<p>mantlemaris,
UW processes 20,000 applications a year and accepts over 60% of the applicants. At that level of mass production, it’s largely a numbers game. If your kid’s GPA and SAT scores are in the top half of UW’s freshman stats (3.7+ GPA and 600+ on each section of the SAT), he’s almost certainly going to be admitted. If not, his odds of being admitted are dramatically reduced, but not because someone in the admissions office is out to get him on account of his race, ethnicity, religion, or social class; it will be because they deem him not qualified or at risk of not succeeding. Yes, UW does ask for essays and evidence of community service, leadership, and so on. They do this for several reasons. First, the essay is a test of the applicant’s writing ability. A thoughtful and well written essay will help him get in; a poorly written essay or one not reflecting much original thought will hurt his chances. At a place like UW where admissions is operating on a mass scale and statistically not all that selective, ECs play a less prominent role than at the most selective colleges and universities, but strong ECs can help boost an otherwise marginal application. For the applicant with strong grades and test scores, though, I doubt they make much difference at a place like UW. </p>
<p>Now on the other hand if your kid elects to use his essay to engage in name-calling (e.g. “Whining is for liberals!”) or bashing of particular groups or, for that matter, uses the essay as an opportunity to engage in a political rant of any flavor, left, right or center, then it may jeopardize his chances—not because of political or ideological bias on anyone’s part, but because it reflects really poor judgment about the appropriate subject matter for a college admissions essay, and it may signal socially destructive tendencies. Say what you like about diversity, the fact is college campuses are complex, diverse, and fragile communities where people from diverse backgrounds and of diverse views need to come together and cooperate and tolerate one another in the common cause of advancing everyone’s education. They don’t need to like one another, they don’t need to share the same views on a wide range of issues, but they do need to be able to work together and live together in some measure of peace and cooperation; if not, the university just can’t function, and it breaks down for everyone. Anyone who is overtly hostile toward or intolerant of others not like himself or who will be intentionally or compulsively divisive in that kind of environment is a destructive force, and the university would be well within its rights to deny admission on grounds that what that kid brings to the university on the positive side is less than the downside risk to the effective and productive functioning of the university for everyone. That’s not politics; he’s entitled to hold whatever views he wants. But like everyone else, he’s got to be a positive force in making the university community function successfully, not a provocateur trying to tear it down.</p>
<p>Just as I am due pot shots at conservativism in the privacy of conversation with my parents, so is OP’s son due his about liberalism. Mocking the ideas of people we view to be absurd–when not substituted for actual debate or substantive conversation–is a time-honoured American tradition and is perfectly acceptable. Reflecting such sentiments in essays, however, would be inadvisable for us both.</p>
<p>Why do you assume that URMs cannot be conservatives? While it may be true that many minority demographics are Democratic, this is mainly due to the racism of the Republican Party and not because these demographic groups are liberal sympathizers. To assume that every Democrat, especially if they are Black or Latino, is a liberal is dumb. The Democrats get the minority vote by default, not through liberal ideology.</p>
<p>Many Blacks and Latinos are very religious and socially conservative, much more so than the average non-Southern white. That’s been my experience.</p>
<p>Or is “conservative” just a more palatable codeword for rural white?</p>
<p>If press reports are accurately described by the OP, they misrepresent this book on the topic of whether volunteer church-related activities affect admissions chances. I am very interested in this topic, as most of my daughter’s community service hours relate to Christian organizations. </p>
<p>I used the search feature for this book on Amazon and could find no results for church, youth group, Protestant, Catholic or parish. Most of the results for the term “religious” referred to students attending a religious school; none related to community service hours and admission to college. After searching for these terms and skimming relevant portions of the book, I could find no evidence in the book that religious activities reduced admissions chances.</p>
<p>OP: I do not find that there is a bias, at least at my school (disclaimer: HYP, take that as you will).</p>
<p>I have not yet met anyone more socially conservative than I anywhere, although some come close, but at the same time recognize that at my university, there is immense diversity.</p>
<p>My main concern for you would be if UW is conservative enough.</p>
<p>The UW takes “diversity” so seriously, that when applying to a major (after being accepted and taking classes freshman year) you are required to submit an essay describing how you would add diversity to that major and department.</p>
<p>Can we stop the fuss about “whining is for liberals”? It seems to have been meant as a joke, a funny little satire. We do not need to start a flame war over it.</p>
The republican party is not racist. Perhaps if you stepped out of your own personal echo chamber you would know that. Stop making false and, frankly, obnoxious statements.</p>
<p>Most Republicans are not racist. However, it has not been long since there was. Jews and African Americans vote Democratic for simple reasons: A) For the former, it was Democratic administrations that allowed Jews in after WW2 (Truman, but Eisenhower did his part too). In addition to that, Jews were killed in the millions by a pretty right wing Nazi government (whenever you take any idea to the extreme, it will be well…extreme. Not all right wingers are Nazis obviously, just Jews are more comfortable with the left.). And African Americans vote Democratic because many of them know what it means to be in poverty, their families have been through a lot. They don’t want just gamble people’s lives in the “free market”.</p>
<p>Not all Republicans are racists. Not all Democrats are non-racist.</p>
<p>But since the 1960s, the Republican Party has chosen to be the voice of the white resentment crowd. They are not merely crusading on behalf of whites; they are crusading on behalf of whites who believe that most of their troubles can be blamed on minorities.</p>
<p>Catholics have long been the targets of discrimination (not nearly as bad as it used to be), that is why they built there own network of universities. Your son will have a lot of choices. Liberal schools take some conservatives. A lot of state schools don’t care.</p>
<p>Depending onthe personality of your child, he may enjoy being a conservative at a school dominated by liberals. He will get hte opportunity to defend his views and laugh.</p>
<p>nbachris: You need to read more: “But since the 1960s, the Republican Party has chosen to be the voice of the white resentment crowd. They are not merely crusading on behalf of whites; they are crusading on behalf of whites who believe that most of their troubles can be blamed on minorities.”</p>
<p>In the 50s and 60’s, The Republicans provided the votes necessary to get the Civil Rights and Voting Rights laws enacted. The Southern Democrats who opposed it were – wait for it – Democrats. Wallace, who ran for president in the 1970s, was a Democrat. </p>
<p>Republicans don’t blame minorities for economic harm, they blame liberals.</p>
<p>And George Wallace was obviously not representative of the Democrats by the 1970s and was a Dixiecrat who just never switched parties.</p>
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<p>Yes, this is their official mantra and the pervading philosophy of the Republican elite. However, they have no problem using some good old fashioned anti-minority diatribe (e.g. poor minorities caused the recession, Obamacare is for blacks mostly, illegal immigration is what’s really ruining the economy) in order to win the power to carry out their pro-upper class agenda.</p>
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<p>Perhaps. But that would not absolve the Republicans of their racism either.</p>
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<p>No it’s not. But the topic is clearly political.</p>
<p>This all stemmed from the fact that MantleMaris doesn’t seem to think that URMs can count as “conservatives”. Perhaps you’d care to tackle that question.</p>