<p>Consider that is is necessary for even the most selective schools to have lower SAT averages for some groups because there simply aren’t enough scoring extremely highly to admit at the same standard while maintaining a racial composition that won’t have people up in arms about the Ivory Tower.</p>
<p>so is it safe to leave the “race” part on commonapp blank?heard ppl saying that its better for ppl to leave it blank than to fill in a race that might get looked down on??is this method recommended?i need someone who’s sure to answer..thanks in advance</p>
<p>Well, do not forget that SAT scores are also a very poor predictor of college success; thus, having good SAT scores will improve an applicant’s chances only so much. Schools would, rightly, be accused of discriminating against certain groups if they put more emphasis on the SAT score because most studies have shown that they are largely irrelevant.</p>
<p>Winston.C:</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter. Instead of worrying about something as insignificant as this why don’t you focus on writing good essays and figuring out how best to present your ECs and qualifications in your application?</p>
<p>I reject the notion that I am somehow disowning my heritage by not self-identifying. Just because I don’t want others to know something about me doesn’t mean I’m ashamed of it.</p>
<p>Winston, it’s perfectly safe to leave the race part blank.</p>
<p>Valid point but I would argue that people who think this are being naive.</p>
<p>People need to just accept the fact that you play the cards you’re dealt in life and move on.</p>
<p>Why aren’t wealthy white and Asian males made to feel bad about being admitted to top colleges? By going to good high schools and doing well they are playing the cards dealt to them yet no one makes them feel bad about it? Why is that?</p>
<p>“Why aren’t wealthy white and Asian males made to feel bad about being admitted to top colleges? By going to good high schools and doing well they are playing the cards dealt to them yet no one makes them feel bad about it? Why is that?”</p>
<p>This happens all the time. Accomplishments of people from good high schools are always expained away as being product of their environment. Never mind that the high school recruited people with talent or that only the best out of the top high school will be admitted to the elite schools.</p>
<p>I’ll ask you this. If the average SAT score for a high school is 1400 and only 1-2% of the students get into Harvard, how do you reason that this path is easier? If everyone does research, that means you have to make the finals of Intel in order for it to make an impact.</p>
<p>That statement is not as straightforward as you are assuming it is. I didn’t really feel like expanding on the idea anymore.</p>
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<p>Sorry, but who cares. Are you saying people should feel bad for these kids because they are expected to take advantage of opportunities that aren’t available to most other kids?</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone should be made to feel bad about playing the cards they are dealt in life. The only reason why I brought up wealthy white and Asian males is because those are the two groups that are typically most critical of affirmative action.</p>
<p>I’m not sure I understand what you mean when you say “play the cards you are dealt.” It seems to be an endorsement of taking advantage of whatever opportunities you have to maximize your college acceptances. If that’s a correct interpretation, then isn’t this consistent with not checking an ethnicity box if you think it might give you an advantage?</p>
<p>The argument has degenerated to a back and forth on the trivialities of meanings of the words of individual posters. </p>
<p>I’m very curious of your response to the cost/benefit analysis of Affirmative Action I floated on the previous page: Where AA results in a net gain in income among all college students</p>
<p>@Tyler: It’s definitely worth pointing out if you’re making some variant of the argument I mentioned earlier: “AA amounts to racial discrimination, but it’s worth it.” But it really has no bearing on whether discrimination is actually occurring. Since there are other measures of success, your argument doesn’t make any headway at convincing AA opponents that AA does not negatively affect them.</p>
<p>The study Tyler refers to shows that students who choose to go to a lesser university do not suffer in terms of income. The key word here is “choose.” Just like how negative self image can explain minority underachievement, similarly the negative effects on the self image of kids who are rejected may cause them to underperform. No study has been done to show this one way or the other, but what I’m saying is that the study you refer to cannot be extrapolated to say displacing people has no negative effects.</p>