<p>EAS, take some time out and take a breath. I know they're illegial, but I have a hard time accepting the fact schools don't accept students because they need to have African Americans, Hispanics, or Asians in their student body. Certainly, there must be some aspect of the admissions process where diversity plays a huge role, and race is a factor among many. Someone could be accepted to a school due to a race being preferred to be represented at that particular institution.</p>
<p>Or maybe I could be wrong, April. And I very well could be. I don't mean to sound racist or elitist, it's just my opinion. I'm open to disagreement and willing to learn from it. I apologize for any offense I make. Before you guys devour me whole. XD</p>
<p>"Certainly, there must be some aspect of the admissions process where diversity plays a huge role, and race is a factor among many. Someone could be accepted to a school due to a race being preferred to be represented at that particular institution."</p>
<p>Of course race is a factor <em>among many.</em>
Then again, so are extra-curriculars and community involvement, but you aren't complaining because a kid who did some extra volunteer hours got in over someone who didn't, are you?</p>
<p>I'm not complaining about someone getting in over anything. I'm just stating my opinion (either right or wrong) on what role diversity of race/ethnicity plays in the admissions game. I'm an Asian immigrant, first generational, low income, an open, activist homosexual, and heavily invested in my passions and community; if I sound like someone who cares for stats and against minority students, then I want to say I am not.</p>
<p>there is some validity to the arguments presented before me. there is a study at sum large public u i believe where they found black students to be scoring significantly lower on college exams. are there credentials on par with white students coming in? thats a tough question. secondly, ppl don't call it race quotas anymore. they call it socioeconomically disadvantaged and thats considered a hook(normally through first-college bound in family, situations they had to overcome, football, bball, whatever).</p>
<p>I'm in agreement with EAS. At the top schools, there are enough very qualified URM applicants that schools don't have to lower their standards for URMs. Being a URM is simply a tipping factor. It's not like someone whose unqualified gets in simply because they're URM.</p>
<p>LOL. tell that to the black girl from Harlem who got into Harvard with 1200 SAT and her biggest accomplishment was graduating from high school. She was interviewed in a NYT or WP article. To her defense, she had a lot of ambition.</p>
<p>"LOL. tell that to the black girl from Harlem who got into Harvard with 1200 SAT and her biggest accomplishment was graduating from high school."</p>
<p>I am not familiar with the article, but if the girl was from a very low income, uneducated home, lived in a dangerous area and went to a horrible school, just graduating from h.s. was quite an accomplishment. Obtaining a 1200 SAT was a major achievement if she lacked decent courses and teachers (Inner city and low income schools have large numbers of teachers who lack certification in the area in which they teach), a safe school environment, and lacked motivated classmates.</p>
<p>If she got a 1200 SAT and graduated h.s. from that kind of environment, she probably is far brighter than are students who get 1500 scores and come from from well off, highly educated homes, enriched environments, and who attend excellent prep schools.</p>
<p>I read an article about a white girl who was homeless who got into Harvard. She didn't have high SATs -- probably in the 1200 range or so, but she had guts, and intellectual passion. She, too, probably had more intelligence than do people with sky high scores who come from well educated, high income families.</p>
<p>Hoping someone will get rejected is incredibly selfish. You shouldn't focus so much on what other people are doing.</p>
<p>WM- If you have "a hard time" accepting anything, then you should preface your <em>opinions</em> as such without making statements that I, too, consider are racist and elitist. I am a senior at Harvard, and I play the oboe. I was one of the best oboists, the best one year actually, in my state. I have played in several orchestras here, and sadly there are not many oboists here with me. No one has ever accused me of not being academically competent, or of having unfairly used my oboe tipping factor, or even bluntly stated "Harvard had an oboe quota to fill, and she was an oboist. That's why she got in." Why do people only get caught up on race, as Aprilstar08 points out? Why do you, WM, get caught up on the factor that race/ethnicity plays in admissions? Do you think that oboists or people with diverse backgrounds better enrich schools? I'd go with the diverse life experiences, to be honest.</p>
<p>confidential- No one at Harvard that I know of talks about "the black girl" you reference. The homeless white girl Northstarmom brings up, however, is well known due to the movie "Homeless to Harvard". Another well-known member of my class is a Chinese international student and author of a bestseller about how to get into Harvard. Kind of seems like the Chinese girl might have been wanting to tell financially capitalize about how all the ways she got in- why is no one criticizing her for wanting to maximize other's admissions chances?</p>
<p>EAS, I'll preface my opinions the way I want, if you consider it racist and elitist, then report my post to a moderator and let that be that. I apologized for any offenses and stated that none was intended. Let it go. </p>
<p>I had no idea you played the oboe at Harvard, I personally do not care and never insinuated that you were academically incompetent. I responded to a topic on race/ethnicity being a factor in admissions, that's why I got caught up with the subject. Sorry. I thought that's why you register for membership on a web messageboard: to respond to a topic. Just because it disagrees with your opinion doesn't take away my right to voice it.</p>
<p>Do I think oboists or people with diverse backgrounds better enrich schools? I'd go with the diverse life experiences too. But we're talking about the admissions process, and the role diversity plays in indicating diverse life experiences, I consider being part of a minority culture an incredible impact on one's life experiences that differs from one person to the next. I say this being a minority member myself. If you have such a hard time accepting another's point of view or opinion, maybe you shouldn't be coming onto a forum that encourages differing perspectives being discussed.</p>
<p>WM- I wasn't saying you had any idea I play oboe, nor that you say I'm academically incompetent. I was using that as an example of oboe being another tipping factor. No one, as I stated, in my whole life has said its unfair to use oboe...but many people, as we have seen in this thread, seem to think race is unfair. Don't take things personally...</p>
<p>Just to clear some things up since you guys overanalyze things WAY too much lol:</p>
<p>I'm not racist. I'm a URM and the girl I'm talking about is indeed African American and Native American. </p>
<p>I'm done focusing on my applications because I've finished them. They're quite sexy. Besides, you're telling me to worry about doing better things with my life, while you have the sad time to rumage through all of my past posts and analyze them? Aw, you CC'ers, you...</p>
<p>Anyway I just wanted to know your opinions on whether or not she would probably be admitted to the H class of '10...I wasn't looking for an arguement. She's an arrogant person but I'm not out to spite her. She probably will get into Harvard. Hopefully I'll be a happy camper at Syracuse next year.</p>
<p>Thanks for the laughs.</p>
<p>Of course we're going to read your posts, make up our own minds, and respond to them with our opinions. Why else would you want to post a thread like this anyways? For us not to read it and not respond? Or are you just blowing off these responses as "overanalyzed" because they weren't the type of replies you wanted to hear? Because the implications and undercurrent attitude of the original post was indeed full of spite and negativity and some of the posters called you on your mean-spirited garbage?</p>
<p>How does this have anything to do with Democrats or Republicans? If someone doesn't agree with your point of view or act in a way you dislike, do you automatically label them as "democrats"? That goes way over the lline of bipartisanship, it's rather blatant bigotry and completely nonsensical. You come off as a fanatical Republican whose ignorance makes you believe you're able to spew the word "democrat" as an insult. How stupid.</p>
<p>Okay I retract. Now calm down lol. I just hate when topics go off on a tangent instead of just answering the question.</p>
<p>yes, well, the instant you attacked her character, you asked for a controversy. </p>
<p>Didn't your parents ever tell you, by the way, that it's rude to speak poorly about other people when they aren't there to defend themselves?</p>
<p>after looking at it further, IM WRONG. i pulled that 1200 SAT from some other CC forum and I guess it was made up then as I can not google up results. sorry about that.</p>