Reply to How Harvard discriminates against Asian Americans in college admissions

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]One of the criticisms is that the Harvard admissions office is ranking/rating the candidate's personality without meeting him/her.  But it seems likely to me that the admissions office is relying heavily on letters of recommendation.  That seems perfectly legitimate to me.[/quote]
the folks interviewing the students gave them positive "personality" assessments, but the admissions staff would give those same students negative scores without ever having met them.  How would you rate a personality based on letters of recommendation?[/quote]

Do you really think an alumni interviewer has a better sense of a candidate's personality than a teacher who taught him/her for a year (or perhaps more)?  I'm not saying that teacher recommendations might not be biased, but certainly a teacher is likely to comment on a student's personality (is she friendly, mature, responsible, caring, etc.), so I don't think it's fair to say that Harvard admissions officers are basing their personality assessments on nothing.  Unless the study takes teacher recommendations into account, then I am unpersuaded by the fact that admissions officers disagree with an alum's recommendation based on a one-off interview.[/quote]
Would a teacher recommendation state that the student is "like a robot, not friendly, and immature"?  One would have to have a pretty high level of responsibility and maturity to get the grades and e.c.s to at least have Admissions look at your application.[/quote]

Getting good grades doesn't mean you are mature...it may just mean you have really demanding/controlling parents.  It may also mean you are one-dimensional.  I am an academic who writes letters of recommendation all the time.  While none of my letters are bad per se (I wouldn't agree to write a letter if I couldn't say anything positive), some are simply good while others are glowing.  The glowing ones go way beyond grades and talk about the student's interpersonal skills (important for my discipline), maturity, leadership qualities, ability to work in teams, etc.  I have no doubt that admissions offices are looking at letters of rec to get a sense of the candidate's personality and, more important, potential to become something special.  They want students with that je ne sais quoi that goes beyond grades and test scores.

[/quote]
And what makes you think that those Asian American students don't have that "je ne sais quoi " quality?  I hear people say not to stereotype or look at URM students as statistics. Yet, these same folks don't seem to have any problems doing this very thing to Asian American students.

Read the other posts re: stuyvesant students/teachers.[/quote]

The PP is obviously applying ignorant, racial stereotypes instead of reading informed posts.  Typical low intelligence DCUM poster.[/quote]

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