<p>I've been a long term lurker on College confidenal, however I have found the need to address an important topic discussed heavily on college confidential - URM SAT scores. </p>
<p>What I find highly offensive is that many Asian and White students complain about how it is "easier" for URMs to get into the Ivy league and other top scores. Now, in order for a person of white descent to be competitive he or she must have at least a 700 on each section of the SAT. For Asians this is 750 on each section, while for African Americans this is at least a 650 on each section (This is being conservative; a 650 on each section of the SAT is below the 25th percentile for all top schools). Furthermore, if we look at the SAT percentiles by race and ethnicity from the College Board's website (<a href="http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/SAT-Percentile-Ranks-by-Gender-Ethnicity-2011.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/SAT-Percentile-Ranks-by-Gender-Ethnicity-2011.pdf</a>), we can see that it is harder for a URM to score competitively within his or her own ethnicity. For example, as a black male I must score in the 98th percentile (1/50) within my ethnicity to be a competitive applicant for the ivy leagues. Asians (Who complaint the most on this website) merely have score an 87th percentile in Math (1/10), 95th percentile in writing (1/20), and 97 percentile (3/100) to be competitive for our country's top colleges. For whites, they must roughly score 1/20 in each section.</p>
<p>Does this sound fair to you? </p>
<p>The point I am trying to make here is that people should stop saying that URMS have it easy. We have to score very high within our own ethnicity to seem competitive for the ivy league and other top colleges. Asians and Whites especially have it easy since they do not have to score as high as some of their peers. Quit the complaining and be thankful. If anything, the SAT is biased towards asians and whites rather than URMs. This is a subtle way for the ivy leagues and other top schools to keep us out, even though it may not seem so.</p>
<p>Why compare by group? The schools don’t have Asian sections, white sections, URM sections. Who knows why URMs do poorly compared to Asians and whites? The point is they do, generally speaking. So if a school heavily factors in SAT scores for admission and they don’t take that disparity into account the number of URMs admitted would be a lot lower. But you’re in luck, most colleges do take race into account so you get a break–lower scores that would keep out Asians (especially) and whites aren’t such an impediment to a URM.</p>
<p>I’m comparing by groups because these top colleges have quotas which undoubtedly favor whites and Asians. Look at each school’s ethnic breakdown. There is always a large proportion of white and Asian students.
Sure they take race into acccount, but the SAT scores that they expect from URMs are unrealistic and are unattainable by many. How is it any easier? The truth is top colleges and the ivy league want to keep URMs out. This is why there is such a high proportion of Asians and Whites at the country’s top colleges. Schools have brainwashed usinto thinking that they are giving us more leeway on SATs; but this leeway is by WHITE/ASIAN standards, not by our own racial/ethnic standards. Enough is enough, and I strongly believe that these schools should stop such discrimination against us.</p>
<p>Whining about my race? Its the Asians here who are crying about getting a 2350 and not a 2400 since their 2350 will “hurt” them in the admissions process. Making admissions race blind will just make things worse for us. Look at Caltech, a race blind school. URMs only compromise less than 10 percent (not to mention only 2 percent of African Americans) of its entering class. Affirmative action is indeed politically correctly and should continue to be in place until the disparity of racial/ethnic SAT scores continues to decline. The problem is the current affirmative action at most schools is not doing much for our race and is in fact still favoring White and Asian students.</p>