Looking for first-generation/low-income oppurtunities

[dobby]

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I think the grad school acceptance process, despite tons of materials, is still incredibly murky for those who have not been on the adcom end of it. You will find, through a search of any grad forum including this one, that everyone basically confirms this. As Prof X has, in fact, been on the side of grad sdmissions that actually makes decisions and weighs the factors, then yes, of course I think he knows more. In addition, I have been told the same thing by many other profs who have sat on admissions committees for grad school. I consider first-hand sources far more reliable than second-hand sources (being the researcher I am), as second-hand sources are generally not much more than speculation.

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<p>So basically, you’ve talked to professors and somehow you’ve come away with the idea that merit is all important in grad school admissions.</p>

<p>Well guess what? I’ve talk to professors too. What I’ve been told is that although merit is certainly important, many students are accepted because they have bigwig recommenders (connections) or belong to some minority group.</p>

<p>Please stand back and realize that as much as meritocracy would be nice to have, it just doesn’t exist in pure form in graduate admissions. People who would not be getting in 50 years ago are getting in today - not only because the quality of their application has risen, but because they are actively favored!</p>

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Affirmative action often applies to undergrad, certainly. However, it rarely applies to grad programs, especially the top, say, 50 programs in each discipline.

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<p>HAH! I think the opposite is actually true. What schools do activists who complain about low numbers of the minorities target? The top ones! If you think about it, that makes sense. Why would you target some little university if your goal is “changing the culture of the academy”? If you’re in that position, you want to go after the leaders in higher education and convince them that diversity is next to godliness. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.springerlink.com/content/u0j658j04851j77l/fulltext.pdf[/url]”>http://www.springerlink.com/content/u0j658j04851j77l/fulltext.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2007/03/14_diversity.shtml[/url]”>http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2007/03/14_diversity.shtml&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.bamn.com/hostileclimate.asp[/url]”>http://www.bamn.com/hostileclimate.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Moreover, activists aren’t stupid - they know that in order to more tenured minority faculty members at top universities (a major goal of theirs) they need to get more minority grad students into top programs in the first place.</p>

<p>I truly believe that to fail to acknowledge the huge emphasis universities place on graduate student affirmative action is to miss huge aspects of what’s been going on in higher education for decades.</p>