<p>In the absence of any affirmative action, URMs would generally be admitted at lower rates because the stats of URM pools are weaker. In most other schools that make a concerted effort to maximize racial diversity, if you were a URM and got weaker stats, your URM status could offset the stats. That’s apparently not the case at W&L. It seems to me racial diversity isn’t one of W&L’s priorities. Or worst, the adcom may even be racist, as goblue2018 personally believe. I am not sure I’d want to go that far though.</p>
<p>I agree with you about URMs in general but that is not usually the case with Asian Americans. I agree with goblue that the Asian American pool would in general be stronger than any ethnicity. This includes Caucasians, but the Asian American acceptance rate at W&L is on par with the other URMs which is below Caucasian acceptance rate by a factor of 4. That is what is so disturbing.</p>
<p>It doesn’t help that my father contacted W&L admission about this very issue and its response is that the Asian American pool of applicants to W&L is generally very weak compared to the general applicant pool. We were also told that showing interest in the school matters. The female Asian American profile that I posted who was denied acceptance contradicts admissions response to my father’s inquiry. </p>
<p>Her stats are better than mine. If she does not get in, then who does? But more importantly why did W&L even bother to recruit me. I was inundated with recruiting contacts for over two months before I finally checked out the school. I, like the originator of this thread, girlincross, was concerned about the demographics of W&L, but I overlooked this because I assumed that it was the result of low applications by URMs. So I thought that W&L was seeking to increase its diversity by recruiting the likes of me. Now I am not sure. </p>
<p>Further, what has me even more concerned is that there are so many on this cite who argue that the way to address this concern is “not to apply” to W&L and in effect to ignore a possible wrong. Being a conscientious person this is difficult to do. I volunteer my time to do good, I believe in the Golden Rule. I can’t now abandon the very principals that draw me to W&L in the first place and just ignore something that affects the lives of so many wonderful and talented people.</p>
<p>I make my comments in hopes that it will help spur a movement at W&L by the student body and the parents of such students to address this issue head-on. I never thought given the Honor System at W&L that I would have to defend Goblue and raise awareness of this issue even to the Admissions department.</p>
<p>I like you do not go as far as Goblue in his/her beliefs about the admissions department, but the more I research the more questions are raised that do not flatter the admissions dept.</p>
<p>Sam Lee, it seems that the exact opposite of affirmative action is going on at W&L.
As you mentioned, when a school practices AA, minorities are usually admitted with slightly lower stats, but at W&L this is not the case… In fact, based on the evidence provided, minorities need to have MUCH HIGHER stats than white students to have the same chance of acceptance…
Asians are considered an under represented minority at W&L, so technically it should be easier for them to gain admission if the school is really trying improve diversity. But the fact that they are not accepting asians who demonstrate interest and are beyond qualified to attend is really disturbing.</p>
<p>Has anyone considered that this Northwestern girl could have had a poor interview? There is a difference between demonstrating interest and demonstrating to the school that you’ll fit in, her interviewer may not have thought she would be good for the school.</p>
<p>If the interviewer and the admissions officers decided that she was not a good fit for W&L, then she would have been rejected instead of waitlisted.
And anyways, how is anyone a “bad” fit for W&L? for this girl who was good enough for Northwestern then I dont see how she wasnt good enough for W&L</p>
<p>No one is really arguing whether students are racist at W&L. I am sure most students are accepting of minorities, but the problem is that so few minorities are accepted. The problem is that whites are accepted at 4x the rate of asians, which indicates some sort of bias in the admissions office. Even with 1500s and 4.0s, Asians are still not getting accepted, while less qualified white students are accepted at much higher rates.</p>
<p>@blue, if thats true the college(s) that participates in this shameful behavior should be reported to the state or federal offices that handle these types of problems.</p>
<p>Goblue- you are not the admissions personnel at w&l. You do not know the reasons or how they choose to run their admissions. The problem is that you are way to busy complaining on some pointless online forum. Maybe you should TRY to contact the admissions and ask them why because no one on here is going to be able to give you the answer that you have been looking for in the last 129 posts. W&L is a very small school. Hence, they handpick exactly who they want for the type of community they want. Many students are athletes. Many students are into Greek life. And many are full pay that allow for many others to have a loan free education. When it comes down to it I doubt that they care much about what you think about their admissions process. And I doubt that any “racism” is overly prevalent within their process. Please go elsewhere to seek your answers… somewhere that you’ll plausibly be able to find them.</p>
<p>W&L admit rate would drop to 27.2% and there would be 149 more matriculating which assumes the same ratio of current admitted Asian enrollment rate. Thus the total class size would go from 479 to 628.</p>
<p>Many people were saying that the reason why the white acceptance rate is much higher is because of early decision and that most of these applicants are white+wealthy+legacy.
W&L only accepts around 225 applicants ed, and and many of these ed acceptances are recruited athlethes which would explain the higher ed rate.
regardless, in total they accepted 937 out of 2117 white applicants, and since ED is only 200 students, the higher ED acceptance rate could not possibly be responsible for the 4x higher acceptance rate of whites</p>
<p>I have read this string and thought I would post some thoughts on what makes W&L different from other schools and provide a better definition of “interest” in the school. The Honor Code and culture are very important at W&L. The folks in admissions at W&L understand that it is different from most other campuses in the US. As such, they want to make sure applicants truly understand what they are signing up for.</p>
<p>Goblue, the optional essay question was not “Why did you apply to W&L?” It was “What have you done to learn more/familiarize yourself about W&L?” My daughter was accepted ED and she could barely fit all she did in the 250 words allowed in the essay. She visited the campus (and three others while on the east coast) travelling from Oregon. She e-mailed an alum of the university to learn about their experience. She asked for an interview, like the girl accepted by Northwestern, but she asked three times before she got one scheduled with the Oregon chair. She did extensive research online prior to her arrival on campus and was able to fill in some of the blanks in the admisssions counselor’s presentation for her mother when they met with him at W&L. She did research on Alumni Factor and took the survey that indicated three military schools topped her list of what she wanted in a college followed in fourth by W&L.</p>
<p>While this may be overboard, this is the demonstrated interest W&L is looking for. My daughter knew in her heart that this was the right place for her. She demonstrated that to the school. She also had the stats to go with it. Her estimated financial aid package was above the average mentioned in an earlier post. Our family is not rich. She is Caucasian, but goes to a diverse IB school in Oregon and has a deep commitment to a couple ECs. </p>
<p>So to be clear, W&L is not looking for a casual interest in the school. They do not want students leaving the school, so they are selective in who they accept.</p>
<p>That is my understanding of one of the key elements they look at in the process.</p>
<p>Yes I agree that W&L factors interest as a major component in the selection process… However, this tends to favor wealthy caucasian applicants who are most likely to be able to fly out to W&L for a visit… While you say you are not wealthy, you have the financial means to visit campus, something which MOST minority applicants cannot do.
So do you think it is fair for W&L to accept a wealthy private school student who has had every advantage in life over an inner city african american student who cannot afford to visit campus? By factoring interest as a major component of the decision, this is basically what is happening, and that could be the reason for the descrepencies between the acceptance rates</p>