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i had to climb ten times harder than you just to get lower test scores
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<p>no, thats not true. What about my poor as **** cousins in missouri who live on a rural farm raising chickens and going in and out of poverty/government assistance. They are white, and get no AA love, even though both of them are smart enough to be successful at a top 25 university, and they are extremely creative (one was val has his hs, but he only got a 24 ACT).</p>
<p>Congrats on your MIT acceptance, but do not assume that you have had to work 10 times harder than anyone for anything.</p>
<p>affirmative action is such a controversial topic... but when I think about it
why would a top university want a student who say...scores a 80 with a week of studying over a student who scores a 100 with one night of studying? Because that student worked seven times harder and still scored 20 points lower means that he or she will be successful in the future? there's always that chance i suppose. Of course, without affirmative action most top colleges would fill with Asians much like what happened with the UC's. </p>
<p>AA never makes the other applicants/rejects happy but an acceptance is an acceptance so congrats to all.</p>
<p>actually, my family's income has not contributed to my sat score at all. my mom refuses to pay for any kind of sat tutor or online course or anything, so i went in and took the SAT without any preparation. so no, my family's income has definitely not contributed to my SAT score and that is a generalization. anyways, for all you know, i could be low-income. don't be stereotypical. my SAT score is anything but a reflection of my parents' success, it is a result of my own capabilities.</p>
<p>are you kiddin??? minorities in general have to work harder than the average white american just to get his foot through the door!! the fact that barack obama is the FIRST african american in the white house serves justification. He was not the FIRST qualified minority, that man had to break barriers and fight against all odds just to make CHANGE. your statement is pretty wild , please re-think what you say before you actually say it.</p>
<p>&& by the way your cousins do not need to live on a farm...thats their preference *</p>
<p>Wasn't there a girl who posted on here that she got into Harvard. She then made a huge thread titled something like "It's a miracle! I got into Harvard" She had low stats for Harvard and she kept saying she had no hook. Then we asked what her essay was...it was about how she escaped the wesboro baptist church and lived with other people in her family (I'm sure there's mroe to it). So much for no hook.</p>
<p>SAT scores do have correlation with your income. My school is extremely poor and we have never had proper biology lab skills (we only did 1 experiment) and spent most of the time understanding concepts without applying them. If I took that SAT II test on biology, I would have bombed it. </p>
<p>And depending on what type of school a person goes to and what demographics they are surrounded by, it can have an adverse effect on their SAT score. A poor school has less money for textbooks and materials than a public school in a richer area or a private school like Brearley or Exeter. Students may get better, more experiences teachers at the schools with more money to help analyze reading passages and do the math at a higher level.</p>
<p>When you are poor and go to a poor school, you have to work extremely hard to prepare yourself for college. I take an extra set of classes at a community college because I want to learn even more than what is given to me. I wasn't able to take 5+ APs because my school couldn't offer it so I had to look elsewhere and take advantage of any opportunity remotely available to me. </p>
<p>Back to the topic, I know a friend who got a 1700 or so SAT score and got into Middlebury. However, he had an extremely impressive list of extracurrics and was an URM. I knew another girl who grew up in extreme poverty and attended one of the worst schools in my city (The school has such a high teenage birth rate that a daycare is located on campus) and had bad scores but excellent grades and attended Cornell on a full ride.</p>
<p>I think we're all forgetting a MAjor success story.</p>
<p>George W Bush got into Yale with a 566 Verbal and 640 math. But then, he had a pretty amazing hook, which also let him to be governor of TX... I'm so pi55ed off at him...</p>
<p>I had prepared a long response but maybe this isn't the best forum to talk about controversial topics.</p>
<p>One thing does bother me though: instead engaging in an open, lively discussion where the ultimate goal is to learn things from others, CC members sometimes condescend to making negative remarks that serve no purpose.</p>
<p>i hope this changes.</p>
<p>@xmas---> lol, the Bushes. let's not even go there!</p>
<p>The SAT scores have been recentered since Bush took them, so in all fairness, you need to add 100 points to each section. Much better score than I would have thought!</p>
<p>I agree with Carlos, too many people here are quick to bash any URM posting his stats. Carlos was just trying to help, and respond to the OPs question. </p>
<p>also, you guys were too busy complaining and missed tboone's post:</p>
<p>I got into cornell engineering with a 1960 SAT and a 3.4 UW GPA. I dont know if thats rare, but I was surprised.</p>
<p>ok, so I have a question...
would someone who is asian, moved from Vietnam 7 years ago, with a 1940 SAT and 3.97/4.0 GPA, play 3 varsity sports, get into schools such as Dartmouth and Colgate? : )</p>
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just remember that i had to climb ten times harder than you just to get lower test scores.
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<p>I'm not saying that you do not deserve to go to MIT. I actually hope you do well at MIT. My point is that blocking things like admissions by race leaves some HUGE cracks that many people fall through. I would be in favor of using a combination between zipcodes and incomes to asses the candidates. In addition, in my experience AA has given minorities a HUGE sense of entitlement that makes me angry. Everyone that gets in to a school at MIT deserves to go there, DO NOT assume that you worked 10 times harder than anyone who got in there regardless of where you came from.</p>