<p>I’m a prospective student, and I’m really hoping for a lot of diversity in college-I want to encounter unique individuals of all races and backgrounds. After all, thats life.</p>
<p>I already know upfront that diversity is not something I look for in a school. In fact, if I see diversity listed as a plus at a school, I look closer to see what it means by that. I went to a college that went out of their way to recruit inner city kids based strictly on race. Those kids were just given full rides and admitted regardless of academic ability. The rest of us paid tuition and had to work hard to get in. It was a source of frustration. Plus, there was still no real diversity…religion, culture, etc.</p>
<p>My d is looking for students who have had diverse experiences, not necessarily people who are different ethnicities or races. SHe has grown up in areas that go from predominately white to minority white (but even less blacks) to minority American to minority below retirement age to now living in a zip code with probably majority being Asian. What she is not interested in is replicating the experience of one of her brother’s friends who went to a large state school and was stupidly called a communist because he had lived in South Korea and where he was looked with suspicion because he had lived in Europe and Hawaii. She just doesn’t want to stand out as an oddity in any way. So no being the only conservative or the only Christian or the only one who has lived or traveled overseas or the only one who has educated parents. Nor does she want to really go to a school where everyone is like like her either. She knows plenty of kids who do but she feels that for her future career, it would be helpful to interact with a variety of people.</p>
<p>“I rarely hear of a kid from one group rejecting a school because it didn’t have enough kids of ANOTHER ethnic group.”</p>
<p>Strongly disagree. One of the main reasons I chose to stay in the city for college was because I loved the cultural and ethnic diversity and cosmopolitanism that the city possessed and certain universities (including my top choice) supported and respected.</p>
<p>“My philosophy is that in those circumstances where one is unavoidably subjected to gregariousness – school, work, entertainment – the mixing of genders (and races, languages, customs, and beliefs) is a way to ameliorate the cretinization that the mob brings with it and to introduce an element of piquancy and mischief (I am a devoted practitioner of evil thoughts) to human relationships, something which, from my point of view, elevates those relationships aesthetically and morally.”
Mario Vargas Llosa, 2010 Nobel Prize winner for literature, from “The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto” p.114 (translated by Edith Grossman).</p>
<p>My kids are interracial and grew up in a very, very diverse area where friends, dating and classmates were from many ethnic groups. None started at schools that were remotely as diverse as where they grew up. I think they were fine, but were surprised that students were not very accepting-- particularly boys willing to date black girls who are not light-skinned. One of my kids was also shocked to find that kids at the school were more accepting (willing to date and befriend) Asian girls and black males than other combinations. Of my kids, those who have transferred to more diverse environments have been happier. </p>
<p>On our most recent college tours, we encountered at least one liberal arts college where the tour guide assumed that all black students at the school were poor and flat-out told me that different races always “stick to their own kind.” I crossed that school right off our list (after talking to several black kids attending who said the races were, in fact, very segregated at the school).</p>
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<p>this is exactly the spoiled, ‘I-need-to-be-comfortable’ high school mentality that colleges should and do strive to beat out of you by exposing you to people very different from yourself. If you ever want to make something great of yourself, you will have to learn to deal with people in your back yard and in your office and a in your apartment building who are different, often a burden, don’t see eye to eye and sometimes incredibly gifted and valuable because they bring a different perspective. </p>
<p>Your future boss at a fortune 500 might be that foreign student who doesn’t communicate all that clearly. Now your job depends on communicating well and getting along well with him/her. As an entrepreneur your client might have disabilities and yet you will have to serve them diligently. As a rich person inheriting a trust fund in the hundreds of millions, you will never need any such skills and you never needed to go to college as well.</p>
<p>I want diversity in the school I attend. Not just diversity of my race, but every race. I love meeting foreign people and learning about new cultures. My best friends are all of a different race than me (2 Guatemalans, 1 Laotian, and a half Mexican/half Czech) and I love it; I’m always expanding my knowledge of the world outside of the US.</p>
<p>^ “I went to a college that went out of their way to recruit inner city kids based strictly on race. Those kids were just given full rides and admitted regardless of academic ability.”</p>
<p>Fortunately, the world doesn’t automatically mirror the bad experiences one had.<br>
My 2D went to a rigorous high school. In addition to atracting highly competitive kids from families that could afford the tuition, they recruited/aided the brightest kids out there whose families couldn’t pay full freight- or even anything at all. Yes, this meant URMs and poorer kids. They proved stiff competition and were routinely among the top performers. Same thing in their college experience. It’s not always possible to generalize.</p>
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Eh, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing to aim for a relatively comfortable position whenever one is available.</p>
<p>I agree that it is both obnoxious and unwise to have the intolerant attitudes paraphrased in the post you quoted. But I can absolutely understand how students at the college search phase might want to look for schools where there is at least a core group of people fundamentally similar to themselves. It’s a natural human tendency to seek out similar people (BTW, I’m talking about general behavior and not necessarily race). That doesn’t make respectful, open interaction with dissimilar individuals any less crucial, but prioritizing a comfortable environment doesn’t imply either bigotry or intolerance.</p>
<p>I’m a white high school senior. I crossed more than a few schools off my list because I felt they were too homogeneous. It’s not a often-phony “I love minorities” thing with me, but rather, I find the racial makeup of the student body to be a really good indication of a diversity of backgrounds. From attending a high school filled with half URMs, half ORMs, all of differing socioeconomic backgrounds, I’ve come to believe that diversity makes for better class discussions, personal revelations, and more learning overall. That’s what’s important to me.</p>
<p>I can only speak from watching my son. He grew up in a highly diverse environment in CA. He had roommates both freshman year and sophomore year who were diverse racially, but homogenous culturally and was very happy with both roommates. One was Pakistani and the other Korean, but both were not first generation. He dated an American of Egyptian ethnicity. One good friend was 2nd gen Russian. I think he might feel differently about FOB’s because of the cultural issues. Hard to say, though. The only people I’ve actually heard him make fun of are people who are too parochial.</p>
<p>The majority of parents (and students) on this forum are extremely educated and open-minded, just like their children, and do not represent the common perspective of most college students. The fact is, students scream out diversity because it sounds nice, but in truth they just want to fit in like everyone else. I think colleges are doing a good job of breaking this barrier but it will be a while before they make significant process.</p>
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Not necessarily, as an Asian female, I don’t think “the more of my ethnic group, the better”. In my opinion, it’s nice to have some diversity in the student body, it is one of the reasons I have always liked the college experience in the US - it will be a more global education. Basically, I don’t care whether the school I will matriculate at has 3% Asians or 33% Asians.</p>
<p>I wanted a few black students for my daughter. Not naive enough to think it would ever be In “immersion” thing; just an option. Daughter didn’t seem to care, until she experienced it. Then she was like Oh!.. I LIKE black people! Not exclusively; most of her friends are not, but now and again, it’s nice </p>
<p>We are black.</p>
<p>Son doesn’t seem to care either. But he is one of maybe three black guys he’s known. He socializes with plenty of white, Korean, and Mexican kids.</p>
<p>Seriously, do the kids and adults on this thread think there are no dating issues for black kids?</p>
<p>I’m looking at colleges to apply to right now, and I am really getting sick of hearing the word “diversity”. When literally every single school touts their amazing diversity, it really becomes kind of cliched and meaningless.</p>
<p>In my own college search, diversity is not even a factor. There are really two different reasons for this.</p>
<p>Firstly, I’m very confident in my ability to fit in and find friends in any environment. This is no great testament to my faith in my own abilities-though I do feel that I am a perfectly likable individual. It is more a manifestation of my conviction that people everywhere are fundamentally the same. Throughout history and the world, the same problems have occurred for thousands of years, with slight differences.</p>
<p>Secondly, no matter the degree of racial diversity, there is going to be social diversity. This has to do with the more slight differences I mentioned above.</p>
<p>Furthermore, in certain cases, racial diversity can actually lead to social homogeneity. Oftentimes, racial groups congregate together, limiting the mixing together of different types of people and thereby completely negating the immense diversity that a school advertises.</p>
<p>Shrink, you “wanted a few black students for (your) daughter”? Huh?</p>
<p>And, YOU’RE black, but your daughter had to “experience it” before she realized that she “like(s) black people”? And, YOU’RE black, but only “now and again, it’s nice”?</p>
<p>Wow! Now I really have heard everything.</p>
<p>"Now I really have heard everything. "</p>
<p>See! Diversity at work! </p>
<p>But seriously; that’s what she said. It was a new cultural experience for her. Is that hard to understand? She was raised in a very different environment than I was. I knew what she meant.</p>
<p>Diversity was very important to me when I was looking at colleges. In fact, I dropped my first-choice college because it was so homogeneous. I know a few of my peers that left that same school because of racial situations. </p>
<p>I’ll just be honest and say what I personally feel. First off, I’m Black. It will always suck being one of few just about anywhere. This is something white students will rarely experience, in school or in life. White students don’t seem to care so much about diversity because most colleges will offer them a comfortable environment with plenty of peers like them. Not so for minorities, even at an HBCU or racially homogeneous school. Diversity is not about this BS “OMG, I have so many different kinds of friends! And OMG they’re so not the stereotypes I thought they’d be!” It’s about managing differences, developing tolerance, and coming to terms with your own feelings, be they good or bad, about other kinds of people. People tend to focus on race, but of course Diversity is more than that. </p>
<p>My freshman year I lived in the handicap accessible part of the dorm and quite a few of my hallmates were handicapped. Did I get make lots of handicapped friends? No. But here’s what I did learn: That chick in the wheelchair that keeps asking people to do things for her, she can do them herself. Just because someone can’t walk doesn’t mean they can’t do a million other things. Seems small, but it was a mindset change for me. </p>
<p>The college I attend now is very diverse. Every class I’ve taken has had a good mixture of students, racially and culturally. That’s a new thing. My mother was often the only black student in her class, and her mother couldn’t even apply to most colleges. So the goal of diversity now is not to play together, it’s to work together. Those people that get angry about minorities getting some easy way into a university, how are they not going to carry that mindset into their careers? They’ll be the same ones groaning about affirmative action at the office. They’ll whine forever about that, but ignore any privilege they’ve had in life. Not good if they’re to be in any position or superiority. With any luck they’ll see a minority students show that they are just as competent as their majority counterparts.</p>
<p>3 cents for discussion, and now I’ve forgotten what I was looking for on the board in the first place.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s “spoiled” to want to feel comfortable and at home with your own roommate in your own room. I also don’t think you need someone who looks like you in order to feel comfortable–but sometimes it can help. D isn’t looking for diversity particularly, although she gets a sense of excitement when she see lots of different people together on a campus. One place we went to really caught her-- she said “everyone here seems just like me”. And they did-- whatever ethnicity or religion, they had open, interested, intelligent faces, laughed easily, had a certain quirky charm about the way they dressed. I hope she ends up there-- among like-minded kids.</p>