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I saw an interesting article recently that said that white men are increasingly being on the receiving end of affirmative action in the college application process these days, since the majority of applicants to college now are women. What do people think of that?
I think colleges and universities should be allowed to use race as a factor, but I think they should all be wise in deciding how much of a factor it should be.
I'm a white girl that got into every college that I applied to (on the basis of a great SAT score and pretty good grades, some good extracurriculars and a decent essay), but I'm not going to fool myself into thinking that it was because I worked my butt off in high school. I did occasionally do some hard work, but I did a lot of slacking too. Who's to say that, given a learning-supportive environment like college, the Hispanic girl who had to work after school and then watch her little brothers at night so her mom could work the night shift (and thus didn't have time for the same extracurriculars or as much time to work on homework) -- who's to say that I'm any more "worthy" of going to college than she is?
People make such a big fuss over "well, they're letting those black kids in and their grades and SAT scores aren't as good as ours blah blah blah" . . . but who's to say that grades and SAT scores are the be-all/end-all of whether or not you should go to college? There are plenty of schools out there that say that the essay and the interview (both of which are subjective) count for far more than grades and SAT scores, and nobody complains about using that for criteria.
I'm so sick of white kids who feel like their higher GPA and test scores "prove" that they are entitled to an acceptance from XYZ University, over the kids of color who scored lower. I was the world's biggest slacker in high school and I still graduated with honors, scored over 1500 on the SAT, lettered in two sports, was principal flute in four different bands, acted in the school plays, held offices in a handful of different clubs and edited the yearbook. Does any of that stuff make me any more worthy of going to college than the next kid that comes along? No. In fact, I've proved it that by not accomplishing anything of worth in my two years of college.
I know this rant has gotten way off topic (blame it on the heat), but the job of the college applications committee is NOT to select the kids with the best grades and SAT score for their college. It's to select the kids they think will fit in, accomplish things, do well, and bring new ideas to their college. If they think the black kid with the 3.5 will be a better fit than the white kid with the 3.9, then by all means let them pick the black kid. Is that fair to the white kid? Maybe not. But is life fair? No.
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