“Take an average Asian American who is male. On average, you have a 25 percent chance of admission. However, if you were to change the race of the applicant, keeping all the academic scores the same, into white, then your chance of admission will go up to 36 percent. If you were actually Hispanic, that would go up to 77 percent. If you were African American, 95 percent. That’s a pretty stunning difference. “
Unfortunately, from the perspective of institutions of higher education, it’s not discrimination if it’s to “diversify” your class - even if that means picking a student for an arbitrary reason like race when it comes down to it.
Affirmative Action was not created for an arbitrary reason. It was implemented to attempt to begin to level the playing field after centuries of slavery, Jim Crow, and institutionalized racism.
BTW, I hope the moderators agree with @ucbalumnus and wrap this into the Race In College Applications thread.
One thing to keep in mind. This isn’t complaining so much as it is whining. And honestly, I don’t mean that in a pejorative way. We all whine at one time or another, when something we so badly want to happen does not happen. Your favorite team lose a game? It’s the referees fault. Your child gets an 89 on her report card? The teacher didn’t like her enough to round up to 90 for the A. You didn’t get into Harvard? It’s the black kids’ fault.
It’s often hard to be rational in the face of a crushing disappointment.
Truth: The 2019 freshman class at Harvard included 167 African-Americans.
Truth: Even if every African-American was denied admittance and each of those 167 spots went to Asians, there would be thousands of perfectly qualified Asian applicants who did not gain admittance into Harvard.
Truth: The main reason applicants are rejected has nothing to with with the admittance of African American students. The main reason thousands of applicants are rejected is because 42000 applicants vied for 1600 spots.
If a student chooses to pin all their hopes for happiness (and a sense of SUCCESS) on gaining admittance to a group of schools whose overall admittance rate is < 10% (and actually half that if we suss out all the hooks) then that student has made a fundamental miscalculation in his/her search for happiness. The odds overwhelmingly predict that no one student can expect to get in. Yet, some despair when they don’t get in.
It’s often difficult to remain rational in the face of crushing disappointment.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: As we have posted MANY times in the past, there is ONE thread on CC meant for discussion of race in admissions, and this isn’t it. Please restrict your posts to that thread. Closing this one.