<p>Cal8876 is obviously an ardent proponent of AA. He or she has no idea what we are discussing. It’s about the policy, not blaming rejection to others.</p>
<p>"Man,kudos to the Columbia admin office. You read these posts and you can see exactly why people were rejected or accepted. "</p>
<p>Should Columbia admit a class comprised entirely of people who fully embrace affirmative action as is? No diversity of thought?</p>
<p>Well, now I’m bored of the endless vicious cycle of this discussion. Good night to you all</p>
<p>BTW, Cal9976, read 116thetBroadway’s post and try to think whether Columbia adcoms are truly full of insights and ability to extract one’s personality from the essays.</p>
<p>Every time I see someone say AA is “racist”, I laugh. And then I get angry.</p>
<p>Do you guys not understand that being white is a privilege in itself? That (general) we have benefited from our skin color for centuries while minorities have suffered? Racism is still alive and well, and yes, many minorities are in lower economic classes than white people. Many come from homes where no one went to college. Are we really going to condemn these kids because they didn’t score as high as white kids on the SAT? Do they not deserve a chance at a great education because our ancestors used their ancestors as slaves? 
AA is a way to get more minorities into college, because in all honesty it’s a relatively new thing in our society. In a perfect world, we wouldn’t need AA because college admissions would be more equal amongst races. Until then it’s needed.</p>
<p>I also think income level/socioeconomic status should be taken into account, but that’s another discussion. </p>
<p>/rant</p>
<p>All the people complaining over affirmative action, get back on the saddle! If you didn’t support it, you didn’t have to apply. These schools make their policies VERY clear. </p>
<p>Not to mention, it’s not like 116thetBroadway is some idiot. 1980 on SAT and 3.7 GPA is RESPECTABLE for ANYONE. To say that a 1980 and 3.7 shouldn’t get you into an Ivy is ridiculous. A stretch? Yes, of course. Ivies are a stretch for everyone! </p>
<p>But who are we to say that they didn’t face some challenges that others didn’t? Maybe Columbia picked them because of their race; so what!? It’s not as if they saw the little tick box that said “Latino” or “Black” and automatically accepted them. Columbia saw at their whole application, and said, “We want this person here,” and accepted them. </p>
<p>You have no idea how hard it is for some of my peers to go to college. One of my friends wasn’t allowed to apply until it was too late; the other wasn’t allowed to apply but did it anyways. </p>
<p>I’m thankful I never had that – but the stigma is there. Many of you now see me as someone who got in because of the color of my skin and where my family is from. Maybe it’s true, but that doesn’t erase the same stigma I get from the color of my skin and where my family is from. It goes both ways. </p>
<p>I don’t doubt that some applicants also got in because of their race. Again, myself among them. But I also don’t doubt that right now, their parents are jumping with joy, their neighborhood, their school, their peers, because now their child, neighbor, student and friend has an opportunity unheard of in their community. I know my friends and family are.</p>
<p>I am sorry you got rejected. I truly am. But their policies have been clear, and are clear still, and to be honest, admissions at top universities is a crapshoot anyways. </p>
<p>There’s work to be done and there are PLENTY of prestigious schools out there. Step up, and take your rejection as a sign that you were meant elsewhere.</p>
<p>"Do you guys not understand that being white is a privilege in itself? "</p>
<p>How is being white inherently a privilege? My ancestors came to this country in the early 1900s. Not only did they not have anything to do with slavery, but they were treated very badly because of their ethnicity. There were no social programs in those days to help them, either. My mother grew up in a single-parent family in a slum; they didn’t have 2 dimes to rub together. To this day my mother says she didn’t even know she was poor until she was an older teenager, because her mother didn’t dwell on it. They worked hard. My dad wasn’t much better off but my parents always stressed to their kids that the world didn’t owe us a living. We had to work hard for everything and we certainly had nothing handed to us. </p>
<p>Are Asians privileged, too?</p>
<p>Here we go.</p>
<p>So, guys who were unlucky: What are your plans, now? How are you dealing?</p>
<p>Yale decisions don’t come for another week. (It does indeed feel good to be black and smart this Winter.)</p>
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<p>Pay gap is the big one. Lack of racial prejudice is another. </p>
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<p>Not as much, but they aren’t as disadvantaged as Latinos and Blacks, at least not today. They get pay comparable to whites.</p>
<p>Guys…this really divisive issue is not really worth discussing. I mean, unless one of you’re are going to be a Dean of Admissions or a Supreme Court Judge someday.</p>
<p>[Seven</a> Myths about Affirmative Action in Universities | Columbia University in the City of New York](<a href=“http://www.columbia.edu/content/seven-myths-about-affirmative-action-universities.html]Seven”>http://www.columbia.edu/content/seven-myths-about-affirmative-action-universities.html)</p>
<p>Seven Myths about Affirmative Action in Universities</p>
<p>“It is important to understand that admissions offices are not making thousands of individual, unrelated decisions; they are trying to make the best judgment about individual applicants in order to form the strongest class that will study and live and interact together over an extended period of time - three or four years.* The question for each applicant is what can he or she contribute to the whole, not where they stand in splendid, isolated comparison with everyone else.* Applicants have a right to be treated fairly within the admissions process, but there is no right to be admitted to a university without regard to how the overall makeup of the student body will affect the educational process or without regard to the needs of society after they graduate.*”</p>
<p>Oh, yea. My opinion vindicated in article form. <em>punches air</em> <em>twice</em></p>
<p>In college admissions and academia in general, being white is not a privilege.</p>
<p>Amen to OrangeD00D’s post.</p>
<p>I’m an Asian and I completely agree with you (:</p>
<p>Columbia might just be a teensy bit biased on the subject. From the NYT:</p>
<p>Supporters of affirmative action reacted with alarm to the courts decision to hear the case. I think its ominous, said Lee Bollinger, the president of Columbia University, who as president of the University of Michigan was a defendant in the Grutter case. It threatens to undo several decades of effort within higher education to build a more integrated and just and educationally enriched environment.</p>
<p>Let’s just face it. Everyone can be right and wrong here. I don’t think it matters how admissions choose their applicants. Once it’s done, it’s done. We just need to go with the flow. Society isn’t fair so neither will college admissions. That’s just the way it is and if you think you are so qualified, let’s just say it’s their loss then. These elite colleges need to protect their reputation. I actually think it’s fine watching you guys making arguments and rants. But seriously, it has to end somewhere.</p>
<p>why are there two contending threads for the same purpose in this subforum im scared</p>
<p>btw @HateSMUS I was very interested to see how you did and I’m disappointed to see you were rejected since you were so dedicated to this thread. So many great applicants rejected/deferred this year. Dartmouth seemed to have suffered from the same fate. Good luck to everyone in the rest of their college journeys!</p>
<p>I don’t understand why it is so hard for people to empathize with one another.</p>
<p>No one chooses the circumstances under which they’re born. It’s unfair to criticize an URM who takes advantage of affirmative action- if you had the option, wouldn’t you? It’s also callous to tell an Asian kid with a 2350 SAT that they’re uninteresting and undeserving of admission into a top college because their parents forced them to play violin and attend cram school.</p>
<p>If AA is meant to provide equal opportunities for admission to college, then it should be less race-based and more class-based. If AA is meant to increase the number of minorities who enter top colleges, then racial preferences are fine.</p>
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<p>I think you’re both overestimating how much AA helps and underestimating how little test scores matter in the grand scheme of Ivy applications. As someone with a 4.0 and 2300+ SAT score, 4.0s and 2300+s aren’t unique. Thousands of kids apply with these stats in a limited number of spots throughout all top colleges. At a certain point, slight increases in GPA or SAT scores have marginal effects. Someone with a 3.9 and 2250 is barely, if at all, worse off than someone with a 4.0 and 2300. From my understanding, once you get to a certain point academically, most of the weight of your application comes from your ECs, teacher recommendations, essays, and even just how the particular college wants to sculpt its incoming freshman class. </p>
<p>Nobody “deserves” to get accepted anywhere. There’s no easy, tangible cutoff where people above a certain score “deserve” to get in and are only denied because of AA. Plenty of people with outstanding parts of their application, whether it’s a 4.0 and 2400, or 15 5s on AP tests, or national finalists or winners in major math/science competitions, etc, get denied from various colleges. There just aren’t enough spots to admit all of the qualified applicants. </p>
<p>I’m not denying that AA exists (even though super qualified AA applicants are even rejected), but nobody is denied acceptance anywhere because their “spot got taken by an AA less qualified.” That makes no sense. I could just as well say, “I didn’t get into college X because of the 1,100 other people they wanted instead of me,” and it would be a similar statement that holds just as little weight.</p>
<p>Congratulations everyone who was accepted into Columbia! And to everyone else, you didn’t do anything wrong. There just aren’t enough spots for all of the qualified applicants, and there are a ton of qualified applicants. Good luck with your other applications.</p>