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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]To the above pps saying that colleges want bright, motivated kids from mediocre or low income areas over typical affluent generic white kids - while I agree with you that such kids are admirable and full of grit and perseverance, I doubt colleges take many from this category. My nephew just started at a highly ranked ivy this year and said he is amazed at the level of affluence of most of the kids. Not just upper middle class but seriously wealthy. Don't colleges still want the vast majority of students to be wealthy as that is where the money comes from. Also, while some wealth in this country is newly acquired, a large % of it is family wealth is passed down through generations. Makes sense that colleges and universities want to keep that spigot flowing. Unless you are talking about Amherst or Middlebury, most of the slots go to the top grade performers of private schools and well off suburban white schools.[/quote]

PP who recently posted. That's actually not the point. We can completely fill our classes with perfect scores and grades. These are almost entirely from wealthy area, so your son has a point.

But we do make an effort to have economic diversity and to seek applicants who have achieved past adversity. And we look for people to fill specific roles on our campus.  That applicant pool for some reason is much, much smaller.

I was trying to explain why so many high stat applicants do not get in. I don't think I made my point clear, but I am trying to explain that [/b]it isn't race.[b] I see these threads and I just think...well...maybe I can give some clarity.[/quote]

How are you so sure it isn't race unless you come from a school where that is not allowed to be a factor. If your school allows for certain races easier entry then it must at least partly due to race.[/quote] +1M[/quote]

It's literally not true. Is there a correlation between awful schools and race and does that correlation play out in the admissions pool? Of course. Because more minority children are raised in poverty and difficult conditions. But we are not looking at race when we are trying judge an applicant. Like I said, all of our applicants clear the floor. Once they clear the floor, we are looking for three things.

First, we want to source students who will contribute to our campus. Specific programs, sports, endowment (legacy), cache (celebrity admits), etc. These applicants all fall into different pools and you would probably lose your stuff when I tell you the easiest admissions odds basically goes to celebrities, extremely wealthy people's children, and athletes.

Second, we look at grades, scores, essays, etc.  If we did a straight GPA and SAT cut off, we could fill our class with perfect scores basically. We don't. We look for students who have demonstrated an interest in being a big thinker, a creator, an innovator, etc. We look for people who have overcome a lot and have shown strength through true adversity because the data shows that these are the people who go on to do amazing things in the world and do really well here. I can attest that after years of dealing with students who aren't emotionally or socially equipped for college, this has really cut back on the perfect sheep and helicopter issues that were so prevalent ten years ago.

But go ahead and hang your hat on race. That's fine. I think it's more telling and interesting when people refuse to acknowledge the privilege inequity built into the primary education system in this country. It takes a lot of grit to excel and flourish in difficult circumstances. It takes a lot less to be a cultivated flower in a greenhouse.[/quote]  No one is saying that it doesn't take "grit" to excel in impoverished homes and school systems.  However, the "race" factor in college admissions is not limited to a boost only to URMs from impoverished homes.  An URM with two Ivy league educated parents presumably has no more grit than the middle class kid from nowhere or the Asian kid and yet the URM gets the boost.  No wonder people are frustrated. [/quote]  Furthermore, op, it is pretty racist in and of itself to state of imply that URMs need the boost because they are, of course, from uneducated households, poor neighborhoods and sub-par school systems.[/quote]

You are assuming we assign grit in the way you described. Not true. But go ahead and continue with your racist views.[/quote] Not liking the response or even having the issue questioned does not make a view racist and attempting to end the discussion by crying racism isn't going to make the issue go away or make it unimportant. Responses like yours only make the questions have a bigger significance. [/quote]

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