Black privilege in College Admissions

African Americans were slaves for hundreds of years and then discriminated against for over a hundred more, in fact in parts of the US the discrimination never stopped. It took over a century from the end of the civil war for the US to pass a civil rights act. This has led to African Americans families not being able to afford top private schools, tutors, or to have a parent at home raising the kids like white families. Sometimes they struggle to even earn enough to put food on the table, at a much higher rate than white people. If they need a leg up until they are not so statistically behind other Americans, so be it. Its the price we pay for our ancestors being disgusting people who felt slavery, Jim Crow laws, and lynching were ok, may they rot in hell.

So rather than end discrimination, you want to continue it? It will go full circle. Hispanics will be the majority soon and whites will demand preferential treatment in admissions to make up for 50 years of discrimination. Why don"t we just start judging everyone based on their accomplishments instead of the color of their face?

The OP is saying that Blacks, Latinos that come from the same income and lifestyle have a better chance at getting into a university. You guys are forgetting his point, which he stated clearly: It should be based on "where you are from, education, and other life experiences"

I'm not making an opinion just trying to make this debate less about race

No discriminator wrote:

So rather than end discrimination, you want to continue it? It will go full circle. Hispanics will be the majority soon and whites will demand preferential treatment in admissions to make up for 50 years of discrimination. Why don"t we just start judging everyone based on their accomplishments instead of the color of their face?

Red herring. The biggest preferential treatment in college admissions goes to rich white people (i.e legacies, kids of big donors, and kids of rich people who bribe or pay their way into top school a la Varsity Blues). All the chatter on this thread is just an attempt to deflect attention away from the the fact that rich, white kids receive way more preferential treatment than any other group, which is why they make up the majority of most highly selective colleges.

Yepyep wrote:

My daughter had close to a perfect score in her SAT’s, 3rd I’m her class, competed in a sport, played lead roles in the theater, in the school choir, won three separate (one of which on the national level) writing contests, and applied early decision and still did not get into Brown.

What she had going against her was she was not a legacy, she was not an international student, and she was white. In the end I was disappointed for her but she felt that if those were the reasons for getting into that school then she did not want to get there anyway.

I understand the imbalance over the years but I’m not sure why someone in high school has to pay for past injustices.

Third in her class?!?! My (majority white) high school would’ve told your daughter that her rank wasn’t good enough to get into an Ivy. If you want to make excuses, go ahead, but there are more schools than there are spots in Brown’s freshman class. Third doesn’t cut it, sorry. Stop blaming minorities

justthefacts wrote:

No discriminator wrote:

So rather than end discrimination, you want to continue it? It will go full circle. Hispanics will be the majority soon and whites will demand preferential treatment in admissions to make up for 50 years of discrimination. Why don"t we just start judging everyone based on their accomplishments instead of the color of their face?

Red herring. The biggest preferential treatment in college admissions goes to rich white people (i.e legacies, kids of big donors, and kids of rich people who bribe or pay their way into top school a la Varsity Blues). All the chatter on this thread is just an attempt to deflect attention away from the the fact that rich, white kids receive way more preferential treatment than any other group, which is why they make up the majority of most highly selective colleges.

+1.

A time honored American tradition: Why acknowledge the truth when you can just blame black and brown people for one’s own inadequacies?

justthefacts wrote:

No discriminator wrote:

So rather than end discrimination, you want to continue it? It will go full circle. Hispanics will be the majority soon and whites will demand preferential treatment in admissions to make up for 50 years of discrimination. Why don"t we just start judging everyone based on their accomplishments instead of the color of their face?

Red herring. The biggest preferential treatment in college admissions goes to rich white people (i.e legacies, kids of big donors, and kids of rich people who bribe or pay their way into top school a la Varsity Blues). All the chatter on this thread is just an attempt to deflect attention away from the the fact that rich, white kids receive way more preferential treatment than any other group, which is why they make up the majority of most highly selective colleges.

1. The prefectural is all super rich people, not just whites, and

2. I’ve never heard anyone argue (except for legacies) that those policies (even though bribes isn’t a policy, it’s corruption) are good

Free_the_thigh wrote:

justthefacts wrote:

Red herring. The biggest preferential treatment in college admissions goes to rich white people (i.e legacies, kids of big donors, and kids of rich people who bribe or pay their way into top school a la Varsity Blues). All the chatter on this thread is just an attempt to deflect attention away from the the fact that rich, white kids receive way more preferential treatment than any other group, which is why they make up the majority of most highly selective colleges.

1. The prefectural is all super rich people, not just whites, and

2. I’ve never heard anyone argue (except for legacies) that those policies (even though bribes isn’t a policy, it’s corruption) are good

Almost all “super rich people” are white in this country lol

There are currently 12 black billionaires in the world. Five of them are American. Sure, their kids are getting into college without a problem, but they’re a minuscule minority among the “super rich.”

In a perfect world, I feel strongly that it's definitely best to go on merit. I had an African American guy in my med school class my first year because he had flunked a class the previous year, and so had to repeat. Long story longer, he told our study group one night what his MCAT admission scores had been. We all tried to hide our shock. Sadly, he had no business being there. Unfortunately, he flunked a class the year with my class as well. He tried a 3rd time to pass his first year with the next class after ours, and was again unable to do so. I randomly happened to see him a year later at a Wendy's, and we sat and talked while we are. He had no idea what to do. He had flunked the first year of med school 3 times. He felt emotionally destroyed. He had no idea how he was going to pay for the 3 years of med school that he'd taken loans out on. He was working for a travel agency, while applying for positions to teach Chemistry.

There is zero doubt that our school's admissions council had done this kid a disservice. I've always wondered what happened to him after leaving school.

Wolf's Bane wrote:

African Americans were slaves for hundreds of years and then discriminated against for over a hundred more, in fact in parts of the US the discrimination never stopped. It took over a century from the end of the civil war for the US to pass a civil rights act. This has led to African Americans families not being able to afford top private schools, tutors, or to have a parent at home raising the kids like white families. Sometimes they struggle to even earn enough to put food on the table, at a much higher rate than white people. If they need a leg up until they are not so statistically behind other Americans, so be it. Its the price we pay for our ancestors being disgusting people who felt slavery, Jim Crow laws, and lynching were ok, may they rot in hell.

Trading one injustice for another does not help any cause. Why would we be holding a 17 or 18 year old kid responsible for injustices in past centuries? Punishing kids for the color of their skin does not help mutual respect between races. We should strive for equality for everyone.

If you are going to punish someone for the past, go after whites over the age of 50 which I would not support but at least it makes more sense.

My freshman year friend group saw three dropouts: Two white and one Asian. Everyone has anecdotes. It’s dumb to paint a broad brush based on your experience alone.

God forbid a white kid need to settle for BU over Harvard. What an injustice!!!!

No. Do any of you read? The Georgetown study showed that the number of blacks and Hispanics would be nearly cut in half if only objective data were used. Blacks and hispanics are admitted with significantly lower test scores so that the sxhools can have a more racially diverse student body. Those are the facts. The question is if it is right? Some of you seem to want to dispute the facts. Those are not in question.

You just demonstrated why doc, medical doctors are awful when medical doctors have an opportunity to influence public policy.

Nice story doc. We have no way to know if the story is 25% true or 75% true. Did you learn the difference between anecdotal evidence v. empirical evidence in medical school?

Should we change public policy based on your made up story doc?

Read read wrote:

No. Do any of you read? The Georgetown study showed that the number of blacks and Hispanics would be nearly cut in half if only objective data were used. Blacks and hispanics are admitted with significantly lower test scores so that the sxhools can have a more racially diverse student body. Those are the facts. The question is if it is right? Some of you seem to want to dispute the facts. Those are not in question.

Read another study, bro. The point isn’t to dispute the test scores. The point is that the test scores aren’t a good metric. Test scores (over a certain threshold) aren’t a good predictor of one’s success.

Regardless — Let’s assume you’re correct and people of color are getting an “advantage.” Black Americans are still underrepresented among colleges classes. So, if you’re a white student being “passed up” for a black student, your application was almost certainly marginal at best. Ultra-rich white kids are taking up more spots than someone who got another look via affirmative action.

There’s no such thing as “objective data.” Test scores are influenced by culture and society as much as anything else.

It’s really not that complicated. White kids have disproportionate access to resources designed to “game” standardized tests and gain better scores than they’d be able to earn absent extra help. They simply aren’t sufficient on their own to assess whether an individual would be a good fit for a particular school.

You still didn't read if you think rich white kids are the problem. Their scores are part of the total. The numbers would go up significantly for white admissions if test scores were the driving factor. Some low ranking rich kids would be eliminated but overall the percentage of whites would increase by almost 10% while blacks and Hispanics would shrink by almost 10%. Many whites are being denied with perfect SAT and Acts and perfect GPAs.

Lol, you shouldn’t need to study for the SAT, the math section is super easy (I missed one question) and if you’re a native English speaker the verbal isn’t that hard (okay I missed some more there but still got a 700).

Someone getting an 1150 isn’t because they didn’t get the test prep necessary, it’s because they’re dumb.

You’re making my point for me, lol. Making test scores the “driving factor” would be idiotic. They simply aren’t a determinant metric on their own.

Also — Show me a white kid with a perfect SAT score and a perfect GPA who’s been rejected by every college. Your SAT score doesn’t entitle you to a spot at Harvard. Believing otherwise is the epitome of white privilege.