The SEC may be better than the ACC in bball, too.

If they couldn't pass up a white student without checking the ethnicity/race box, then no I"m sorry they don't. Same goes for rich white kids who are getting in on daddy's recommendation and money. If you don't have the grades and everything else to get into the institution, then you don't deserve it more than the white/whatever student who has worked their ass off all their life. Disclaimer: I am NOT saying that there are minority students who don't work their asses off. THEY are the deserving ones. I'm glad to be part of the group that says I got into my 1st choice school on my merits rather than getting those extra admissions points for being a minority or for how much money my family has.

I wish I could find Michigan's admissions points sheet. They posted somewhere before but I can't remember where. Just for being a minority, you get BIG points.

Whether or not people get into a certain college isn't the issue--it's how they do once they're there. You can brag about getting into your top school--but it's how you do once you're there that counts. If a minority student works hard and graduates within 4 years with a good GPA, then yes, he/she deserved that spot.

I believe the Grutter v. Bollinger lawsuit and subsequent decision led to the elimination of that admissions sheet at Michigan, even though the Supreme Court upheld its use. According to that sheet, however, you got the same amount of points for being the child of an alumnus and almost as many for being an athlete. Preferential treatment, whether it's based on race, class, or athletic prowess, has been here forever and is here to stay.

Munchkin, thats ridiculous. So you're telling me a minority who does well deserved to get the spot over a white kid who would have done just as well/better? Absurd.

I said that anyone who does well deserves to get into college.

I don't really care one way about affirmative action, I certainly didn't benefit from it. I just hate the assumption that any minority student in college got admitted to fill a quota. The person I quoted has stated this numerous times, and that sort of "prejudism" annoys the smack out me.

Hear, hear! Let's all look past the stereotypes if we can. A lot of people from all races, etc. are admitted to colleges and universities because they deserve to be there.

I think that those who don't fit that description are in the minority -- with no pun intended.

You guys can say what you want, but the fact is that minorities DO get in because of some sort of quotas, or some perceived need for minority students. Before anyone gets all upset, not all minorities, or even the majority, but it absolutely happens. So to say that "so long as you do well, its ok," completely ignores the fact that they chose a minority over white kid with equal or better abilities, simply because of their minority status. I think thats wrong.

And in years past students weren't admitted to schools or people didn't get jobs because they weren't white.

That's wrong, too.

Do you truly believe that would have changed without a legal nudge?

Affirmative Action has some flaws -- maybe a lot of them -- but it was necessary at one time and may still be.

As Clarence Thomas said, "You can't fix one 14th Amendment violation with another."

Quoting Mr. Justice Thomas is not much of an argument to me. I watched his confirmation hearings at some length and was amazed he was confirmed.

So i guess two wrongs do make a right.

i don't know about that, but three rights make a left

Nope. But nobody's has proven to me that Affirmative Action is completely wrong.

I've lost potential jobs because of Affirmative Action -- but I'm smart enough to realize that in the past my industry was almost entirely dominated by white males.

I won't be bitter that I have (and was told as much in plain English) been the victim of a process to right what I believe to have been an injustice.

I haven't lost jobs, and I don't think I'd be overly bitter, I just think its the wrong thing to do.

Not all minorities are considered "minorities" for AA. Asians (at least in California) do not benefit from Affirmative Action for school admissions.