<p>Why don't you complain about the other unfair parts of life?</p>
<p>Many of you complain about blacks getting an edge over whites when it comes to admissions. But, I hear no complaining about other unfair parts of life.</p>
<p>For example:
My aunt used to be a manager at a ritsy fashion store in NJ. When people came in to fill in a application the manager would briefly rate the person on their looks. A score of 10 was Halle Barry beautiful while a 1 was like a hampster. A score of a 7 or above instantly garnered a job while the others had to work for positions. When my aunt told me this I was shocked, but she said that most ritsy clothing stores do have scales measuring the looks of applicants. </p>
<p>Why don't I hear *****ing about beautiful people taking spots? Thats life, some one will always have an edge during a certain situation.</p>
<p>"Being beautiful gives a definate advantage to performance in retail positions, especially sales positions."</p>
<p>Actually it has no difference at retail stores when it comes to sales, but it does have an effect on the traffic in the stores. I work at Polo and I can tell you 90% (the people who filled out the surveys) that people come in with a set amount of money to spend. No coaxing will change this, beautiful or ugly.</p>
<p>no one complains when my parents didnt go to college and help me with my projects throughout school when someone im competing against in rank has parents who are college grads and have helped throughout his life... i mean seriously, ive had to do a lot more research, studying and independent stuff in school to get to where i am than the average grade-mate of mine, and im not complaining, thats life.</p>
<p>im not against AA except for one thing, i think it should be more monitored and not just by race, more by culture, but thats just me.</p>
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i think it should be more monitored and not just by race, more by culture, but thats just me.
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<p>That's a bureaucratic nightmare waiting to happen. Everyone has some racial and ethnic heritage of some sort, but "culture" is loose term by comparison that means "behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought." Anyone can assimilate into a culture, skin color/heritage regardless.</p>
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Having URMs in the student body adds to diversity at the school, which, I think, is severely underrated.
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<p>This I find somewhat irritating. At Berkeley the "diversity" of the student population is constantly stressed by counselors and information papers. Well, Berkeley's student population by statistical data is 10% not reported, (roughly) 35% white and 38% Asian. So 70-75% out of the 90% reported is either Asian or white. Being of Mexican descent, I am rather aggravated that the university pushes a label of "diversity" when the only diverse part of the student population is the sub-populations of the Asians and Caucasians (diversity in numbers), whereas the small Black and Hispanic populations are much more homogenous due to their small pools.</p>
<p>yeah and thats the problem with it, its like the whole HGH thing in baseball, theres no adequate way to measure it. our society loves numbers. its so much easier to say, if you are 25% of this, you are a URM. done. this still lets some unqualified people in and stops qualified people. but, even as AA is right now, it opens doors for these URMs that change cycles of uneducation, poverty, etc.</p>
<p>Strykur, look at some of the other UC's also, i think it was Irvine with an asian population of 53.1% and white somewhere around mid-30. I would not be as comfortable as a Hispanic being so vastly outnumbered...</p>
<p>I also support AA. I think diversity is an essential part of the college experience, which of course makes it very desirable for colleges. However, AA is still not exactly a fair process. While there are many minorities who have had to work so much harder to get themselves where their white peers are, a minority status gives you an advantage regardless of you social situation. So, in this case, I can understand somebody being upset because a minority person with lower scores or whatever was admitted over them.</p>
<p>Kaatu: the caucasian ratio doesnt bother me, especially when some colleges have it muchhh worse, the point i was making was that theres hardly any room for other cultures when 85% of the school is already accounted for, and thats not including the 4.4% who didnt list. Its scary in a way. But yeah, AA as it is right now needs some help, but its the best we have to work with.</p>
<p>I agree that AA definitely needs to be fixed, but some of it makes sense. What annoys me is all the people who complain about how the SAT is unfair and doesn't measure intelligence, and they are great at math or writing or whatever but the time and pressure gets to them. Perhaps I would feel differently if I did not score as well as I did, but even before I took it I looked at it like a challenge unlike a regular test in those subjects. You need to be able to perform well under pressure and with little time at many times in life. Get over it. I do agree that prep classes and such are a bit unfair, but simply studying for it is not. In my opinion, what is unfair is the weight ECs have come to play in college admissions. I don't think we should just sit around all day watching TV, but I like simply spending time with my family. Reading. Visiting National Parks and hiking just for fun. Sitting around talking to my mom about a book we both read, instead of the book club at my school where the teacher picks all the books and the club is filled with people I don't really like. It really made me sad when we were going to go on vacation with our friends and they decided they couldn't because of the fencing team.</p>
<p>true, many often complain about african-americans and hispanics getting the advantage and true many people are bitter about it. however, one must remember that these - a good portion of - people often fight against adversity ALL THEIR LIVES. It doesn't start with college, it is something that they have to deal with both before and after.</p>
<p>i don't know if this really had much to do with what this thread is about but hey, i felt like saying something :)</p>
<p>I do not accept rockers' justificaiton of AA. College admissions is a personal process. Therefore, the decision whether to apply AA to an applicant should be based on his socioeconomic status and NOT his race. Adcoms get to know an applicant fairly well through his or her application. A poor white kid is more deserving of AA than a rich black kid.</p>
<p>That said, I think the justification for AA is definitely the diversity it creates on campus.</p>
<p>socioeconomic status is relative on location. for instance, i am lower middle class where i live, on LI, NY. if i lived in most other places around the country, id be pretty well off. however, as it is, i went to a somewhat rich private school and was berated often for being somewhat on the low side of things. this, coupled with a lot of people not associating with the hispanic kid makes me feel like crap. am i poor? not really. but im not well off. so, should i not get AA when im still descriminated against, my parents salary is around 60000 now but was at around 40000 for most of my life, just to get kicked in the face by the time admissions comes by because i didnt have the tutoring sessions for the sat or the hours to do whatever i wanted when i was instead teaching myself what my parents (not college grads) couldnt. you need to sort of look at both race and socioeconomic status. a poor white kid in a place with mostly middle and lower class white kids does not have it the same as a lower middle class hispanic kid in a mainly middle and upper class society.</p>
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Strykur, look at some of the other UC's also, i think it was Irvine with an asian population of 53.1% and white somewhere around mid-30. I would not be as comfortable as a Hispanic being so vastly outnumbered...
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<p>You didn't read my post clearly - I was referencing that fact that Berkeley pushes a label of "diversity" regarding the student demographics; I don't think any other UC tries to push this feigned characteristic (unless I am arrogant and my claim can be rebuttled). And yes Irvine is the only UC with an Asian majority, and it will inevitably joined by another UC in the future for that title claim.</p>
<p>i know you mentioned berkeley, i thought it was others also, whoops, egg on my face. and according to the college board im bad at Critically Reading anyway lol.</p>