Private colleges were biased against friend

I am writing in response to Nicholas Mendola's point about the elimination of private schools in his column ("The beer and the dream," Feb. 9). I could not agree more and here's why.

I attended a public high school in Central New York. One of my very good friends is one of the most intelligent individuals anyone will ever meet. During our senior year of high school he was asked to take a practice nationwide biology exam. He did so well on it that some association dealing with biology wrote to him telling him to take the actual exam. He placed third in the nation on that exam and then won a free trip to Washington, D.C. that only the top 20 high school students in America go to.

At this test he placed third again in the entire country and represented the United States of America in Australia at a two-week worldwide competition. He placed seventh in the world, and third again in the United States. Unfortunately for him he had already been rejected by MIT, Harvard, Yale and others because apparently his public high school 100 overall average throughout all four years, a five on seven AP exams, playing two sports, and participating in a few school activities was just not enough.

Luckily for Princeton they only wait-listed him and later accepted him after he won the medal in the worldwide competition. It's an absolute shame that such an individual could be rejected into biology programs at these institutions. Apparently they found smarter kids to go to their schools, AKA kids that could pay the entire semester's bill and not need financial aid.