<p>I think schools want both rich and poor URMs.</p>
<p>And the statistics for the performance vs. income/race curves (or something similar, I don't know the exact term) are astounding. affirmative action really is necessary at elite schools, as sad as that is.</p>
<p>Why is it sad?</p>
<p>Agent of Sense, please read any of Paul Farmer's literature. As a matter of fact, I think it would be appropriate for all of us to consider what poverty means in the 21th century. It would bring the issue of AA into the larger social context for which it was created and explain why colleges, it seems, privilege poverty in admissions decisions. Agent, your sarcasm (or lack of) is understandable, as many students don't quite understand why colleges much advantage the disadvantaged.</p>
<p>But then, how can one understand a cure to a illness, when the illness is not understood? lol</p>
<p>PS: He's also a proff at Harvard & the book is potential convo material during interviews :-)</p>
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<p>That's pretty deep...
Impressive...</p>
<p>Off topic a bit, but the majority of what we treat in medicine today involves symptom relief, and not cure. We are not there yet.</p>
<p>"Agent, your sarcasm (or lack of) is understandable, as many students don't quite understand why colleges much advantage the disadvantaged."</p>
<p>I do understand. I just don't understand why other people don't understand. As Shrinkrap puts it, it's more like "symptom relief" rather than a cure, since, as you put it, "how can one understand a cure to a illness, when the illness is not understood?"</p>
<p>Why don't people understand the benefits of AA, although there are bound to be "side-effects."</p>
<p>Why don't people understand the benefits of AA, although there are bound to be "side-effects."</p>
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<p>Because people are selfish and think that spots in colleges that they "deserve" are taken by less qualified URMs.</p>
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Because people are selfish and think that spots in colleges that they "deserve" are taken by less qualified URMs.
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<p>Or because it is often applied based on a proxy (race) rather than true socio-economic status... I have no problem with giving disadvantaged kids a break, even if that means rejecting D from a school she "desperately" wants to go to. D has had everything served on a silver platter for her, and if a kid who did not have help at home, or had to try not to get mugged on the way to school came even in the same ballpark of academic performance, the poor kid deserves the break. </p>
<p>However, I work for a large technology company, where there is an ENORMOUS push to hire technical females and URMs regardless of socio-economic status. If you are black, latino, or a female and have a Ph.D., you will automatically get an interview. You will not get hired if you are no good, but you need to demonstrate a certain degree of incompetency to achieve that distinction. I can't go into details but recently I had to jump through quite a few hoops to hire a perfectly competent non-URM, and that was AFTER I had interviewed to females which declined the opportunity for an onsite interview.</p>
<p>It is perversions like that that cause people to scratch their head. AA is the right concept, with a terrible implementation. Race is no longer a statistically meaningful proxy for socio-economic status, but unfortunately is still used as such.</p>
<p>I agree with affirmative action with respect to socio-economic status. Perhaps for a URM, they receive that extra look just because of their ethnicity since a person of that particular URM is assumed to be more underprivileged.</p>
<p>^^ not necessarily assumed. URMs do tend to be from the lower socioeconomic classes, and colleges can see whether the student in question is, based on the financial aid forms he/she must submit.</p>
<p>Well, obviously.
Perhaps my use of assume to you is more severe...I just meant that when if one sees a URM, one is more likely to expect that he/she is underprivileged.</p>
<p>err hypothetically what if im half black, half chinese and im poor? asian students get no affirmative action, but black students do...do i get half affirmative action?</p>
<p>From what I have been told by those in the field is that if you designate that you are URM, you are put into a category of URM and your app is read in relationship to others in that same pool. So, yes, URMs raised with challenges and disadvantages are going to have more of a leeway given for those situations than URMs who were raised in households where college is a given.</p>