URM Chances

<p>jf215: Call me pandy. I’d have much less of a problem with it. I’d still rather see the applicant whose grades, scores, and ECs are better get in. Ideally, and this is within our reac. Universities would collectively set up more (because there are already programs like these and they’ve had much success) programs to allow disadvantaged youth to educate themselves. Economic based AA seems to help those it is designed to help much better than race-based AA, (if you want an awesome read in support of economy based AA, then read this study by Sander <a href=“http://www1.law.ucla.edu/~sander/Documents/classbased.pdf[/url]”>http://www1.law.ucla.edu/~sander/Documents/classbased.pdf&lt;/a&gt; who is a Professor of Law at UCLA and is one of the bigshots on the admissions committee). It addresses much of the issues I have with race-based AA. My only real qualm is that it might hurt the middle class more and it might actually give a benefit to wealthy students (I’d be against assigning specific quotes like 10% Wealthy, etc.). And, again, I’d rather have the programs elaborated above. I’ll elaborate more later if you want</p>

<p>Filmy: I did not say that at all about the black students on campus. In fact, I showed that you’d have more than 2-3 black students on campus. I don’t think you read my post, but I’ll take my argument further. 13,897 people in total scores higher than 1500.
Let’s double that number and assume that that number scored higher than a 1450. That would mean, according to your logic, only 231 people per class in total among what US News designates “Top Schools.” I believe that initially the numbers might go down (I believe they would not go down, or they would go down less, if my programs were initiated. Where would the money for these expenditures come from? From a collective basket of foregone tuitions and private donations).</p>

<p>Now, as to our L.A Times article (manyal, looks familiar? i’m not sure if you noted that you were taking it from the LA times, so i won’t accuse you of anything) I’ll quote some things from the summary and the study itself that directly comment on your quoted part: "Despite the prevalence of affirmative action policies in higher education, scholars are only beginning to study seriously the relative costs and benefits of racial preferences in admissions. The recent development of several large, longitudinal datasets on law students and lawyers has made it possible to ask more ambitious questions about the operation and effects of these policies. A Systemic Analysis asks a number of these questions, and reports surprising answers. (This article focuses only on blacks and whites.) " The use of longitudinal studies is just being made available, which counters the first paragraph of the LA times article. And the rest of the article is countered by these from the summary: --Second, black students admitted through preferences generally have quite low grades in law school – not because of any racial characteristic, but because the preferences themselves put them at an enormous academic disadvantage. The median black student starting law school in 1991 received first-year grades comparable to a white student at the 7th or 8th percentile. </p>

<p>–Third, these low grades substantially handicap black students in their efforts to complete law school and pass the bar. Only 45% of black law students in the 1991 cohort completed law school and passed the bar on their first attempt; in the absence of preferential admissions, I estimate that this rate would rise to 74%. </p>

<p>–Fourth, the job market benefits of attending an elite school have been substantially overrated; regression analysis of job market data strongly suggests that most black lawyers entering the job market would have higher earnings in the absence of preferential admissions, because better grades would generally trump the costs in prestige. </p>

<p>–Fifth, it is far from clear that racial preferences actually cause the legal education system to produce a larger number of black lawyers. Careful analysis indicates that 86% of blacks currently enrolled in law schools would have been admitted to some law school under race-blind policies, and the much lower attrition rates that would prevail in a race-blind regime would probably produce larger cohorts of black lawyers than the current system of preferences produces. </p>

<p>In the case of blacks, at least, the objective costs of preferential admissions appear to substantially outweigh the benefits. The basic theory driving many of these findings is known as the “academic mismatch” mechanism; attending an advanced school where one’s credentials are far below those of one’s peers has a variety of negative effects on learning, motivation, and goals that harm the beneficiary of the preference. Over the past several years, a wide range of scholars have documented the operation of the mismatch mechanism in a number of fields of higher education.
His information can be found here: <a href=“http://www1.law.ucla.edu/~sander/Data%20and%20Procedures/StanfordArt.htm[/url]”>http://www1.law.ucla.edu/~sander/Data%20and%20Procedures/StanfordArt.htm&lt;/a&gt;
Sanders research has also been replicated as expanded upon here: <a href=“http://www1.law.ucla.edu/~sander/Documents/Chambers5%20Mina.pdf[/url]”>http://www1.law.ucla.edu/~sander/Documents/Chambers5%20Mina.pdf&lt;/a&gt; (it directly responds to Clydesdale) It’s quite a lengthy read and I myself have not finished it, but it is extremely interesting. Highly important and key to our debate, however, is the part that begins with the Roman Numeral Three.</p>

<p>This is Sander’s final draft, by the way <a href=“http://www1.law.ucla.edu/~sander/Documents/Sander%20FINAL.pdf[/url]”>http://www1.law.ucla.edu/~sander/Documents/Sander%20FINAL.pdf&lt;/a&gt; . It’s 117 pages long, but if you reading the other link quoted above seems, to me, to be in expedience’s best interest because it responds to published claims against what is linked in the sentence before this
Don’t hate me filmy!</p>

<p>“In other words, inherent in your decision to believe that skin color is not trivial is justification for action and emotion based on stereotypes.”</p>

<p>I don’t disagree with you on that. I mean it will for some people and it won’t for others. The way I see it, though, is that that’s the way the world works. The way we form societies, states, is predesigned for animosity based on something which, theoritically I do believe to be trivial. And I don’t mean that skin color A determines trait B. When I say race is not trivial, I don’t mean to say because of genetics but becuase of psychology. </p>

<p>And on a sidenote, I don’t think I mislead anything. I hadn’t condescened to you, there was no need for you to do so. This discussion would have remained far less hostile otherwise. Alright then.</p>

<p>jf215, theoretically, applicants are reviewed holistically, so while the income aspect may or may not be integrated in the “AA” part of admissions, it would theoretically be given consideration as per the context of an applicant’s achievement.</p>

<p>Well we can agree on your first paragraph. And if we debate in the future you’ll learn to take my condescension far less seriously, because if i truly didn’t respect you i wouldn’t waste my time debating.</p>

<p>i’ll admit that i am finding you extremely difficult to like.</p>

<p>i have read that article and went over the points that sanders brings up, and i read 5 other articles arguing the points he brought up, one of them which i posted for your benefit. generally you can take it as a rule of thumb that for every study, there is an equal and opposite study. and while i don’t feel like getting the direct quote from the article i was reading, i’ll paraphrase what the author said in response to one of your points. which is that blacks’ underpreformance in higher education has more to do with faculty, the student body and the pressure that they put on themselves than on their actual learning capacity. so…</p>

<p>but yeah, you don’t HAVE to want a diverse campus, obviously its a little further down on your list than mine. whatever. and thestonedpandas, you’re smart enough to know that the removal of affirmative action will not result in more diverse campuses for tier 1 schools, or at least not for this generation or the next.</p>

<p>i’ve had enough. we’ve debated and debated. i’ll keep my beliefs and you hold onto yours.</p>

<p>Wait … which article have you read? You read sander’s 117 page study and his rebuttle? His rebuttle <em>directly</em> mentions and refutes the assertions that your LA times article brings up. Further, he refutes (and Larry Elder does in his book and possibly in some stats that I posted 238428347 pages ago.) the claim that you bring in paragraph one of your last post (not the claim that blacks might be intimidated, but that the intimidation and other social pressures are not a chief cause for their lower performance rates, which is basically supported by the very big difference in the performance of URMs who have received special treatment compared to those who have not.). Anyway, you claim that “blacks’ underpreformance in higher education has more to do with faculty, the student body and the pressure that they put on themselves than on their actual learning capacity.” which does not account for their often sub-par performance in High School. Neither does it account for the other races who have similar numbers. Neither does it account for the whites who do well in places where they are now the minority such as South Africa (where at least 70% of the faculty at all universities, by law, must be Black) or in Asian countries. No, filmy, I believe (mostly from my discussions with students at Jordan High School, a high school that is at least 99% “minority,” that my school has an exchange with and with the reports from this board that blacks don’t want to act “white”).</p>

<p>If you implement my programs, I believe you can keep URM acceptances at their current level and tomorrow’s generation will see them increase.</p>

<p>Now filmy, I’m quite surprised that a seemingly well rounded girl like yourself finds me “extremely difficult to like” simply because we disagree on the best method for minority success (if I were racist it might be one thing, but the slightest thought on the subject should quell that notion given my previous statements that eli argued about and if i believe that AA hurts minorities – which it’s pretty apparent that I do – and I didn’t like minorities, then I’d support AA) and our debates have become slightly heated on an internet forum. I’ve got news for you, filmy. In 2 years when you get to college you’re going to have to respect and like those who disagree with you because not everyone is going to have the same political beliefs as the majority of your upper east side friends. (One of my best friends is uber liberal and we like eachother more because our friendship allows us to challenge our beliefs.) While the “you have your beliefs and I have mine and never the twain shall meet” ideology might hold by you, it is deadly in intellectual debate.</p>

<p>actually, never mind.</p>

<p>Without an explanation to your edit (I never saw the original post), I’m tempted to quote my last sentence of my last point, “While the ‘you have your beliefs and I have mine and never the twain shall meet’ ideology might hold by you, it is deadly in intellectual debate.” What I’m about to tell you is for your own good, and please don’t interpret what I am about to say as condescending. I was (and probably still am, to a notable degree) in the same boat that you appear to be, so I’m talking as much to myself as anything. When this was pointed out with me, I reacted with defiance and denial. You might very well go about those same emotions and feelings, but I urge you to keep my words in your head. People will disagree with you and as obvious as a truth seems to you, it will not seem that way to someone else. If you truly want diversity in terms of opinions you will have to learn to debate, tolerate, and change your mind when you debate. Otherwise, David Hartman puts it best in Reason and Traditional Authority: "When one believes that his truth is self evident, or that the impossibility of the contrary is demonstrated, and when no such demonstration exists [or is perceived to exist], the reactions of those who disagree with him are interpreted as obstinacy or personal rebukes.”</p>

<p>peace, filmy.</p>

<p>wow, this post is filled with rancid white supremacists(anon) who are angry that other people are doing better than they are.</p>

<p>I didn’t believe racism still existed to such a level in the US. Perhaps the Civil war was only a battle and you guys are waiting to win the war. oh well, at the very least your extremist bigotry is NOT a match with Penn’s Quaker philosphies.
btw kudos to momsdream she knows how to defend her point of view!!!</p>

<p>Just a question, sempit, was I included in your category of “supremacists?”</p>

<p>Just a personal opinion on mommy (although I do like her), she might present her position well but she hasn’t really responded to other’s critiques. Well whatever, none of us are perfect and she probably has better things to do than respond to 18 year olds on an online forum.</p>

<p>nope stoned panda, you are quite reasonable in your writings not as inflammatory as some of the other posts</p>

<p>i think people need to stop playing the racism card. it works both ways and is getting old.</p>

<p>sorry for bringing this back from the grave (where it probably should belong) but, hey, right from the horse’s mouth: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=31779[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=31779&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>and by posting that, you’re proving…?</p>

<p>He affectively argued that AA is blatantly racist. That’s direct evidence from the dean of admissions at Penn stating that having different skin color is beneficial to one’s acceptance chances. Having preferences based on race is the definition of racism. How can one deny that AA is racist after direct quotes like that?</p>

<p>It is ignorance like this that makes me stop and wonder. You all cry racism when, as you believe it, someone takes your spot in college based on race. However, the admissions process is not that calculated. Also, more than half of you all who are posting don’t know what racism is and have never experienced it personally. Racism is entrenched by the ideologies that are perpetuated by erroneous and fallacious representations of racial minorities as inferior in every aspect. The experience of racism is a multifarious phenomenon that has negative and detrimental psychological outcomes for the affected group. The 1990 survey conducted by the Opinion Research Center established these results: 44% of whites believed African Americans are lazy, 51% indicated that most African Americans are prone to violence, and 29% indicated that most African Americans are unintelligent. These results are the product of an onslaught of negative social representations of Black Americans in America for the original purpose of oppression. However, contrary to your belief, the effects of this onslaught of racism are felt to this day. So don’t you tell me, that you “losing” a spot, which if you truly deserved you would not be denied, has the same psychological and social impact that racism in America has to day. To throw that term around so loosely is ignorant and ludicrous.</p>

<p>Just to clear things up, I don’t believe that AA is perfect, by any means, but it is not as cut and dry as you all are making it out to seem, and the racism thing just infuriates me.</p>

<p>OH MAN, Real. That really proves that whites are racist! I mean, jeez louise, who cares that you didn’t include the statistics of what whites think about themselves, what blacks think about blacks, and what blacks think about whites. I mean, your statistics just prove it!</p>

<p>And, you can’t really be mad at whites for reading the news: <a href=“404 Not Found”>404 Not Found; Now, while you might be able to make an argument that the entire system is corrupt, said argument will not account for the entire gap.</p>

<p>Further, what whites <em>believe</em> is not how whites <em>act.</em> For example, morally, I believe that homosexuals should not marry, however if I were to act, I would point out that the government should have no business regulating marriage, and I would treat (and even vote) to treat homosexuals equally.</p>

<p>Now, Hu, something tells me you didn’t read what Stetson had to say, otherwise you simply would not say: “So don’t you tell me, that you “losing” a spot, which if you truly deserved you would not be denied,”</p>

<p>And also you are quite simply wrong in claiming that Asians et al. are not affected by people favoring african americans over other ethnic groups. </p>

<p>But this isn’t the even the tip of the iceberg of my list of what is wrong in your post (by the way, after an extensive internet search, I could not find your statistics anywhere). While those numbers and your vocabulary might fool people who cannot critically think, they do not fool me. You are arguing that two wrongs make a right. An eye for an eye leaves the world blind, hu. Simple as that.</p>

<p>Not one place in my post did I say that I was for Affirmative action or against it. That was not the purpose of my argument. So StonedPandas, before you jump to conclusions, read what I really have to say. My post was primarily a rebuddle to the ignorance of many on this site in relating the acts of Affirmative Action to the racism that is experienced in America. Not one time did I say AA is wrong or right. I also, never stated that two wrongs make a right, in fact, I believe the way Affirmative Action was put into fruition was not flawless or perfect. Yes, there are some changes that need to be made. But until you read my post over again in light of this comment, don’t attack my research, which by the way is actual research taken from a psychological journal because the psychological effects of racism is something i’ve studied heavily as opposed to five minutes on a search engine, and don’t make assumptions about my beliefs.</p>

<p>Using my incredible inferring powers (noting that i missed your last post) i deduced that you didn’t exactly think AA was a horrible program (and after reading that last post, i’m still not convinced that i’m wrong!).</p>

<p>However, you said that what we were calling wasn’t racism because what you showed was even more racism (which i argued again). That logic doesn’t hold up, hu.</p>

<p>Now, you’ll forgive me if I don’t believe your statistics based on your word of mouth alone. For about 2 months I believed that 100,000 Iraqis had been killed since the war in Iraq because of US forces. Then I took a stats class, a psych class, and i looked over said study and certain refutations and I no longer believed what I read. </p>

<p>Also, do not strawman. We never said AA was like 1950s era stuff. We did, however, say it perfectly fits the definition of racism.</p>

<p>Oh, I forgive you. I don’t hold anything against you for trying to research it on your own, however, the fact that you state that my research is what’s wrong with my post is offensive. I don’t want you to take my facts blindly, but don’t publicly discredit my facts, because a brief search on the internet. Also, in a small sense, your pleas fit the literal definition of raism, however, to take such a word and concept that is still sensitive to many Americans as well as myself and try to mold it to fit a trivial argument on a discussion board is insulting, which is why I brought out this data. Also, your “incredible” inferring powers are not wrong, I don’t think that AA is a horrible program, but to base an argument on an inference from my previous post is faulty debating. I must admit you are a worthy adversary.</p>