“David Cameron has announced that applicants’ names will be removed from UCAS forms from 2017 in an effort to combat ethnic inequalities in admissions to top universities. The prime minister’s announcement comes in response to evidence that British ethnic minority applicants to highly selective universities are less likely to be offered places than white British applicants.”
“My own research on admission to Russell Group universities, for example, found that offer rates were between seven and 16 percentage points lower for applicants from British ethnic minority backgrounds than for white British applicants after taking into account their A-level grades and the popularity of the courses applied for. Other studies also suggest that applicants from lower social class backgrounds, disadvantaged neighborhoods and state schools are less likely to be offered places by top universities than applicants with similar qualifications from more advantaged backgrounds.”
Blacking out names wouldn’t work here, too many giveaways from activities and awards. If you want a 100% meritocratic approach apply to a state university. Plenty admit only on numbers. Or apply to a European university.
While you guys are right that name-blind won’t erase everything, given the effect that ethnic names have on people, I certainly see no downside to this.
The UK process is already very meritocratic - no legacy, a few recruited athletes/special talent musicians a year, ECs barely count so having parents who can afford the costs of good ECs won’t affect an applicant’s chances, and development admits are limited to the prime minister’s kid (if even).
Grades and (to an extent) course rigor are the chief factor affecting college decisions, and there’s a single personal statement for all your colleges, so even schools with 200+ students per guidance counselor aren’t at a considerable disadvantage in terms of the time a counselor can spend helping kids with their personal statements.
And now, that already-meritocratic process is set to become even more so. As someone who’s going through both the UK system and the US process this year, I can’t stress enough how much I love the former, even though I’ll most likely choose a US college when all’s said and done.
As per Mad men’s Lane Pryce character " “Am I to entertain your ballad of dissatisfaction?”; (On it not being England) “I’ve been here 10 months and nobody’s asked me where I went to school.”
The school is going to be as big a giveaway as anything.
I admire the British for adhering to their meritocratic ideals. This is the type of information we need from our elite universities(but will probably never get):
This is a straw man. The vast majority of US colleges are very meritocratic – but the irony is that some of those that aren’t – end up being the most popular , and most sought after.
You want meritocracy? You got it – and plenty. There’s no deficit. 2200 SAT and a 3.9 GPA will get you admitted into 85% of US colleges without a 10 second delay. But it’s that darn 15% that everyone wants to get into… there’s the rub…
There is not one thing on my daughter’s application, including her name, that would indicate she’s Chinese. She did check the race box as Asian, but it made no difference. People are still shocked when they call her name an a Chinese girl answers.
@OHMomof2, of the English unis, only Oxbridge conduct interviews. The rest don’t, and they include some respected schools like LSE, Imperial, UCL, and Warwick.
It’s rather pointless because the gist usually comes through in the essays and extra-curriculars. I read essays for Berkeley’s alumni association (all names replaced with numbers) and for extra-curriculars basically everyone has an Asian club listed, and/or an Asian dance group listed, a musical instrument mastered, or an Indian dance group, yearly trip to India to perform humanitarian aid, etc. General admissions essays also often bring up family dynamics. Getting rid of names is a good first step, but let’s be real.
Bottom line, you just need admissions people who look at merit only. I think most do.
@lindyk8: I’m sure admissions officers get tired of seeing the same type of asian clubs, so it works against them when they do those EC’s even though they may actually enjoy it. But if they were another race, I’m sure it would be seen as an “exposing to culture”, and there would be no such problem.
@PurpleTitan Oxbridge are the best-known schools conducting interviews, but I know that Imperial also interviews applicants for many subjects, and there may be other schools.
Interviews are certainly less common if one looks beyond Oxbridge, but they aren’t nonexistent.
