seriously now, how much of an edge do we really have?

Debruns
Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:07:31 +0000

Yes, there is an ego involved in thinking a certain person kept you out, that you were next in the pile. My neighbor was close to an AO at Wesleyan years ago and he said he sometimes wanted to tell parents when they bemoaned how another student didn’t deserve to go to a certain college or alluded to it keeping their son/daughter out, how absurd that was. No gun is being held to any admissions officers head, if it makes someone feel better to think their child was just under the pile of the admitted student, so be it, but many find even on re-applying, that they still don’t get in. You can’t make it that personal. Many good students can’t get into certain colleges.
My son luckily didn’t hear that often in regard to himself, but sometimes about others. He once said, when a student spouted that he wished he was a URM, that he could safely bet any amount of money, if that could change permanently and live life as an African American or other URM, he wouldn’t. This particular student just got very quiet.
When I was young, I heard a young black child on TV say to a white adult who was telling him how great things were after the Civil war now, “If you could live to be 50 and be white or 100 and be black, what would you choose?” He got very quiet too. : )
Nothing is perfect, but there is still too much bitterness on both sides and an entitlement that is wrong.