Watch out UFL admissions-US Supreme Court is comomg after you.

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Florida
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<p>Hopefully the US Supreme Court will correct public colleges admissions selection process…
Affirmative Action
October 10, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin</p>

<p>Revisiting affirmative action in higher education, a decade after Sandra Day O’Connor’s fifth vote upheld it in Grutter v. Bollinger. The conventional wisdom says that the Court, with Alito sitting in O’Connor’s seat, rules the practice unconstitutional.
Affirmative action began when Abigail Fisher was denied admission to the University of Texas, she says, because of admission policies that favor less-qualified minorities. Her simple argument is to stop using skin color in college admissions.
“Well it's about time...My son was accepted at Cornell and Northwestern but he desperately want to go to University of North Carolina...He was devastated when his rejection letter came...I was shocked that Cornell and N.W. would accept this 4.0 student athlete and UNC could reject him..I got on the phone and demanded answers...I was finally connected with the dean of admission and he looked it up to see if it was a mistake....finally he came back and told me my county already had filled all the white males it could accept!!..I was livid and I told him I was going to the press with this..He said go ahead , it was the law!....Like I have always said..REAL racism has always come from the left……” ( source unknown)</p>

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<p>Yeah the minority preference has always been a problem. Just like social security as a ponzi scheme.</p>

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<p>I know of a student that is currently at UF that had terrible grades and low test scores in HS. What burns me is this guys attitude like I deserve it. When asked what about the students that did better than him and worked 3x more than him in HS? Oh well them are the breaks is what he responds.</p>

<p>IMO that is pure BS.</p>

<p>Lets see what happens with this case. Definitely worth watching.</p>

4

<p>As you can tell, I am very mad regarding affirmative action regarding college admissions.</p>

<p>I agree with you 100%. I had to bust my balls and study every fxxxing day and had been taking tutoring lessons for over two years for get my SAT’s up to 2140 and my GPA to 4.4. I gave up two years of Saturday afternoons with my SAT tutoring classes to achieve my score and I realize that my parents had to spend 1000’s just to make me competitive.
Although I am very grateful that I am attending UFL, and very proud to be a GATOR, it seems very, very unfair that UFL disallowed many talented students at my high school the opportunity to attend since the “white, Anglo, wealthy” quota had been meet and then allow underserving minorities a free ride into school.
Only If both competing candidates are exactly equal, then I say give the opportunity to the minority. Other than that, admissions should be based on factual past performances.</p>

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<p>I can see both sides of this argument in certain situations. I certainly don’t think “quotas” are right, but I also don’t think it is right to put in so much work just to go to one school – that is just a huge gamble. If you make the decision to study and work that hard, it should be for other reasons so that you are not so devastated when everything doesn’t work out the way it was “planned”. The person in this article got into 2 really great schools – even really smart people don’t get into every school they apply to.<br>
Life just doesn’t work that way – our best laid plans will invariably end up in disappointment, but I don’t know that they should end up in lawsuits.</p>

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<p>Ilovethe47…You are very lucky your parents have thousands of dollars to spend on buying you an SAT tutoring service…I got a 2120 without that since my parents can’t afford it. </p>

<p>Many of my friends have to work on Saturdays to make ends meet…and they are teens…they could not even dream of spending thousands on SAT tutoring. You are very lucky and you should be grateful, keep in mind not everyone is as fortunate as you…you don’t have to face the problems that come with being a lower income minority in this
country.</p>

<p>Not bashing against your stand on AA it’s a touchy subject, just thought you should know</p>

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<p>I am amused by the idea of SCOTUS “coming after” anyone. Now that would be judicial activism!</p>

<p>And I am not sure I’ve ever seen anyone else make it a point of pride that he got tutored for over two years in order to achieve his target SAT score.</p>

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<p>Wow, I’m not a huge fan of affirmative action, but you sure make a striking argument for it. How many African-American students spend thousands of dollars on SAT prep? Is accepting someone who has been spoon-fed on how to take a test really a great choice? Maybe someone who did slightly worse on the SAT because they had to work at Publix every day after school in order to help feed their family might be a better choice. And, you know what – even if the Supreme Court eliminated affirmative action PER SE, those hardship cases would still have the advantages with their poignant stories of leaving the house every day to take a city bus to a magnet school in a good neighborhood (My daughter knows a lot of kids like this) and having to go to work after school to boot. UF is HUGE on essays.</p>

<p>If you haven’t found it out so far, you will figure out when you apply for graduate school or a job that having an easy life where all you have to do is study just doesn’t make you an exciting applicant. And if anyone asks, I wouldn’t bring up how hard you worked on your SAT prep. </p>

<p>Fwiw, my daughter got a 2050 and all she took was a one-week summer community college SAT prep course. I don’t think she even studied. Seems like someone who spent all these dollars and hours basically drilling for a test should have done a LOT better than her, not just a little.</p>

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<p>Well said, Frozenk0. And exactly my point. I strongly agree that minorities from affluent backgrounds (and it’s not like there aren’t any, particularly where I come from in Miami) should not have an advantage in admissions over white students, but I also think a kid who had to work his or her butt off to put himself through high school should get a little bump. And, other than in the type of schools that only consider the numbers, they still will. Minority should not be considered synonymous with disadvantaged. This is America, and it isn’t anymore. And, frankly, it doesn’t seem PARTICULARLY fair to me that schools can fill their “diversity” requirements with students who aren’t all that diverse because they have grown up in the same communities, attended the same schools, and had all the same advantages as their majority-race counterparts. But no one is really going to make a convincing argument that a kid who earned a 3.5 average despite holding a full-time job is less deserving than a kid who got a 3.7 when he did nothing but play video games after his homework was done. Those kids will still win out, affirmative action or not.</p>

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<p>So, let me get this straight…
Although I did exceptionally well in High School, ranked in the top 10 and my parents are both college educated and pay an exorbitant amount in federal taxes each quarter, then I should be punished?</p>

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<p>Ilovethe47- does your username have something to do with Mitt Romney’s 47% speech?</p>

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<p>^^^what do you think :p?</p>

<p>Ilovethe47, nobody said you should be punished. We could go back and forth with this Affirmative Action argument forever and ever. It’s not the first time you’ve posted about ethnicity, why do you keep bringing up?</p>

<p>Learn from Mitt Romneys mistake…sometimes it’s best to keep your mouth shut and not say stupid things…(47%)</p>

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<p>completely agree with ilovethe47…</p>

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<p>fronzenk0, I’m sure you’ll do fine even if you go to a different state school than UF. I think you said on another thread that you were Hispanic. Frankly (and I’m from Miami, so I may be biased), I don’t think schools in Florida are hurting for Hispanic students to admit, so it might not be that big an advantage (I know Hispanic people who are waiting and waiting to hear from UCF, much less UF). They’re just not that under-represented here. But schools in other states definitely do seek out Hispanic students and give scholarships. Have you applied in other states? My friend’s daughter, who is 1/4 Mexican, not economically disadvantaged, and doesn’t even speak Spanish (but who is a good student) was bombarded with scholarship offers from schools that usually don’t give a lot of scholarships, even to the tip-top. I have to think the ethnicity helped. She is at UPenn now. Also, private schools give more $ than you’d think.</p>

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<p>I just don’t understand why most of you post end up being about race? On every school blog you have something pertaining to race you bashed the C.A.R.E program and anything you think is associated with minorities. I think you should open your own college and do as you p,ease in life. I think everybody deserves a chance. BTW I even saw a post with you bashing someone for that gave thanks to God. You need to to seek help within yourself it obvious you have a lot of issues with other races or people that are not like you! @ilovethe47</p>

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<p>A couple observations.</p>

<p>I don’t think many people are against affirmative action, when truly warranted.</p>

<p>Even a cursory reading of the posts on this thread shows that there are many such examples of deserving kids in this thread.</p>

<p>What I am personally troubled by is giving affirmative action to people who are not financially downtrodden, and who may actually be from rich families, just because they happen to be from an under-represented minority.</p>

<p>For example, I know someone who got into an Ivy who was an “hispanic”, but has suffered no discrimination whatever, comes from a rich family, and in fact, is indistinguishable from a “regular” caucasion. Her grandfather had an hispanic last name. </p>

<p>Should Barack Obama’s kids be given affirmative action? Simply because african americans are an under-represented group? And if so, even if this comes at the expense of a white or asian kid from a poor family? </p>

<p>These are tough issues. In order to have some african american representation at the top schools, it appears that preferences have to be given to kids who come from upper middle class black families.</p>

<p>I do think that colleges have been ignoring the fact that for every “winner” in an affirmative action policy, that there is also a kid on the other side of the scale who is a loser, and that when a coveted spot is awarded to a URM, the background of the kid on the other side of the scale who is losing out should also be looked at. Otherwise, we can have a situation where kids from poor Asian families are being excluded in favor of an african american from an upper middle class family who goes to private school.</p>

<p>I think it is fair to say that AA has sometimes DEVOLVED into a de facto quota system, straying away from its original intent. </p>

<p>Further, how much of a break the URM should be given is another issue. In the famous Bakke case, which involved admission to medical school, it is my understanding that the african american had a C+ average, and the white kid had an A- average.</p>

<p>And even if we still want to admit the kid with the C+ average, do we really want him operating on us??.</p>

<p>Of course, the counter-argument to that is that colleges let unqualified legacies into the top schools all the time.</p>

<p>Anyway, it is a tough issue.</p>

<p>I do have a problem with asians seemingly bearing the brunt of AA policies, with kids with superhuman grades and ECs not getting into the Ivy League, because we have “too many” asians, and “not enough” URMs. While some argue that the fact that asians may be over-represented at the top colleges shows that they are not discriminated against, the fact is that if decisions were based strictly on merit, their representation would probably be double or triple what it is now. Just because Asians make up X % of the population but have 2X representation at top schools does not mean that they are not hurt, and hurt badly, by AA policies, thereby paying the price for discrimination against African Americans that they and their ancestors may not even have played a part in.</p>

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<p>Very well said Mr. Florida dad and I commend you on the true understanding of my original post. Now if the United States Supreme Court justices had half as much intelligence as you dosir this would be a much greater country.</p>

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<p>

Nice point, but what would you classify as “rich”?</p>

<p>

I feel a number of people turn to this saying when they speak against AA. I just want to bring up the point that AA was made to basically better a race. African Americans are trailing behind still. Yes, the students if today might not be working in a cotton field, but they still are facing situations that work against their success.</p>

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<p>@niquii77 great point! Well said.</p>

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<p>Hey, ilovethe47, you seem to have a lot to say, are you actually a student at uf?</p>