What would you imagine one would need to do to ensure themselves an entry into Stanford University? Well, answering their question with a meaningful answer and repeating the answer a hundred times over is an option and a tried and tested one at that now. No, we’re not kidding you.
When 18-year old high school senior Ziad Ahmed went out to fill his application for the Stanford he was asked a question that seems fairly simple to answer. The question was: ‘what matters to you, and why?’. Now, while this seems like a very easy answer to make, it is no mystery that a university as prestigious would not take you in fora generic answer to their seemingly simple question.
So Ziad Ahmed wrote ‘#Black Lives Matter’ and he wrote this a hundred times over in his application. Guess what happened next? Stanford send in his letter of acceptance and the boy secured himself an admission. Ahmed says this was the only way he found to highlight how police misused force when black people were in the scene. Stanford ranks this as one of the most brilliant answers they received. Here’s his tweet on the letter.
I submitted this answer in my @Stanford application, & yesterday, I was admitted…#BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/R5YxM77bWL
— Ziad Ahmed (@ziadtheactivist) April 1, 2017
His admission into Stanford isn’t the only achievement to his credit though. The boy is on MTV’s ‘Top 9 Teens Changing the World’ and Business Insider’s ‘Top 15 Young Prodigies’. He’s interned with Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign, met Trevor Noah, delivered a TedX talk regarding the stereotypes people attach to Muslims and how such ideas can be dangerous, and has attended the White House ‘iftaar’ dinner. Oh and he’s also gotten to write for Huffington Post.
Yes he’s got a lot on his platter and probably a lot more to come. What you know now is that to get into Stanford you’d have to be gutsy enough to put what you believe in as your answer to their questions.
