Should Affirmative Action Consider Social Class?

[siserune]

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@epiphany

AdOfficer would know better than you. Check her long history of posts on this, particularly in the subcategory of <em>athletes</em>.

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<p>AdOfficer has never suggested that athletes, as a group, are anything other than below average academically.
Nor did AdOfficer ever claim to have spotted the unicorn of “high academic performance” (by athletes, as a group) at his institution or any other. What AdOfficer has done is enthusiastically recommend the Game Of Life study documenting athletes’ underqualification and underperformance. </p>

<p>Here are some of the nicer things AdOfficer has said about the performance of athletes:</p>

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@AdOfficer (from multiple postings)

"Perhaps they may have lower testing ON AVERAGE, or even lower GPAs, but considering they are able to achieve academically at places like the Ivies and still commit over 30 hours/week to practices, travel, and competitions is impressive. …
…Sure, there are exceptions to what I’ve just said, but in general, athletes need to make the grade or they aren’t admitted or graduated.
… If we lowered the bar, that would mean we would admit people who can’t handle the work/graduate…

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<p>So much for the fairy tales of “high academic performance”. Here is what is what AdOfficer has said about more specific deficits:</p>

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@AdOfficer (from multiple postings)

the greatest average SAT differential in the ivy league was 126 points…for ice hockey players. the “differential” is the difference between the average athlete on that team and the “at large” student population. only 5 sports actually show an average point differential greater than 100 points. … the same is true for d3 liberal arts colleges…and it is in the same 5 sports.</p>

<p>i would suggest everyone interested in this topic read “the game of life: college sports and educational values” by james shulman and bill bowen…it is very intriguing, not to mention informative. excellent research, too. interestingly, what these authors have found is as follows: if we equate the admissions “bump” to SAT points. …[athletes] have proved to be getting the most “advantages” over time: … the study goes into great details about predicted and actual college performance of athletes, as well as comparisons amongst sports. but the message is clear - the advantage for recruited athletes is strong.</p>

<p>…high academic achievers who are also impact players [are] pretty rare in many most selective schools’ applicant pools. … most recruited athletes who are impact players - at least in my experience - have been less academically compelling than most others who are admitted. however, these students are contributing to campus in a way that others are not (or cannot).</p>

<p>[re:] NESCAC schools (Hamilton, Williams, Amherst, Wesleyan, Bates, etc…,) and how athletic tips work at these places. … the middle band of recruits are strong academically but need the “tip” to get in (slightly weaker academic profile, though still strong students, but “weaker” relative to the applicant pool); then there is the low band, wherein, basically, the coach says “take him/her” and the admission office has to - these students typically wouldn’t have even gotten a second read in the admissions process and are typically far below the academic profile of the admitted class.</p>

<p>with the middle-band slots, coaches have to be much more judicious, as many of their recruits are going to fall into this band and there are only a limited number of slots available in this band. however, if the coach identifies a recruit as a middle-band and wants to use that slot on that recruit, they will typically be in. with the lowest-band recruits, it is a similar situation, although typically there are fewer slots in this band than in the others.</p>

<p>…the ivy league has their “ivy index” that they use for athletic recruits. and at some schools, a student just has to hit a minimum gpa and sat mark and they are in. … athletic “tips” can be a big factor in the decisions on some students.

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