Local time on May 12, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles (University of Southern California) held a grand ceremony.
Among the graduates’ friends and relatives, people soon found a familiar face – former US President Barack Obama!
That’s right! Obama’s youngest daughter, Sasha Obama, graduated from the University of Southern California this year with a major in social studies. Obama, his wife Michelle and his eldest daughter Malia flew to Los Angeles for her graduation ceremony.
In America, Obama is a very supportive father. Supportive, in America, is actually a very high value.
Think about the number of up to 10 million college students in the United States, with a debt of tens of thousands of dollars per capita on their backs, that is, there is no supportive father. Barack Obama himself is the poster child, and his parents are very unsupportive!
01 Participate in various interest classes since childhood
Being a good father is not easy.
Even when he was the president of the United States at the peak of his power, Obama never worried about the education of his two daughters. And, perhaps because he is a “Phoenix man” of origin, compared to other middle-class families in the United States, Obama’s daughter’s education is doubly invested.
Obama’s two daughters, eldest daughter Malia was born in 1998, younger daughter Sasha was born in 2001.
Two daughters were born, Obama or the University of Chicago Law School lecturer, limited income, and even his college tuition loans have not paid off, no less by his wife Michelle dislike.
On the eve of Obama’s arrival in the White House, he published an open letter to his daughter. In it, he hopes his daughter can live in a world where “dreams are unlimited and nothing can be achieved.”
Obama’s original intention is to use this letter to the public to convey their educational philosophy and model family image, and indeed won numerous eyeballs. But the dream is a dream, the real practice of raising children, Obama can not avoid vulgar.
When her daughter was very young, Obama did not give her daughter a variety of interest classes –
Malia is involved in soccer, dance and drama, while Sasha is involved in gymnastics and tap dancing. As for the usual piano and tennis, neither of the daughters can escape!
What are the effects of these interest classes? After Obama became president, he once admitted in a media interview that he regretted signing his children up for so many classes. A lot of money was spent, and it didn’t really help much.
Obama later realized the truth of children’s education: “Parents should not tell their children what to do, but let their children realize what they should do!”
02 Saving Money Ahead of Time for Daughter's College
At the beginning of 2009, Obama officially became president of the United States, and the family moved from Chicago to Washington, D.C. The girls were 11 and 8 years old when they were in primary school.
The Obamas began looking for schools in Washington early on, and eventually they choseSidwell Friends School。 (Pictured below on campus)
It is a private school from kindergarten to high school, known for its large number of presidential children.Children of Roosevelt, Nixon and ClintonBoth attended the school, as did the grandson of current US President Joe Biden.
Sidwell Friends School tuition is around $50,000One year (see figure below). Obama earns $400000 a year as president, and $100000 a year for two daughters accounts for $1 / 4 of income.
There are American gossip media at the time to the Obama family accounts, although expensive for the United States first family, $400 thousand is definitely a high income; But a lot of the White House has to pay for food and clothing – and in order to maintain a decent life, the first family naturally spends more than the average family, plus raising two children, the president’s family is also a lot of pressure!
The Los Angeles Times reported that Obama began planning to save money for his daughter’s college education at an early age.
Perhaps as a parent, Obama vigorously promoted the 529 education funding program during his presidency.
The so-called 529 education fund is that parents save money for their children’s education in a special account when their children are very young, and the income generated by the account can be tax-free.Obama started saving money early on in his two daughters’ 529 accounts.
03 President by day, tutoring his daughter at night.
Just because he’s invested so much in education doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy for Obama.
In a speech, Obama revealed that when he became president, his 11-year-old daughter, who was in the sixth grade at the time, had just transferred to Sidwell Friends School, and only scored 73 points on a science test, while he expected a score of 90. My daughter is falling apart too!
Fortunately, Obama, a graduate of Columbia and Harvard, went to war himself, became president during the day, and mentored his daughter’s lessons at night. The result was good. In the second science exam, the daughter got 95 points!
Obama later concluded, “Parents should set a high bar for their children” 。 From this point of view,Obama is definitely “chicken blood.” There is no such thing as easy and happy education!
Obama has his own ideas: “In high school, get as high a score as possible, go to a good university; Enter the university, pass on the line.” Those are the words!
04 School visits, internships, applications, all to worry about
Fast forward to 2015, and it’s time for eldest daughter Maria to apply for college.
Like many middle-class families in the United States, the Obamas took their daughters to visit schools and visited several prestigious American schools.Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, Penn… Not one left behind!
At the same time, eldest daughter Maria in 2014 and 2015 summer internship in New York and Los Angeles, respectively, television production company; She also interned at the US embassy in Spain. He also worked for Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
This also attracted the attention of the American media at the time, and public opinion generally believed that Maria obtained these internship opportunities by “fighting the first father of the United States.”
However, the genes of her parents were passed on to Maria.The Internet circulated this background of Maria’s application to American universities –
If the above information is true, Maria is also a veritable academic bully –
GPA 4.6, SAT 1590; Extra-curricular activities include tennis, Model United Nations, and student club leaders. And these activities are indeed directed at Harvard and other elite admission standards to prepare.
There’s no way to know if being the president’s daughter helped Malia’s college application. But one thing is for sure, Maria has to go through the same application process as everyone else – filling out applications, writing essays, getting recommendation letters from teachers.
Need to go through the same as others, and the pressure of the application season.
Obama also had to do psychological construction for his daughter at this time: “Relax your mind,Just because schools aren’t famous doesn’t mean they aren’t right for you.”
In this process, Obama did not give her daughter apply for a variety of advice. For example, should choose what kind of university, read what kind of professional, but he also admitted: daughter to this age, many times do not listen to the president’s father.
05 Sent his daughter to Harvard University.
In 2016, her eldest daughter, Maria, was admitted to Harvard University as she wished.The Obamas are ecstatic! The White House issued a statement on this.
Obama and his wife Michelle both studied at Harvard Law School and fell in love during this period. Now a family out of three Harvard, is also a rare good story!
In 2017, Obama, who has stepped down as president, personally sent his daughter to Harvard. Like other parents, Obama is busy helping his daughter move luggage, buy furniture, decorate the dormitory.
Obama’s eldest daughter’s entire education stage can be said to be in the spotlight, the daughter into Harvard, and indeed benefit from Obama’s dedication.
This is also recognized by many parents: Daddy chicken baby, the best effect!
But it seems that this sentence is not effective in Obama’s second daughter.
06 You're the best daughter in the world.
Sasha, Obama’s second daughter, is less dazzling than her eldest daughter.In one of the few publicly available media coverage reports that Sasha had worked for a company called Nancy’sWorking at a seafood restaurant. (I guess it’s life experience)
In 2009, Sasha graduated from Sidwell Friend School and entered Michigan University. The news was not made public until the University of Michigan opened in August 2019 and Sasha was seen on campus.
Curiously, the Obamas lived in Chicago for a long time and moved to Washington, D.C., after becoming president, which is not even close to Michigan. It is extremely rare for an out-of-state citizen to attend the public University of Michigan.
Because there is not much public information, the outside world can not know why Sasha went to university in Michigan. But it is almost certain that her grades are not enough to be admitted to Ivy League schools such as Harvard – from this point of view, the American university seems to be “fair,” the president’s daughter hardware is not up to standard and there is no “back door.”
The same example, there are George W. Bush’s twin daughters, the eldest daughter entered the family’s traditional university, Yale, the second daughter only entered the University of Texas at Austin.
But the American media is more euphemistic, reported when Sasha entered the University of Michigan, said that “Obama’s youngest daughter broke the tradition of the President of the United States powerful family, did not choose the Ivy League school and choose the big ten public university”!
Sasha didn’t stay at the University of Michigan until she graduated, though.
In the first half of 2022, it was already discovered that Sasha had transferred to the University of Southern California. One reason is that Los Angeles is closer to her sister, Maria, who went to California to work as a screenwriter after graduating from Harvard.
In contrast, middle daughter Sasha’s personal gossip seems to attract more media attention – clothes, boyfriends, and weight.
Sasha, who went public with her boyfriend when she was in high school, now weighs 200 pounds!
Today, Sasha graduated from the University of Southern California, the United States media coverage, many Americans know that the original Obama’s second daughter in the school, but soon everyone thought it was reasonable.
Because in the eyes of most Americans, the University of Southern California is the kind of second-generation school that is “not very smart.” (although many USC students disagree)
But despite what others say, Obama remains a supportive father. He also praised his second daughter!
Obama, 61, gave Sasha a big hug at graduation ceremony after she received her diploma and said: “You are the best daughter in the world. I am so proud of you!”
