<p>In my opinion, AA rubs some people because on the face of it, it appears that “less qualified” (however one determines it) people get admitted OVER “more qualified” people. On a purely merit based system, that’s understandable.</p>
<p>But private colleges do not have to practice cold, stats driven admissions and many do not. The institutions look at what their ideal student body should resemble. It may mean A% recruited athletes, B% legacy kids, C% international full-pay kids, D% super musicians, E% science prodigies, F% native americans, G% African Americans, etc.</p>
<p>Once this unofficial goal (or quota) is determined, each applicant is sorted into one of these pools (or categories – cf. [Reed</a> College | Admission | Reed College Admission Office](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/apply/news_and_articles/admission_messages.html]Reed”>http://www.reed.edu/apply/news_and_articles/admission_messages.html)). Let’s say for argument’s sake the avg ACT of the musicians group is 30, the ACT for the black students is 31, and those who don’t fall into any pool or “non-pooled” have an avg of 32.</p>
<p>If there are 10 actual slots allotted to the musicians’ group and 20 apply, then it’s easy. You offer to the top ten. The lower ten – aren’t superior to anyone in the “non-pooled” group and are rejected. But a nice 50% rate</p>
<p>The non-pooled kids had 100 slots set aside for them. But they have 1000 applications. Rough. Only 10% admit rate.</p>
<p>There are 20 slots allotted for black students. In the first read, 60 kids apply of whom only 18 meet the school’s minimum requirements. Those 18 are initially accepted, the other 42 are rejected.</p>
<p>Let’s say 3 late applications come in from African American kids and all have great stats. But now you have 21 who are above the line. What happens? is one taken away from the non-pooled group? Nope. The lowest kid gets rejected and joins the other 42.</p>
<p>You see, the applicants in the non-pooled group were never in contention for any of the 10 seats set aside for musicians nor the 20 set aside for black applicants. The lowest stat admitted black kid – doesn’t take a seat from the Asian kid – he takes it from the 21st black applicant.</p>
<p>So the anger, mistrust, frustration about the “unfairness” should not be directed at the individuals within the groups. Nor is it useful to compare avg ACTs among the groups. These decisions are made a the highest levels of the university. Go tell them what you think. Or better yet, read the Reed College article.</p>