| "I did the FSI program, the Freshman Summer Institute for 'may contain traces of minority' incoming frosh at Caltech. None of the FSI kids that year were disadvantaged, and it seemed like the program resources could have been better used by allocating slots to students with no research experience, or students whose preparation for Caltech was marginal, rather than on the basis of ethnicity. I know people who could have benefitted at least as much as I did from FSI but never got the chance."
I know this is old, but here here! I was one of those students--a good old European-American, but no one from my high school had ever gone to Caltech before and I had no real research experience or college classes or anything. Caltech work kicked my butt even more than most, I think, at least for the first year or two. Some of the FSI kids had gone to TJ and places like that... this was really a notable departure from the color-blindness that in general impressed me about Caltech. |