BIGTWIX

What do you mean "closed-door"?

And to agree with imaparasite, i think its dumb how we separate ourselves in the US by race.

If we all identified ourselves as Americans the whole damn "political correctness" system would dissappear. It's ******** really. Perhaps the most messed up system ever. We label blacks as "African-American", etc, but that is indeed ******** because how the hell are we supposed to know when a black person is American, African, Carribean ,european, south american, etc?
That is indeed more incorrect, labelling someone improperly, if they are to be labeled.

Why don't people get over the fact that if I describe someone as "black", that it is simply a description I am using to identify them in a way so that someone can visualize them, and that in doing so I am not being racist, but simply using an adjective that can describe anyone of African-looking descent, be they carribean, european, or whatever.

Oh America! we are lost a neverending battle. We want to be seen as "equal", but then every foothold somebody has to say another man is racist, we tend to use.

fabrizio

Please consult Bakke, opinion of Justice Powell.

Nothing in the Constitution supports the notion that individuals may be asked to suffer otherwise impermissible burdens in order to enhance the societal standing of their ethnic groups.

…there is a measure of inequity in forcing innocent persons in respondent's position to bear the burdens of redressing grievances not of their making.

“Payback” has never been approved by the Supreme Court as a valid justification for racial preferences. It is blatantly un-Constitutional.

tokenadult

MODERATOR'S NOTE TO "Is there ANY evidence that colleges actually have race criteria?" THREAD:

This thread will be merged into the main FAQ thread about ethnic self-identification in college admission, for Occam's Razor. The answer to the question asked by the OP is mentioned in the earlier thread, having been revealed from time to time by litigation or journalism or scholarly study of admission office practice.

Narcissa

Yes. they admit to AA

tokenadult

They are required to ask by a federal law that is tied to all the funding programs (including federal support for student financial aid) that essentially all colleges receive money from. Students are NOT required to tell. Colleges are permitted to report as many students as may be as "race unknown," and colleges are not expected to guess anything about a student that the student doesn't tell them. See the newly revised FAQ post at the beginning of this huge thread for links to the federal regulations.

Narcissa

honestly if this thread's question is "do colleges use race in their admissions processes" then the answer is unquestionably yes.

otherwise they would've full-out denied it long ago, amidst all this debate.

And as for your example of the adcom going "but she's black...let's admit her"--how do you know that doesn't happen? They do do it behind closed-doors: it's cool to say "we're a VERY diverse community" but not to say "and to get that diversity, we had to be racist"

arachnophobia12

@ afruff23

I guess that is why people shouldn't be classified by "color." :/

@ JP

AA also promotes diversity by gender (and "holistic" admissions promotes it by geographic residence, athletic/performing-arts ability, etc.)-do you have a problem with that, as well?

jazzkingrt

I'm considering putting: "other: Human", as biologically there is only one, human, race. That is, race in the sense of the term that we use, doesn't exist. We'll see.

tokenadult

I've done that before on various federal forms, because that is the scientifically correct answer. Once colleges all follow the guidance of the Department of Education,

http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2...f/E7-20613.pdf

there won't be any college application forms that give you a chance to choose "other," but you can still refuse to answer the race question.

Ntk_124

I know people always say your race and such is a component in the college admission process, however, is there THAT much of a difference if you're a white male instead of a black female?
I have a few black friends who were accepted to pretty good schools and people always reacted with "that's because she/he is black!"
With the same grades, scores, and ec, how much does your race really affect your chance of getting in to a college ? Is it all that it is hyped up to be?

Northstarmom

Being a male of any race is a big plus at virtually LACs, including top ones, because LACs have a difficult time attracting males of any race.

Yet, how many people look askance at white males who get accepted to LACs?
Think about it.

collegealum314

^^Someone from Amherst told me that there is no boost for males there. I don't think Amherst or Williams have trouble attracting males.

karajanhra

Yes, but Amherst and Williams are the best there is (in the field of American LACs, anyway). It's a bit like MIT having no problem attracting girls - of course at the Top 5 of a field there's little difference, but beyond that gender matters.

collegealum314

Well, Northstarmom just said that even the top LACs give a boost for males.

Northstarmom

"Using data from 13 liberal arts colleges, we test for a preference for men in the college admissions process. We find that gender does matter, but in a complex way. Men do appear to be given preference as college applicant pools become more female. Consistent with this pattern, we find clear evidence of a preference for men in historically female colleges-which have the highest percent female applicant pools. Being a male applicant raises the probability of acceptance at these schools by between 6.5 and 9 percentage points. We find no significant male preference in historically co-educational or historically male colleges despite the fact that their applicant pools are more than 50% female. We also find that the bottom quartile of both the applicant and acceptance pools, as measured by high school academic record, is disproportionately male. As a result, even with a gender-blind admissions policy, the lower tail of college classrooms is likely to be dominated by men."

From: Economics of Education Review, v24 n6 p665-675 Dec 2005