Asian American student with 1590 SAT score blames affirmative action for rejections from 6 colleges

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06/13/2023 08:43

Subject: Re:Asian American student with 1590 SAT score blames affirmative action for rejections from 6 colleges

quote

Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am in favor of affirmative action but find the odds presented in that article entirely plausible.

Here's a similar observation from another proponent of affirmative action:

"So imagine kids who have roughly a 1300 SAT score out of 1600 and a high school GPA like - of, like, a 3.8 on a four-point scale - a quite good high school GPA. You'll have many universities where students with those scores and grades, if they are white, are very unlikely to be admitted to the university, whereas if they're Black or Hispanic are very likely to be admitted to the university. And that's going to vary for each school, but these admissions advantages can be considerable." (https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1181149142)

But he also found that "...access to more-selective universities was just fundamentally more valuable to the Black and Hispanic students targeted by race-based affirmative action than it would have been for the white and Asian students who ultimately took their place after affirmative action was banned. .... What I'm saying is just on average, Black and Hispanic students who gained access through affirmative action were deriving substantially above-average gains compared to the students who replaced them."

I think those of us who favor affirmative action have a responsibility to acknowledge what it means. I'm white and have high GPAs and scores, and I'd be fine with them not getting into as a selective a school as they might if they were Black or Hispanic, because they will still have plenty of opportunities at the very good schools they will likely end up at. My kids have Ivy-educated parents and grandparents; they have plenty of advantages, if they want to use them. I do think there should be additional focus on income; I would give a preference to the middle-class Black student, but also to a poor rural White student. But racial differences in precollege achievement are very large, so it can't be purely based on income.

I agree that wealthy white kids will do ok anywhere they land for college because of family money and connections. But I do not think that is true for middle class white or Asian American kids - I believe they also get a bump in life from a top school. For example, our office basically doesn't hire white males anymore. A lower or middle class student no matter their race will benefit from a top college.

My Asian American kids have no such connections or advantages. Their grandparents were poor farmers who have a ES/MS education and can't speak English. Spouse and I have a BA from a low rated state u. We scrimped and saved in order to be able to buy a home and save for college.

Yet, my super high stat DC got rejected even from GA tech with a higher GPA than this kid's. If the system looked purely at stats, my kid should've gotten into GT, not this kid.

At some point above a certain threshold, it does become a lottery. However, it's pretty clear from the Harvard case that Harvard, at least, is intentionally downgrading Asian American students' profiles to purposefully limit their numbers.