<p>I see the original post is almost a year old -however the reality is: had she been for example just another Asian - not only would Yale have rejected her -but probably every single Ivy League School in the country</p>
<p>Of course it's URM status, with a slight bit of geographic help for a New Mexico locale - always a plus</p>
<p>URM are supposed to be about disadvantaged or with the original AA a makeup for the legacy of slavery (not applicable here) - yet if she was in a prep school with junior year abroad - I doubt she is economically disadvantaged</p>
<p>Most likely she ended up taking the place of one super achieving asian student (or maybe caucasian) who otherwise would have gone to Yale</p>
<p>I know a guy who get into Amherst last year with an 88 average. It was AA. I get where you're coming from, but I'm really happy for him, however he got in.</p>
<p>karan89 - yale is ridiculously hard to get into. </p>
<p>This girl's "strengths" appear to be her academics since her extracurriculars are nearly nonexistent. Her SAT score of 2130 is at the 97th percentile. This is expected though since she goes to a prep school. A large majority of prep schools devote many class periods to the SAT. Since she is also somewhat wealthy, it can be assumed that she may have taken prep classes. Many colleges look at the sat from the standpoint of your background. If you are wealthy and go to an elite prep school, chances are you may have gotten some prep for the sat. </p>
<p>Second this girl did not get straight As, and her courseload is clearly not rigorous. She did not challenge herself in high school, taking only 1 out of the 4 aps offered. </p>
<p>I see no reason for her to be admitted to an elite school until you consider her race.</p>
<p>"because she is hispanic and because she lives in new mexico.</p>
<p>see how easy that was?"</p>
<p>Do you know how rude that is? I am not a violent guy but if someone said to my face that the only reason I got into a college was because I was black I would have a hard time restraining myself.</p>
<p>Y2kplaya92 - If you had a 2100/2400 with a 4.02 weighted gpa, came from a rich school, had mediocre extracurriculars, and got in harvard or yale somehow, I would say the only reason you got into that college was because you were black and would have a hard time restraining myself "even though I'm not a violent guy".</p>
<p>i concur with fastmed. the standards are simply lower for urm's, but that certainly doesn't mean that urm's can't outperform whites or asians. it's just that it's much less likely (albeit not impossible) that you'll find an asian male with those stats get into yale...</p>
<p>however, i think a lot of you guys have been overzealous in branding the guy who started this thread as a "jealous mother****er" and such. that's pretty condescending. i think his frustrations are very reasonable. we'd all like the ivies to be pure meritocracies, but they just aren't. they want diverse classes, even if that means rejecting very qualified candidates. unfortunately that's just how it goes.</p>
<p>The biggest problem with affirmative action is that it creates a permanent underclass: sometimes even one at a very high level. So even though there are minorities that would have made it on the merits to achieve a certain goal, now a rational presumption can and will be made that the person would not be there EXCEPT for affirmative action.</p>
<p>Take the case of Sen Barack Obama, he's now on the cover of Newsweek and is a headline "story" as the possible saviour of the democratic party</p>
<p>Prominently featured about Obama is the fact that he was "President of the Harvard Law Review" -which had it occurred on the merits would in fact be quite an achievement. Few would doubt that he most likely got significant help getting into Harvard Law itself via affirmative action, however some might be surprised to know that affirmative action has been used for the Harvard Law Review for several decades now - so one would never really know whether or not Obama made it on the merits</p>
<p>Consider this: a 5 tiered structure of affirmative action in the law profession:</p>
<p>entry into undergrad
entry into Law School
entry onto the Law Review
entry into the profession via firm hiring
advancement within the the firm structure</p>
<p>Only the bar exam itself (in all jurisdictions so far) has been kept from awarding points to someone based upon (certain) skin colors or ethnicities, athough it should be noted in California they once tried to do this -and in the end - it was various Black Atty organizations that shut down these attempts as these admitted members did not want the stigma of being labeled as 2nd class citizens, as they got their law licenses w/o special help such as fixing their exams</p>