Moral Question regarding College Visit

applicannot
Mon, 29 Mar 2010 23:08:26 +0000

They were “targeted towards you” only because you are a representative of the group they are trying to attract. If you were to decline the invitation, it is likely that another high scoring low income URM student could get the opportunity to visit.



While I understand your point, that doesn’t make any sense. The invitations were sent out all at once, usually with decently-near application deadlines. Giving up my spot would not have afforded another student an invitation; instead, the invitation would have gone to no one.



I hope that by the time you graduate from Stanford you will realize that your choice to treat this as a free vacation was unethical.



You must not have read my post, since I already established that some people would have felt my actions were unethical. Given that a) I was invited to these events and b) prior interest or further interest in the college was not a requirement for attendance, I personally do not feel like my actions crossed ethical boundaries. If colleges want to target only students who are likely to attend and/or only students who have demonstrated interest, they are welcomed to do so. For example, Washington University in St. Louis offers invitations to Discovery Weekend for students who have already exhibited interest by returning mailings or submitting the pre-application early. Scripps and Carnegie Mellon were free to do the same.



Maybe so. Maybe not. She didn’t “take it away”. If they had found someone better, or more suitable, or who had the school as their first choice, then for all we know they were picked too, or they would have been.



Exactly. I was targeted for these travel grants despite having never exhibited interest in the school. I didn’t “take” anyone’s spot. I took the spot that was offered to me. Now, you are free to feel that is unethical - as I stated some would believe - but that does not shift my ethical compass, nor should it. I do not criticize students who attend schools on scholarships that were not their first choice, just because the scholarship was offered to them.

I had little interest in attending these schools when I accepted the travel grants. What if I had came away from Scripps or CMU infatuated with the school? Would my actions have been unethical then?