This. The people most concerned about someone signaling their race via essays and getting some advantage are probably the ones that are the least concerned about actual racism AND are the most likely to bend the rules when it suits them. Like the PP my kid isn’t writing about something they don’t feel significantly impacted their lives. My older kid didn’t in their essays two years ago, my youngest isn’t this upcoming year, I didn’t either when I applied in the 90’s. It’s like the “how did COVID impact your life” optional prompt - the majority of people didn’t use it and you would assume the people that did were significantly impacted. In a sense it doesn’t matter what SCOTUS ruled, what colleges will or won’t do, how many URMS do or do not write about racial identity or trauma because if there is even one URM (before, during and after affirmative action) it will be assumed that they “took” someone’s place. The reasons said out loud to justify that feeling may be change through the years but the underlying reason stays the same. |
Agree. This is SL giving SCOTUS the middle finger. I can see someone writing a satiric essay using this prompt and getting lots of style points for their application. |
Reject them from having the award? Obviously not. Be unable to use the award as a pretextual basis to favor a certain race? That’s the actual problem. The pretext. |
Well yes an industry that was just bench slapped by SCOTUS for racist practices will holler. Under and overrepresentation doesn’t necessarily matter. No one thinks the NBA is overrepresented by black men because they’re racist against Asians. The problem is that schools wanted to balance race and had to adjust the admissions criteria to make sure to tamp down the number of Asians. Kind of like if the NBA told teams to make sure underrepresented races had more spots on the teams. |
As a 48yr old professional, I'd find this prompt hard to answer. I could bullshit it for sure, but what is the point here other than just reacting to the SC decision.
Is this the very best question to ask kids who are requesting to join your academic community? |
No matter what the admissions criteria will be, someone will be aggrieved by the outcome. And at top schools, 95% of applicants will be aggrieved. |
Many URMs ARE significantly impacted and should be free to write about it. Racial identity and/or inspiration is certainly fair game, and lord knows there's ample trauma to write about. Good essay writers know how to weave an authentic narrative. Otherwise, don't apply to top colleges. |
I chuckle every time I see this NBA talking point trotted out again (and again and again and again). The posters who think this is a great analogy can’t seem to understand why it simply isn’t and that it doesn’t make the point they think it makes. But it does make for a good laugh each time it shows up. ![]() |
Why not? It's a relevant issue. You should see the University of Chicago prompts. Talk about extraneous... |
DP. There are going to be some applicants as you describe, URMs with high stats and the award, no trauma essay, no economic disadvantage. With high stats, wouldn't admission be easy to defend as long as the applicant's race is not an explicit basis? Holistic admission, essay reading in particular, is ultimately subjective. |
Same here. But, more of a groan than a chuckle. Those posters are so determined to gain an advantage for their kid under the guises of pseudo antiracism and "meritocracy. " They will throw anything to the wall to make it stick. |
DP. The UChicago prompts are not extraneous. In UChicago's perspective, the supplement is an essential demonstration of how the applicant thinks. UChicago is (trying to) foster a unique culture. Whether or not UChicago succeeds in this is another matter, but it has long been clear that the uncommon essay is the key to admission there. |
Wonder how they missed you for the Supreme Court nomination! ![]() ![]() Seriously though, the SC did find systemic bias, not just onsies twosies where a couple rougue/racist AOs did something nasty. The whole f'ing system is nasty. If everyone is serious about this, why not a law that mandates that - 5% of all seats at all institutions be set aside for Blacks descended from slaves and Native Americans (at least 50%) both with a means test, - another 3% for kids based on SES and - another 2-3% for donors (larger the donation, the higher your priority). - Foreigners no more than 5% of the total unless the school has not been able to fill their seats in the past 3 years. This will automatically push foreigners to lower ranked schools. They can take it or leave it. - colleges should not be allowed to accumulate more than 5X annual tuition in endowments. The rest should be used to subsidize tuition across the board. - tuition rate increases should be frozen and be more than the increase in CPI. That's it! Screw athletic recruits, legacy and all other nonsense. Open the remaining 90% to open competition. Time for educational institutions to focus on education and not turn into an extended county fair. And yes, congress can do this and should especially since these cartels don't pay any taxes. |
No. Asians will sue, saying the school admitted 70% of Blacks with high stats but only 20% of Asians with the same high stats (or whatever the actual numbers are). And since the actual numbers aren’t public, schools who turn away even one Asian student and admit even one Black, white, or Hispanic student are going to get sued. Maybe they won’t win, but I keep poring over the opinions and I can’t say for sure that they’ll lose. |
Your theory here is that the party that elected Tommy Tuberville is going to outlaw college football. Ok. |