<p>This one? Why?</p>
<p>Ask CC moderators!</p>
<p>How do you know? Are we saying something wrong?</p>
<p>I’m enjoying the Harvard thread…all the African-Americans got in.</p>
<p>Not closed, just merged with all the others. Sort of a waste of the first page. Its pretty much all been said, over, and over, and over.</p>
<p>“I’m enjoying the Harvard thread…all the African-Americans got in.”</p>
<p>I’m curious; how many IS that? And how many in the freshman class?</p>
<p>“However, it is NOT what OP is asking.”</p>
<p>No? He is asking if race matters. I say it matters, but ONLY for the rare few that make it to the VERY top of the barrel.</p>
<p>He says he heard a really good chance; I’m saying if he has a resume like the accepted black kids, maybe better, but I don’t know about “really good”.</p>
<p><em>I’m a girl by the way!</em> Haha.
And I haven’t been counting for Harvard, but I think around like 5 or 6 in the thread and only one was rejected/deferred. And most have SATs of low 2000’s or 2100’s. Makes me hopeful!</p>
<p>I just can’t remember if it was deferred or rejected, it wasn’t like both or anything!</p>
<p>“I’m a girl by the way”.</p>
<p>Uh oh…jk</p>
<p>This article gives numerical estimates for the effect of race <a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/~tje/files/webAdmission%20Preferences%20Espenshade%20Chung%20Walling%20Dec%202004.pdf[/url]”>http://www.princeton.edu/~tje/files/webAdmission%20Preferences%20Espenshade%20Chung%20Walling%20Dec%202004.pdf</a>. The authors also wrote a book with another person titled No Longer Separate Not Yet Equal that covers the issue in great detail.</p>
<p>But based on only some very prestigious schools, based on data from 20 or more years ago, and concluding that the majority of the benefit was for blacks scoring above 700 on the sections of the tests from that era, but also for those scoring 1200 to 1300. And the author went on to conclude that BELOW that range, the benefit of “higher” SAT scores where smaller for blacks than whites. Then he says it makes no difference for most kids at most schools. You mean THAT study?
Look for the part where it says the penalty for scoring less than 1200…also less reward for scoring over 1300.</p>
<p>In conclusion, 20 years ago, at some prestigious schools if you scored around 1300, but not more, and not less on the SAT, it mattered.</p>
<p>The vast majority of colleges are not particularly selective and thus couldn’t practice affirmative action to any significant extent even if they wanted. Affirmative action only matters at prestigious schools so obviously the study would only focus on them. I believe that is the main reason it makes no difference for most kids at my schools. Another reason is that he found the effect on whites to be extremely small because preferences for blacks and Hispanics were balanced out with the disadvantage for Asians. Page 19 of the study notes that “the underrepresented minority advantage is greatest for African-American and Hispanic applicants with SAT scores in the 1200-1300 range”. I interpreted the discussion to imply that with SAT scores below 1200 applicants had little chance regardless of race and above 1300 the advantage diminished because all applicants had decent chances. </p>
<p>The criticism that the study is 20 years if of course very valid. I am willing to concede that the advantage for Hispanic applicants may have substantially decreased since the study. However, the achievement gap between African-American and white students has hardly changed in the last 20 years in contrast with the 30 years before that. Thus, I see little reason to suspect that advantage to African-American applicants has considerably decreased. The experience of the University of California system after affirmative action was banned lends further credence to these ideas. The numerical estimates may have changed somewhat in the past 20 years but I believe that they are still roughly accurate for the African-American advantage.</p>
<p>At top colleges, yes it does matter, and at some (especially Stanford, from what I have seen) a great deal. Which doesn’t mean “normal” (non-superhuman) Asian and white students don’t also get into top colleges, because they do sometimes.</p>
<p>The FAQ thread </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1228264-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-9-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1228264-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-9-a.html</a> </p>
<p>is available for detailed information on the original question that opened this thread and for follow-up questions, so this thread is closed.</p>