<p>'DIFFERENTIATE YOURSELF. SHOW PASSION. DON’T FOLLOW THE CROWD."</p>
<p>beautifully put. i’m so happy to carry my life in those words.</p>
<p>ok, inspirational advice aside, let’s stop complaining about affirmative action. this is annoying and offensive.</p>
<p>yea, i guess i was just getting it out of my system earlier. you’re right, its just immature. plus, if we end up at once of these schools, were gonna want some diversity</p>
<p>that’s the attitude! plus, did you expect that columbia (this is new york, ppl, the most diverse city in the world) would pay no attention to race? come on.</p>
<p>haha i think this is the most mature AA thread to date, im proud to be a part of it…made me realize the flaws in the way i was thinking</p>
<p>Hate to tell you but it really is all about the statistics.</p>
<p><em>buzz</em> sorry, that’s incorrect.</p>
<p><em>you fall down chute</em></p>
<p>AA is BS… it’s a racist policy</p>
<p>so… no one thinks it’s racist or at the very least insulting to continue discussing this?</p>
<p>…the colleges are racist…its all so artificial…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Don’t you think that this comment is just a little disingenuous ? At the end of the day, the matter of applying to colleges in the U.S. is on of choice, and if you think that a school’s policy is so egregious, why would you want to attend? Isn’t that in a way selling out or at least compromising your values?</p>
<p>Ofeternity is right when he states that NYC is one of the most diverse cities, not only in the U.S. but in the world. Columbia would be remiss to not to craft a class that reflects this. </p>
<p>*FACT *</p>
<p>[ul]
[li]Columbia University is a stones throw from Harlem and prides is relationship with the community which it neighbors upon. </p>[/li]
<p>[li]The university is the largest private employer of harlem residents and as a percentage one of the largest private employers of blacks and hispanics in the city. So what exactly would the message be, you are good enough, talented enough to work for our institution but you are not good enough to attend? (one of the reasons affirmative action exist.)</p>[/li]
<p>[li] If you were to look at the number of admitted blacks and hispanics at any elite college in the country you would be hard pressed to find 100 in any freshman class (this debunks the notion that they are taking all of the spots). The number of native american admits at these same schools are extremely lower.[/li][/ul]</p>
<p>AA is not about someone having better stats, it is about choosing between *similiarly qualified * candidates and giving a tip to someone underrepresented. Yes, a lot goes into what consitute being similarly qualified because admissions is a wholistic approach where grades and scores are taken into consideration of the context of which those grades and scores. Admissions into an elite private school will never again simply be a numbers driven process because all numbers do not happen in a vacuum. While there are a hand full of naturally high achieving student, the college know that many of them have been crafted as early as elementary school. </p>
<p>[ul]
[li]The colleges take into consideration students scoring 1500 attending elite private schools, public magnets (study, Bx. science, tJ, hunter, etc). Why do you think there is an entire application that includes your school profile? </p>[/li]
<p>[li]They also take into consideration a student scoring a 1200 coming from a school where only 30-40% graduate high school let alone attend 4-year colleges. They know that the dirt poor kid who scores and 1100 who is a first generation college student and is working almost the equivalent of a full time job or spending time taking care of younger sibling while their parents work 2 jobs also has the same potential to attend an “elite college” and still do well.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Schools are savvy enough to know who is paying for Kaplan and princeton review courses and who is attending cram school, after school and on the weekends and what schools do in-house sat prep.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Admissions committes are very savvy about the regions of the country they represent and are familiar with the schools in those regions. </p>[/li]
<p>[li]While they are need blind on the surface, they can pretty much put together your ses, from looking at your zip code, what your parents do for a living, what kind of ECs you are involved in or whether or not you have attached the large colorful fee waiver to your application. </p>[/li]
<p>[li]They know if you are a caniddate of HEOP, STEP, Questbridge or some other initiative used to attact minority and/or low income<br>[/li]students.[/ul]</p>
<p>Colleges are about crafting well rounded classes that reflect their insitutional mission. This means a class of exceptionally bright students, musicans, artists, writers, rocket scientist, atheltes, legacies, developmental admits (p-rents are endowing a chair or building a new wing), celebrities and some plain ol everyday people who have the potential to do extrordinary things .</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S11/80/77I23/index.xml[/url]”>http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S11/80/77I23/index.xml</a></p>
<p>read read read read^</p>
<p>Yes,</p>
<p>But this is one article is based on * simulation * not an actual concrete research. the things about simulation is that it is not based on facts just what ifs or if thens. The author states :</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The author realizes and states in their own research that: </p>
<p>*First, what is the impact of affirmative action on the profile of students admitted to elite universities? In other words, who gains and who loses as a result of admission preferences for underrepresented minority students? And, second, to what extent do preferences for athletes and legacies, both of whom are disproportionately white, offset the effects of affirmative action?</p>
<p>Answering these questions is inherently difficult. One reason is that the selection process at elite private institutions is typically more nuanced and subjective than the explicit point systems formerly relied on by undergraduate admission officers at the University of Michigan and other large public universities (University of Michigan, 2002; Zwick, 2002:39).*</p>
<p>He also negates the fact that there are tons of studies that state after once admitted, student with “lower stats” still graduate at comprable levels of their white/asian counterparts. People tend to forget that even with AA all it does it gets you through the door, you still have to bring your game to the table if you expect to finish.</p>
<p>it seems that more people are obsessesd with hating the players rather than hating the game. However this does not stop them from asking “my uncles 3rd cousin twice removed is native american, does that make me native american?”</p>
<p>I’ve noticed that the people who critisize Affirmative Action as racist,(haha, people dont even know why AA was instituted for, thats really sad) are the ones who know they aren’t getting in anyway.</p>
<p>STOP BEING SO BITTER. A few decades ago, colleges never allowed any URM’s so now when they finally do, people start crying like babies and call the college’s racist.</p>
<p>HAHAHA, bitter 17 year olds</p>
<p>I respect you david218 for considering this issue with an open mind. Most kids on CC don’t. They only cry about how “I got rejected and hispanic kid took my spot”</p>
<p>Colleges don’t want people like you, get over it.</p>
<p>AA isn’t all about racism. get that straight. end this thread.</p>
<p>Why are we even debating AA? In the grand scheme of things, our opinions about affirmative action DON’T MATTER.</p>
<p>“Colleges don’t want people like you, get over it.”</p>
<p>Right. Because they want minorities to fufill socially-acceptable percentages to create an artificial veneer of diversity. You finally understand DiamondT.</p>
<p>1- it’s not artificial</p>
<p>2- you people seem to think that URMs have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. oh, how would you know? you read their entire apps, of course you’d know</p>
<p>i agree with ofeternity – how is it artificial? also, how do you know everything on everyone’s apps? you can’t expect to get in based on stats, because in the end, who really cares about a bunch of numbers? Recs, essays, and interviews mean a lot, because they show the real person and his or her real passions and interests.</p>
<p>and what’s all this talk about “socially acceptable?” diversity in background creates intellectual diversity, diversity in passions and interests, diversity in strengths, etc, and it attracts a diverse applicant pool. how can you possibly blame colleges for wanting that? so many people seem to think that it’s “unfair” that colleges picked a seemingly less qualified urm over them. but guess what – they’re private colleges!!! they can pick whoever they want to!!! how can you possibly define fair? everyone’s advantaged and disadvantaged in different ways. get over it and accept that you just weren’t what the school was looking for.</p>
<p>desertman…and other posters like you</p>
<p>“socially acceptable percentages”</p>
<p>Are you that ignorant, I go to the best high school in the world and the school’s motto is to “bring youth from all quarters”</p>
<p>WOW WOW WOW</p>
<p>people like you know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about colleges’ principles.</p>
<p>Its not cause they have to “fullfill socially acceptable” percentages, its because it is in the spirit of the college and colleges want to teach a diverse class. They don’t want all the boring same people.</p>
<p>Many of these calls for diversity were imbedded in many colleges’ motto’s and principles longer than you were born.</p>
<p>HAHA, people like you are just mad you won’t get in. hahaha</p>