How do you think the admissions process will change? Would you be happy with these colleges automatically accepting the top 10 percent from all High Schools? |
Both will fight it unless sued and fined. |
How about having the schools try out a radical idea and only admit the highest achieving students that they can attract? |
Then the make up will be 85% Asians, 12% Whites and 3% Other. |
There aren't enough asians (population-wise)... but point taken. |
What does "point taken" mean? If it's 85% Asians, so be it. |
But if Asians become the most educated group, yet do not attain the level of positions to reflect that, that highlights that America is not a meritocracy and there isn't equal opportunity for everyone. |
Maybe it should be. I work in higher ed and am seeing incredible progress in Asian universities in Singapore, Hong Kong and now China and India in the last few years. We need to refocus the debate on achievement in our universities or we are going to have a tough time competing in the global marketplace in a few years, If we manage to ration our top students out with these 10% schemes and similar we are just shooting ourselves in the foot. |
You are all overlooking the legacy problem. Most colleges and universities slot 30% of openings to legacies. So your incoming class for a state school is legacies; maximum allowed out-of-state kids (paying full freight); diversity candidates; overseas candidates; financially disadvantaged candidates; geographical selections to equal out distribution from the entire state; and, then, finally, the top scores (GPA) with 15 AP courses and top SAT or ACT scores, which means your normal, good, white, very hard-working kid with a 3.8 and great but not perfect test scores doesn't have a chance to get into their own state university system that mom and dad have been supporting for 20 years via property taxes. |
I would assume that your legacies are mostly your "normal, good, white, very hard working kid," so they seem to be taken care of.
But I would happy to abolish the "30% of openings" that you say go to legacies along with the other special preferences. Maryland, for example, operates a system of state universities which are not all equally challenging. Let everyone find their just fit based on their accomplishments and potential .... And, you should want to support your state university even if you don't have kids going there --- strong engineering, biotech, computer science, business, and medical schools and the links they make are vital for attracting employers and keeping mom and dad doing well. |
Legacies do not include your "normal, good, hard-working kid with 3.8 gpa and great test scores" if mommy or daddy didn't happen to attend that particular state school, which we did not. |
Please. The IQ distribution for Asians is pretty much the same as the IQ distribution for other groups - studies have shown this. I know some really smart Asians and some really dumb Asians. I'm sure you do too. Where Asians have an advantage is in work ethic - the parents putting lots of pressure on their kids. So the Asian kids DO have higher grades. Asian kids also seem to do more test prep for SATs. My TPMS magnet kid reports that lots of Asian kids there have started test prep the year before starting high school. (Or, to see this yourself, just check in with DCUM's own "Test Prep Instead of Sports" poster, who is by no means a genius when it comes to logic, but who is clearly all over test prep for her kids.) I'm not convinced all this pressure is a great thing. |
[quote=Anonymous]Legacies do not include your "normal, good, hard-working kid with 3.8 gpa and great test scores" if mommy or daddy didn't happen to attend that particular state school, which we did not.[/quote]
I think the PP's point was, the legacy preference takes the "normal, good, hard-working kid with 3.8 GPS and test scores." Colleges don't take all the legacy applicants each year. They don't take the legacies who are B students with SATs below 2100 or whatever the colleges SAT threshold is. But yes, the legacy thing sucks if DC really wants a school the parents didn't attend. |
There are more spots taken by recruited athletes than legacies. It galls me that several of my daughters' athletic classmates have already been wooed by colleges whereas the top 1% of the class, with national merit semi-finalist status and significant extra-curricular involvement (arts, politics, community, etc.), don't get the same red carpet treatment. No wonder our country is falling behind. But at least we can say that we have the best lacrosse teams in the world!! |
Why do they bother playing college sports and not just go directly to the professional leagues? |