do you ever get this?

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Yes, I actually think most people agree that this is the ideal solution - more information on which one can make a valid judgment (not based on skin color ideally) of which students are economically disadvantaged.</p>

<p>Now, unfortunately that’s the idealized solution: perfect information leads to fair decisions. The real question here, though, is what do we do in the lack of such details. If I am understanding what people are saying, akdaddy is proposing we err on the side of admitting too many privileged, minority students, where Ben and others suggest that ignoring race will remove any “false positives” by ignoring race. In addition, they (and Caltech) use the information they have to best assess which students indeed are genuinely disadvantaged and appropriately compensate for that. </p>

<p>Unfortunately, as I see it, it’s very hard to argue a priori one way is better than the other; it’s all in the details. For me, which version I would favor would hinge on questions like:
(a) to what extent is a given school successful at gauging disadvantaged students without using race?
(b) are the extent of the racial differences in testing enough to merit such delineation between races?
(c) what is the risk of a student failing out at a school for those not adequately prepared?
(d) to what extent is well-developed racial diversity important for the institute’s community?
(e) to what extent does admitting students partially based on race perpetuate unfair stereotypes?
(f) how void is any given field of minority participants (e.g. compare a black looking into majoring in Afrrican American studies versus theoretical high-energy physics)?</p>

<p>I think only by answering those (and many other) questions can any institution begin to figure out how to deal with race in admissions. Moreover, it’s not surprising that different institutions come up with different answers based on their particular situation. As a result, I don’t think we need to go labeling them as “racist” for just coming up with a conclusion which intends to reach racial equality just because they use different approaches.</p>