<p>What you have to realize is that full-rides are MORE competitive than admissions at Ivies. (One of my friends at Miami did not recieve a HS, but she was accepted at Princeton-- that's actually quite common). There are over 1,000 applications for Harrison (there were 1,500 in my year), and only 40-45 students recieve HSs. Miami could very, very easily fill a class with only 35+ ACTs (1560+ SATs). But they don't. Every year, there are 36 ACTs and perfect SATs, NMSFs, and valedictorians who are rejected, and many times, these students are minorities. There is no such thing as a shoo-in applicant. You have to be stellar in every way, and race alone is not going to push you over.</p>
<p>Race shouldn't even be a factor...They shouldn't ask your race on the application, and they shouldn't ask how you've dealt with diversity, or some such question like that on the Harrison....seems like 'code words' to me.</p>
<p>I don't know your stats; I presume they are excellent; I presume you deserve everything that you are entitled to and are getting....I too would also be insulted, if there was a thought that you only got something because of race, and not your accomlishments...</p>
<p>Oh well..I too congradulate the HS winners; it is a great accomplishment; I remain skeptical of Miami's motives in how they choose. Good luck to all of you</p>
<p>My son also did not get a HS award. I thought he was highly qualified with 2400 SAT, 36 ACT, 236 PSAT, 4.0 GPA (on 4.0 point scale), on track for valedictorian, Eagle Scout, 4 varsity letters, Key Club, Academic team, etc. He writes well but, didn't resonate with the prompt. I am genuinely interested to know what might have produced a winning application. He is a white guy from Ohio, if that matters.</p>
<p>You might get some insight fom a reading of Miami's policy where it comes to hiring employee's copied below:</p>
<p>"Affirmative Action does not mean giving preference to any group. In fact, it stands for just the opposite. Included in the concept of Affirmative Action is the idea that all individuals must be treated equally and that a position should be given to the candidate most qualified. However, a hiring committee MUST make a good-faith effort to create a pool of candidates which reflects the number of women and minorities who possess proper training for the position. Once the qualified candidates are identified, a candidate's ability to provide cultural diversity to a department, to serve as a role model, and to offer a range of perspectives should be major elements in the evaluation and selection progress."</p>
<p>I would suggest that everyone who is given a Harrison Scholarship is worthy of having received it, however some are just more worthy than others.</p>
<p>"I will use the power of this office to get the word out — We need diversity ... We hunger for it," he said.</p>
<p>or you might prefer the words of the new Miami President, Mr. Hodge</p>
<p>They can't be too hungry for minorities. I only got into the scholars program.</p>
<p>Ericsh, your sense of entitlement is astounding. I am hoping that your teenage daughter is dealing with the disappointment better than you seem to be. </p>
<p>In the process of dealing with that disappointment you have managed to convince adam7621 that all that stands between his 1490 SAT and a full-ride at Miami are a bunch of less-qualified minority/diversity applicants and not your daughter with her 1550 SAT and my son with his 35 ACT and rexez's son with his 2400 SAT and 36 ACT. </p>
<p>Here we have identified four "qualified" applicants who did not receive the Harrison Scholarship. I am sure that there are many, many "qualified" applicants who also did not get it. It does not stand to reason, however, that those who did receive the scholarships are necessarily less "qualified" than any or all of those "qualified" applicants who did not, as you seem to imply. </p>
<p>Even if they are less qualified in your estimation (based on what information?), the bottom line is that it is the university's money and they are the ones who are entitled to award it to whomever they wish and to define as they see fit what it takes to be a "qualified" applicant. I am sure that test scores played a part, but only a part, in their definition. Nowhere did they promise that they would award the scholarships to the applicants with the 40 highest SAT/ACT scores, nor even if they had whether that would necessarily have included those with a 1550 SAT or a 35 ACT (which of course are amazing scores). As has been mentioned already, the competition for a full-ride sholarship is bound to be extremely competitive. Given the amazing pool of applicants from which the university had to choose, I trust that they have succeeded in awarding the scholarships to 40 highly qualified individuals.</p>
<p>Well I was just trying to avoid commenting because I was sure anything I said would sound racist(which I am not), but it looks like I will need to anyway.</p>
<p>I think our problem is more of the way Miami approached everything.</p>
<p>I can't speak for all rejected candidates but I had barely even heard of Miami before September. I got one of those emails from an admission director that I was so sick of reading I had created a spam filter to put all in one file. For some reason I read Miami's and noticed that it was a little different, it mentioned me being highly qualified for the Harrison Scholarship. I knew this was a typical way to draw people in but I figured I might as well look into it. </p>
<p>I went to the Harrison website and noticed that I definitely fit the profile of a typical Harrison Scholar as far as rank, SAT, ECs, etc was concerned. I went to collegeconfidential and found a current Harrison Scholar listing her stats and noticed that even with all of her information listed, I was more qualified.</p>
<p>My next step was to look into the school, since obviously money isn't everything. It seemed like my ideal campus, and I read very positive reviews from several sources. To further seal the deal, I noticed they had a BA/MD program with Cincinnati. </p>
<p>A randomly chosen email had now become my number one choice for next year.</p>
<p>I obviously was not chosen for the program. I've moved on, it wasn't the end of the world, it just hurt a little bit. In a few weeks I will find out if it was a blessing in disguise.</p>
<p>I realize that a 1550 could be more qualified then me, and a 2400 even more so. Ericsh hasn't convinced me of anything, just helped me feel I'm not alone. And I don't care what you say, if a 2400/4.0 with respectable ECs was truly not chosen, something is wrong.</p>
<p>The Harrison website even mentions race being a factor, and to some of the posters here, it seems they have taken it to an extreme, which is unfair. Miami does have a reputation for being "J.Crew U", so I completely understand why they would focus so heavily on diversifying. I even had to answer an essay on diversity!! I don't agree, but I'm just a high school senior, not the adcom, and therefore I do not have the money. </p>
<p>One thing I do have is my opinion.</p>
<p>This may be my last comment on this thread...No, I am not disappointed, nor do I have any sense of entitlement. (Perhaps if Miami was her 1st choice as opposed to her third, I might be a little ****ed). If you look at my previous posts , except for the first one, I believe I have only expressed facts, and no opinions. I imply absolutely nothing.
I absolutely believe all the HS winners are the cream of the crop; I do not believe any of them are not qualified, nor do I know if my daughter is more or less qualified then HS winners. You arfe reading something into my posts that I am not saying.</p>
<p>I do, however, believe that if a HS winner won because of race, than someone else lost because of their race. I oppose all forms of discrimination. Others, believe differently and apparently think that is all right to discriminate if it achieves diversity.</p>
<p>Re your comment that it's the university's monies to do with what they want, that is not entirely true. Miami is a public university funded by taxpayers and are accountable to the public. (As a side note, University of Michigan used to have a policy of factoring in race into their decisions, and they just lost an election , overwhelmingly,this past fall, which eliminates race as a factor.</p>
<p>If interested, the above link gets you to a statistical analysis of the Harrison Scholarship process of selection..</p>
<p>The data is from 2002 before they changed the rubric; they did a massive overhaul. Just FYI.</p>
<p>lol diversity doesnt equal being multicultural. You can just as easily convey what kind of diverse background you can bring to a community if ur asian or if ur white. If your stats were perfect I would guess ur Rec's and essay's werent. </p>
<p>Also, what a lot of people dont seem to understand is that it becomes very difficult to separate students when u have a group of 34+ act's, 2250+ sat's and high gpa's (3.85+ UW or 4.4+ W). Oftentimes, the only way to differentiate students is the essay, and I would guess for a program like this which offers a full ride, an intellectual or at least attractive nature would be best conveyed through writing than a list of numbers.</p>
<p>If you are a 2007 Harrison Scholar, list your name here:</p>
<p>nathanTX07</p>
<p>Ericsh,
I attended the Harrison scholars program last weekend with my D, she was the only African American offered the scholarship of 43 offers made out of 1100 applicants. There were a few Asian students, perhaps 6 to 8 students. The remainder of the students were of European descent. 42 of the 43 students offered the scholarship to enter Miami in the fall of 2007, attended the program, attendance is required if you want to keep the option open. Currently, there are about 100 Harrison scholars total, 8 are African American, as per the program directors comments to me last Sunday; a few more are of Asian descent. The total African American student population is 3%.</p>
<p>Mizo, do you include Latinos in "European descent?" I am Latino, though I cannot speak as to any other Latinos who may have been there.</p>
<p>The 43rd student might be an international student who could not fly in for the weekend. That has happened before, and the student is still allowed to attend Miami. Nathan-- I believe there is one other Latino/Latina student in your class (could be wrong though). I had so much fun meeting all of the baby Harrisons-- you have a fun class! How was sleeping in the basement? Did you/your D/S visit any classes the next day?</p>
<p>Well, I went to sleep at about 2:30 so I got four hours of sleep. Slept good too...I was lucky enough to find an open couch to lay down on :)</p>
<p>I didn't get to visit a class; I wish I would have had time to! I visited the business school during our departmental visit time, then took a campus tour (since it was my first time to campus) and then a library tour. If I would have visited a class, it would have started during my departmental visit and would have ended at a time where I would not have been able to take either tour. I was disappointed that I didn't have more time to spend at Miami, but I guess it was a good thing because we got out before the ice storm hit.</p>
<p>Nathan,</p>
<p>Yes, I put Latinos in the European descent group, (of course Latinos can be of other descents); sorry I do not know how many Latinos in total attended for the class of 2011 program. Good point about #43.</p>
<p>My D had a good time at the basement sleep over.</p>
<p>Dear Mizo..Congrats on your daughter's outstaqnding success and I wish her well....And thanks for the statistics; I was rather curious....They do, however, supposrt my point...It is not the absolute numbers that mattter, but it is the rate of admission that is the key....Let's use your numbers ...6-8 Asians, 1 African American, unknown Lainos, so let's assume 2-4, yields 9-13 minorities out of 43 or roughly 25-30% of Harrison Scholars are minorities...(even Aussie wuill agree with this)..Now, 0nly 10-15% of Harrison applicants are minority.....so insted of 1/10 or 1/8 minorities receiving the scholarship, which would be the expectation, we're seeing 1/3 or 1/4 winners....For the 'white' side, the chance of winning the Harrison is 1/20 if you are a white applicant....These statistics are very similar to those found in the 2002 study, which among ather things concluded a minority applicant was 4 times more likely to win than a white Harrison applicant.
Again, I reiterate, I tale nothing away from the accomplishments all Harrison winners have achieved...I believe admission decisions should be color-blind. I do believe others may think there is a place for 'diversity' in making these decisions, and that can be a legitiimate debate...whatm I think mis not debatable, however, is the statistics that I have presented that proves my original premise.</p>
<p>Ericsh, before talking about a statistical proof of your "original" premise you should have re-read the first paragraph from your original post. I have pasted it here for your convenience.</p>
<p>"I'm pretty sure that 85-90% of the Harrison Scholarships are given to Asians, African Americans, Hispanics, and Indians. I'm pretty sure that the program is the vehicle that Miami uses to get their 'diversity' targets achieved. In talking to a student at Miami who knows a majority of the H. Scholars, he said there were 3 or 4 whites that received it (and they were Jewish).."</p>