<p>You know this is really personally offensive to someone like me. I can be honest and say it was NOT easy to get accepted to top schools. I worked hard staying at school 12 hours a day doing band, football, and debate. And spending my summers teaching myself quantum mechanics and developing projects for science fairs, while also maintaining about all A’s. I have permanent bags under my eyes from the numerous times I have been at debate tournaments beyond midnight and doing work and ECs. I studied for literally a month for the ACT and got a score that is good for a person of ANY race (34) and was in the top 25% of all accepted Yale applicants. I was treasurer of English Honor Society, and Parliamentarian of Science Honors, and have a literal closet FULL of trophies and awards that I have garnered over the years. When I spoke to my admission officer about my application her exact words were "You were so strong that we did not even need to review the report (I had sent in the 16 page report where I developed an equation that modeled the probability for photons to undergo quantum tunneling which was one my science project junior year). In fact after I was accepted the response I got from my teachers varied from: “I am not surprised” to “You are certainly going to represent us well”. And even from the white students who I meet during Bull Dog days said they were impressed by me when we discussed our admissions. </p>
<p>For those of us who are black and worked hard to get into top schools (and STILL got rejected from H and P) you are being absolutely disgraceful. Some of us don’t need AA to get into top schools and you are only perpetuating the false notion that minorities are getting accepted with lower standards. Do use a favor and stop, because it really ****ed me off after i worked so hard to hear “You only got in because you are black” from the jealous students who were rejected.</p>
<p>You’ll also find a lot of white people want you to be their black friend. Corporations trying to meet minority hiring quotas will want to hire you. </p>
<p>Congratulations, you’re black!</p>
<p>Here’s a better, more basic way to think about it.</p>
<p>Yale wants YOU. They don’t want another 4.0 2400 Asian with 20 APs. The world only needs so many of them. They want a smart (you must be atleast somewhat smart to have gotten into Yale at all), to be Ivy league educated, black kid, because the world needs more of those.</p>
<p>I like how when I am brutally honest, people get ****ed off. I used the system, and exploited my minority status. Did I really spend my days in the fetal position, wondering when someone with my circumstances would get a chance to defeat the stereotype? H3ll no. I sure as he l l made it seem like I did though. I gave the admissions people exactly what they wanted to hear. I went out and partied and had an awesome time in high school with my friends, who happened to be white. And I got into better schools than they did. They were smarter, had more ec’s, took harder classes, and got better grades than me, but I am Mexican, and that is my x-factor. Sotomayor and Obama did it, so why not me? Maybe I can be a president or a supreme court justice too. After all, being Mexican gives me the inherent ability to make better decisions than white people, right? Bring it.</p>
<p>"You know this is really personally offensive to someone like me. I can be honest and say it was NOT easy to get accepted to top schools. I worked hard staying at school 12 hours a day doing band, football, and debate. And spending my summers teaching myself quantum mechanics and developing projects for science fairs, while also maintaining about all A’s. I have permanent bags under my eyes from the numerous times I have been at debate tournaments beyond midnight and doing work and ECs. I studied for literally a month for the ACT and got a score that is good for a person of ANY race (34) and was in the top 25% of all accepted Yale applicants. I was treasurer of English Honor Society, and Parliamentarian of Science Honors, and have a literal closet FULL of trophies and awards that I have garnered over the years. When I spoke to my admission officer about my application her exact words were "You were so strong that we did not even need to review the report (I had sent in the 16 page report where I developed an equation that modeled the probability for photons to undergo quantum tunneling which was one my science project junior year). In fact after I was accepted the response I got from my teachers varied from: “I am not surprised” to “You are certainly going to represent us well”. And even from the white students who I meet during Bull Dog days said they were impressed by me when we discussed our admissions. "</p>
<p>"For those of us who are black and worked hard to get into top schools (and STILL got rejected from H and P) you are being absolutely disgraceful. Some of us don’t need AA to get into top schools and you are only perpetuating the false notion that minorities are getting accepted with lower standards. Do use a favor and stop, because it really ****ed me off after i worked so hard to hear “You only got in because you are black” from the jealous students who were rejected. "</p>
<p>ughhh i dont think you even read my post. I said in my very first post that I KNOW THERE ARE PLENTY OF MINORITIES LIKE YOU WHO GET IN ON MERIT ALONE. But I also said that there must be more students like me who really didnt do that much and still got in. dont get offended and dont act like I said something I didnt. I never said it was EASY FOR ANY RANDOM BLACK GUY. I said it was EASY FOR ME. Chill man</p>
<p>My view on affirmative action: Yes, it is a tad bit unfair; however, as an URM, I think it’s great. </p>
<p>I moved from the projects of Brooklyn, NY to lovely Chester, VA at the age of 13. While my grades have always been above average (for non-minorities), I did not have many opportunites such as volunteering, interacting with people from different ethnic backgrounds, doing competitions, etc. Also, I was always surrounded by underacheivers. Being already smarter and more hardworking than my underacheiving peers, I never pushed myself to my full potential. Even now, I find it difficult to take advantage of opportunities, mostly due the lack of money and transportation. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, there are still many African Americans/Latinos/minorities who live in bad neighborhoods/environments, and affirmative action gives them the opportunity to attend colleges that they would have never gotten into with their transcript/scores. </p>
<p>*Side note - Colleges need not be too lenient. Accepting students that they know would struggle tremendously in college would be a stupid thing to do. </p>
<p>Though my grades/scores can get me into several good colleges, I look forward to taking advantage of my status as a URM this year. </p>
<p>*Please forgive me if stuff doesn’t “flow” properly. I was just writing whatever came to my mind at the time.</p>
<p>bigwill, I like alot of what you said. You are the type of person that I think AA intends to help( someone with not as many opportunities as others). Sounds like you are doing the best you can with what you have and im sure schools will see that. good luck and thanks.</p>
<p>Ugh, actually I did read your post and while you and I can make delineations of individuals based on divergent outcomes many people don’t especially when people want to be validated that their rejection from a top school was not their fault. Although you are depositing yourself only within this example people who come to this thread will just apply what you are saying to the general Ivy minority population as a whole, so in that sense yes you are in fact validating misconceptions. And more likely than not people will lazily take the view that other minorities were in the same boat that you were in. Which, yeah, it offensive to people who actually work to accomplish something and don’t want to hear someone brag about how “easy” it was to get into top schools, because it isn’t and wasn’t for alot of people. But thanks for absolutely vindicating all the ignorant people who go on to perpetuate these false claims of minority inferiority.</p>
<p>And the very fact that you say “many people like me” seems to imply that a plurality of ivy black admits are inferior, and I ask you this if you saw me on the street wearing my Yale clothes are you going to say: Hey there is that minority who got in based on merit, or will it simply be “Another AA admit”? I would wager that it would be the later because you wouldn’t know what I did. Your post therefore undermines all the hard work that I, and many other minorities, did throughout high school because your comments are wide generalizations to a population that you obviously do not entirely know.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m pretty sure if the non-URMs had it reversed, they would still find something to complain about.</p>
<p>Also, if someone says “OMG U GOT IN CAUSE U R A URM BLAH” why do you care? I mean, I see it as no more than a “LOSER” or other random insult. Just let it go; they’re the idiots that think that being a certain color => instant acceptance.</p>
<p>AA has its flaws…stop bashing it because no one in the masses of intelligent scholars in the world has found a way to create diverse student bodies without it. There is no other proven way to construct a diverse student body.</p>
<p>OP, you really shouldn’t complain. While you feel undeserving, there are thousands of URMs that actually had to work twice as hard to get half as far because of things like their socioeconomic status, school systems etc etc. You have been given a unique gift, use it to better yourself and the things around you. Most importantly, shut up.</p>
<p>“Ugh, actually I did read your post and while you and I can make delineations of individuals based on divergent outcomes many people don’t especially when people want to be validated that their rejection from a top school was not their fault. Although you are depositing yourself only within this example people who come to this thread will just apply what you are saying to the general Ivy minority population as a whole, so in that sense yes you are in fact validating misconceptions. And more likely than not people will lazily take the view that other minorities were in the same boat that you were in. Which, yeah, it offensive to people who actually work to accomplish something and don’t want to hear someone brag about how “easy” it was to get into top schools, because it isn’t and wasn’t for alot of people. But thanks for absolutely vindicating all the ignorant people who go on to perpetuate these false claims of minority inferiority.”</p>
<p>“And the very fact that you say “many people like me” seems to imply that a plurality of ivy black admits are inferior, and I ask you this if you saw me on the street wearing my Yale clothes are you going to say: Hey there is that minority who got in based on merit, or will it simply be “Another AA admit”? I would wager that it would be the later because you wouldn’t know what I did. Your post therefore undermines all the hard work that I, and many other minorities, did throughout high school because your comments are wide generalizations to a population that you obviously do not entirely know.” </p>
<p>First of all, i dont care what some people who read my post may conclude. If someone reads it and chooses to get out of it that all minority college applicants are underqualified, well thats not my problem or my fault. Secondly, im not bragging. Im just telling people what happened. and yeah I know for alot of people its not easy, thats kinda the point of my thread( for, what my guess is, a decent number of students in a similar situation as I, the standards are lower). Also, I’m the last one to talk about minority inferiority. I’m talking about facts here. URMs have it easier in admisiions than non-URMs. thats a fact and it says nothing about minority ability. Thats what you and other people who want to see things that arent there in what I wrote have concluded. Thirdly, I said “many people like me” because I assume that people like me get accepted to Ivy league type schools on the regular, which I dont think is such a big stretch to think. All that means is that they get in with lower standards, not that they are inferior in anyway, which is what you claimed I implied. i never implied that. And lastly, if i saw you on the street im not going to think anything cause i dont judge people I dont know. and for the record, it wouldnt matter if AA helped someone or not, because they’re obviously still a good student either way. Its just that for someone who got helpled by AA it was easier to get in.</p>
<p>It’s sad that you don’t care at all for a college education and experience, for if you truly did care about learning and the opportunities associated with a college education, you wouldn’t have abused AA by slacking off in high school. While others have used their race to achieve their dream of getting a good college experience, you on the other hand exploited the system simply as a desperate effort for an idiotic goal: prestige. </p>
<p>First of all, race can only get you so far in life. Your skin color will not guarantee you good grades in college; your brain does that. Your skin color will not get you a happy experience in college; your determination and drive (which you clearly lack) does that. Your skin color will not make you a successful person; it will only help you, and the rest is up to your personality, intellect, and determination. </p>
<p>Second of all, I’m shocked NYU admitted someone with such a disgusting personality. You seem to be proud of your deed; of killing a much more deserving person’s dream of a college education just so you can gain some “prestige”. Also, you seem proud of the fact that AA is able to destroy the dreams of many hard-working and dedicated students. While AA can be argued to be fair, it certainly is not something to be glorified. </p>
<p>If there were one reason for the termination of AA, it would be to prevent idiots like this guy from abusing the system as a pathetic and desperate effort for success.</p>
<p>da elite 101, that person is just telling the truth. dont get mad. its what happened to me. i worked hard and did my best but it certainly wasnt better than some of my NonURM peers. yet I got into better schools. also that poster might not be serious. its a bit too bold.</p>
<p>I’m not mad at you. You are much different from that person. You cared about education and learning rather than prestige and you didn’t slack off in high school. In addition, you actually felt a bit of sympathy towards the other well deserving candidates who were rejected. </p>
<p>You simply used AA to help you achieve your goal which is fine (who wouldn’t?), while the other guy manipulated and abused AA so he could slack off in high school and still achieve success.</p>