I wanted to get some thoughts on race being a factor a college considers when determining admission.

My thought is that admission should be merit based. Race should not play a factor into it at all. Also doesn't this lead to a chance for discrimination?

A chance for discrimination? It is discrimination.

I'm glad you said that because I agree. I actually meant do you think it will cause more problems of minorities saying they weren't admitted because of their race?

I don't really see how that's possible if they (as a race) were already allowed extra entrants because of the race.

I think programs like this only reinforce the notion that we are all different and in the long run do more harm than good.

When I was recruited by Alcorn St. to play QB they thought I was a perfect fit. Then they cut me because of McNair and I thought it was due to my grades. Then I realised what it was all about.


Even Grambling didn't want me.

I like what Texas has done. If you are in the top 10% of your class you automatically are qualified for a Texas state school.

So if you are from the hood or from the country club it doesnt matter. Of course some of the country club kids who can't cut it are going in to the hood to make the top 10% but those kids get beat up each day and loose their lunch $$$. So it all evens out in the end.

I think that race should be allowed to be considered as a factor, but not given too much weight. Colleges usually justify the use of race by highlighting their desire to have "diversity" in the college population, and I think that is a laudable goal. I think it is just as important, if not more so, to have geographic diversity, economic diversity, religious diversity, political diversity, and any other kind of diversity you can imagine. Race is not any more important than those other factors now that much has been accomplished in the way of eliminating institutional racial discrimination over the past 50 years.

That said, I don't think it's as easy as you make it sound to base admission purely on "merit". As we will inevitably discuss in this thread, it is very difficult to test for intelligence, aptitude, knowledge, any other measure of "merit". Some high schools are better than others. You can be 100th in your class in a great high school and be more able to succeed in a college than a valedictorian from a weak high school. At the same time, a top student from a bad school may be much smarter than a top student from a good school, but didn't have the opportunities to excell due to lack of funding, or focus of funding on problem students in his school.

There are many factors, and someone will always cry foul that a student less qualified on one scale was accepted when they were not. Personally, I'd rather see the mediocre child of a fortunate background be the one crying foul because he probably has other options, if not quite as fine as those he may desire and think he deserves.

--PunkDavid

Very nicely put. I just don't know how in the year 2004AD that this is still a topic in a country "as great" as the USA.

Race as a factor in college admittance I'm not a big fan of. Nor am I a fan of the SAT. Stupid waste of 3 hours of my time on Saturdays.

Most colleges base the admissions on GPA, test scores, extra-curricular activities. Why can't it just be those type of guidelines and not have to include race? I'm all for diversity but I also wouldn't want to be turned down from a school that I met all their requirements for but I was the wrong race.

Well like I said, GPA and test scores tend to be related to the school you attended for HS. Some inner city schools don't have many extracurricular activities. And I think race as a factor on par with such things as geographic location, ethnicity (akin to race), religous affiliation if any, should also be considered.

Stace, do you consider "diversity" to be a worthy goal for a college to have for its student body?

--PunkDavid

It would make more sense to use those criteria (criterion? maybe I'm thinking of that dvd publisher...).

Why? Because you bombed your SAT's?

How about charm, or smile, or badassness, or beerfunneling prowess?

--PunkDavid

Aren't those the criteria for sorority and/or fraternity life?

Sure, I think the schools should be diverse. But I also don't think anyone should get special consideration because of their race.

Ok, that's fair.

What would you propose doing if race were not considered in admissions and it, hypothetically, led to a sharp decrease in the number of people from a specific ethnic or racial group at an institution?

--PunkDavid

Bombed my SATs?! Laughable! LAUGHABLE!!

How about breast/junk size while we're at it? And if body hair were the ultimate factor, I could have gone anywhere!

The school should do something else to try to promote diversity. College recruiters and admissions groups go to high schools all the time. If race wasn't an issue in admission criteria for any college then people wouldn't pick colleges based on their chances of getting in because of their race.

Interesting. I applied to 1 college and only 1 college but it had nothing to do with race; it had to do with $$$. Well it also had to do with beer but don't tell anyone.

--PunkDavid (just thought I detected something there...)