<p>menloparkmom writes:</p>
<p>“…if you have two equal applicants and instead of tossing the dice, say to yourself “we could use more women” you are probably practicing AA.”</p>
<p>I think that is a good point and probably an accurate reflexion on how the final spots in the admitted list are filled. However, I don’t know if I would equate that to practicing AA, at least in the way it is traditionally interpreted.</p>
<p>Caltech can also use more basketball players so they would probably pick a 6’8" applicant with varsity HS experience over an otherwise equally qualified student. We could then say Caltech practices AA (or whatever we want to call it) for skilled athletes. Fine. But to go from there to say it is easier for basketball players that non basketball players to get into Caltech, which in some respects is the logic used in some posts in this thread to counter Caltech’s claim that they do not practice AA, would be quite a stretch.</p>