Unique Affirmative Action Dilemma

dontno
Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:04:34 +0000

My younger cousin is currently a junior in high school. He’s incredibly intelligent and is just beginning his college search. He’s already got his mind set on HYPS. I don’t feel like saying which one in particular. He’s currently ranked second out of over 300 kids in his high school class and he scored a 1560 on his PSAT (just including reading and math sections).

But he also has a serious disability. It’s not life threatening, but it’s caused him to miss lots of days of schools, causes him daily severe pain, and disrupts his ability to function normally.

So here’s his dilemma. He told me that these colleges would consider him for affirmative action b/c he’s disabled (he’s not URM or anything like that). But he’s also against affirmative action and believes that individuals at such highly exclusive schools should be accepted on their own merit. Furthermore, everyone knows the most impressive part of having an Ivy League degree is garnering acceptance.

Yet, on the other hand, he’s fully qualified intellectually. Many AA admits have SAt scores 150 points below average and GPA’s 0.5 points below average. He’s got all the academic requirements, but we all know it’s such a crapshoot for HYPS. Using the disability gives him that extra push for getting admitted.

Should he “game” the system and use this to his advantage? Thoughts?

(P.S. Some peopel may think this is about me. This is not about me. I’ve already graduated from an Ivy League school.)