Date: August 11th, 2009 9:59 AM Author: translucent adventurous dysfunction piazza Subject: Will Kate McLaughlin lose her lesbo cherry at Northwestern?
Will Kate McLaughlin lose her lesbo cherry at Northwestern?
Date: August 10th, 2009 3:57 PM Author: Diverse Flickering Volcanic Crater
liberal arts major with no particular interest in the law, admits she has other passions, and vague ideas about helping out with liberal causes? sounds like a typical law student.
Date: August 10th, 2009 4:00 PM Author: Confused garrison
When her IQ was tested at age 7, it topped 190, her parents said. (The average person has an IQ of 100; individuals with scores over about 150 are generally regarded as geniuses.)
People need to stop reporting ratio IQs. This bitch can't be above 150.
Date: August 10th, 2009 4:06 PM Author: Confused garrison
Generally if it's a well-normed test like the Wechesler, childhood IQ will be a good predictor of adult IQ. The problem is that dipshits use old, practically useless instruments like the SB-LM to assess very gifted kids. Ratio IQs simply aren't real IQ scores, and people need to stop pretending they are
Date: August 10th, 2009 4:31 PM Author: Fragrant telephone
Typically, yes. But some social retards are just savvy enough to realize that they would never get in if they interviewed, and therefore, they opt out. That's what I did and I even got a large scholarship despite being both below median and completely unlikeable!
When faced with Asian-American accomplishment, there's nothing loads of white Americans like to do like dismiss it. Today, let's start out with a little bit about me.
I'm a writer. First and foremost, I'm a writer. I write fantasy, science fiction and horror: specifically, I most often write historically based fantasy set in 1820s England -- because the world needs more historical fantasy that takes the messed-up and oligarchic nature of European imperialism seriously rather than further celebrating how wonderful and clever it was to be rich and pretty and white and rich in the 19th century, and clever, and witty, and rich, and pretty. Also because I like cravats, otherworlds and Judeo-Christian myth. I love fantasy. I love comics: I love fantasy comics, DC's Vertigo imprint and many of its titles being near and dear to my heart. I'm a very budding artist (possibly an embryonic artist, or perhaps a zygote artist). In other words, creativity in some form or another is my passion and my life, and has been as long as I've been old enough to know what I want out of life. I participate in Yuletide every year, though I hope to God none of you go look my older fics up after this.
I've also had a school background of academic acceleration. And I'm Asian. And I'm good at languages, I'm good at math -- not wonderful at math, but good enough at it. I like logic puzzles. I try to take a reasonable approach to problem-solving, like any other person. I try to be level-headed, like any person trying to get by in this world.
As you can see, I devoted a whole rambling paragraph to talking about my creative interests, and I devoted a pretty short one to talking about -- let's say, to use a cringeworthily outdated and oversimplifying pop psychology term -- my "left-brained" interests.
And yet I come to the same discovery over and over again: people love to dismiss the academic and professional achievements of Asian-Americans of every shape and size, and people especially love to dismiss it with the word logical. Or hard-working. Or any number of other words, and they all boil down to the same thing -- automaton. Robot. Time and time again white people dismiss the intelligence, the talent, the creativity of Asian people with these words -- "pointing out" that "Asians are only good at math," or that Asians are only good at science, and the only reason why they're good at these things is that they're Vulcans hardwired to compute (which has drastically taken away from their other human capacities, of course) -- ignoring the economic reasons why immigrant Asian families might encourage their second-gen kids to study lucrative subjects, of course, ignoring the all-around high scores. It's robotics. No other explanation. They all do math, anyway. Just human calculators. Just automatons. Just Spock, with pocket protectors and SAT academies.
I point to this astoundingly atrocious CNN article, Why right-brainers will rule this century, for an example: In "A Whole New Mind," he explains that one of the trademarks of the Conceptual Age is the outsourcing of traditional white-collar jobs such as law, accounting, and engineering to less-expensive overseas workers, particularly in Asia. But as he points out, you can't outsource creativity. Not to Asians you can't! They ain't born with it!
As you can see, as soon as an Asian starts doing something, it becomes a robot job. Even if it's the practice of law. Even if it's engineering.
My last name is McLaughlin and I have brown hair, so I have the lucky privilege of more people being willing to believe that my accomplishments are my own, that my ideas are my own, that I might actually just be a smart human being. However, my mother's last name was Kwon and I have that unlucky old friend, the epicanthic fold, so I'm still faced with legions of people willing to self-justify themselves into believing that verbal acuity is just another form of Asian Spock -- for real. People who have the nerve to say, "well, writing isn't really art." People who have the nerve to say, "well, you don't play music as an artist." People who have the nerve to say, you scored that high because you're Asian -- you skipped those grades because you're Asian -- you're good at that because you're Asian -- well, you had an Asian parent (a slavedriver) -- your mom's a tough parent (a dragon lady) -- you're Asian -- you're a robot -- you're Asian, you're Asian --
Maybe that guy scored higher than you on the SAT because he wasn't raised with the complacent knowledge that he could get into a good old boys' club whether he was Einstein or dumb as a post. Maybe that Asian engineer won the Nobel because he had a great idea. Maybe that girl has better grades than you because she deserves them. And maybe, just maybe -- maybe it doesn't take a robot to kick your lazy, self-satisfied, entitled ass to the curb anyway.
There are two things I could be referring to here. One is leprikosia, a nasty-sounding disease I am not personally familiar with except possibly from Oregon Trail II, or maybe that was scarlet fever. Given that this is not International Blog Against Flaviviri Week, it is much more likely I am referring to the other thing, the ugly elephant in the room that I'm pretty sure you all know very well, the plague of fandom, the curse of California (but not just), the seedy underpinnings of a lot of muchly-glorified interracial dating. You know what I'm talking about. Yellow fever. Asian fetishism.
It is a tired old complaint, and it tires me that it is still socially acceptable in so many places. Certainly one still gets uncomfortable glances and a reputation for a girl that's not a very good sport if one complains about it too much. But it comes in many shapes and sizes so I feel the need to call it out again right now: because a lot of people still don't get it. A lot of white guys still think it's okay to live out their submissive Asian girl fantasies through their fixations on anime porn. A lot of lulzers still think it's funny to use "Japanese schoolgirl" as a byword for big-breasted, oversexualized and stupid. A lot of guys want a China doll. A lot of guys join the JET program with the hopes of finding a magical land of sexually exploitable, sexually available China dolls, and lulz further at the sexually degenerate, backwards land they find Japan (and Korea, and China, and East Asia altogether, because they're all the same thing) to be, ripe for their plunder. I'm pretty sure most of you know this shit isn't okay, but in case you don't: it's not. It's racist. That is the nasty secret of many mixed-race children, and it's a tired old thing too, and not such a secret -- being the product of a racist fetish and a racist ideal. But I don't think I need to tell you about the ugly American white guy with sweaty palms over idealized Asian women, because people are well enough familiar with him.
The other nasty secret is that women are guilty of this too, and particularly women in fandom -- in anime fandom and then in yaoi fandom. If you, white chick, have ever exclaimed wonderingly at how beautiful and androgynous! Asian men are, so different from white men: you were being racist. If you have ever marveled that Asian stars are so much more adorable, so much more queer-chic and pretty than American movie stars: you were being racist. If you have ever turned East Asia in your head into your own personal emasculated yaoi wonderland, you were being racist.
Asian men are not your gay boyfriends that go with your handbag (and neither are gay men), they are not your pretty fetish objects -- they aren't any prettier than your own fucking men, nor any more androgynous. They don't exist for you to emasculate. They don't exist for you to idealize. They are not your fantasy boyfriends, they are not a badly-translated boys' love comic, they will not love you long time either and they will not love each other long time and they are not bishonen. Every time you have gone to Japan/Korea/China/Magical Asian Fantasyland and marveled at how delicate the men were and how awesome it was that you couldn't tell the schoolgirls and schoolboys apart, you were being racist. (And you were probably fucking lying, at that, or need some seriously new glasses.) The systematic undermining of Asian masculinity is an old pastime, and by doing this you are partaking in it. Stop it. Stop it all. Shut down everything. East Asia does not exist to mass-produce your China dolls. East Asia does not exist to mass-produce your bishonen.
East Asia is comprised of human beings with cultures that are not oddities, souvenirs, or bizarro fantasy worlds, and of people who do not appreciate being fetishized, sexualized, emasculated, exoticized, othered and generally dicked over -- and it has produced a diaspora of people who don't appreciate this either, myself included. So if you do this: stop it now. Put it down. Put a halt to it, and I hope that if you have a sense of common decency, you have a sense of common shame that you ever perpetrated this to begin with.
Date: August 11th, 2009 9:22 AM Author: translucent adventurous dysfunction piazza
LULZ
On an unrelated and minor note, this LJ's earned a bit of attention due to some innocuous cooperation with a local newspaper and some very unexpected attention from the blogosphere. Those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about need not concern yourselves with it! It appears I'm getting stalked by some rather creepy people, so on the advice of a friend I'm turning off anon for a while. Sorry about that, but I'd rather focus on getting myself and my stuff to Chicago all in one piece until this whole thing blows over forgotten.
Date: August 10th, 2009 10:08 PM Author: Seedy bespoke generalized bond
I don't get why people think these test scores and academic achievements at such a young age are all that impressive. Almost ANY 170+ scorer at a top law school could have done teh same thing--it's just that they didn't feel any pressure to get things done sooner than the average. 1480 at 11 years old? People don't get all that much smarter throughout the teens. If you got a 172 at 21 years old, you almost surely could have gotten it at 16 if not earlier, given the same amount of studying.
Date: August 11th, 2009 9:04 AM Author: Ruby macaca
What the fuck? Are you two fucking retarded?
19 is pretty fucking old. Being 19 does not give you the license to be a fucking pathetic douchebag. I got 174+ when I was 18, I am pretty sure I wasn't such a douchebag.
[IBARW] It's Not The Same Thing (Or, Leave Your Irish Ancestors In Their Graves)
* Jul. 27th, 2009 at 6:12 PM
and we all love flamethrowers.
Hi-ho, hi-ho, to IBARW we go. For those who don't know, it's International Blog Against Racism Week 'round here in these parts and it's taking place this year between July 27 and August 2. I was going to lie and say I didn't have anything to say in last year's, but that would've been a lie. The truth is I am shit at keeping track of time and this was the first time I knew the dates of IBARW before it was over. This time I lucked out and remembered, so today we (I) are (am) going to be discussing a very serious, contentious, highfalutin' sacrosanct topic here.
Let's talk about the Irish.
I'm not meaning to address the Irish people in Ireland, I'm going to get that right out there to begin with. I am the first to admit that I don't know the first goddamn thing about what it is like to be an Irish person in Ireland, or an Irish person in Northern Ireland, or an Irish person in England -- in fact, I am going to get it out there that I don't know the first goddamn thing about what it's like to be an Irish person, so I'm not going to even begin to talk about that.
My name is Katie McLaughlin and I am an American of Irish descent. Half, to be correct, much like many other people of Irish descent here in the States (the other half is Korean, much like not quite as many other people of Irish descent here in the States). Nevertheless, the good Christian name of McLaughlin is written down on my birth certificate; my father and his siblings were baptized in the Roman Catholic Church (and so were my mother and hers, by the by, but that's neither here nor there). I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon and spent my adolescence in southern California.
So I think I speak from a position of layman's authority when I say that I've noticed that the United States of America, when it comes to discussions of race, is plagued by a damned unfortunate disease -- and that disease happens to be white Americans of Irish descent who feel the ceaseless urge to chip in to any discussion of racism with, "my great-great-grandfather was persecuted by the English!" Or "The Irish didn't used to be white!" Or, shudderingly, "It used to be worse to be Irish than to be black!" Irish, Irish, Irish. Irish Irish Irish.
From one American of Irish descent to other Americans of Irish descent, let me say this loud and clear: shut up. It's not the same thing.
The experience of being a white American in the 2009 U.S. is in no way comparable to the experience of being a person of color in the 2009 U.S. You are not a factory worker in 1890, you are not waiting in line in Ellis Island to have your name changed to something more palatable, here, now, at this very moment. You, white American of Irish descent, are a white American. You didn't see slavery fled, O glorious dead, when you fell in the foggy dew. You didn't steal Trevelyan's corn so the young might see the morn. So while bringing up that, in a time past, some people related to you by blood did suffer oppression may technically be factually true, it is also highly irrelevant when talking about present-day racism and might also be considered derailing or douchebaggery.
It's self-centered, is what it is. It's irrelevant. Like it or not, to be white in the U.S. is to have the privilege of being unmarked, and those of us with Mac or O' in front of our names enjoy that privilege right now just as much as those of us named Smith or Walker (and enjoy it more than many people named Smith or Walker, for that matter). When discussing the racism, personal and institutional, suffered by people of color in the U.S., it's basic manners to stop and think whether your great-great-grandfather's experience at Ellis Island is really and truly relevant to the discussion at hand, or whether you're using it to try and escape facing up to the pervasive privilege you are fortunate enough to have and people of color are not. There is a time and a place to discuss the historical oppression of the Irish; in fact, there are many times and places, and I imagine that's for Irish people to say, not me.
But that time and place is not to derail a discussion of racism. That time and place is not to put down or distract from the oppression of others. And that time and place is most definitely not to deny the fact that you, as a white American, have the good fortune of white privilege, and no amount of flared-up St. Patrick's Day distant ethnic identity will change that.
So have some class, leave the Potato Famine at home, leave your Irish ancestors in their graves, and ask yourself, truly and honestly, if you suffer from racism against yourself on a day-to-day life-changing basis. And if you don't: don't make the comparison. Because it's not the same thing.
Date: August 11th, 2009 10:07 AM Author: translucent adventurous dysfunction piazza
might want to point out this tidbit to /b/...
"4chan is populated by lulzy, immature, sometimes funny, occasionally hateful but mostly just stupid people saying offensive shit because they don't think words have any particular consequences"
Date: August 11th, 2009 9:43 AM Author: Fragrant telephone
Explain. Its a lesson for those interested in law. Law is a very public profession and what you do even before going into law is subject to public scrutiny in a manner that wouldn't really exist in other professions. If she practiced what she preached and pursued writing then no one would be making this thread now. But she can consider this her welcome to the legal community and also her notice that its advisable to tone the douchebaggery down.
Date: August 11th, 2009 10:08 AM Author: walnut crusty clown
Anyone who writes a public blog opens themselves up to this sort of harsh criticism. It's not as if we found her phone number and started harassing her.
Date: August 11th, 2009 10:13 AM Author: Fragrant telephone
Exactly. She's made herself a public figure by publicly disclosing the information we're discussing. Its not like someone here disclosed a private AIM chat while outting her.
Date: September 29th, 2009 12:23 PM Author: Stimulating Center Crotch
Would you come to the defense of a 19 year old white male matriculating to NU who had foolishly written some highly inflammatory and (to a lot of people) very offensive "Race realism" articles on his private blog? Or would you sit back and say nothing and secretly smile?
I stopped by B&N today and discovered once again something I never seem to let myself believe: I don't like nonfiction. It's a little damning, not liking nonfiction. You tend to think you can't be a real curious person if you find little enjoyment or interest in reading nonfiction books in general -- it's sort of the book equivalent of never watching the news. It's something that demands, entertain me now, and implies you aren't interested in the state of the world past or present. It's especially damning for a writer, who by some schools of thought ought to be studying primary sources of human existence -- that is, nonfiction of various sorts -- nearly as much as they study secondary sources -- that is, fiction.
But I don't. I don't even like nonfiction on subjects I know I am interested in, on which I could do large amounts of research, but pertaining to which I can't bring myself to sit through an entire book of narrative nonfiction. I was thinking about this in the bookstore today and how the only reason I got through half of Guns, Germs and Steel was that the only other options were even more boring. And I tried to pick it up in the bookstore and found I couldn't.
You know, it wasn't that it was boring. It wasn't; it was an interesting subject, interestingly written. So why is it that someone who finds no tedium (okay, comparatively little tedium) in the Latin subjunctive can't bring herself to read nonfiction? Why can someone who spends hours on Wikipedia be so utterly unwilling to sit through In Cold Blood?
I think I found the answer, or at least an answer, talking to [info]neherenia about it. This is what I said to her:
I think it's this. Nonfiction falls into the uncanny valley between narrative and information. I'm interested in information, but oftentimes nonfiction is too slow-paced and goes on overly specific tangents about minute details for the sake of storytelling/interestingness; however, it is never quite interesting enough to actually be a story. So it doesn't actually help me that much in a real understanding of the topic, and it's not as interesting as a book.
Does anyone else have this experience? I know others of you read nonfiction, but I'm even more interested to hear who else doesn't and wonders why they don't and passively pretends they do: because let's face it, I do it, you do it, we've all done it for something, particularly if we majored in literature.
Un: Thank you all for your help! I wound up putting down my deposit at Northwestern, so that's where I'll be. I am going to a school that calls its online student portal Esqwire and its acapella group Habeas Chorus. Lord have mercy.
Deux: My life drawing class starts next Monday and I am, err, actually more nervous about that than I am about graduate school. I think it's that I feel rather less qualified. Any final words of wisdom? Should I take it pass/fail since I am not an artist by any means? Can I even pass this thing?
she seems like a nascent clevergirl. to come into full bloom she needs to learn how to take herself WAY less seriously (and throwing in an occasional self-deprecating remark to an otherwise immensely self-satisfied screed does not satisfy this)
Date: August 11th, 2009 7:26 PM Author: walnut crusty clown
if anything it proves she is less intelligent then a good % of the board. many of them could 180 rape the test if they could get through the material that fast. she's just got an eidetic memory and can process information quickly. that doesn't mean she understand the information she retains better than anyone else.
Date: August 11th, 2009 6:09 PM Author: light church
no kidding.
The pissiness that rears its head on this board at times is irritating. So her blog is a little smug and loquacious...who cares? She seems a lot more interesting than most 19 year olds. I doubt I'd hang out with her, but I've no interest in giving her grief.
Date: August 11th, 2009 7:18 PM Author: contagious gay wizard
August 10, 2009, 1:50 pm
At 19, With College Behind Her, Law School Beckons
By Jacques Steinberg
While senior year of high school or freshman year of college can sneak up on students and parents alike, such milestones don’t tend to arrive as quickly as they did on the academic journey of Kate McLaughlin. Her path might best be likened to that of a speeding truck on an interstate highway.
At 19, an age when many of her peers are starting their college careers, Ms. McLaughlin is about to enroll in law school, according to an article in the Orange County Register. Here is how the article, which appeared last Friday, opens:
She skipped six grades, enrolled in community college at age 12 and graduated from UC San Diego at 17.
Only one class in her entire academic career has been challenging, she says – Calculus II, at age 13 – and now she’s headed to Northwestern University this fall for law school.
Life seems good for Kate McLaughlin, who turned 19 last week.
“Schoolwork has always been easy for me,” said McLaughlin, an only child who lives with her mother and stepfather in Irvine. “It was skipping from easy work to more easy work. I’ve never had a feeling of, this is where I belong.”
For those teenagers in a rush to complete their academic careers, the odyssey of Ms. McLaughlin, of Irvine, Calif., might seem like a dream ride. But according to the article:
To say McLaughlin’s life has been easy – or that her parents haven’t struggled to raise a child who was constantly bored with school and couldn’t relate to her peers – would be to dismiss the painstaking, lonely path that McLaughlin has chartered.
She has been burdened all her life with finding a place that would fulfill her insatiable quest for knowledge, a learning environment where she wouldn’t feel like an intellectual oddity.
“I’m incredibly self-conscious about my age,” she said. “It’s funny. When I tell people how old I am, they always make the same comment: ‘Like Doogie Howser?’ ‘Yes, like Doogie Howser.’”
And, because McLaughlin is so smart, her parents have struggled to find a sympathetic ear, someone who understood the challenges they faced nurturing a child who wanted to grow up so fast.
The article raises lots of issues that would be familiar to gifted and talented children, and their families. Can readers of The Choice relate? Let us know what you think by using the comment box below.
A related article was posted today on abalawjournal.com. My thanks to my colleague John Schwartz, who covers legal issues for The Times, for bringing these articles to my attention.
Date: August 11th, 2009 7:19 PM Author: contagious gay wizard
August 11, 2009, 3:32 pm
Out of College at 17, and en Route to Law School at 19: A Father’s Perspective
By Jacques Steinberg
We’ve published more than 100 comments on our post yesterday about Kate McLaughlin, the California teenager who has already graduated from college and is en route to law school.
Some of you applauded her accomplishments, and her family’s willingness to allow her to fast-track her education. Others saw it as too much too soon. And still others weighed in on whether the law was an appropriate career choice. Many of you wrote that you could identify with Ms. McLaughlin.
Missing from the conversation — other than in the original article in the Orange County Register — were the voices of Ms. McLaughlin and her parents. Earlier today, though, we received a comment sent by Kate’s father, John McLaughlin. We then had a brief phone conversation in which he told me that some of the criticisms posted by readers echoed those that have been lobbed at the family for much of his daughter’s life.
“Ever since she skipped fourth grade, we’ve been hearing from people who question the wisdom of the path we’ve had her on,” Mr. McLaughlin, a software engineer, told me.
Here, in its entirety, is the comment he submitted:
I find the comments here interesting. Many express strong opinions as to whether she’s on the right track (presently or in the past). These comments are of little value since there was not enough information available in the article to support specific critiques of her situation. And assuming what is commonly true for many people is no assurance of it’s applicability to all people.
I do appreciate the general posts of congratulation and encouragement. We can all benefit from the best wishes of others.
It a nutshell, her experiences were FAR beyond the classroom acceleration and achievements. It included a fair amount of travel (including international), extra-curricular activities, theater classes, USA swim team competition (10-month seasons), classical piano (with regular performances) as well as, since going to UCSD, the development of a close circle of friends.
The result? A very passionate, knowledgeable, literate, socially responsible, moral and capable young woman who is still developing her life path, and for whom a law school education will be beneficial.
I am her dad and I am exceedingly proud of her in all respects, even when we don’t see eye-to-eye.
If you wish to keep this conversation going, you can do so using the comment box on our original post, or the box below.
Date: August 11th, 2009 7:22 PM Author: contagious gay wizard
Friday, August 7, 2009
Irvine teen heads to law school
Kate McLaughlin, who finished college at 17, will attend Northwestern Law.
By SCOTT MARTINDALE
The Orange County Register
Comments 23 | Recommend 6
IRVINE – She skipped six grades, enrolled in community college at age 12 and graduated from UC San Diego at 17.
Only one class in her entire academic career has been challenging, she says – Calculus II, at age 13 – and now she's headed to Northwestern University this fall for law school.
Life seems good for Kate McLaughlin, who turned 19 last week.
"Schoolwork has always been easy for me," said McLaughlin, an only child who lives with her mother and stepfather in Irvine. "It was skipping from easy work to more easy work. I've never had a feeling of, this is where I belong."
But to say McLaughlin's life has been easy – or that her parents haven't struggled to raise a child who was constantly bored with school and couldn't relate to her peers – would be to dismiss the painstaking, lonely path that McLaughlin has chartered.
She has been burdened all her life with finding a place that would fulfill her insatiable quest for knowledge, a learning environment where she wouldn't feel like an intellectual oddity.
"I'm incredibly self-conscious about my age," she said. "It's funny. When I tell people how old I am, they always make the same comment: 'Like Doogie Howser?' 'Yes, like Doogie Howser.'"
And, because McLaughlin is so smart, her parents have struggled to find a sympathetic ear, someone who understood the challenges they faced nurturing a child who wanted to grow up so fast.
"I get the brush-off from everyone," said her mother, Young Chae "Kay" Kwon, 49, a real estate investment broker. "I can't imagine how hard it's been for her to be constantly looked at with prejudice. … It's been a lot of stress; it's been really tough on me, and it's been really tough on her."
• • •
In a few weeks, McLaughlin will be starting law school at Northwestern's downtown Chicago campus.
It will be her second time living away from home. The independent-minded teen also lived on her own from age 15 to 17 while at UC San Diego, after convincing her parents she was ready for college life.
"I'm very happy for her, but I'm concerned about her age," Kwon said. "I have a lot of regrets. I wish I let her have a more relaxed time and have a more relaxed childhood. … But she really wants to do this."
McLaughlin said she is funding her education with student loans and her own money, insisting she doesn't want to rely on her parents anymore. She will live in a studio apartment a few blocks from the law school.
"I'm worried I'll hate law school because it will take up too much of my time on things I'm not interested in," said McLaughlin, who scored 174 out of 180 on her Law School Admission Test, or LSAT, with minimal preparation.
Talking to McLaughlin is at once disarming and demanding. She's outgoing and doesn't clutter her speech with big vocabulary words, but she's also quick-witted, a fast talker and unafraid to speak her mind.
She admits she sometimes loses her patience with people.
"The most frustrated I get is when I explain something to people and they don't get it," she said. "Sometimes I'm just like, 'Get it through your head! How difficult is this to understand?' That's what I struggle with a lot."
She's tutored for much of her life, often kids much older than she, and that's helped her to relate to others and, simultaneously, feel more comfortable with her abilities, her parents say. She spent much of this year working as a private tutor and for test preparation company Kaplan.
She says she's never taken the time to fully understand how her brain processes information, but notes that when she reads a book, she reads about half of the page at once – with full comprehension and retention. It should be a valuable skill in law school, she says.
McLaughlin is not sure yet what she wants to do with her law degree, but hopes it will help her to be more effective in lobbying for the social causes she feels passionately about – feminism, combatting racism, equal rights for gays and lesbians, and international humanitarianism.
"I'm an idealist; I want to change the world," she said. "I bleed blue; I'm a Democrat. I'm an ardent feminist. I'm big on LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) rights – Prop. 8 was a big issue for me."
About two weeks ago, she contributed to the online campaign International Blog Against Racism Week by writing three racism-related entries on her LiveJournal blog.
"People love to dismiss the academic and professional achievements of Asian-Americans of every shape and size, and people especially love to dismiss it with the word logical. Or hard-working. Or any number of other words," McLaughlin, who is half-Korean and half-Irish, said in a July 29 posting, "and they all boil down to the same thing – automaton. Robot."
• • •
Katheryn "Kate" McLaughlin was born Aug. 2, 1990, in Portland, Ore., to mother Kwon and father John McLaughlin. The pair met as students at Portland State University.
From a very young age, McLaughlin's parents knew their daughter was special. She could identify about 50 different species of whales and dolphins before she learned how to read, her father recalled – and she was reading by age 3.
"The things we needed to do to keep her stimulated – it was a full-time job for us," said John McLaughlin, 52, a software engineer who lives in Ladera Ranch. "Every six months, there was a big decision regarding Kate – where should she go to school? Should she stay here?"
When her IQ was tested at age 7, it topped 190, her parents said. (The average person has an IQ of 100; individuals with scores over about 150 are generally regarded as geniuses.)
"I was always very introverted and focused," Kate McLaughlin said. "My parents were worried I was autistic. I'd be watching ants crawling for very long periods of time."
Halfway through kindergarten, she was bumped up to first grade and put in her school's program for gifted students. She completed the second and third grades, and then skipped fourth, fifth and sixth. She spent about a month in seventh grade, then skipped again to high school.
She was just 11 when she enrolled in a college-level International Baccalaureate program at Columbia River High School in Vancouver, Wash. Still, she found herself bored and unchallenged.
"I thought the kids my age were stupid, as opposed to me being smart," she said. "I was a hell of a teacher's pet when I was a kid."
Kwon considered sending her daughter to the University of Washington, but resisted because of her age. The family of three instead relocated to Irvine, where Kwon's mother was living.
McLaughlin visited top-notch Northwood High School in Irvine, but decided to enroll full-time at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, while also taking classes at UC Irvine.
"I just felt high school was not the right learning environment," McLaughlin said. "I could either have gone back to high school at age 12 or gone to college at age 12."
McLaughlin's parents divorced shortly thereafter, although they remain close friends and say they're committed to working together to support their daughter.
At age 13, McLaughlin failed a class for the first time – Calculus II during a UC Irvine summer session.
"I got cocky," she said. "I just didn't really put the effort and time into the class, and it was a fast-moving class."
After community college, she transferred to UCSD, a campus she'd fallen in love with. She lived in a college dorm, had her first boyfriend by age 16 and graduated with an English degree and a 3.5 GPA.
"I'm incredibly lazy, amazingly lazy," she said, explaining her less-than-perfect GPA. "I'm a very good procrastinator. My best paper has been written in about 30 minutes. I learn to do the things I don't love very quickly."
• • •
After college, McLaughlin stumbled. Everything had been so easy for her, and she lost sight of how remarkable and accomplished she was, her parents said.
McLaughlin became reclusive and sank into depression, experiencing what she described as a "fairly serious loss of confidence."
"It's not as glorious as it sounds," she said of finishing college at such a young age. "People never take you seriously."
Her worried parents persuaded her to see a therapist – a huge blow to her sense of pride.
"I dislike asking for pity and taking pity," McLaughlin said. "But when you are very unhappy and considering some bad things, just being able to talk to people about what's wrong with you and not blame yourself is a big deal. It's not a shameful thing."
Therapy helped her regain her focus, McLaughlin said, and she decided last fall to apply to law school.
When she got into both Northwestern and Georgetown University, it was a huge confidence boost, her parents said.
McLaughlin won't be content, however, merely being a lawyer. It will keep the bills paid, she notes, but her true passion is creative writing. She wants to make a name for herself in the literary world as a science fiction writer.
At age 16, she was accepted into the acclaimed Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers' Workshop, a six-week training seminar that attracts some of the most brilliant minds of the genre.
Now she's writing short stories and working with a friend on a Web comic called "Under the Hill," which she describes as a dark political drama set in 19th century England.
"Writing and reading are my passions," McLaughlin said. "I get the most riled up discussing fiction."
Will a career in fiction writing maximize the use of her talents?
That's irrelevant, she says.
"I don't think writing is about talent; it's about passion and skill," she said. "You read constantly, self-critique, and improve. As long as you have the perfectionist drive and a voracious love for reading, writing is a skill you develop."
Date: August 11th, 2009 7:23 PM Author: contagious gay wizard
Kate McLaughlin
* Age: 19
* Residence: Irvine
* Education: English major at UC San Diego; biology major at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa
* Parents: Father, John McLaughlin, 52, of Ladera Ranch; mother, Young Chae "Kay" Kwon, 49, of Irvine
* Plans: Law school at Northwestern University this fall
* Career goal: Science fiction writer
* LSAT score: 165 (practice test, without preparation); 174 (actual exam, after preparation)
* SAT score: 780 verbal; 700 math (at age 11)
* Interests: Broadway musicals, blogging, social activism, fantasy and science fiction novels, comics, poetry
* Languages: English, Latin
* Favorite author: Terry Pratchett, a British fantasy novelist
* Books by her bedside: A stack that includes "The Broadview Anthology of Victorian Poetry and Poetic Theory"; "Fables: Legends in Exile" by Bill Willingham; "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin; "Nocturnes" by John Connolly
Date: August 11th, 2009 7:24 PM Author: contagious gay wizard
Young college freshmen
Enrolling at a four-year college or university at a young age is a rare occurrence across California. Only 42 students age 16 and under enrolled in the University of California and Cal State systems last fall, according to the California Postsecondary Education Commission, the state agency that oversees higher education.
At age 13, McLaughlin failed a class for the first time – Calculus II during a UC Irvine summer session.
This guy got 5 on AP calc when he was 10 and was authoring groundbreaking math papers while she was busy getting a 3.5 in liberal arts classes. Plus knows chemistry, physics, programming, speaks 4 languages, and plays the piano and cello.
190 can't be her actually IQ. No way she is even close.
Many people at top law schools could have finished high school and college early. But that would be silly. Who wants to miss a real college experience and all the fuckups, funniness, and drunkenness that comes with it.
That is a difficult comparison to come out on top of. However, the 3.5 and 165 (prior to prep) LSAT, not to mention *failing* Calculus II, are relevant facts.
(And not only taking the Putnam, but winning the darn thing.)
The SAT is an impressive data point, but that's the most noteworthy thing. The rest of the data does not stand out so much. (As compared with Reid, who pretty obviously could have gone to college at 11 but instead hung around, got home-schooled in college math, and dominated IMO and IOI, etc.) Even in his case, I don't know what he has produced in the math field, as a mathematician, since 2004.
Sounds about right. She had some somewhat impressive data points, but no substantive work. Substantive work to me shows actual high-level intelligence. College classes are really not tough, especially the liberal arts. Real smart kids don't just take college classes at a young age, they produce work that is well-beyond the scope of those classes.
Date: August 11th, 2009 7:44 PM Author: Histrionic judgmental lay hairy legs
She is FAR from a genius now...165 cold is good but by no means otherworldly. Kate McLaughlin to me seems like an entitled, insufferable bitch. Usually, supersmart people are more humble.
How the hell did she get a boyfriend? Dude must have been blind and deaf.
Good question. From UC Irvine description of courses:
2A-B Single-Variable Calculus (4-4) F, W, S, Summer. Lecture, three hours; discussion, two hours. 2A: Introduction to derivatives, calculation of derivatives of algebraic and trigonometric functions; applications including curve sketching, related rates, and optimization. Antiderivatives. Prerequisite: pass the UCI Calculus Placement Test no more than one year before the start of the quarter in which Mathematics 2A will be taken, or receive a grade of C (2.0) or better in Mathematics 1B at UCI, or receive a score of 3 on the AP Calculus AB exam. 2B: Definite integrals; the Fundamental theorem of calculus. Applications of integration including finding areas and volumes. Techniques of integration. Logarithmic and exponential functions. Polar coordinates. Prerequisite for Mathematics 2B: 2A. (V)
2D-E Multivariable Calculus. Lecture, three hours; discussion, two hours.
Many kids enroll in law school before age 21 each year. The only thing we can conclude from this story is that she (or her family) really wanted attention and accolades for it.
Date: August 11th, 2009 8:26 PM Author: Histrionic judgmental lay hairy legs
She's an arrogant bitch...no doubt she gets pwned and shunned by the students at Northwestern, who average like 8 years older than her. No one gives a shit about her SAT's but the point is she needs to get a fucking personality and stop being so self-absorbed.
GABE, RECOVERING GAMBLING ADDICT: (INAUDIBLE) in the middle. It's in the middle. Now that you understand the position, let's discuss the reaction condition. Double (INAUDIBLE) in the ring for awhile.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: With all you had going for you, Gabe, what led to gambling? GABE: Well, it started innocently enough. I mean, I went to Vegas with my grandparents on my 21st birthday. That was my first bet. I didn't grow up with gambling being a constant, in my life. You know, I was always a very straight arrow.
KING: Were you teaching then at the time?
GABE: Well, I had already graduated with my master's. And I was writing songs. I was pursuing an entertainment career. It sort of came to me after I got the attention from my chemistry teaching.
KING: What happened in Vegas?
GABE: I put some money in a slot machine, and I won my first try. So that was nice. But that didn't make me an addict at that point. Vegas was something I did -- Vegas was a place where I would go for a special occasion. It wasn't something I considered doing regularly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GABE: Oh, for goodness sake! That's right. See, there should have been a picture instead of an eight, you know. I knew it. I knew he had a 20. I want a new shoe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GABE: I say to myself, well, I'll try. Try $100, try $200, and then it began to turn into thousands of dollars on credit cards and so forth.
KING: All in casinos?
GABE: All in casinos.
KING: Not horse racing, not basketball?
GABE: No. Mainly black jack and poker.
KING: How in debt did you get?
GABE: Well, with credit cards and so forth that ran up about a couple hundred thousand. But in terms of all the money I lost, over a five or six-year period it was somewhere between 500 and 750.
KING: Were you his interventionist?
VANVONDEREN: Yes, I was.
KING: How tough a case was this?
VANVONDEREN: There were some things he did during intervention that, like when you threaten to take a bunch of pills and stuff.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GABE: I don't have to do anything.
VANVONDEREN: Right, you don't.
GABE: I can take a bunch of pills and get it over with. And I'd rather do that than have to, than have to deal with people telling me what to do all the time.
VANVONDEREN: Now, I need to know, if you're serious about that. Because if you are, I'm calling 911.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VANVONDEREN: But he wanted to leave. And your friend stood up and stopped you from leaving. And there are a lot of different things that happened.
KING: I want to ask Gabe why it worked. But first, let's take a look at what happened when Gabe's mother refuses to give him the money he needs to cover some bounced checks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GABE: Don't drive off! Don't do this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just leave me alone.
GABE: I said I would --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gabe, stop it!
GABE: I said that I was -- I said that I would do this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stop this! Gabe!
GABE: You told me you would do this today!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Give me the keys.
GABE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not doing anything to you, Gabe. Don't you see what you're doing?
GABE: You're trying to escape me!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Give me my keys. Give me my keys.
GABE: I won't until you tell me what you're going to do. You have to understand, I am panicking because 190 or $200,000 that I owe.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gabe, don't talk to me about what you have gambled away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Why did you agree to do that? GABE: Agree to do the show?
KING: Yes. Let yourself open like that.
GABE: Well, I feel like I have a different story. I wasn't addicted to anything else. Most gamblers I know have a cigarette in one hand and a drink in the other and that wasn't -- my life wasn't supposed to be like this.
KING: Do you think you could help people?
GABE: Yes. I still do.
KING: At Gabe's intervention, things got a little dramatic as you might expect. Take a look at this clip from "The Intervention."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was not your business to disclose any of this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gabe, I'm here for you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, you're asking me to completely surrender and put my trust in all of you and yet all of this behavior here right now has been just as deceptive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, this is the most important issue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gabe, don't walk out on me. Will you please sit down. You promised you'd at least hear us out.
GABE: I did. I already heard their statements.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got more.
GABE: They're prepared statements.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got more, buddy. We've got more.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you think is so terrible that is being asked of you?
GABE: Because you're forcing me to get on a plane tonight, but I don't even have all of my stuff packed and I don't have any control over anything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Why did you give in?
GABE: Well, I wanted to accept treatment. I was at a point where I didn't know what to do anymore. I was homeless. I had two Mercedes, but I was homeless and I was sleeping in my cars. And I was staying at casinos on their cots when I didn't have anyplace else to say stay. I mean, it was ridiculous. KING: Where did they send you?
GABE: They sent me to a place called Algamis (ph) Recovery Center in Rock Hills, South Carolina.
KING: How long since you've gambled?
GABE: About a little over two months.
KING: You're confident you've licked it?
GABE: Well, any addict who says that they're absolutely confident they'll never do it again, is kidding themselves. I hope that I never get down to those depths again, but it's one day at a tile. It's always one day at a time.
KING: Is gambling harder to cure than Vicodin?
VANVONDEREN: Well, in one way, it might be, because there's not a substance you can say, you know, like this.
KING: Don't take it.
VANVONDEREN: When people get addicted to mood-altering substances, there's a substance and when you get addicted to gambling, you get addicted to mood altering and people build tolerance to that just like they do with alcohol or Vicodin or something else.
KING: What do you do on days when you want to go to Vegas?
GABE: I just try to tell myself that it will all end up in misery and my wanting to kill myself, which I tried to do a number of times. I was almost successful once.
KING: Seeing yourself like that should be encouragement.
GABE: That's very hard for me to watch. It's very embarrassing. People that had no idea I had this problem are going to see this and you know, people have stopped me in the street and said, "hey, you're that sick gambler." They've said more choice words than that, but --
KING: Let me get a break and come back. Our program tonight deals with intervention in conjunction with A&E's show. We'll tell you about that show time, too. Don't go away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GABE: Can you make it happen that it's going to be paid?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, no.
GABE: No, I need to know this. I need to know this, because I -- I can't live with these things hanging over my head anymore!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you do that to yourself. Don't you see that? GABE: Just do what you said you would do!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But gees, don't you see that, that you do this to yourself?
GABE: Of course I do!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gabe, are you're saying that if we do what was talked about on the phone, you will go tonight?
GABE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. I think that I will do it.
She won't crash and burn. She isn't dumb. She will probably be humbled when she realizes she really isn't a genius. She'll be an average lawyer. I wouldn't expect her to even do as much as Volokh (who I guess would be a comparison point). Law just isn't a field for actual geniuses - and this is coming from a mathematician/physicist turned lawyer.
As others have said, she is too self-absorbed. She also (like many naive, young liberals) believes she knows the answer to every problem.
Volokh's done great, at least within the terms of the legal profession or legal academia (SCOTUS clerk, professor at a T25, well-known as a legal scholar). If she says that she's amazingly lazy and isn't even interested in law, I don't see this working out well -- particularly when grades have shown some vulnerability in the past.
Date: August 11th, 2009 8:21 PM Author: Idiotic submissive point corn cake
Has she accomplished anything besides going to college and law school at an early age? I saw a few articles on her, and they didn't mention any important achievements that had an impact on anything. Is her whole shtick only that she went into higher education five or six years early while accomplishing nothing else of worth?
Date: August 11th, 2009 8:27 PM Author: Idiotic submissive point corn cake
Sorry, missed your comment; only scanned the thread briefly. So she is not really even a prodigy then, just a fairly intelligent young woman who sacrificed a life for a crap community college degree and an early sentence of 3 years at a somewhat solid law school?
Oh man, I didn't even see some of these quotes when I was posting earlier.
"I thought the kids my age were stupid, as opposed to me being smart,"
After college, McLaughlin stumbled. Everything had been so easy for her, and she lost sight of how remarkable and accomplished she was, her parents said.
Yet again, she hasn't produced anything substantive. She isn't remarkable and accomplished. The fact that she refers to herself as a prodigy is ludicrous.
Date: August 11th, 2009 9:59 PM Author: contagious gay wizard
I don't really have a problem with her. I'm sure many of us could have done it early like her if there was a desire or someone making us. In fact, I think it would be easier without the distractions that age brings. However, I would definitely tell her to stfu if she started pulling that shit in person.
In an e-mail to the Register, Kate McLaughlin said she wasn't interested in responding to the reader comments about her and didn't have the time anyway. She's moving to Chicago today; her classes at Northwestern Law start Aug. 31.
"I don't consider my academic situation to be a defining point of my life and discussing the particulars of my personal life with complete strangers is not something I especially want to do," she said.
Uh, ok. Then why do you have a very personal, public blog?
"How sad that a person with this kind of one-in-a-billion brainpower has chosen to throw it away on law school. The legal system is enough of a plague on the rest of us without sucking people like this out of more productive pursuits."