<p>Admission has and should forever be based on accomplishments. What diversity rallies at ucla are saying is that certain races want to receive preferential treatment in the admissions decisions. There should be an impartiality in the admissions criteria. If there isn't enough diversity, it does not mean that we should subjectively admit people just for that fact.</p>
<p>did anyone go? see? curious to know what happened...</p>
<p>honestly, I agree with alexinorbit... and, this may sound terrible but, I couldn't care less about the ethnicity of the people sitting around me in class... those of us here have all worked just as hard to get into UCLA as each other and that's all that really matters... of course this is all just my two cents on the matter.</p>
<p>I'm on the fence on this issue. Having studied and lived in Japan, where the crushing weight of conformity in ethnicity, language, and thought can destroy a person, I'm wary of "anti-diversity" arguments.</p>
<p>lol ahh young people and their idealism...
it so doesnt matter</p>
<p>well, i wouldn't say that i'm anti-diversity. i would say that i'm more apathetic towards diversity...</p>
<p>Right, which is why I put "anti-diversity" in quotes, as I lack a good word that really describes the attitude.</p>
<p>Regardless, I think that those who usually say "it doesn't matter" have probably not been subject to the absolute rule of the majority in homogeneous communities.</p>
<p>People who thinks diversity only pertains to race are a bunch of ignorant idiots. Have they forgotten about beliefs? religions? personalities? the way a person dress? Those who are arguing for more diversity at UC campuses are hypocrites of their own game. Affirmative action is a synoynm for reverse-discrimination.</p>
<p>No, diversity is not limited to race. However, it's a FACTOR that should not be ignored, either.</p>
<p>Sure, there may be diversity of opinion between a group of Latinos...but it's doubtful that any of them have much experience with being an Asian in America. These are the kinds of experiences that should be considered.</p>
<p>do you guys think affirmative action really doesnt already exist or what?</p>
<p>alexinorbit,</p>
<p>Hm...seems that a certain Mr. Li might not agree with you on that one.</p>
<p>The funniest thing about that rally was the Asian guy who held the "Black Liberation through Socialist Revolution" placard :D</p>
<p>who is mr. li?</p>
<p>A student who alleges that his ethnicity hurt his ability to gain admissions to Princeton.</p>
<p>yea, citan i saw some white/asian people with a "got black people?" shirt on. LOL just a bunch of bored kids looking for something to stand for. btw, im not against hollistic admission, just against AA.</p>
<p>^yeah everyone wants to feel important so they sign up for a cause. they think they're the modern day freedom riders when theres no issue</p>
<p>I understand that the Mr. Li might have gotten rejected. However, you can not deny that there are a lot of brilliant kids at Princeton. The school is called top notch for a reason. Now, since there are a lot of brilliant kids in the United States, the university can't just accept all of them. However, I am sure a kid like that got accepted to some other VERY good school. Almost all kids that did get accepted are probably just as qualified as Mr. Li. However, the problem is reverse discrimination. There are still universities that look past the bad performance of students in admissions, and sometimes look toward race and background for admission.</p>
<p>I don't see how diversity rallies are completely pointless at all. At the very least, it promotes a real discussion about admission issues and our whole educational system. At best, it could possibly spark a movement toward real change. I don't think it's solely a UCLA problem but as part of the public education system it should be something that it should be concerned with.</p>
<p>People have a perception that this is only a black issue or only a Latino issue since it tends to get the most pub, but they're hardly the only group of people to be affected by this. If you go into the SAC, there are tons of student groups with outreach programs to high schools. Not only outreach and retention for black and Latino students, but Native Americans and SE Asians (such as Filipinos, Vietnamese, Cambodians) who've also seen problems with both getting students in and retaining them in recent years. You can complain what you want about this, but there is absolutely nothing stopping you from creating your own outreach program for white kids and helping them get into school. The thing is, most people from more affluent communities already have a decent idea of how to get to college and what resources are out there.</p>
<p>Personally, I work in tutoring, mainly with kids who are from inner city areas (my boss also happens to work with a lot of kids who are athletes, some of them playing here now). A lot of the kids I work with are pretty bright, and a lot of them have reasonable goals. If someone wants me to help them pass some HS stats class so they can just get to CSULA of all places, so they can try into nursing, how can I not respect someone with goals and plans like that? But the reality is, a lot of kids who might have the intelligence and will to get a higher education just don't know how or have the resources how to get it. I mean, how fair is it when some schools out there can barely provide books to their kids? How is someone supposed to get to college when they barely know what an SAT is, let alone know how to sign up or take SAT prep? I mean, I don't mean for it to be a race thing at all, and it's not even all a UCLA problem either. A black kid who grew up in Beverly Hills and when to a college prep school probably has just as many advantages as a rich white kid of the same background. But I do think your experiences in the past should matter too. Being able to overcome something is an accomplishment too.</p>
<p>In a perfect world then yea, grades and test scores would tell everything about you as a student. But this world is flawed, grades and tests are flawed, everything has its flaws. I think we should take the best students we can, but how do we tell who are the best students? I'm tired of people complaining that so-and-so is taking "your spot" at a school, whether it's because you're black, or you have a 2300 SAT, or whatever. You aren't entitled to anything. There are better people, more qualified people, more talented people who for some reason or another have been denied admission. It happens, and no one can really tell you why. I don't see a problem with moving toward a more holistic admissions process when Berkeley, a school of similar/slightly higher stature, has been using it and not lost anything academically. AA, I have more of a problem with by the nature of it, but overall I think we as a society should probably take a closer look at the way we're educating people.</p>
<p>Thanks for providing a good perspective on that matter.......</p>
<p>i don't think anyone has a problem giving poor kids an edge in the admission process. What i really have a problem is that IT IS gonna turn into a kind of Affirmative Action type thing. I mean, AA is like racism. I know many kids from my high school who were URMs who were VERY bright and very privledged (ie not poor). They had the top gpas and sats, but because they were URMs, they got into the top schools over other ppl in our school who had better stats and better ECs. There is NOTHING wrong with underprividged kids (i know many are URMs) getting some edge. but please, just because you're a certain ethnicity should grant you NOTHING in this country. the sad thing, because of political pressure, the color of your skin does grant you priviledges some places and disadvantages in other places. I know this is gonna turn into a AA thing because the whole thing is over ethnic diversity (ie "got black people" t-shirts).</p>