Should Affirmative Action Consider Social Class?

[epiphany]

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Either you’re misremembering, or AdOffice redefined “high academic performance”.</p>

<p>Despite enormous incentives, nobody has ever found the unicorn of a “hooked” preferred admissions category (of statistically relevant size) that performs as well as the regular admits.

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<p>AdOfficer would know better than you. Check her long history of posts on this, particularly in the subcategory of <em>athletes</em>. Not even most athletes admitted to the Ivy League & similar reach U’s are underperformers prior to admission, let alone after.</p>

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Colleges enroll populations.

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<p>Nope. They seek out individuals within selected populations. They can cherry-pick within any desirable group they choose, because there will be high-performers in each group.</p>

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In the other direction we have an endless parade of gloomily consistent reports of underqualification and underperformance, from community college to the Ivy League (including some from the Ivy admissions directors themselves!).

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<p>Citations about these “gloomily consistent reports,” please. Won’t find it at the Ivies I have in mind, certainly not trends, en masse, increasing numbers, etc. There’s always an occasional underachiever once admitted, at most any school with an enrollment more than one. Nothing new and “trend-setting” about that.</p>