In 2010, Anthony Wu, a 2005 UW CSE alumnus, sent a moving personal email to UW CSE professor Ed Lazowska. With a bit of distance, Anthony has now elected to publish the letter, along with an explanatory preamble. It’s must reading. Quoting from the preamble:
“This story is about a teenager who just badly wants to study computer science at an university that cannot afford to teach computer science to every interested student.
“This story is also about politics, opportunity, upward socioeconomic mobility, funding for education and one first-generation immigrant’s attempt to realize the American Dream.
“Unfortunately, it is also a cautionary tale of how a simple goal might have easily slipped away from the individual chasing it.”
Anthony’s post provides extraordinary insight into why we do what we do, and why America’s great public universities are so important. Read it here.