The best from a clutch of Asian super-kid stories. This from Noah Millman.

“John—My senior year of high school, I had a girlfriend who was Chinese.

She was terribly smart, a Westinghouse finalist. She was a shoo-in to get into every school she applied to. Well, she decided she wanted to go to Stanford, partly because it had a fabulous neuroscience department (her field of interest), partly because of the weather, and partly because it was on the other side of the country from her parents.

“Well, her parents had a problem with this, because, you see, everyone back in Taiwan knew that the best university in the world was Harvard. How could her daughter shame them by going to a second-rate university, particularly if she actually got *in* to Harvard (which she did)?

“That year, the Westinghouse people took all the finalists on a trip to China for a month. So, while their daughter was away, my then-girlfriend’s parents drove up to Cambridge, and pleaded with the Dean of Admissions at Harvard to let their daughter rescind her reject and accept a spot at Harvard. Naturally, the Dean assented. They then called up Stanford and told the admissions office there that, regretfully, their daughter had changed her mind and decided not to attend Stanford after all.

“When their daughter returned from China a month later, it was too late to undo her parents handiwork. So she went to Harvard.

“We’re not in touch, so I don’t know how she feels about her parents these days. But I rather think when they get old enough to be thinking about what kind of nursing home their daughter will install them in, they should worry that they banked just a little too much on traditional Chinese filial piety.”

Great story. This HarvardGirl diary entry of mine from last year is also pertinent.