Espenshade study quantifies the effect of intagible factors in admissions

Parents Forum
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<p>Factors such as race, legacy, recruitment, etc.</p>

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[quote]
Using the S.A.T.’s 1600-point scale as a measurement, Espenshade found that being black is worth roughly 230 extra points, while being a recruited athlete is worth 200 points. Hispanic applicants get an average bonus of about 185 points, and legacy status translates to 160 points. Asian applicants are at a disadvantage, comparable to a loss of 50 points.

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<p><a href="http://www.princeton.edu/%7Epaw/archive_new/PAW03-04/15-0609/notebook.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.princeton.edu/~paw/archive_new/PAW03-04/15-0609/notebook.html&lt;/a>
Scroll down to about the middle of the page</p>

<p>I haven't scrutinized the methodology of the study, so I can't say if I either agree or disagree with the results, but it's still an interesting study nonetheless. I figure this would get better reception in the Parents forum than in any of the others.</p>

2

<p>What interested me in the article you cited was that the researcher said that the admission advantage of being African American or Hispanic has been decreasing in recent years.</p>

<p>Even more interesting, however, to me was the article posted above the one that you cited. I loved this idea:</p>

<p>"In 20 years of speaking with potential Princeton applicants, Henry von Kohorn ’66 met some of America’s brightest high school students, including several who were working to bridge racial and ethnic divisions in their communities. “I thought there ought to be a way to recognize their work, and Princeton ought to be able to play a part in that,” says von Kohorn, a former national chairman of the Alumni Schools Committee. </p>

<p>Less than a year after presenting that idea to Princeton administrators and fellow alumni, the Princeton Prize in Race Relations was born, with the goal of recognizing high school students who perform outstanding work to advance race relations in their high schools and communities. Boston and Washington, D.C., were chosen as pilot regions for the program, and in April, local prize committees selected three high school seniors as the inaugural Princeton Prize recipients from a pool of 55 applicants. </p>

<p>Shan Shan Nie of Boston’s Cohasset High School won the $1,000 Boston-area prize. Nie, who immigrated to the U.S. in 2000, organized cultural awareness workshops through the Coalition of Asian Pacific American Youth and encouraged teachers to add non-Western points of view to their classroom assignments...."</p>