over them by rebuffing all of them at the same time, and then picking MIT, the geeky little brother to Harvard, basically.

It’s funny, I came across this story before the announcement was actually made, and I noticed in the article, to stay tuned until 1 pm local time, where the announcement was to take place.  I try to plan my writing out, and I had actually prepared this photo to use to accompany this post to exemplify the nerdy arrogance of an uber-dork getting his moment to shine in the sun, but then after seeing the highlights of the video package of this kid’s press conference, and I was just like, wow, I didn’t think this whole story could possibly get any better than just being a nerd who achieved an Ivy Sweep, but how wrong I was.

Make no mistake though, when this really boils down to is undoubtedly money, and although he made the Ivy Sweep, I’m going to assume that none of them were remotely close to offering up a full-ride, which is what MIT is doing.  And considering his Asian background, free > everything, including the Ivy Leagues, and he and his parents are probably ready with all sorts of rebuttals to justify why their boy is not going to Harvard or Yale.

What’s also funny is that this #TRYHARD’s area of study is computer science and engineering.  Sure, such fields could be pursued at some of the Ivy League schools, but really if that’s the route he wanted to go, he really needed to end up at a place like MIT or any school where technology is at the forefront.

But now that I think about it, it was all probably part of a great ruse by this #TRYHARD and his famiry; flex the Ivy Leagues when discussing school, and try to force institutions like MIT to want to “poach” him from them, by offering up perks like a free ride, so that they have to be the pursuer and not give off the notion that MIT is probably where he wanted to end up.

Really, at the end of the #SZN, it’s not really going to be who the biggest #TRYHARD is, but what story is the best to come from it.  As of right now, the obvious front-runners are the girl who cleared 150 acceptances and one from every state, the dork who essayed himself out of nearly every application he tried, and this guy.  Recency bias aside, the flex, the power move, and all the antics and theatrics behind it, make this a hard contender to try and top this #SZN.

#TRYHARDSZN2025: There’s a bigger world outside of California

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

KGTV: High schooler from Torrey Pines accepted into 63 different colleges, amassing $3M in cumulative scholarships

$3 million bones from 63 acceptances; an average scholarship value of $47,619 isn’t bad, but in the grand spectrum of the #TRYHARD game, is fairly pedestrian in comparison to some of the #TRYHARDs that have already emerged this #SZN. 

Ultimately, I’m liking that either Google and news outlets are either being lazy and not reporting, or the possibility that #TRYHARDING isn’t as wrapped up as it used to be in previous years, and there just aren’t as many insufferable #TRYHARDs this year as in years prior, because that’s less stuff for me to write about, as if I didn’t put myself in this situation wanting to write about all the #TRYHARDs of the year.

After some of the #TRYHARDs that have already been documented, this kid really isn’t that exceptional.  His academic haul is still pretty good, but it’s hard to keep up in the game, when there are some who have doubled his scholarship dollars, and/or number of acceptances, like the one who could boast about having an acceptance from every single one of the 50 United States.

Normally, I’m at the point in the #SZN where I just want to skip writing about all of the #TRYHARDs once the truly exceptional ones have come out, but in this case, it’s the article itself that I want to nitpick about and provide me with some inspiration to blather some words out:

A graduating senior from Torrey Pines High School has accomplished what some might consider impossible — earning over $3 million in scholarships.

Impossible?  $3M?  I know Torrey Pines, California is basically akin to paradise, but these so-called journalists need to look at the world outside of their own, because not only is $3M possible, there’s already been at least one teen who has amassed $6M in scholarships this #SZN alone.

The lack of credentials and failure to name drop any of the acceptances other than the one he selected lends to imply that many of them weren’t very prestigious or impressive, and comes off as one of those #TRYHARDs that actually didn’t #TRYHARD as much as they were just good at filling out online forms and getting what I’m guessing are free applications.

It’s also funny to me that someone in this part of California is even in a position to need to be applying to every school under the sun, because that chunk of land slightly north of San Diego is home to some gorgeous earth, that I also imagine probably costs the arms and legs of several generations’ worth of wealth to be living there.  I have a hard time believing that there are people who actually live out there who are in positions to be needing scholarships, but I suppose while I’ve been thinking about money fervently over the last few weeks, the wealthy don’t stay wealthy by being frivolous, they’re usually wealthy because they’re often times good at finding other people to pick up the check instead of themselves.

Whatever though, good on this #TRYHARD and I use that term lightly on account of comparing him to others in the game, for getting accepted into a buttload of schools, and of course picking a fairly mid one to actually go to, in Howard University.  I’m sure it’ll be an interesting culture shock to go from the vast picturesque paradise of Torrey Pines to going to school in the dump of Washington DC.

#TRYHARDSZN2025: This, is going to be my favorite story this #SZN

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Trent Crimm, the Independent: braggadocious teen mogul goes viral after being rejected by nearly all applied colleges, in spite of monumental qualifications

I’m just going to go out on a limb here and say that I don’t think any story for the rest of the #SZN is going to top this one.  Sure, the #TRYHARD only applied to 18 schools, but he was rejected by 15 of them, despite having incredible qualifications as far as grades, accomplishments and frankly, life experiences went.

What we have here, is probably one of the greatest examples in history of how the wrong attitude and approach can absolutely shitcan your chances of acceptance in the real world, because if you were to take the time to read this article and read his college essay, that he thinks he’s so important as to call his personal statement, it becomes absolutely crystal clear to why this he was rejected by nearly every school he applied to, despite having excellent grades, tests well, and the intelligence and savvy to become a young entrepreneur of a successful and profitable app.

Many have already pointed out and dissected all of the numerous reasons to why this #TRYHARD was shot down in such embarrassingly overwhelming fashion, but it really boils down to the fact that his college essay absolutely turned off just about every single recruiter with any pull or power to accept.

He basically shits on the whole notion of going to college, proclaims he had no intention of going to college, and sees college as simply ‘a rite of passage’ for teenagers growing up.  Absolutely no college in America would want to admit some kid who has no real aspirations once they’re in the door, and comes off as a massive flight-risk of dropping out, because he already has success and earning potential in his life right now.

It feels like he’s watched too many rite of passage movies, where plots of claimed that in order to stand out in the college application process, one has to be bold, take chances, and tell an incredible story.  As insufferably braggadocious his essay is, it’s extremely well written, reads well and tells a story, but the fact of the matter is that real life isn’t a movie, and there’s a level of vanilla, boring decorum that is expected, and frankly required, when doing things like applying to colleges or jobs. 

Proclaiming your disinterest for college and then bragging about all the reasons why you feel that way before saying “but oh wait, college is a rite of passage so I guess I should do it” wasn’t the right choice, and I’m honestly more flabbergasted at the fact that this #TRYHARD didn’t have anyone in his life to give him the guidance or advice that, yo, maybe this essay isn’t the right approach. 

I got the vibe that this kid has probably been raised with little emperor syndrome, which is pretty common in lots of Chinese and Middle Eastern cultures, where the first born son is basically invincible from criticism and coddled and sheltered from real world scenarios, and if he even sought any guidance about his essay, was probably told it was great and to run with it.  Oops.

What’s funnier is the fact that this #TRYHARD took his beef to the internet, with the implication being that he genuinely thought the collective internet would really be on his side once he made his story public.  As tone-deaf and clearly blind to understanding how the college application process works, he’s clearly as clueless to how the internet works, and in no time flat, he’s been dismantled, dissected and picked apart by the internet, with as much success finding people who sympathize with him as he was accepted into schools.

On a side note, yeah the #TRYHARD biffed on all of the Ivies he tried to get into, but kind of a low-blow by the Independent to throw shade at the schools he did get into, calling Georgia Tech, the U and Texas “less prestigious” schools.  I mean, they are less prestigious schools as far as not being Ivy League, but they’re all solid educational institutions, with excellent specific programs, and all flush with cash on account of robust athletic programs.  And they all clearly were capable of looking past his shit attitude and see the potential, and gave him the green light, when better or equally qualified applicants probably didn’t.

I know I take shots at Georgia Tech all the time, but there’s no denying the school is among the top engineering schools in the country, and it might have the name value of MIT, but it’s no slouch as far as its educational credentials are concerned.

Frankly, #TRYHARD here has two options – forego college like he believed he was destined to do, focus on his app and ecommerce acumen, and follow the path of Zuck and become wealth and something without a college degree.  Or, attend Georgia Tech and get an excellent education, go to Texas and soak in the college sport and immersive college atmosphere, or go to the U, where he’d be living in Miami and lean into Miami living.

As owned as he might have been in the college applications game, and on the internet, he’s still in a very enviable position overall.  He has acceptances to some “less prestigious” but reputable schools, basically his own business, and he’s still just 18 years old.  There’s a tremendous time for him to learn and grow and grow the fuck up, and this would be a critical year and good basis for him to punt on 2025, take a gap year and try again the next year, and find some humility and perhaps use this experience as a means to write an essay that’s not quite so insufferable as much as demonstrating the experience of being humbled and growing from it.

Either way, who doesn’t love a good story of some dumbass getting owned?  And even better that it falls within the realm of #TRYHARDSZN, and ultimately is an opposite-story of instead of some #TRYHARD getting into 155 schools and amassing millions in cumulative scholarship offers, it’s someone who got rejected by a bunch of schools, and entirely because of his own stupidity.