<p>Okay, let's look at your logic. It's impossible to number 1-15000 the applicant pool in terms of talent but it's okay to compare any two: Makes sense.</p>
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-An institution wants to enroll "talented" students but at the same time wants a "healthy mix" of students.
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<p>Okay, we're on the same page here. This is true. At least I think.</p>
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-Say we have two students, student A and student B.
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<p>Okay, yep.</p>
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-Student A is slightly more talented than student B. (Of course you can't quantify talent, but if you put the two students side by side and look at their GPAs, SATs, Classes Taken, Extracurriculars, Accomplishments, and other factors you can be reasonably sure that a student is more talented than the other.)
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<p>Um... this is where the problem starts. I have a couple of objections. Student A is a Nationally Ranked Violinist who composes and plays in several symphony orchestras. He has been playing from a very young age. Student B is exceedingly devoted to community service, and has been traveling the world working as a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity.</p>
<p>Will student A be more successful as a biologist or student B? 17 is a VERY young age to be judged so minutely. </p>
<p>But for argument's sake let's say that holds. OKAY. Mr. PwnzDeleOwnz the Senior Admissions officer has decided that Student A is "a LITTLE more talented" than Student B. Maybe he went to his concert.</p>
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-Student B gets in because of some form of preferential treatment.
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<p>Wait, why does Student A have to be rejected? The way college admissions works is that every person is compared against the POOL of applicants, not against ONE other student. Who says that preferential treatment for student B guarantees that a MORE talented student A is rejected in its stead? Couldn't a LESS talented student be rejected? Well, no, because there are a certain number of students MORE talented than student B and in order to take Student B one of them must be rejected, therefore reducing the talent of the admitted body right? Well, in order for that logic to hold we have to know every person who is 'more talented' than a particular individual in the applicant pool, aren't we back to ranking students again and didn't we say that that was impossible?</p>
<p>MY point is that it's impossible to make a statement like 'preferential treatment results in a less talented student body' without proposing that admissions is about lining students up and taking numbers 1-1500. If the process did involve something like that, exactly 1500 would be admitted each year, which is simply not true :/</p>
<p>EDIT. okay i started drafting this a while ago and i hit the submit button like 40 minutes later and there were all these posts. I don't mean to attack you, Pwnz(...), I really would hate for you to feel ganged up on. I'm merely exploring the question that you put out there. I hope you are not offended in any way.</p>