Agree, not explicitly, which is why we have become so accepting of it. It doesn’t seem fair for a kid with say 35ACT from a suburban school who worked hard for that score to have equal or lower chances than someone - who also worked hard - with 30ACT from a lower-income zip code. It seems to me that the kid from the suburbs is being discriminated against on the basis of his perceived “advantage”.
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Do you think it’s unfair that a high income household is ineligible for SNAP- even if the parents choose to spend their money at a casino or the local bar instead of buying nutritious food for their kids? The kids will be just as undernourished as their less affluent peers, right? Do you think it’s unfair that I have a co-pay for my cancer screening when an indigent person in my state gets it for “free”?
You can’t seriously be arguing that children of affluent families are somehow underrepresented in college are you? Because the numbers suggest you are wrong.
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It is not about underrepresentation, it is about fair treatment on the merits and selecting the best applicants. Which is what the Harvard lawsuit was about but they wisely made it about race and then the SCOTUS had to act. We don’t need to argue, plus this is “not a debate society” 
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But it’s not perceived, it’s actual.
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Schools like Harvard have holistic admissions processes, which are not based solely on merit. The ‘best’ applicants are not always the students with the highest GPA or rigor or test score. Many schools value having students from different backgrounds, ethnicities, countries all with a variety of lived experiences. The college community and classroom discussion are enriched with a wide variety of student backgrounds and perspectives.
There are many CC threads where we have beat these issues to death.
Here’s one:
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Most colleges have a definition of academic merit that is not solely based on SAT or ACT scores.
Some of them may see that a talented student from a disadvantaged background may have to use some of the talent just to climb over various barriers of disadvantage, while a student from an advantaged background may have had many opportunities purchased and barriers removed with parent money.
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You are overlooking context. A kid with a 30ACT at a school where everyone gets a 20ACT will standout over someone with a 34 where 20% of students get 34-36s.
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Absolutely. But is that kid a stronger applicant than the 35ACT kid? Why would the latter have to be disadvantaged for admission purposes because his/her parents were successful and were able to move to wealthy zip code?
Quite possibly. Because the college is more interested in estimating future potential rather than current achievement.
So if a student gets a 30 ACT in a poor teaching environment, plus has other accomplishments which suggest they will thrive in that college and contribute to that community, then that’s a viable student to admit.
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Truth is we never know why someone gets in vs another. You can assume but we don’t know.
If someone is pure stat based, then you might know.
For example and it’s a college within the university vs the university - but at Iu Kelley, a 3.8 and 1370 SAT gets you in. Get a 1360, you’re not in - well you have to petition.
The truth is, that 30 ACT might get in over the 35 for a myriad of reasons. You can hypothesize but you’ll never truly know why.
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“stronger” is subjective, isn’t it?
Is that student better prepared academically? IMO unlikely (which is not to say they are not prepared “enough”). Are they more likely to make step up/make the most of the opportunity? At least as much.
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Obviously hypothetical but are you really asking me whether a 35ACT student has a higher academic aptitude than a 30ACT student?
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It was a rhetorical question. You asked which student is stronger. I am arguing that strength is not simply defined by taking MV Calc in HS. Colleges are not looking just for students that can do the most advanced possible academic work off the bat. They are also looking for potential, resilience and creative thought.
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Having said that, I don’t think a low SES/URM kid who attends four years of HS at Exeter should get that same “pass,” for lack of a better word, and they do.
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Dunno. I’d go out on a limb and guess that someone who took multivariable calculus in high school would do better in math later than someone whose highest math class was algebra. It is what it is.
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I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that you may be conflating access to opportunity with potential.
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Yes but what does it matter? One of my kids started in Calc 3, but plenty of his friends are in Calc 1 and 2. The college offers it, so….
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My point is don’t favor a child for the success of their parents but don’t punish them for that either.
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Then you’ll have a homogenous society.
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We’re really veering off the subject of standardized testing requirements. Let’s return to topic please, and be cognizant that College Confidential is not a debate society.
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