@GMTplus7 Your point would stand if these were two students with the exact essays, letters of recommendation, and extracurricular activites and the only difference was the test score and race. The only thing we know is that the OP and the friend are of different ethnicity and have different test scores. That is all. And I think it is very simple minded to think that the only reason the friend got in was because she is black and the only reason the OP got rejected is because the OP is white.
OP, your friend is not “taking your spot” (not that it is “your” spot to begin with). Don’t think that her acceptance had anything to do with your rejection. If Vanderbilt wants you, they will accept you. If they don’t, they will reject you. It’s that simple. She had something they wanted and you didn’t. It’s harsh, but it’s reality.
Two girls in my high school were best of friends. They took the same classes, same ECs, had similar SAT scores (within 20 points), and were ranked 14th and 16th in a class of 700+. One got a full ride to a HYP, and the other had to work her way through state school. Upon graduation, the one who was Ivy got full ride offers from every grad school she applied to. The other took out loans to complete grad school at the state school. Both ended up having successful careers, happy lives and stayed friends. One was black, the other wasn’t.
The people who are saying the OP’s situation was not about race are either fools or willing dissemblers.
Perhaps there are different standards for admission to Vanderbilt depending on the School…
Vanderbilt School of Choice Form
After your QuestBridge application has been forwarded to Vanderbilt, you will receive emailed instructions on how to create a MyAppVU account. Once you have created your account, complete the Vanderbilt School of Choice Form within the MyAppVU portal. You will use the School of Choice Form to indicate whether you are applying to Vanderbilt’s College of Arts & Science, School of Engineering or Peabody College of Education and Human Development. National College Match candidates may not apply to the Blair School of Music.
I ‘think’ the requirements for Peabody are lower than the other Schools…someone who attended Vandy would know better than I. Did you and your friend apply to the same School?
I wonder if the girl who got into HYP wrote an essay that avoided making sweeping statements based upon anecdotal evidence of dubious quality?
My son is #2 in his class. The girl who is #1 was accepted at Notre Dame EA. My son was deferred. Their GPAs and ACT scores are almost identical. I would not assume that she was accepted and he was not because he is not a she.
I’m probably going to get shot down for this, but oh well.
I don’t think any of us should expend any more mental energy on what exact reason as to why OP didn’t get accepted. You could call Vanderbuilt Admissions and try and argue with them, but it’s not going to get you accepted. You’re basically saying that you were denied something you deserved because your friend was accepted, based solely on your similar scores and GPA. College admissions, especially for top-notch colleges, doesn’t work that way. On top of that, stating that the only reason you didn’t get in is because of your race is, essentially, making an excuse. Making excuses doesn’t get you good grades, it doesn’t get you into college, and it sure as hell doesn’t get you a job. I personally learned this the hard way after failing a class in my sophomore year. The mature thing to do right now would be to walk away and accept your rejection, and to enjoy whatever college you’re going to.
Let’s not kid ourselves here. AA is there, and it screws over ORM kids, especially. It helps URM, but screws over the ORMs.
For example, take a kid who has stats, GPA, decent ECs, letters of recs, essays, etc. at around the 50th percentile at a school. Now pretend he has the superpower to change his race at will. If he applied as an Asian, he would not be given an advantage. So, he does the smart thing, and applies as a URM. He gets an advantage.
The thing in question here is why is there even an advantage for equally hard-working students, just based on their skin colors? You expect ORMs to be happy about the indirect disadvantage they are given? All of you who are pro-AA in the admissions process should rethink this.
There is almost no reason for ORMs to gladly oblige to the the handicap they are given in the admissions process. It rubs salt in the wound to see that people blindly support AA because they don’t want to be ostracized by society.
@IAmTheGOAT, it is far from clear that, if there is discrimination against ORM, it is due to AA.
Keep in mind that the last time the Ivies kept out ORM (back when they discriminated against Jews), AA as a concept didn’t even exist and racism towards blacks, etc. Was pretty blatant.
Racism and sexism are very deeply ingrained in our society, in all our representations of “good” and “bad” and “normal” and “different” people.
If you think you aren’t racist, or if you think people don’t have to deal with it (with some skin colors) or get advantages from it (with other [lighter] skin colors), then I suggest you take an Implicit Bias test from Project Implicit at Harvard (available online, of course).
Our universities are not a meritocracy. And even if they tried to be, they would probably define “merit” differently than you expect.
I really wish I could see evidence in my lifetime that these prejudices are actually dying out, and not just becoming more subtle in our subconscious. But I don’t think that’s likely.
@greeninohio, outside of engineering schools (and maybe business), it’s actually, if anything, harder for girls to get accepted in to an elite school than boys these days.
@PurpleTitan, I am not sure that is true for ND. Fortunately, my son also has apps in at Amherst and Swarthmore - so perhaps the odds at those schools will be in his favor.
@PurpleTitan The purpose of examining history is to fix its mistakes, not repeat it. At the moment, we are repeating it. To condone such a practice as AA itself is a cheap shot to minorities. You are implicitly telling them that you’re going to give them a boost just because of their skin color. I agree that AA has the right intentions, but it is outdated. It would have been fine in the 1950s, but we need a remedied form, as we have progressed so far into democracy that even the US president is half black, and there are up and coming people in many minorites (eg women, urms, etc.)
Fyi, Jewish people weren’t ORMs in the early 1900s… they were blatantly discriminated against. Are you saying this is the norm to discriminate against some group, at ome point in time, regardless?
@greeninohio, gender is unlikely to play much of a factor at any of those 3 schools (the applicant pool is roughly 50/50 to all 3 of ND, Amherst, and Swarthmore).
Before this thread degenerates into something that gets closed or moved to the “Race/AA discussion” thread, I’d like to say that no one knows why kid 1 got into Vandy and kid 2 didn’t. We just don’t know. There are numerous reasons, many mentioned in this thread.
I think college admissions are more complicated than some people suppose. In most cases, you need to be within a certain GPA/test score range to even qualify for consideration. But after that I imagine there are any number of separate lenses an applicant could be viewed through and I think the final result will depend on the sum total of those, not on any individual lens.