Fastest-Growing Ethnic Category at Great Colleges: "Race Unknown" - Page 50

galoisien · 04-13-2008, 04:15 PM

LOOK.

I don't know many schools (never mind top schools) that have race quotas.

Affirmative action tends to be socioeconomic/cultural.

liz6298 · 04-13-2008, 06:56 PM

Actually, not accepted by me. Er... at least, trying very hard not to accept it. I think it's probably something so instilled through history, that it's there in my head even when I think I don't accept it at all. But whatev, I'm trying to fight it.

And as StitchInTime has advocated, I opted out of identifying with any ethnic group on most of my transfer applications. I think I might've ended up checking caucasian on one or two, but in general it was just extremely weird to me and made me feel uncomfortable, and I wasn't really sure what to do. There was definitely a small part of me that didn't want the colleges to think I was hiding something, or trying to hide the fact that I'm just your average white chick, that kept me from very confidently ignoring that question on every application.

edit: I looked back over my applications and yea, I never checked anything.

StitchInTime · 04-13-2008, 10:33 PM

As posted on the National Association of Scholars:

Quote:

By No Means: Michigan Judge Turns Tables on Advocacy Groups Determined to Derail Civil Rights Initiative

04/07/2008

Terry Pell gives the first public analysis of the recent court decision ending (for now) the legal challenges to the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative.

by Terry Pell

Some means are by no means necessary.

That’s what Federal District Court Judge David Lawson decided last month about the efforts of a Michigan advocacy group that calls itself the “Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary” or, more simply, “BAMN.”
In a sweeping opinion, Lawson rejected every one of the legal arguments that BAMN and other opponents were hoping to use to strike down Michigan’s new amendment barring the use of racial preferences. Lawson’s decision takes the steam out of the multiple legal challenges that have dogged the new amendment almost from the day it passed in November, 2006.

The legal outcome was not as surprising as Lawson’s timing. From the beginning, Lawson seemed eager to see BAMN’s case proceed. He even issued an extraordinary preliminary injunction forbidding enforcement of the new amendment against three Michigan universities while the case got underway. Even after a panel of Sixth Circuit judges issued a stinging rebuke of this misuse of federal judicial authority, Lawson continued to find new judicial limbs on which to keep the suit perched.

Though there was little likelihood the suit would succeed on the merits, Lawson allowed the parties to gear up for a major trial that would have focused on the effects of the new amendment on minority enrollment. Lawson possibly thought that a long period of pre-trial discovery followed by a sensational trial might slow down the new amendment or turn up a new legal basis for striking it down. And a public airing of problems with the new amendment might help opponents of similar initiatives planned for five other states.

But then suddenly Lawson pulled the plug on all this with an opinion in March that, whatever else it did, certainly ended the prospect of further discovery and a trial.

Lawson’s about-face was no accident. Pre-trial discovery was turning up evidence that the extensive use of racial preferences at Michigan universities was directly causing racial disparities in grades, majors, graduation and professional examination results. Far from helping the case for racial preferences, pre-trial discovery was undermining it...

Hunt · 04-14-2008, 08:49 AM

"I don't know many schools (never mind top schools) that have race quotas.
Affirmative action tends to be socioeconomic/cultural."

While it may be true that they don't have explicit quotas, it's pretty obvious that they use holistic emissions to ensure that they achieve rough racial balance. They all keep track of racial balance as well. I'm also extremely skeptical about whether schools in fact base AA primarily on socioeconomic and cultural status. Note that I'm not saying that the schools are wrong to do what they do--I just think we should be realistic about what is actually happening.

epiphany · 04-14-2008, 12:48 PM

LOL, love post 722. Let's hear it for any AA forum or sub-forum. Then some of us can REALLY avoid the interminable whining.

tokenadult · 04-15-2008, 10:34 AM

From a University of California system press release about fall 2008 entering class admission results:

University of California - UC Newsroom | UC releases 2008 freshman admissions data

Quote:

Originally Posted by UC system

The percentage of students who declined to state their ethnicity increased 12.3 percent from the previous year.

fabrizio · 04-16-2008, 10:37 PM

Re: 731

I think this provides some evidence against the claim that not checking the race box is "gaming" the system. In UC, race is not considered, yet more applicants are choosing to be "race unknown."

Is that gaming the system, or an indication of things to come?

tokenadult · 04-16-2008, 10:54 PM

Perhaps some of those applicants are making the statement that their ethnicity is less noteworthy than their academic and personal preparation for college study.

3365 · 04-18-2008, 12:32 AM

its asian right? the standards are higher for asian and its more difficult to achieve that standard. asians get the highest sat and it ruins the "admission curve" for asians.

i know how a lot of you on cc like to see some statistical evidence/graph/report/research so here is where i am getting my idea.

Image:1995-SAT-Income2.png - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Image:1995-SAT-Education2.png - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shrinkrap · 04-18-2008, 12:35 AM

Those charts say something different to me, but whatev.

3365 · 04-18-2008, 12:36 AM

what do those charts say for you? what can you conclude from them? i am right, right?

aspasp · 04-18-2008, 12:38 AM

1995 :/ 10 chars

PlattsburghLoser · 04-18-2008, 12:39 AM

You're taking your information from Wikipedia?

3365 · 04-18-2008, 12:41 AM

yes and i am making an assertion from it. why doesnt someone just answer the question?

Shrinkrap · 04-18-2008, 12:55 AM

I said "whatev" because I don't feel like participating in another AA thread. To me, those old , but still relevant charts, say its hardest for Blacks to do well on SAT's. That is not a good thing, the way I see it. Likewise, I don't see doing well on standardized tests as the "worst" thing. You know what they say about data.