<p>Oh. I see that’s no longer the topic of this thread.</p>
<p>I’ll just say: Ben, you da man. You have laid out a coherent and compelling case which has not been countered by anything but wishy-washiness.</p>
<p>On the diversity stuff, YES there is a cost to Caltech choosing to abstain from affirmative action. I don’t personally care what color the people around me are, so that wasn’t a factor, but I can say conclusively that I didn’t much enjoy the male/female ratio, particularly after having actually been fairly social in high school. (Of course, that has made life since then seem pretty darn sweet by comparison in that department.)</p>
<p>So, why is it so difficult for the MIT folks to accept that YES, there is a cost to choosing TO use affirmative action as well?</p>
<p>In the end, I really admire Caltech for trying to come as close to a merit-only admissions process as they can, and in my one year on the committee I was proud to do my best to help uphold that tradition. Yes, it was difficult to walk across campus and not see many female faces, but I loved the feeling that every man and woman who I did see was there for their talents and abilities, and would have been there regardless of race or gender.</p>