Affirmative Action

[keith]

Good points, Keith. I haven't looked, but I wonder if there are studies showing correlation (or lack) between factors like SAT score, affirmative action status, etc (I almost typed "&etc", but pkt would have said something ) on grades at the junior or senior level, on acceptance into graduate school, and (drum roll) on success achieved in the "real world" outside school.

So "real world"; I and many graduates are failures because unlike some of our peers we did not go into venture capital or IP law and so do not receive embarrasing salaries (or rather embarassing in the wrong way ). There isn't much of a way of measuring real world success, far to many happy failures muddying up the statistical waters.

Within courses the real problem is often drop out rates since drop out rates tend to be higher for students who come from non-traditional backgrounds (traditional being nth generation of higher Ed). Drop out rates are a big thing but hard to use as a metric since most of the kids who get helped by affirmative action tend to be amoungst the first ones in their families to go through college/university.

[KShan5[PrFC]]

As long as we're on 'preferences', let's also consider alumni family preferences (also called "legacies"), where children of alums get preference for admission. This gives advantage towards candidates whose parents had access to college (eg: primarily white and wealthy). Isn't that a free ride?

There's a legitimate reason for that, guranteed money.

[jeff]

KShan5[PrFC], I understand and agree - University administration doesn't want to upset the alumni who give them money. It also helps having dummies in the school because it helps adjust the grade curves for the smart ones. But, since people seem upset about "unfairness", this certainly fits into the picture as well. While we're at it, let's also toss out the dumb jocks (fencers don't fit in that category!) who get into college barely able to read, ot make the "major sports" programs competitve. There are a lot of reasons people get accepted into college, and not all of them have to do with SAT scores.

[KShan5[PrFC]]

First of all, I wish it was just based on SAT scores, lol, my 1400 would do me a lot of good, unlike my low GPA (due to screwing around freshman year). But at least those reasons have some merit. Just because you are born black or white shouldn't determine which restaurant you can go to, where you can sit on the bus, or where you can go to college.

[Soldier]

While we're at it, let's also toss out the dumb jocks (fencers don't fit in that category!) who get into college barely able to read, ot make the "major sports" programs competitve.

Oooh, don't even get me started on the IC's (Intercollegiate Athletes) here...

[Soldier]

If it wasn't for trying to maintain some type of diversity in graduate enrollments in engineering in the US, you'd find very few white US-citizen males enrolled. Almost every slot would be taken by students from PRC, India, or Korea if they were taken solely on the metrics. Should we get rid of this type of reverse discrimination, too?

Definitely!

[keith]

*snip*
It also helps having dummies in the school because it helps adjust the grade curves for the smart ones.

*snip*

from an undisclosed Ivy source;

"Daddy isn't paying $35,000 a year for them to get a C"

grade curves ain't what they used to be.

[Soldier]

from an undisclosed Ivy source;

"Daddy isn't paying $35,000 a year for them to get a C"

grade curves ain't what they used to be.

Trust me, it ain't just Ivy League.

[ReverseLunge]

I recognize that injustice, murder, war, ethnic hatred and genocide are not just permanent fixtures of our world, but are necessary methods for evolving better human beings. Trying to get rid of these things in order to create a Utopia is an insane practice that will lead us further into illusion and make the name of that Utopia the banner under which we kill, much as occurred during the Crusades. Incoherent minds would have you believe that if we cease certain behaviors, the world will be perfect and everyone will be equal, but to anyone who has spent time in a forest, "perfection" is a misplaced goal as it is the unbalances and inequalities of life that drive the natural system toward greater heights of evolution and efficiency. There is no end, and it is flexible in any situation, thus more perfect than any Utopian order.

[Maeve_Mari]

Again with the DateJesus site!? And why are you on a site that says, Jesus seeking a woman? Are you having some sort of trouble?

Here's the citation for your quote above!

http://www.datejesus.com/ November 19

[lochinvar]

Maeve_Mari, you're wasting your brea--er, fingers. RL never cites sources. Such mundane courtesy to an author is too much bother.