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Vindication? Tiger Mom's Daughter Accepted To Harvard And Yale

Sophia Chua-Robenfeld, the daughter of Amy Chua, has been accepted to both Harvard and Yale.

Amy Chua, if you don't remember is the Yale law professor who caused an uproar with her harsh philosophy toward parenting detailed in her memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.

The legal blog Above The Law, which first reported the story, called it a triumph of Chua over her critics:

Some readers of Amy Chua's book wondered whether it was premature of her to "end a parenting story when one child is only 15," in the words of Elizabeth Chang of the Washington Post. Well, now we know how the story ends — very, very happily.

The Chicago Tribune blog Raising Coconuts called the news "vindication."

Criticism of Chua really took off when The Wall Street Journal excerpted an essay that led thus:

Here are some things my daughters, Sophia and Louisa, were never allowed to do:

• attend a sleepover

• have a playdate

• be in a school play

• complain about not being in a school play

• watch TV or play computer games

• choose their own extracurricular activities

• get any grade less than an A

• not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama

• play any instrument other than the piano or violin

• not play the piano or violin.

After that piece, Chua became the talk of the town. At the time, Tell Me More's Michel Martin spoke with a panel of mothers who were horrified by the book. (Michel also spoke to Chua herself.)

Yesterday, the Yale Daily News reported that Chua said her daughter hadn't decided yet whether she'd attend Yale or Harvard. The paper also noted that this year Harvard only accepted 6.3 percent of its applicants.

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Eyder Peralta
Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.