Black and hispanics have an advantage?

slakedlime
Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:59:47 +0000

This issue has been hotly debated for a long, long time (e.g. on the Yale forum which is my haunt… :p). It’s really a case of affirmative action. Colleges look at your background, socioeconomic status, etc. to see what you had to work through to get where you are. Traditionally, African Americans, Hispanics and other under-represented minorities like American Indians come have had to deal with more poverty and barriers than the typical middle-class Asian or White applicant, who probably had access to a good school, a supportive home, tutors, etc. Sometimes, even if a URM has lower stats, he might be taken because he’s made the best of his opportunities and overcome adversity. I don’t believe that affirmative action would work for under-represented minorities from very well-off families, but if it does it’d be unfair…

Nevertheless, anyone who gets into elite colleges had something special/unique/brilliant to offer to the community of those colleges. There are plenty of superqualified URMs who get rejected, so race/legacy/donations aren’t everything in the admissions game. It’s all fair, really… :)