Did this student get rejected from Ivy League schools because he is White?
How a viral X/Twitter video is not what it seems
(VultusNews) – A video being used by certain segments of the Right-Wing as evidence of discrimination against white people in college admission is gaining millions of views on X (formally Twitter).
The video shows Gideon Trenary opening emails from the Ivy League universities he applied to for Fall 2023 admission. He graduated Valedictorian (out of a class of 500), had a weighted 5.1 GPA (that is not a typo) at the time of applying to the schools, an ACT score of 35, was Class Vice-President, and took all the AP courses he could (he could not remember how many when I spoke to him) with scores of 4 or 5s on all the AP exams he took. He got rejected from all of them.
The video was posted on Gideon’s TikTok in early 2023 and was posted by the X (formally Twitter) account of Lauren Witzke, who ran for the U.S. Senate in Delaware in 2020 against incumbent Chris Coons, on April 4 2023. Her tweet says “>Have a GPA of 5.1 >Have an ACT score of 35 >Be a White Male in America ACCESS=DENIED,” with approx. 4.2 million views at the time of writing.
The video was posted again on May 5 of this year on the X (formally Twitter) account of “iamyesyouareno” that says “This is how white privilege works in nowadays DEI society. They’re literally mocking you” and has approx. 8.1 million views at the time of writing.
Many in the comments under those posts say Gideon was not likely to get admitted to any Ivy League based off his qualifications alone due to the high bar the Ivy League sets for admission. Gideon himself told me he did not expect to get into any of the schools but wanted to try anyway. In fact, he said he did not seriously answer the questions on some of the applications but did take all the other applications seriously. The essay he submitted was completed in two days and was not his best, he said.
How can someone get a 5.0+ GPA? He said his high school added points based off the number of Honors and AP courses taken, and the scores of the AP exams if 3 or higher. He clarified that his ACT score was the “superscore” which is “the average of your best scores from each subject from multiple test attempts.”
He also said the video was meant to be funny, not serious. When asked if he believed he did not get accepted because of his race and sex, he said no. He did not consent, or like, his video being used in a political manner. He said he “got a lot of hate” for the videos being used in that context and fears his reputation was harmed.
Ivy Leagues typically have an acceptance rate of 4-6%.
Gideon completed his first year at The University of Oklahoma as a double Accounting and Finance major on a full-ride scholarship in May.