<p>woeishe, I certainly DON’T. Those that DO are racist. Take off the section of applications where you’re asked to identify your race. It’s wrong.</p>
<p>As an Asian or Caucasian? Remember, you will not get in for one of my test cases.</p>
<p>^^ LOL no they aren’t. That’s the very ignorant thing to say. Look, I don’t support it either, but jesus christ kid, suck it up. Life is short and when you die, a Ivy league diploma won’t matter. Just go to a college that is fairly reputable so you can get a good job.</p>
<p>And Whites and Asians still dominate Ivy colleges. The only ones complaining are the ones who didn’t get in.</p>
<p>LOL woeishe! It indeed is. I believe in the moral that people should (to reference Dr. King) not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. In the case of college admissions, “character” often equates to high school achievements/overall learning capacity. If a black person/latino is qualified, they should be accepted! If not, DENIED. Just as a white person who’s unqualified should be DENIED.</p>
<p>Everyone, we understand that affirmative action is racism and needs to end. But this thread wont help.</p>
<p>Everyday people are judged for their skin color, so why can’t colleges do it?</p>
<p>^LOL LOL LOL! And you think that’s a JUST thing to do?</p>
<p>^^ Amen, HighSchoolDropIn</p>
<p>^Of course not, but we as a people can’t do one thing and expect colleges to do another.</p>
<p>Both of the students have fantastic stats, Candidate 2 slightly less so. OP, is it your contention that stats are the only things that should matter in college admissions?</p>
<p>BTW, I’m waiting for your outraged thread about that other group of students who get admitted to Harvard despite having stats which are FAR less impressive than Candidate 2’s – rich white kids.</p>
<p>Don’t generalize us all as racist please.</p>
<p>People like me are NOT racist. It’s these people college admissions should model themselves after.</p>
<p>liv4physicz, you seem to be taking the matter rather personally. You have to realize that regardless of affirmative action, universities will continue to favor under represented groups. It is not simply a legal issue that schools like to admit African Americans. It links back to a moral, social, and logical issue. </p>
<p>Generally speaking, top colleges favor AA’s who are from poorer neighborhoods in order to offer opportunities to those who may not have spent their lives in the best of conditions.
It is much easier for a Caucasian male whose parents earn $150,000+ to do great in school, be involved in countless EC activities, and achieve top range standardized test scores with the help of expensive private tutoring.
It is much harder for a minority to have those some accomplishments when they are growing up in a “bad” area, with many poor influences which they must avoid, and with personal economical problems which may prevent them from working up to their potential.
This is not a new concept, and many schools are increasingly beginning to adopt the
“moving upwards” admissions directive. </p>
<p>By the same token, however, schools will tend to act less affirmatively towards minorities who have grown up in opportunistic neighborhoods with the same advantages as your average American. This can be indicated through household income, mortgage, or simply place of residence. </p>
<p>It’s not all about trying to fix our mistakes from the 18th century.
So how can you possibly say that favoring minorities is wrong? Where is your sense of logic or moral direction which would allow you to realize that not everyone is in the best of conditions?</p>
<p>The above should all be considered, but I didn’t even touch on the importance of creating a diverse and unique student body which every institution reserves the right to do.</p>
<p>^^ I didn’t generalize you 
anyways, your group has a smaller voice than other groups</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Character equals making the best of your opportunities. This is why people are evaluated in context. A 3.5 GPA that puts you in the top 4% of your graduating class is more impressive than a 4.0 GPA from a school where 35% of all students graduate with straight As. A 2050 on the SAT is more impressive coming from a student who has to work three jobs to support his single mother and siblings, has limited access to his overworked teachers and sole guidance counselor, and is the first person from his inner-city school to ever think of applying to Harvard than a 2320 coming from a wealthy student who’s been studying for the SAT since 9th grade and has taken it four times at the urging of her overambitious parents. Etc. etc.</p>
<p>Affirmative action ideally represents the essence of the holistic process. Sometimes it works in favor of wealthy and privileged people who don’t really need it, and colleges are perfectly fine with that. Why? Because they know that the selection process is imperfect and they’re going to make mistakes, and they accept that as a fair price for getting the majority of their decisions right.</p>
<p>Just because you’ve never bothered to actually think about something doesn’t mean it is WRONG" and “RACIST.” In fact–</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The real racist here is you. I really hope you and your brothers in arms will one day grow out of your aggressive ignorance.</p>
<p>Not another page-long post from Ghostt. You’re not right, so do us all a favor and find a productive use for your time.</p>
<p>If you attend any presentation by an Ivy school, they always mention selection process based on your own context and opportunities offered to you.</p>
<p>If someone did 15 APs and another kid came from a school with no APs, how do they compare them? Miraculously, both seem to stand a chance. </p>
<p>There are times when the Valedictorian is ignored and number 15 is picked with a lower rank, lower stats for no apparent reason (btw 15 was an Asian girl). Number 2 was denied and number 21 was picked because his uncle’s name is on a building in Stanford.</p>
<p>If people on this thread believe only scores and ranks should matter, it is just not an URM issue. It happens with every admit.</p>
<p>As an Asian, I understand the frustrations from OP and from liv4phisicz. I wish to make the following comments:</p>
<ol>
<li>The existence of AA is as a result of centuries of discrimination against blacks. The society is trying to do its best to rectify the historical injustice. Granted, it may not have been fair to Asians, since Asians, especially Chinese had suffered from the injustice themselves (Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882).</li>
<li>As a private school, Harvard has the right to decide its admissions policies. Adopting AA is one of them. And, as a private school, Harvard is also a business. It has to act according to its best business interest. I assume that adopting AA will attract more donations from alumni? </li>
<li>You may have suffered as a result of this policy. Jews had suffered in the 1920-1930’s due to the holistic admissions policy. As a result of their current standing as a group in this society, Jews are no longer being discriminated against. Just look at the examples of firing of Rick Sanchez from CNN and booting of Helen Thomas from her front-row-seat at the White House Press Corp. The success of Jewish group should serve as a motivation to you and someone like you to work hard and be successful in this society. By the time you are rich and powerful, your kids and grandkids will no longer have to suffer as you did.</li>
</ol>
<p>Take home message: Keep your head on the grind stone and work hard to achieve your goal for success. (By the way, Harvard is not the only place you can train yourself to get there.) Your children and grandchildren will be proud of you when they begin their college search process.</p>
<p>No matter what, growing up as an African American isn’t easy. It has been easier since the 1960s but there is still a lot of racism and discrimination in the world. Adding diversity to your school adds different views and perspectives to the classroom and the campus. Today’s world is more diverse than it has ever been, and the truth is, any student will encounter people from other race or socioeconomic backgrounds. Learning to collaborate with them and understand where they’re coming from is important to develop today’s world. </p>
<p>And to be honest, there is not much of a difference between a 33, 34, 35 ACT score.</p>
<p>liv4physicz, Analgin wrote a very good post, read and reread it. Harvard can not provide the best possible education to its students without diversity.</p>
<p>Sounds like scores dont always matter even for Asian males.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/12431585-post69.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/12431585-post69.html</a></p>
<p>^Thanks for everyone who’s agreed with me.
Numbers aren’t everything. I hate it when people compare qualifications and say “qualified ORM” and “Unqualified URM”.
The thing everyone nearly forgets are the essays and the recs. liv4physicz, you obviously don’t know much about the admissions policies. You may be more qualified in numbers than John Smith, but John Smith wrote a compelling tale. The recs he has may be much better than yours. There are so many subjective things.
Finally, Harvard shapes its own classes. It has a freshman class which it believes will benefit Harvard, the world, and the incoming freshman. If you so desperately hate AA, please become an AO.
To the person who actually contradicted me politely, it’s not just socio-economic status, it’s also extenuating circumstances that have nothing to do with money. Deaths, sicknesses, experiences, etc. Harvard wants to create its dream freshman class, and they want it to be diverse. I’m not disagreeing that AA can be unfair, but look at it this way. There are middle class Asians and Whites who got in, so you (any reject) should admit that there’s nothing but a crapshoot of a process.
And on a final note, I know plenty of kids rejected from the top colleges, most of them are Asian. They have no ill will towards AA admits, and they understand that the admissions process is a crapshoot. My GC said last year, “The first step to understanding the admissions process is to know you can’t understand it because it’s a crap shoot. Anyone who doesn’t believe in that is not worthy to go to that college.” Know what you’re getting into. liv4physicz, I hope you do well wherever you go, but it seems that you’re not a match for Harvard.</p>