<p>hey everyone, im in a mock government program and i had a few questions about college admissions for public schools. i am arguing against the use of affirmative action in public schools systems across the nation, so i just wanted to clarify some things.</p>
<li>do any public schools use legacy as a means of admission, or is this limited to private schools?</li>
<li>i know racial quotas for public schools are no longer used, but are there quotas for gender, income level, etc?</li>
<li>even without specific quotas, would it be fair to say that colleges can accept one student over another merely because one is black or hispanic? (assuming equal grades, sat, extra curriculars, etc)</li>
</ol>
<p>basically, my stance is that diversity is good, and i fully support accepting minority students to elite universities if they have legitimately shown high levels of achievement in academics and ec’s, overcoming obstacles, etc. however, i dont think admissions boards should just look at someone and go “oh, this person is (insert minority group here), we’ll admit him/her despite him/her being a below average candidate.” my idea was to eliminate the question on college apps asking what race/ethnicity a person identifies with, so that any consideration of race could only be deduced from essays/achievements, not just someone getting an edge because he or she was born from parents of a certain race.</p>
<p>suze: i am on this forum with the intent of clearing up how affirmative action works. my statement about accepting subpar minority students was not one of criticism per se; i was merely stating that if colleges literally consider race as an admission factor blindly, that would be unfair. i was looking forward to some feedback.</p>
<p>"...consider race as an admission factor blindly..." </p>
<p>Do you mean to say, consider race as the ONLY factor of admission for URMs? If so, suze is right that your argument is extremely unsophisticated. I would wager that you won't find a single school in the U.S. which does this. </p>
<p>If you mean to say, consider race as A factor of admissions, then it is also naive, because I would wager that most schools in the U.S. do this, other than the public schools in states where it has been prohibited by state law.</p>
<p>my question was actually kind of an in between, not necessarily leaning toward a specific extreme. i know can be race considered in admissions, but i'm trying to figure out just how subjective it is. lets take an asian with a 3.8, 1900 sat, and a decent amount of ec's and a minority student with a 3.5, 1800, and also a decent amount of ec's. or perhaps a minority student with a 3.4 or 3.3....im trying to figure out just where the line is drawn, which i guess i didn't make clear last night as i quickly wrote my post.</p>
<p>You can't compare head to head like that, though. There are so many factors involved- state residency, legacy status, interviews, talent, volunteer work, employment, first generation, to name a few- that to directly compare applicants is a vast oversimplification. Remember that colleges are admitting a class rather than just a bunch of qualified individuals, and every college is looking for something different in their freshman class.</p>
<p>Or, as MIT puts it,
[quote]
When we admit a class of students to MIT, it's as if we're choosing a 1,000-person team to climb a very interesting, fairly rugged mountain - together. We obviously want people who have the training, stamina and passion for the climb. At the same time, we want each to add something useful or intriguing to the team, from a wonderful temperament or sense of humor, to compelling personal experiences, to a wide range of individual gifts, talents, interests and achievements. We are emphatically not looking for a batch of identical perfect climbers; we are looking for a richly varied team of capable people who will support, surprise and inspire each other.