<p>I looked at some data from Cornell's site recently, and around 80% of their admitted students have family incomes of $50k or more (I believe the national average is around 53-54k)- this statistic may be a bit worse in other Ivies, and probably the worst in elite LACs. Now, my question is this: do you feel that economic status is a better way to do AA than race? After all, who has had more opportunities to cure AIDS: a wealthy black kid who has a father that graduated from MIT, or a white kid from a trailer park in the middle of nowhere in Alabama? Granted, being poor isn't an excuse for being lazy and unmotivated, but lets face it - if someone's passion is science, and they live in a highly rural area with little disposable income or connections, they aren't going to be able to do a whole lot. </p>
<p>Colleges claim that the reason they use AA is because they are building classes, and seek a diverse incoming class. I understand this, and it makes sense. However, how can your class really be truly diverse when it represents a highly disproportionate number of the middle-upper and upper classes? It seems to me that basing AA on income and living conditions, rather than race, makes more sense.</p>
<p>Even middle- and upper-class URM's have very different life experiences from non-URM's. As one girl at Wesleyan (?) put it, it's kinda stupid to be talking about racial discrimination and you look around the table and see mostly rich white girls.</p>
<p>I was at an awards ceremony for Mock Trial and Moot Court. The teams from inside the city school district had one or no Lawyers as they walked to the podium to get their participation certification these teams were rich with cultural background. One of the suburban teams had almost as many lawyer coaches (including a judge) as students, and they took second place. They had almost no minority students on their team. It is hard to tell which students get the most out of this type of event, the ones who have the supportive parents and coaches or the ones who have to organize their presentation with minimum assistance from professionals. I didn't think winning the tournament was as impressive when I saw the advantage the wealthier kids had. It was just one more situation where money won out. I wondered if the inner city kids would have anyone tell them to put this down on their college application. I think schools need to attract economically and culturally diverse students, it they want to educate future leaders of our society.</p>
<p>I agree with you, but I would take it one step further: an economic (and racially) diverse school is a huge benefit to the academic and cultural experience of rich, white kids as well. Let's face it: we live in a class-based society, where the divides between rich and poor have been growing for the past 20 years. Now no blame, no guilt, and no shame (and no pride) should be attached to being rich (and/or white). For the most part, the kids were born into this condition - it is simply an accident of birth. And one would hope that many of these kids - as a nation, OUR kids -- will feel responsible enough to want to give back to the society what was given to them by birth. And many folks, as a simple fact of class, are likely to become leaders of the next generation, and we all hope good ones. </p>
<p>But it is much hard to serve the needs of society where you don't know, in some personal way, the condition of those you seek to be serving. There's no fault in that, but colleges can do much to remedy it if they so chose.</p>
<p>At all of the Ivies and most of the prestigious schools, the average family income of students is above $150,000/year; how much above is simply unknown. This is deduced from the simple fact that between 50-60% of the student bodies receive no need-based aid, and hence the assumption is that parents can afford $42k a year, and the calculators work that out to roughly $150k for a family with two kids. $150k puts one in the top 5% of the U.S. population. I think it is wonderful that so many families can afford this, and more than that, feel their kids are worth it. </p>
<p>But I'd suggest it would be worth it MORE, the quality would be HIGHER, if classes were indeed more diverse.</p>