<p>Hey, I have seen numerous threads about this topic but its usually started by someone who has nothing to gain by it and is only complaining. Well, I am an African American male who recently went through the admissions process and would just like to share my thoughts on the issue and hopefully spark a thoughtful discussion. My personal opinion is that the AA practiced today in the admissions at most colleges is a joke. Keep in mind that this is coming from a guy who got into every school he wanted to BECAUSE of AA. Its 100% unfair and I'll admit it. I am starting my first year at Yale next month, and it was the realization that I have no business in that school that motivated me to start this thread. You wouldnt believe how easy it was for me to get into my top choices( Yale and Stanford) basically because of my race and its not fair. I know many students from my high school alone who are smarter, worked harder, and flat out deserved it more than me. I can only imagine students nation and worldwide who have been robbed of spots at "dream" schools by people who dont deserve it. And i know that there are plenty of URMs who get by on their own merit, but their are also a good deal who dont. In my mind AA by race should be stopped all together. The only non-merit based factor that should be considered is income level, which should help low-income students of every race and ethnicity. I am glad that these schools like giving out opportunites to a diverse group of students but everyone knows that it doesnt work that way in the real world. I think alot of people in my situation(people who basically got into schools because of AA) feel similarly but dont want to admit it but I dont care, I dont have an ego or anything, just telling the truth.</p>
<p>Well this is going to end magnificently. </p>
<p>Just because it was “easy” (or so you claim) to get into Yale or whatever college, doesn’t mean it will be “easy” to stay in.
Somehow, I don’t foresee a professor telling any student “you’re a URM, you don’t have to take the midterm.”</p>
<p>Chances are if someone who benefited from AA is able to keep up with the school’s demands, then they deserve to be there.</p>
<p>oh you’ve misunderstood my point. There are many more people who apply to and can do well at Yale or Harvard or whatever school than will be accepted. I’m not saying I or any other 'less qualified" URM cant do well at those schools. I’m saying that there is no way that i should have been accepted over more brilliant and harder working students simply because of my race but thats what happened. and i doubt my situation is that uncommon. I’m sure I and others like me can do fine their but the truth is when you look at those who DIDNT get in, theres is no way you can say I am even close to as qualified or in anyway justify my acceptance without bringing AA into the conversation. That, in my eyes, is not fair.</p>
<p>A lot of kids are setting nervous about now. I think this is just your spin on it.</p>
<p>If you weren’t “qualified” then why did you even apply? Why not apply to a school that you “deserve” to attend?</p>
<p>Why even go to Yale if you’re so stricken with guilt? </p>
<p>Perhaps you need to quit putting your peers on a pedestal. Clearly some Yale adcom saw something in you, it’s a shame you don’t see it as well. </p>
<p>It’s actually pretty sad.</p>
<p>I’d feel bad for you if I were the type of person to care about others.</p>
<p>I’m an URM too, but I find it funny that you used the system and once you benefitted you use it to bash the system you used.</p>
<p>Let’s give the guy some credit. Who else have you ever seen go out this far on a limb and deliver such a crushing blow to the system which helped him/her?</p>
<p>plattsburgh, i guess you are a urm</p>
<p>Race should play no role in the admissions process if the country truly wants to “move forward” in racial equality. It’s not equality to give people of one race an easier chance to get into a school. I realize people want diversity in school systems and so do schools, but should diversifying the school be the real goal. Wouldn’t it be better if just the people who deserved to get into the school did and there was no race barrier. Everyone should just be set as equal and admissions should simply look at the school stats. I’m sure this is what most schools do, but no one should get a one up to admission because of race. My opinion…</p>
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I’ve spoken with the burgh on cam and she looks pretty white to me. I guess you guessed wrong?</p>
<p>There are more than enough extremely qualified AAs for Yale to have their pick. They don’t need to lower their standards for black students and if they think they do, then they’re underestimating the capabilities of our race.
Nonetheless, there are “flukes,” so to say, in admissions, and quite a few people who CCers and the like might call “unqualified” get into even the most selective schools. We don’t know how admissions work, even though a ton of us here think we do. Yale wouldn’t accept you if they didn’t want you and if they didn’t think you could do well at their school. Your lack of belief in yourself is frankly sad.</p>
<p>The reasons colleges do AA isn’t because they want to endorse a more “fair” system, it’s because they want to look diverse and this is an easy way to do it. There’s a fun game my sister and I play where we go through college viewbooks and count the number of black people compared to the number of Asians. The numbers are usually the same, despite the fact that at almost every school at which we look, the Asian population is about double the black pop. You’re not going to persuade schools to get rid of AA in a spirit of fairness or equality, because they don’t do it with an interest in that. Selective colleges (Eg: Harvard, Brown, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Duke, and Berkeley) have looked at their black students and recognized that up to 2/3rds of their students have recent African ancestry, ie: they’re not the black kids whose ancestors were slaves, not traditional multi-generational black Americans.</p>
<p>If I get into Yale, there’s no way I’ll believe it’s because of AA. Because I have stats as good and my essays will be as good as anyone else there. I’m not leaving my race off of my apps because it’s a part of who I am, and because it drives me insane when people look at me and then listen to what I say or see my grades and ask me if one of my parents is white in some cryptic way or assume I’m a French African immigrant. (You’d be surprised at the number of people who know me who think I’m French, it’s crazy.)</p>
<p>It sounds to me like you’re just feeling a bit guilty that you may have taken a “more deserving” person’s spot at Yale, which every empatetic student admitted probably feels at some point. From everything that I’ve read and heard, I think there are basically two sides to affirmative action:</p>
<p>Side One: It’s unfair because those who are less qualified gain an unfair advantage over the competition simply because they are a URM. It may have made sense in the past when people had to worry about adcoms discriminating against them, but now it simply works the opposite way. Also, many of the people who benefit from AA are those in private schools, who contribute no more to the school than other groomed, Caucasian students. Schools should admit the most qualified applicants, regardless of race or other reasons.</p>
<p>Side Two: If it weren’t for AA, schools such as Yale would be completely full of private school kids, who are the best prepared for a truly rigorous college education. AA ensures diversity, at least ethnic diversity, which is intended to create a better environment for the students. Plus, when it reaches a certain point, all remaining applicants are qualified for admitance, and therefore the school is at total liberty to sculpt a student body that it thinks will serve its school best, and since it’s a private school, that’s totally fine. Also, the concept behind AA not only exists in college admissions. Look at Obama’s nomination to the Supreme Court – sure Sotomayer is qualified, but can someone honestly say that there is no white person at least equally qualified? Whether or not that’s true, her being Latina was irrefutably a main reason why she was nominated.</p>
<p>So my point is that while AA is very controversial, there is a valid reason for it, and you shouldn’t feel guilty that it contributed to your acceptance. Just because someone’s smarter than you or worked harder than you doesn’t mean that you don’t deserve your spot. But it does mean that you may have a difficult time keeping it, so just make sure that you’re ready to work your butt off.</p>
<p>It’s like novel-ville in here.</p>
<p>You are the biggest ■■■■■■■■ jerk I’ve ever encountered. How dare you gloat about being accepted into prestigious universities when clearly you didn’t deserve to becasue of AA then condemn it? If you believe AA should be stopped, why don’t you start with yourself and give up your admission into Yale? We don’t need another Clarence Thomas in the world…</p>
<p>I third the too-long-to-read comments. Somebody send me a two sentence synopsis.</p>
<p>It really IS bizarre how the main goal of the civil rights fight in the previous century was to get preference based on race OUT of education, housing, and workplaces, yet the first thing they did was devise a whole system to keep it IN. </p>
<p>I think most critics of AA would be placated as long as some some end-point were defined, and it was shown that AA was helping the country make progress towards that goal. Without a goal, progress towards it is impossible to measure, and the whole thing looks like an expensive, complex, politically correct contrivance that may or may not be helping.</p>
<p>No, AA critics would be placated if they weren’t convinced they (the critics) were getting the shaft. It all comes down to “what’s good for me”</p>
<p>IMO, I’m apathetic about AA. I’m not for it, I’m not against it. I think there are better things we could be wasting our time *****ing about. Like the high price of celery.</p>
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<p>That’s a pretty good summary. I wish people would quit typing so damn much, then I wouldn’t need a translator.</p>
<p>I benefitted from AA and I’m going to nyu stern, but I kind of regret it because I applied ed, before I knew of the weight race really held. I could have gotten into upenn Wharton, Stanford, Princeton, or harvard, but I was always told that race didn’t really matter, which now that I think of it, was told to me by jealous people who didn’t have this advantage. AA is a gift from the gods, and we probably won’t have it for much longer, so use it while you can. I’m applying to crazy colleges for my MBA and counting on aa to help me out. Plus, look at sotomayor and Obama, both aa cases…</p>
<p>And another thing, you’re Ghanaian. Your family didn’t have to go through slavery, and segregation. They came here after the civil rights movement, and enjoyed the hard work of African Americans. With that in mind, and your unacceptable gloating attitude you most certainly should not have been accepted.</p>