<p>So, here's the thing. The Valedictorian in my school is 1/25 American Indian and used this to get into a special summer minority program at MIT. The thing is, this person's mother is a specialized surgeon at our university and the father is a mathematican also at the university. Both parents are Harvard graduates and the mother hired an expensive counsellor to guide the college process. The counsellor recommended the geneological research, which came up showing the 1/25th American Indian heritage. Voila! He applies to a prestigious summer program FOR MINORITIES, and now everyone else is afraid to apply to Harvard. </p>
<p>Does anyone have an opinion on this? I am in no way dissing AA. I appreciate AA, but this seems something else.</p>
<p>1/25 is still minority. NOT.
His parents seem loaded and that’s unfair to the real minorities who need AA. Does this program apply to Asian? cuz I think Asians get reverse AA</p>
<p>People are also clamoring to find some percentage of Native American ancestry in order to participate in the windfall of gambling earnings. It’s caused a lot of consternation for the tribes.</p>
<p>My opinion is that as long as colleges want to discriminate favorably based on someone’s race then I don’t blame people for taking advantage of it even though I think the whole premise is ethically wrong. </p>
<p>You’re stating something to the effect ‘even though the mom is a surgeon and the dad is a prof…’ but it doesn’t matter when it comes to racial bias - some institutions are looking simply at the ‘race’ without regard to any other factors. If their goal is to provide a certain mix based on race then that should work. If their goal is to provide opportunities for the disadvantaged then they shouldn’t pay attention to race - they should evaluate whether the person grew up in a disadvantaged household or not. I wish institutions and individuals would quit making assumptions about people simply based on their race.</p>
<p>I don’t understand why you say others are now afraid to apply to Harvard. Why? If it’s because of this incident then go to Harvard’s website (or visit the campus) and I’m sure you’ll see that they have students of many races attending and Native Americans aren’t exactly the majority. Whatever race you are, there’s problably representation there so you aren’t shut out just because of that. (I’m stating ‘you’ but I mean everyone there who’s concerned about this).</p>
<p>Regardless, I think it’s best not to dwell on the negative aspects of this and just focus on the things ‘you’ have control over and your race isn’t one of them (well, unless you hire a geneological researcher to come up with the 1/25th piece). It’s a fact that one’s race will ‘help’ them gain admission to some colleges and will not help others and might even hurt some if they’re not the target races. However, even in these cases, it needs to be realized that it’s not ‘just’ the race that gained them admission to the highly selective private - that person likely had a lot of other positive attributes - like being a val, having a high GPA, having high SATs, having overcome great difficulties to achieve, etc.</p>
his AA qualifications aside, why is everyone else afraid to apply to Harvard? If he is admitted under AA, the rest of you are not competing for his spot anyway.</p>
<p>Harvard never takes more than one from our school. Since some schools offer ED advantage, some people are afraid to lose that advantage and wait for Harvard RD. But the combination of valedictorian (yes, he’s really smart, in fact might be a genius) coupled with parents double legacy AND American Indian means no one feels they can even hold a candle to his possibilities at Harvard.</p>
<p>The kid is the val and a double legacy–I would think this alone means he has an excellent chance of being the one if Harvard only takes one from your school. If Harvard consistently only takes one than yes, I’d plan my strategy assuming he’s the one.</p>
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<p>It really doesn’t work this way. It was well known at my kids’ high schools that if you have qualified athletes, minorities or legacies in your class, plan around them.</p>
<p>I understand that you are upset and rightfully so, but let it go. There’s nothing you can do about it and the other kid has to look in the mirror every morning, knowing he cheated. His parents should be ashamed of themselves and their “smarts” must not be heriditary if their offspring wasn’t bright enough to get into a program on his own merits without having to resort to shady “research” to come up with a dubious link. I don’t think much of an educational institution who would rely upon such dubious claims to fill their programs, even if it is Harvard.</p>
<p>How on earth can one be 1/25 th native American?</p>
<p>If one of your parents is N.A. and the other is not, that’s 1/2.</p>
<p>If one, two, or three of your grandparents are N.A., that’s 1/4, 1/2, or 1/3, respectively.</p>
<p>Etc. Etc.</p>
<p>The only possible way to be 1/25 native american is if one of your ancestors had more than two biological parents… or, perhaps, when the earth was young, people were naturally a linear combination of races… possible, but then how do they tell?</p>
<p>It bothers me. I’d just as soon call the kid 1/16 or 1/32, because at least that’s reasonable. May as well call the kid 1/(22+pi) th native American. Ridiculous.</p>
<p>What makes no sense about this story is that a counselor encouraged a double legacy to show up at Harvard as a Native American if neither parent who attended the college was there as one. These counselors know this would be a problem and are not stupid. I think you only have part of the story.</p>
<p>I don’t agree with what your classmate has done. That said, colleges don’t have hard and fast admissions quotas. If multiple outstanding candidates present them from your school, Harvard is not going to say, “Well, there’s this quota in place, and we have to honor it, so which of these fabulous candidates shall we reject?” Colleges are not in the habit of taking actions that are contrary to their own institutional best interests. So regardless what your gaming val is up to, you should prepare the best application you can and submit it to Harvard.</p>
<p>I don’t think he needs American Indian status to get into Harvard. I think you should just stop *****ing about it and started worrying about your SAT and your application. Life is not fair and get used to it.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Given what you’ve just now stated about the candidate, forgetting about any of this 1/25 NA variable, it sounds as if you’d probably place that person as the ‘1’ from your school to be accepted anyway (and I wouldn’t put that much stock in the ‘1’ number)</p></li>
<li><p>Since you don’t like the apparent bias you think Harvard grants to people based on such a thing as a declared 1/25 NA, are you sure you’d even want to attend a college that practices that?</p></li>
<li><p>Why the focus on Harvard? Is it Harvard or bust? There are lots of other fine colleges to attend.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I agree that the math is off. Upon reflection, this IS a case of a majority (white, Harvard double legacies, highly educated) taking advantage of the program for real minorities who are slightly behind in class rank. It was the money that hired the geneologist and got the summer minority program on the plate.</p>
<p>AA gone awry. I’m not the one qualified for Harvard, it’s a close friend. But I do know the guy and he has been bragging about how his American Indian status was found out by the geneologist. But yeah, he can definitely do the work and is really really smart.</p>
<p>I do agree that it’s going overboard to hire a person to do the gene research and do what this person did but I suppose they’re just playing the game. I would hope that a place as selective as Harvard has a way to determine if this (1/25th or whatever NA) is really applicable to what they’re looking for when they ask for race or not. Some other posters might have some insight into this. I’m sure they know that some applicants will pull out all the stops and ‘reach’ to put whatever they think might help them on the app.</p>
<p>Frankly I’d be thrilled and amused to find out that I was some tiny part American Indian … thrilled because my ancestors did a poor job of thinning out my coarse Eastern European blood, and amused because I could run around pointing out that American Indians (obviously) were roaming the Steppes in the late 1800’s.</p>
<p>But I’m stuck with the genes I have, and I’ve done well with them. The OP’s friend is likewise situated, and s/he won’t get far in this world whining about the perceived advantages of others.</p>
<p>As for Harvard, do you really think that institution would chance being embarrassed by claiming a stratospheric increase in it’s American Indian student population based on it’s (sole) attendee being just a twenty-fifth blood indian?</p>