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I'm kind of confused about affirmative action in college admissions. I thought it was illegal based on past Supreme Court decisions. But from what I can tell, many elite colleges have "diversity" objectives and do indeed consider the race of applicants in their decision process.

This doesn't seem fair - my guess is that the kids who benefit most from special consideration aren't underprivileged kids from the ghetto or barrio, but middle-class minority kids with well-educated parents. If you wanted to help kids who lacked resources, it seems like applying some kind of income standard or family education standard might make more sense than looking at racial or ethnic ancestry.

By burningman on Sunday, November 25, 2001 - 08:19 am: Edit

Peter, I'm no legal expert, but I think using diversity objectives as one element of the selection process is still legal in most states. A few state university systems have banned the practice, although I think litigation is continuing in most of those states.

I think you make a good point about the most elite schools not having very many underprivileged minorities. There was a book called "The Hope in the Unseen" about a true ghetto kid who gets admitted to Brown University. Despite a really poor SAT verbal score and some academic weaknesses, he is admitted; he struggles his freshman year, but adapts and, presumably, graduates.

Depending on your perspective, you might find this book either encouraging or discouraging. If you are a true believer in affirmative action, then the fact that this young man overcomes many obtacles to survive in an elite institution may validate your beliefs. If you are not big on AA, you may wonder why a school like Brown would bypass thousands of more qualified candidates to admit this kid. His SAT verbal score was in the three hundreds, and the book leaves little doubt that he would have flunked out had his freshman-year profs not cut him some major slack. As far as bringing different viewpoints to his classmates, that didn't really happen - the book characterized him as withdrawn and somewhat hostile, at least during his freshman year.

Other than the fact that he didn't actually flunk out, the subject of this book is a poster child for anti-AA crusaders. He was statistically far inferior to his fellow applicants, he needed special treatment to survive, and he brought little in the way of greater understanding and racial tolerance to his classmates. College administrators defending affirmative action policies will sometimes assert that race is merely used as a sort of tie-breaker among similarly qualified applicants; that clearly wasn't the case here. Unfortunately, this kid reinforced many of his classmates' stereotypes about AA admissions.

Personally, I found the book a bit disturbing. I thought it was great that this young man apparently did well enough to get a Brown degree. However, when I thought of all the kids rejected by Brown who had better GPAs, SATs, ECs, athletics, etc. I began to question the fairness of the process. It began to seem like a Pygmalion-like social engineering experiment conceived by liberal do-gooders. Even for the kid himself it was a far more stressful college experience than he would have had at a school where his stats wouldn't have been so far out of whack with his classmates.

I suppose this book is like an ink-blot test - what you see in it is based on what your preconceived notions are.

By Parental unit on Monday, November 26, 2001 - 10:02 am: Edit

I'm not a legal expert either(at least not on this issue!), but I believe there is a difference recognized by courts between using race as a factor in a formulaic admissions process (e.g., adding points to SAT scores of minority applicants) and considering race as a factor in a more wholistic admissions process (the so-called "Harvard rationale" under which admissions officers at smaller schools, including Ivies, have the luxury of being able to examine applications more closely than say UMIch, UC schools, etc., and can consider many factors in attempting to achieve admissions goals, one of which is a diverse student body). Under this rationale, I think the schools also argue that a diverse student body helps ALL students, since they will have to go out into the world and deal with different kinds of people. Also, exposure to different viewpoints. I understand that many schools are now emphasizing diversity as broader than simply ethnic diversity -- socioeconomic, rural/urban, etc.

By burningman on Monday, November 26, 2001 - 05:23 pm: Edit

One wonders if diversity objectives are well served by lowering admissions standards, though. Admitting less qualified minority students may convey the wrong message to the general student population. Students DO make value judgments about how bright and how qualified their peers are - I've heard no end of comments about "dumb jocks" who were admitted to elite schools. Sure, these kids aren't really dumb, but compared to their classmates who were admitted based on superb academics, many aren't quite at the same level. This negative perception, of course, can rub off even on athletes who are just as academically qualified as their non-jock peers.

I think the same thing can happen if the distribution of academic qualifications among minority admits is a lot different from the population as a whole. Students will perceive that this minority group is less qualified, and the stigma will rub off even on the well-qualified members of the minority community. In addition, negative stereotypes about minorities might be reinforced by lowering admissions standards instead of reducing or eliminating these prejudices as diversity advocates might hope.

By Minetas18 on Friday, March 15, 2002 - 11:45 pm: Edit

Sorry, but Brown doesn't give any grade below a C
If you receive below a C, you have to retake the course until you get a C or above
Therefore, it's impossible to "flunk" out of Brown

By burningman on Saturday, March 16, 2002 - 08:37 am: Edit

Well, Minetas, if that's the way Brown works, even if you can't flunk out, I suppose you could accumulate enough retakes that you might decide not to continue. My original point was that this young man eventually succeeded at Brown, but it took lots of special treatment to make it happen.

On one hand, it's great to see the young man succeed. On the other hand, though, how fair is it to many other applicants who were denied entry, or even to fellow classmates who, perhaps, received the same grades for superior work? (Not to imply that Brown is a bastion of grading rigor!) It's a good illustration of the complexity of the issue.