Rest In Peace Meritocracy
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Anonymous
Exactly. The whole reason Brandeis exists is because higher ed was not a meritocracy. Highly qualified Jews were excluded from the elite schools. |
Anonymous
Nor Dartmouth |
Anonymous
This is what I think people forget. There are thousands of kids across the country whose applications would look EXACTLY like his. This commencement speech is helpful for some perspective: You Are Not Special https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lfxYhtf8o4 |
Anonymous
The Ivies are private schools that get billions of dollars in tax-payer funded federal research money every year and enjoy non-profit tax-free status on their donations and investments. If they are privates and are going to discriminate based on legacy status etc., why the hell should they receive tax-payer funded research money to hire top professors and gain worldwide prestige, just to turn around and give easy admittance to wealthy donors? It's a literal handout to the wealthy and a golden ticket to a lifetime of career/social pedigree for their offsprings. Want to admit students based on how much their parents have donated, or legacy status? Fine, you don't receive any tax-payer funded research money - that goes directly only to schools that don't discriminate based on such non-academic social class system factors - Berkeley, Caltech, MIT, Hopkins, etc. As for the world not revolving around STEM majors with 1590s, believe it or not - universities have these things called "majors". Admittance to STEM major should revolve around the STEM merits of the candidate, not how wealthy their parents are or how good they are at horse riding. |
Anonymous
You are tilting at windmills my friend. How would you effect this change? Through legislative action? When most of the US Senate is made up of folks with either undergrad or graduate degrees from the very schools you wish to see stripped of funding? Good luck I guess. |
Anonymous
This x 1,000,000! |
Anonymous
Yep. And don't forget.. they pay no taxes. You subsidize them.  Welcome crony cartel capitalism masquerading as a "social service".
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Anonymous
DCUM never disappoints. |
Anonymous
Mr. "I Pay Taxes but Don't Understand Civics!" Hello again! That's not how things work. If it did, nothing would get done because everyone dislikes and disagrees with something that gets tax benefits of some kind. |
Anonymous
Wrong so many times! Not a social service! Not subsidized! |
Anonymous
Sure, changing it legislatively may be difficult. But the idea that one can't criticize the admission policies of top privates because they are private - when they receive billions of dollars in tax-payer funded direct cash-handouts every year from the federal government, not to even mention the tax subsidies for donations and endowments - is idiotic. They take your tax-payer money from working 40 hours+ per week to build worldwide prestige and repute, and then shut your children out of their schools, not based on your child's academic merits, but because you yourself, as the parent, are not wealthy enough to have attended the school yourself or donate to buy a seat. |
Anonymous
I'm not a legacy of any place that I'd be excited for my child to attend, so have no skin in this fight, but college admissions have never been solely about an applicant's academic merits. Never, not once, at any point, in our history. The US system isn't a "first past the post" test-based admissions system like some countries, and expecting it to function that kind of transparency/predictability is just going to end in frustration. I personally think legacy admits are nonsense, but the actual business case for legacy admissions is that they lead to higher donations which should, theoretically, allow for a better and more accessible education for the entire student body. Many of these schools also care a lot about "culture" and "belonging" and there's no better way to be sure that someone's going to be proud to be a Tiger than if they grew up in a Tiger home. |
Anonymous
What? Did you even read the post, or comprehend it? This is not solely about non-profit status that essentially gives them massive tax breaks on investment and donations. It's about billions of dollars in direct cash transfers from the tax-payer funded federal government in the form of research grants, that is then used to hire top professors, maintain facilities and build a global prestige and repute. Harvard would not be Harvard if its graduate and medical research schools weren't some of the best in the world. And they wouldn't be some of the best in the world if they didn't receive billions of dollars in research grants from the federal government every year, further topped-off by tax-free investment gains from their endowments and direct tax breaks for donations. If you don't understand what research grants are, not sure why you are discussing universities. |
Anonymous
There is no blaming the victim for racism faced. I acknowledged that needs to stop. The use of racial/gender stereotypes to degrade other groups is separate issue that was engaged in on this thread and also needs to be addressed. Are you saying a person who faces bigotry gets a free pass to be as bigoted at they want against others? I didn't say bigotry against Asians is bad and then make up an example of other bigotry from think air to minimized that statement. I addressed things said on this thread that also need to be denounced. |
Anonymous
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Eh even if these schools were complete meritocracies (and they have all been very upfront about being holistic), he still wouldn't necessarily have gotten in. They have far more applicants with those test scores than spaces. They can pick someone who has those scores AND has done more than play the violin AND can spell.
Disappointing for him for sure, but maybe less time on TikTok and more time building a more interesting profile. He also didn't mention his GPA. He will get a great education practically for free at UMD |