Snobbery? On my internets?
Most would agree that the worst threads on Comment is Free occur beneath every posting on Israel and Palestine, as the interest groups on either side flock via Google Alerts or GIYUS to commence battle whilst boring everyone else to tears. There are other posts that attract high amounts of criticism, and excluding ones by radical feminists, which usually deserve it in spades, it almost always seems to be when the person in question writing is below the age of 30. This was true of the Max Gogarty meme, who although a poor writer and son of a hack hardly deserved the scorn which was poured on his head from all across the internet.
Enter Majid Ahmed, a state school student from Bradford who achieved 4 A grades at A-level, but who unfortunately was convicted of burglary when he was 15, on the basis of which he had his offer of acceptance to study medicine from Imperial College London rescinded. Having admitted his mistake, in which he was a bystander rather than someone who participated in any actual robbery, most would accept that shouldn't bar him from a place on a college course. The crowd on CiF of course has other ideas:
Snooty individuals on CiF not acting like vindictive cretins, perhaps?
There are of course a few lone voices like this ahem, rather sensible chap:
And we of course wonder why the youth of today are how they are.
Enter Majid Ahmed, a state school student from Bradford who achieved 4 A grades at A-level, but who unfortunately was convicted of burglary when he was 15, on the basis of which he had his offer of acceptance to study medicine from Imperial College London rescinded. Having admitted his mistake, in which he was a bystander rather than someone who participated in any actual robbery, most would accept that shouldn't bar him from a place on a college course. The crowd on CiF of course has other ideas:
But would I want to come to you with my health problems? Probably not.
Majid - you sound self-pitying.
There is no word of any sense of personal shame or of reform, only whinging in this article.
The place will go to someone who was too busy studying to get a criminal conviction.
Snooty individuals on CiF not acting like vindictive cretins, perhaps?
There are of course a few lone voices like this ahem, rather sensible chap:
Majid, ignore all the sour and bitter people on here that seem to think that committing a criminal offence when you're young and stupid ought to preclude you from having something resembling a life for the rest of your days; most of them probably did things mightily similar to you at the same age but didn't get caught. Re-applying to another college is a good idea however, as Imperial clearly aren't interested in your potential and only see you as a potential liability.
And we of course wonder why the youth of today are how they are.
Labels: a-levels, bloggocks, Comment is Free, Imperial College, Majid Ahmed, snobbery, vindictiveness
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A mixture of "how clever am I!" bragging and self-indulgent whinging.
Very typical of emotionally immature teenagers, of course.
Someone with so little judgement as to hang out with the wrong crowd in the first place, let alone break into someone's home, is not innocent and is no way mature enough to be a doctor.
People respect others who admit their mistakes. Admit you did something utterly stupid and screwed up. Your whining that you were tricked into it sounds like a six year old kid who has been caught nicking sweets.
You claim your guilty plea was an attempt to preserve your family's pride...nope, not buying it, how is a criminal conviction less bad than going to trial and being declared innocent?
Given that entry to medical school is so competitive, Imperial have every right to withdraw the offer. Throwing a public trantrum that it's not faaaiiir proves them right.
Grow up - you are not entitled to anything because you want it, or even because you worked hard for it. Study something else at uni, and if you really still want to be a doctor in a few years when you've grown up a bit, apply for graduate entry. It may not be the career for you anyway.