<p>Do colleges weigh in the fact that a child is black, white, asian, indian, etc. when they look at the transcripts? I have heard that some colleges will heighten expectations of white and asian applicants compared to black and indian applicants. Doesn't this seem a little unfair? Some colleges also will have preferences in sex from year to year to keep the female/male population 50/50. Confirm or deny?</p>
<p>Some colleges do consider more than GPA & test scores when evaluating applicants, I agree.</p>
<p>Yes I also agreed with this. This all happens due to just maintain the collage stability, but this is not good at all. Preferences of sex over GPA & test scores are truly a humiliating procedure. Rather to maintain the stability of collage they need to give chance to deserving candidate.</p>
<p>I find that mod-podge works well to ensure the stability of * collage*.
;)</p>
<p>College is meant to be an experience that exposes you to values and backgrounds that may be different from yours and opens your mind to new ideas and values from all walks of life. This is something that just cannot happen if schools aren’t diverse - otherwise, 95% of top colleges would just be suburban white/Asian kids from wealthy backgrounds, some of which have lived their entire lives in a bubble full of overachieving kids more or less identical to themselves their entire lives, so I think exposing students to all sorts of different cultures makes everybody more happy and open-minded in the long run.</p>
<p>But on the other hand, I agree it’s not really fair that qualified applicants can be rejected for someone who is less-qualified than them. So I can really see both sides of the coin.</p>
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<p>If anything, the most highly selective colleges are even more of a bubble of this type (i.e. places full of those who were overachievers prior to college) than the home and K-12 environments of most of the students at such colleges.</p>
<p>Indeed, this type of lack of diversity in academic abilities and aspirations is an often stated reason for wanting to go to such a school over (for example) a state university with a wider or more diverse range of academic abilities and aspirations.</p>
<p>isn’t it an old meme on cc that vassar prefers boys over girls because their ration is 6 girls to 4 boys?</p>
<p>It isn’t racism or sexism but trying to keep a balanced student body. I know that my DD has crossed schools off her list that have a huge imbalance between the male/female ratio. Colleges know this, they don’t want to be in that position. Our son has been offered extra $$$ to attend some of these schools simply because he is male.</p>
<p>There are tons of threads on this topic already (some of which end up in flames). The bottom line, yes schools take it into account. Yes, they should take it into account - it’s not racism or sexism. They have legitimate institutional goals in doing so. And no, it’s not fun to be rejected because someone with lower grades and test scores but a culturally under-represented background got a boost. That doesn’t make is wrong or unfair. You might get a boost by being an athlete or the first gen to go to college - again, other legitimate institutional preferences.</p>
<p>There’s a world of difference between “I was shut out of getting an education” and “I was shut out of my first choice college.” It’s balance … not sexism/racism.</p>
<p>Colleges are free to define most qualified however they like. Students don’t get to decide that grades and SAT scores are the most important qualifications.</p>
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<p>There are many colleges with a higher ratio of women to men than Vassar. I think the meme is that at all but STEM schools, there are more qualified female than male applicants, and students. So male students have an advantage at many.</p>
<p>My S got a boost as a result of this, my D will probably deal with the reverse. Just the way it goes. </p>
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<p>Absolutely agree.</p>
<p>What particular college policies are in fact has been the subject of litigation from time to time. There is a case from the University of Texas at Austin that has been accepted by the United States Supreme Court for review in the next term of the Court. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, by usual moderation policy here, discussion of this sometimes very contentious issue is welcomed in the dedicated FAQ and discussion thread on this topic, </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1366406-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-10-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1366406-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-10-a.html</a> </p>
<p>which was revised just the other day to take into account the latest developments in the law and in federal enforcement practice. See you over there. This thread will be closed after I post this announcement.</p>