<p>nobody said college was for the “perfect” academic student. so what if someone has lower stats? they still deserve a chance at a good school. i wouldnt wanna go to school with the same type of people (the ones who complain on here that they have SUCH good grades, and most often come from well-to-do families.)</p>
<p>viola, my friends. diversity at its best.</p>
<p>It’s frustrating for Asians and whites when African/African-American/Hispanic/NA/whatever students with lower stats get in to colleges that they don’t. But it’s silly to attribute this entirely to affirmative action - colleges judge applications on a lot more than stats and race. Essays, interviews, ECs, or anything else could be the reason that a student is accepted or denied. </p>
<p>I think what inspires such venom on both sides is that high school seniors see admissions decisions as evaluations of their records, their lives, and themselves, which they aren’t. When a white/Asian student doesn’t get in to a school, they are angry. And when an African/African-American/NA/Hispanic/whatever student gets in and is then accused of benefiting from AA, they are angry. It’s important to set this anger aside, if we are going to talk seriously about the reasons for and effects of AA.</p>
<p>edit: Admissions are about the culture of college, not self-worth. Students take decisions and the reasons for them too seriously, and they shouldn’t let decisions affect their self-esteem.</p>
<p>the best way to judge a policy is to look at the long term affect.</p>
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<p>Unfortunately, that’s where AA has been shown to make no difference in outcomes. Earlier in the thread, I gave supporting evidence of more blacks being admitted to universities but fewer graduating than the average American population. </p>
<p>The push for academic success has got to come from within our community – just like it has for Asians.</p>
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<p>You’ve just called one of our Supreme Court Justices a deluded moron. Maybe you should educate yourself more instead of calling names, big shot.</p>
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<p>Are you serious? How far back do we go? Maybe those students need to quit defining themselves by their ancestors. This is 2011, and we shouldn’t rest on our slavery laurels. Jews don’t rest on what happened to the Holocaust, and Chinese don’t rest on what happened to them in the 19th century. Both of the latter occurred more frequently than slavery, so it’s time to wake up and move into the 21st century.</p>
<p>Exactly jazzpark! Our generation has nothing to do with those past wrongs.</p>
<p>Quick correction for my last sentence: </p>
<p>This is 2011, and we shouldn’t rest on our slavery laurels. Jews don’t rest on what happened during the Holocaust, and Chinese don’t rest on what happened to them in the 19th century. Both of the latter occurred more recently than slavery, so it’s time to wake up and move into the 21st century.</p>
<p>…and just when I thought Stepin Fetchit was dead.</p>
<p>Marine, why? Do you think it’s productive to concentrate on what happened to our ancestors than to what we, as individuals, can do today? Others have not and have succeeded beyond us.</p>
<p>AA = discrimination, which is opposite to the equal opportunity for which this country stands for. It is there because it generates a lot of votes from blacks and hispanics communmity. </p>
<p>Opportunities are there is you work for it, instead of crying for entitlement.</p>
<p>Read this article:</p>
<p>[Asian</a> student from S. Phila High wins Princeton award | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/06/2011](<a href=“http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20110406_Asian_student_from_S__Phila_High_wins_Princeton_award.html]Asian”>Asian student from S. Phila High wins Princeton award)</p>
<p>I have no problem with students who are disadvantaged getting an advantage in the college admissions process. Students who live in a bad neighborhood, go to a bad school, or students who must work many hours a week are naturally going to do worse than students that are rich and go to a private school. Affirmative action should provide DISADVANTAGED students the opportunities to stand out among the crowd. </p>
<p>What the college admissions process is like today, however, is not about giving disadvantaged students a leg up on the competition. The college admissions process is about increasing college “diversity” by recruiting minority students and ignoring the (in some cases) more qualified peers. Minority students who live in the same neighborhood as white students and earn the same money as white students should not be treated differently. Skin color does NOT determine the worth of a person, and affirmative action only serves to further racial discrimination. </p>
<p>Help the people in need, help the disadvantaged… but don’t help a person because of the color of his skin. </p>
<p>I also feel I should put myself in context. I am an 18 year old white male from a small town in PA and I have a disability. My family makes around 65k/year. I know what I have had to deal with throughout my life far exceeds most of the recruited “URMS”, but colleges could care less about my struggles. And I’ll let them. I do NOT want to get into a school because of my disability, I want to get in because of my hard work. And wherever I go I will be happy because I succeeded through my own merits, and not by appealing to some recruitment officer’s sense of “diversity”.</p>
<p>how can you compare living with a disability to living as a target of discrimination and racism, indirectly and directly?</p>
<p>let me put myself in context. i’m a 16 year old female from a small town in CT and I also have a disability. My family also makes ~65k.</p>
<p>what i’ve had to deal with far exceeds what you’ve had to go through. and guess what? i’ve overcome a hell of a lot, so if colleges want to see that i’m strong and overcame obstacles and that shaped the person I am, let them.</p>
<p>if you didn’t have that disability, “what you’ve been through” would be cut in half.</p>
<p>If I never have to see “more qualified” on an AA debate thread, it’ll be too damn soon.</p>
<p>This is a argument not worth arguing, I will just silently take my boost. Oh yeah, AA is class-based too, if you didn’t know. I’ve seen low-income asians and whites with scores on par with “unqualified” URMs get in to Harvard, Princeton and the like.</p>
<p>Actually, Harvard and Princeton are need blind. So are schools such as Yale, MIT, Dartmouth, and Duke. So clearly you have incorrect information. </p>
<p>Regardless, look at this link: [News:</a> Testing for ‘Mismatch’ - Inside Higher Ed](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/04/20/mismatch]News:”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/04/20/mismatch) , and you will see that lower class non-URM’s do not really benefit.</p>
<p>^ they know financial information before-hand. They can learn during interviews/essays.</p>
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Very considerate of the Ivy League schools to share this information with you. Excuse me for questioning the validity of your statement.
Can’t be easy being underprivileged in CT with a family income of only $65K. Please allow me to extend my sympathies. Clearly you are more deserving than the white kid that also has a disability and whose family has the same income as yours.</p>
<p>He’s equating having a disability to racial discrimination. </p>
<p>Aglages- are you an adult? If you are, I can’t believe some of your comments. I hope you wouldn’t talk to young people that way IRL</p>
<p>^ Same. Classless, imo.</p>