David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

community college. She got As in both,
as well as an A in every class she took
in high school. She got perfect scores on
every one of her Advanced Placement
pre-college courses.
The summer after her junior year in
high school, her father took her on a
whirlwind tour of American
universities. “I think we looked at five
schools in three days,” she says. “It was
Wesleyan, Brown, Providence College,
Boston College, and Yale. Wesleyan
was fun but very small. Yale was cool,
but I definitely didn’t fit the vibe.” But
Brown University, in Providence, Rhode
Island, won her heart. It is small and
exclusive, situated in the middle of a