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<p>Is somebody claiming that Asians can’t be athletic, born of a Harvard graduate, or international? How offensive.</p>
<p>Thank Jerry Brown, I freaking hate affirmative action.</p>
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<p>I’m someone who comes from a school with a not-so-strong athletic tradition, that has upped its game in recent years to be more competitive. And as much as I am personally not a sports fan, and don’t want it ever to turn into a place where admissions standards are badly compromised just for the sake of a winning football team, it’s pretty hard not to acknowledge that like it or not, successful teams do contribute to the appeal of a school. Not to me personally, but to many people.</p>
<p>@lockn stop it with the BS, seriously, you aren’t fooling anybody by yourself. I know you want you darn affirmative action, stop being a whiner.</p>
<p>toughyear - what <em>should</em> Harvard et al do with qualified legacies? Not admit them? Hold them to a higher standard? Hold them to 1% of the class, 2%, 5%, 10%? YK, the presence of legacies is a positive statement on a school because it says that the parents enjoyed / valued their time there. There is a reason that U of Chicago has relatively few legacies – because in the old days, alums <em>didn’t</em> want to send their kids there.</p>
<p>Admissions should be completely blind of: Race, religion, income COMPLETELY. That’s the only way to make it fair people. The only thing that Adcom should see: Grades and Extracurricular activities. THAT’S IT.</p>
<p>You probably meant grades and test scores!</p>
<p>Asianproud…I agree with you that colleges should look exclusively at grades, test scores, awards, and ECs when determining admission – race and socio-economic position should not in any way factor in to the decision, IMHO. However, I also agree with Pizzagirl…our country was founded on principles of a free market. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc. are all private institutions. Like it or not, they can choose whomever they want and however they want. Should you not like their business practices, then don’t purchase their product.</p>
<p>Yeah Xiggi I meant grades and test scores</p>
<p>And btw, dude I know you made a 2400 and all, so I take the PSAT on wednesday, I studied during the summer some, should I do anything before wednesday? My school also gave me a handout of a practice test and information booklet.</p>
<p>and yeah jc I agree with you man, but even though they’re private, they’re still nonprofits and we’re not talking about pizza shop or cell phone carrier man. We have to look at this with a somewhat different perspective. And I just want to say that I respect these universities, even though I think that some of their practice are wrong.</p>
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<p>You can’t help but note that socioeconomic position greatly influences EC’s, though. Inner city kids don’t get to be championship water polo or lacrosse players. Rural kids in Nebraska don’t have labs nearby to help them win Intel awards. And any poor kid who has to work in a family business or support younger siblings simply can’t engage in most EC’s.</p>
<p>Wow, toughyear has taken some numbers I pulled directly from Harvard publications and made an erroneous conclusion that is the premise of this thread.</p>
<p>Harvard has reported that its student body is composed of:</p>
<p>10% non-resident aliens (internationals)
20% athletes
13% legacies
15% URMs (2010)</p>
<p>Obviously, there will be overlaps in these categories, like a URM-legacy or an international athlete, etc., but toughyear did not take this into account, s/he simply made the statement that these figures mean there are only 42% of the spots left open for American Asians.</p>
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<p>I have asked this a hundred times, and no one seems to answer. If all the “deserving bright” students are getting turned down from HYPSM et al because those schools are too busy taking football players and legacies and supposedly less-qualified URM’s … then where are these students going, and why wouldn’t you want to go there instead?</p>
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<p>At Harvard, my kids are neither international, athletes, legacies or URM’s. So I guess there were only 42% of those spots at Harvard left open for my white, Jewish, non-athletic kids, too. What’s the difference? Why is that any more unfair to toughyear than it is to me?</p>
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<p>Not to mention academic opportunities. At our local HS, there is one science teacher - who teaches biology, chemistry, physics, earth science, and physical science (physics and chemistry are offered only in alternate years). The position turns over about every other year. The latest incumbent was a chemistry grad who had taken no biology since high school. After being hired, she took a basic community college biology course over the summer to qualify herself to start teaching biology in the fall. According to reports, she’s a hard-working and dedicated teacher who is clearly over her head technically in everything except chemistry.</p>
<p>The situation in math and English is almost as dire. And for a college-bound kid, there are no honors courses, no APs, no electives except for business ed courses and band. (We do have a state-finals caliber soccer team, on which no expense is spared.)</p>
<p>I’m going to guess that the percentage of Asian-Americans who have this level of opportunity in their public high schools is vanishingly small.</p>
<p>Xiggi, re.your #7 question again, I used these figures by Bay
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13283148-post113.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13283148-post113.html</a></p>
<p>pizzagirl’s feisty attitude is somewhat puzzling…</p>
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<p>I do not think you should do anything more than making sure you are comfortable with the instructions. Read the booklet and approach the test as relaxed as possible. Your summer practice should have given you an idea on how to pace yourself. Avoid rushing through the test on the math portions and overthinking the verbal parts. </p>
<p>Fwiw, if you are a junior, start organizing your SAT or ACT dates to avoid conflicts with SAT Subject Tests and AP dates. Time flies and you want to be mostly done by October of your senior year.</p>
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<p>Yes, I believe this is a good assumption. There are very few Asian American athletes, but there may be a few legacy. If you want to dispute that, yours will be yet another assumption unless you have somehow can find the EXACT numbers from the school. </p>
<p>BTW, this is he.</p>
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You are so feisty, almost cute.;)</p>
<p>Toughyear, have you thought that your numbers (if they were entirely correct) could also lead to a different interpretation … and different claims of reverse discrimination. </p>
<p>Let’s assume that there are indeed only 42 percent of slots left open after the preferences have been exhausted. Now, let’s plug in the “whites” and the “asians” and compare how they fare statistically. Aren’t there more (a lot more) white as their population is subtantially larger? Easy, the answer is yes. How do those percentages look now? </p>
<p>Aren’t there more (a lot more) white students who have HIGHER tests scores, especially when giving more weight to the verbal scores? Another easy YES. And this does not even factor that the white scores could be divided between religious groups and dwarf the collective results of Asians. </p>
<p>Now, doesn’t that paint a different picture?</p>