Quotas

half-japanese · 12-02-2008, 11:07 PM

Does anyone know anything about quotas, whether they be race, regional, or gender quotas? I know only Columbia's admissions officials really know the facts behind their quota system, but I'm curious what people have to say about the issue. For example, if a disproportionate number of males relative to females applied from any region, would the female have a stronger chance of acceptance due to the lack of female competition? I'm assuming that would be the case, but I wonder how significant such a factor would be in the admissions process. Any thoughts?

thebeef · 12-02-2008, 11:10 PM

No quotas, but admissions officers often have regional 'targets', which are basically like quotas, but sound nicer. I'm not sure about your specific scenario but officers will try and construct a 'balance' of regions, groups, and backgrounds. How they define balance, hell if I know.

jcy2009 · 12-03-2008, 12:14 AM

yes and i wonder about people coming from the same school. but i have heard of 5-7 kids from one private school going to yale or something at the same time.

cerberus08 · 12-03-2008, 02:08 AM

yes and i wonder about people coming from the same school. but i have heard of 5-7 kids from one private school going to yale or something at the same time.

Yeah I don't think coming from the same school matters as much. If there's a bunch of qualified kids from the same school, columbia will take them all. For example, I had a graduating class of about 90, of which 2 went to columbia, 6 to penn, 2 to yale--which is a pretty big portion of such a small graduating class.

zeke72791 · 12-03-2008, 04:03 PM

Quote:

a graduating class of about 90, of which 2 went to columbia, 6 to penn, 2 to yale

that's a crapload!

corretto joe · 12-03-2008, 05:20 PM

Right, they look at general area. For example, I live in NY, which sucks. NY pushes tons of students out into the applicant pools from their schools. If only I went to school in Wyoming or something... sigh.

iwantcollege09 · 12-03-2008, 05:30 PM

why is that a crapload?

freefondue · 12-03-2008, 05:53 PM

Although it was two years ago, Columbia took 5 out of 48 of my school's graduating class. So I don't think that "regional targets" are definite...meaning that if you're exceptionally qualified, you're not at a severe disadvantage if you're in a competitive area. At the same time, I wonder how advantageous these casual quotas would be for a student from an uncompetitive environment who's qualified but unremarkable.

zeke72791 · 12-03-2008, 06:15 PM

well considering there was only 90 graduating students from cerberus's high school and 10 of them went to ivy league universities, thats like 11% of the whole class.

whereas in my class of 125 graduating seniors, i'm the only one even applying to an ivy league school, and we've only had one kid go to an ivy league school in the four years that i've attended. so that's .002% of the whole school.

so, comparatively, it is every bit a crapload

Columbia2002 · 12-03-2008, 10:42 PM

Quote:

well considering there was only 90 graduating students from cerberus's high school and 10 of them went to ivy league universities, thats like 11% of the whole class.

whereas in my class of 125 graduating seniors, i'm the only one even applying to an ivy league school, and we've only had one kid go to an ivy league school in the four years that i've attended. so that's .002% of the whole school.

so, comparatively, it is every bit a crapload

So, comparatively to that of pretty much anybody who is Ivy League material, your logical and reasoning skills are a crapload. I don't think anyone needs to bother explaining to you why that's the case -- because it's a pointless exercise.

Denzera · 12-03-2008, 11:05 PM

that's unnecessarily harsh, C02. He might need a little perspective but let's not go around calling names. Seriously, how is that warranted here?

Columbia2002 · 12-03-2008, 11:52 PM

Not any more harsh than my typical fireballs, though. And most people who post dumb stuff don't refer characterize facts presented by a Columbia student and respected poster as fecal matter.

half-japanese · 12-04-2008, 01:06 AM

Gotta say, you sound like a stereotypical snobby, arrogant Ivy League kid...you might want to tone down the condescension a little.

thebeef · 12-04-2008, 01:37 AM

Are we all going to turn into Columbia2002 four years from now, assuming we get accepted? Ahh!

drownergurl29 · 12-04-2008, 06:39 AM

I think the point that Columbia2002 was making was that if there are only 125 kids per class, over four years, 125*4=500, so if one in every 500 kids gets in, then that's a 1/500 chance--in percentage form, that would be .2%. Columbia2002, was that the pointless exercise? Or did I miss it?