New Jersey

NJ Teen Writes ‘#BlackLivesMatter' 100 Times on College Essay, Gets In

The essay question that prompted the response asked, "What matters to you, and why?"

What to Know

  • New Jersey Teen, Ziad Ahmed, wrote "#blacklivesmatter" 100 times on his Stanford application.
  • Stanford University accepted the high school senior student.
  • The teen activist has also been accepted into Princeton University and Yale University.

New Jersey teen Ziad Ahmed wrote "#blacklivesmatter" 100 times on his application to Stanford University and to his surprise, Stanford accepted. 

Ahmed, a senior at Princeton Day School in Princeton, New Jersey, tweeted a screenshot of the essay and acceptance letter Saturday afternoon with the caption "I submitted this answer in my @Stanford application, & yesterday, I was admitted... #BlackLivesMatter"

Since Saturday, the tweet has garnered over 3,000 retweets and 7,000 likes. 

The essay question that prompted the response asked, "What matters to you, and why?"

After gaining attention for his acceptance to Stanford, Ahmed tweeted "it's important to note that this response was one answer on one application. Not my college essay or etc. There's a lot more to it." 

"Also, I want to clarify that I know this one answer on one application does not qualify as 'activism,'" he said. "This is a statement, not work." 

Stanford University confirmed Ziad's acceptance to NBC News but declined to further discuss the student's application.

Ahmed told Mic.com, "It's critical to realize that one-fourth to one-third of the Muslim community in America are black ... and to separate justice for Muslims from justices for the black community is to erase the realities of the plurality of our community."

Ahmed is also the founder of Redefy, an organization centered around defying stereotypes, and JUV Consulting, centered on youth counseling. 

The teen activist has also been accepted into Princeton University and Yale University.

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