<p>So anyway I am not white or asian despite what others might think. I am a black male who was rejected from Harvard and Princeton but accepted to yale. I am extremely happy with my outcome and that is not the point of this post.</p>
<p>Well another person who is ranked number 5 in our class applied and was rejected i do not know the rest of his situation but his primary EC was baseball and I don't think he was recruited. So this other person came up to me today and asked what my class rank was to mock me and then someone said I only got in because I was black. I was SO MAD. </p>
<p>Situations like this are why I oppose affirmative action, I have worked really hard and devoted hundreds of hours of studying and doing extracurriculars just like all the white students who were accepted but because of AA it means nothing. To those at my school I just got in because "i'm black". I know I should be happy about Yale (I really am) but it just made me SO mad that all the hard work I put into my app and my high school career was reduced to nothing over a policy that I had no control over, didn't implement, but somehow it is THE ONLY reason I got accepted according to some people. </p>
<p>I realize this is the Harvard thread and not Yale but there are far more people talking on here so I posted. Anyway so yeah you can see how affirmative action p*sses me off.</p>
<p>I am not black… but to me, affirmative action is the same as saying to the minorities “you’re not as good as whites, so here’s a leg up because you could never get in on your own merits.”</p>
<p>FWIW, that is the issue that Clarence Thomas discusses in this book (the name escapes me) and I believe that he went to both Yale and Harvard. I recall some Senator questioning him during the confirmation hearings asking how he could be opposed to AA when he had been the “beneficiary” of AA. Best of luck at Yale (although my son goes to Harvard).</p>
<p>To be honest though, this whole college admissions thing is really random (like how you got rejected, not even waitlisted at Harvard and Princeton and into Yale). Were you very qualified? Yes, but so were thousands of other people who got rejected from Yale. Did you get that extra push because of your race? Certainly, and not that you couldn’t have gotten in otherwise, but that helped you definitely. Personally I’m kind of indifferent towards affirmative action. I mean of course I’m jealous of some kids who may have gotten in over me, but if I were the admissions officers, I’d try to get some diversity in my school, too, so can’t blame them. Same thing with recruited athletes and people whose parents donate a lot of money… it makes sense to accept them.</p>
<p>Dbate: I hope you continue your research at Yale. Your independent initiative will serve you well. I am very happy you were accepted by such an elite school. From what you have said about your efforts throughout high school, it seems to me that you do not measure your accomplishments through the eyes of others. (I remember your posts on the STS thread). Work hard and take advantage of the opportunities and ignore the naysayers. Your success will be all the response needed. Congratulations.</p>
<p>I think, once you are at Yale, you will have a lot of idiots like that. They, clearly, got into some terrible school that they are not proud of. Remember, you have worked damn hard and you deserve every ounce of pride.</p>
<p>that’s why i (a liberal) am opposed to affirmative action. it will make people assume that highly qualified minorities and women managed to be successful in life because people felt sorry for them.</p>
<p>^They are secretly jealous because they ended up being average and nothing more. My personal take on AA is that it should be based on opportunity (and thus income?), and work only at the state school. Whichever one.</p>
<p>Supposedly, Affirmative Action is used to compensate for the fact that the entire US educational system is biased towards whites. It does not suggest that other races are inferior, it merely states that students of the same caliber might have different test scores and GPAs based on race due to unequal opportunities, cultural test bias, etc.</p>
<p>There are plenty of white kids who just love to say that they could be admitted to any university they wanted with their stats if only they were black. This is probably true. If an above average white kid magically turned black overnight, he would most likely gain acceptance to universities that would have otherwise rejected him. Unfortunately for many a jealous Caucasian, this argument isn’t even close to valid. The white kid that magically turns black overnight never has to deal with the hardships of being of a minority ethnic group. In reality, his scores would be much lower even given the same merits if he were to live his life as a different race.</p>
<p>The white kid who doesn’t get into Harvard wants nothing more than to cling to the fact that it wasn’t really his fault, it was just because he was white.</p>
<p>I agree it should be more socioeconomic based/district/opportunity etc…(yes I’m (half) black). I also agree that ivy league admissions , once they cut like 10-15 thousand, CAN be pretty random, and rely a lot on luck :/…what I don’t like is that random people hate affirmative action with like a 1500/2400 SAT saying they could have gotten in if they were black…Affirmative action seems like it was supposed to be compensation for historical economic opportunity trends…but…those who don’t need it…still get it…and that ticks people off who then end up blaming everyone or making racist comments …especially on CC. I agree with everyone here on the reasons why people hate AA, but I don’t really disapprove of it, looking at college %'s it seems it doesn’t really take away from non “URMs” as much as people think. Also, Hiyo’s right, colleges also want diversity, and if there’s such a low amount of minorities applying to a college…one with slightly lower scores may indeed get accepted for other reasons other than numbers, like him/her as a person…</p>
<p>Dbate, this thread shouldn’t be Affirmative Action P<em>sses Me Off". Rather, it should be “Ignorant People P</em>ss Me Off”.</p>
<p>You totally let the hick that insulted you off the hook and blamed the system. If AA wasn’t present and you still got into Yale (btw, congrats on that!), that same person could still have insulted you by different means. Face it, you’re gonna attract haters no matter what your complexion is. Not everyone will get the opportunity you were just offered.</p>
<p>I actually haven’t experienced any negativity regarding my acceptances… I guess people think I deserve it (which I really dont).</p>
<p>But I do know what you’re talking about Dbate… sadly, it happens. But at Yale next year, we shall prevail and show them that they don’t know what they’re talking about!</p>
<p>Yeah, this is among the many reasons I strongly oppose affirmative action. There are pretty much no legitimate reasons to continue implementing it, but most colleges seem so steadfast in defense of the practice that I don’t think it’s going away any time soon =(</p>
<p>Man, I don’t know whether or not I agree with affirmative action, but I can only imagine how much it sucks to have people judging your acceptance based on your race. I guess I would just say you have to know inside that those people are jealous and that you completely 100% deserved your admission.</p>
<p>The thing is, there are certainly people that get in off of affirmative action that shouldn’t have, and at the same time there are perfectly qualified minorities that didn’t need the extra push from AA, and without actually getting to know the person, it’s hard to tell which group they fall in. The latter group is disadvantaged by the process.</p>
<p>In addition, race is an absolutely terrible heuristic for determining who is disadvantaged; a rich black kid is not at a disadvantage compared to a poor Asian kid going through a crappy school system. But affirmative action as it is currently implemented will give the first kid an additional advantage.</p>
<p>I know these people have no idea what they are talking about. For me it was never an issue of whether or not I deserved to get because I know I was qualified and I am the only person who matters in that regard. </p>
<p>What made me mad is that the two people in question are the stoners who do drugs, have gotten bad grades throughout high school, and now they want to try to insult me because I worked hard to earn something.</p>
<p>I know what you mean. I am black and people assumed i got into so many top schools because of that. My GPA is only low because they deduct major points at my school for band/orchestra like you and because i got a B (ONCE!) in Honors Math. Our system at our school makes it VERY hard to maintain a 4.0 and most kids don’t.</p>