"They got in because they're black"?

cptofthehouse
Tue, 25 Nov 2014 11:47:08 +0000

It is an inflammatory statement, a rude statement and not true. But for those who are so outraged about it, the reason is there because being a URM,with AAs being one such category, it does give a student an admissions boost It’s like saying someone got in because s/he’s a legacy, has a donor/development parent/connections, is a a recruited athlete., is in any category that gives an admiissions boost. That there are URMs in the URM pool who would have been accepted regardless of whether they were in the general pool with race not identified at all, is true, but it’s also a fact that without such a pool, a number of those in it would not have been accepted. The category,pool for admissions does exist for a reason, which is to give special consideration to a group that a college wants. That there is any such pool does mean that a commensurate number of spaces are no longer available for those who are not specially flagged for admissions.

My son was looking at Naviance points from his school, and was struck by how many outlier points were of URMs. By Outlier, I mean with not has high test scores and grade as the clustered accepts, and in many cases, with no one else accepted around that point. For the last few years, we can even id who those were. At some schools they are URM coded so one can see this very, very clearly

So that is why the statement exists. There are athletes already “accepted” to their schools, some ivy and other higly selective school and yes, there is no question that the accepts are because they’re athletes. The black athletes are not so pulled out as “got in because they 're black” , but those who do get accepted with outlier stats and no other special stauts will get that comment.