College Admission

These Guys Don't Want You To Donate!

Tick them off! Donate Here By Secure Server

Or mail checks to
FreeRepublic , LLC
PO BOX 9771
FRESNO, CA 93794

or you can use

PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com

I'm sorry, but I think that your concept is too rigid....there is so much more to a person than academic achievement.

First, is the 4.0 I got at my school taking classes like basketweaving and baking the same as the 4.0 my neighbor got taking AP calculus and AP english?

Second, circumstances should be factored into the mix...which is why you need to write the college essay.

I, myself, am a perfect example....my pure grades sucked in HS, and were average in college, but I got into the college and post-grad course of my choice based upon intangible factors...and my friends are better people for that.

Another problem with preferences is that they tend to mismatch students with colleges. Let's say that there is a pretty good student who gets 1300 on the SAT and has a 3.5 GPA. He would do well at a good college. However, he is probably not MIT material. If MIT decides it wants him for some reason other than academics (race, father was an alumnus, sports), then he will not fit in academically and likely do worse overall than if he went to a school better matched to his abilities. This doesn't help the school, the student, or society.

Thomas Sowell has written far more eliquently on this, but I don't have any links to his articles on this topic.

A few years ago, when Californians passed Prop. 209, racial preferences were abolished for college admission. The Regents of the Universities of California have since adopted a police where the top 4% of graduating seniors from each high school are garaunteed admission to a U.C. campus.

One problem with this sort of policy is that enrollments are soaring in Texas, Florida and California. These three states are expecting a 20-25 percent increase this decade. The U.C. system is already 6,000 students over-enrolled and is projected to expect another 40,000 student increase by 2010. In Texas, the flagship campus in Austin is maxed out at 50,600 students. The excess students are being split between the other UT campuses. In Florida, Florida State University turned down more applicants than it accepted for the first time. If you're going to garauntee admission, you have to have a place to put the students.

"The system and tradition for college admission in this country is too twisted. Generally speaking, a student in high school pas the final exam, and get graded regardless of his race, national origin, height, or weight. A good college may have too many applicants, and therefore would pick the top grades, until it fills all its seats, the less prestigious school, would get the students with lesser grades, and so on. [run-on-sentence, felonious use of commas] Enter the American rational for social engineering, now if your father went to this college, or contributes money to it you would get preference! [run-on, improper use of commas rather than creating two separate sentences to express different thoughts]] That is the first injustice by the rich, and influential. [improper use of comma] Then came the civil right movement, granted we are all for equality, and elimination of discriminations. [improper use of comma] However, institutions should NEVER discriminate against innocent students in order to achieve better racial mix in college.

"The notion that racial mix in college makes better graduates is not necessary true most of the time. ['most of the time' redundant and should be snipped] Mr. Bush, as well as the rest of the liberals may want to think that college diversity is a key thing, however, from experience, regardless what college a student goes to, different people will perform differently in the workplace. [run-on sentence, felonious use of commas] I have observed graduates from city colleges getting promoted to the top, while others from Ivey League colleges are left behind. Basically, in a given gathering or party, the women tends [improper use of singular verb with plural noun] to gravitate to a corner, and the men to another corner. Similarly, it has been observed that he blacks and the whites in schools and the workplace hang out together. Hence, all the social engineering that the liberals are working on for decades is practically wasted, since most of the people tend to favor hanging out with their own kind. [run-on-sentence, mangled syntax] That is simply because they find more commonality for conversations.

"What we really needed is to eliminate the notion that a white person is superior to the black person. The racist past was very unjust, however, it was abolished. We all observed how Trent Lott was attacked by the right and the left as an illustration that our society does not approve of racist positions even in theory. [improper syntax; 'we all observed...as an illustration']

"The government is like a parent or a teacher, if it shows favoritism to one kid over the others, it essentially brings resentment on that kid. [improper ue of commas] This resentment, if not vented publicly, perhaps because race is a taboo subject; it will typically fester in our culture, and according to President Bush will perpetuate our division. [run-on sentence; improper use of semi-colon which makes its debut in this sentence]

College acceptance or any other applications to jobs, or promotions should always follow the non discrimination laws; no preference to race, color, religion, sexual orientation, or national origin. ['acceptance' and 'applications' are dissimilar] Lawyers and liberals can play around the laws by calling this counter-discrimination a set aside, or a guarantee acceptance of 10%, as Bush has done in Texas, or the other Bush is doing in Florida. [run-on sentence, mangled sentence structure, 'calling this' modifies 'or a guarantee (sic)]' All that tweaking is nothing but a [sic] reverse discrimination. We should simply grade people on their ACADEMIC achievement. No preference if you come from a divorced parents, live in a trailer home, you are fat, you are tall, you can play music, you have six toes……"

I take it you did not finish high school?

--Boris

Before one can be taken the least bit seriously about this subject it is certainly recommended that any writing be at a minimum free of such egregious errors in punctuation and style. That appears to be too high a standard for too many.

Enter the American rational for social engineering, now if your father went to this college, or contributes money to it you would get preference! That is the first injustice by the rich, and influential.

I disagree with this line of thinking. Private colleges and universities have an institutional interest to develop legacies, which make for a stronger, more committed base of alumni support and helps these organizations build endowments. Families that support the colleges and institutions they went to should be given preference when it comes to their progeny.

If the author is talking about public universities (e.g., state universities and community colleges) then he may have a point, legacies should not necessarily be given preferences at these institutions.

As for the racial composition of colleges and universities, the public institutions should have color-blind applications, whereas the private institutions should be allowed to admit anyone they want, for whatever reason. Higher education is a business, thus market forces will play a big role in the enduring quality and value of education provided by given institutions. Those that adopt winning admissions strategies will prevail by attracting the best students and people committed to the long-term interests of the institution. Those that adopt questionable admissions policies will suffer from either a lack of quality or a lack of diversity (or whatever attributes are valued in the market).

Over the past 20 or 30 years, many colleges and universities have sacrificed quality for diversity. Colleges and universities that accept low-quality students in the name of diversity (yes, they even accept students who require remedial studies to get through basic courses requiring basic math and writing skills) do an injustice to those students who are not ready for the challenge of scholarship on a collegiate level. Such diversity policies are also detrimental to people who have already graduated from these colleges because it dillutes the power behind the accomplishment their degree represents.

Not everyone is suited for college, and not everyone in our society needs a college degree to succeed. This is the truth in spite of what some pandering politicians tell us, and in spite of those in the industry who have a self-interest in expanding enrollment in higher education.

I was a teaching assistant in a Biology course in the 80's. One of our laboratory experiments actually required long division! In 4 years of teaching, I never encountered a (college) student who had an inkling of how to approach a simple long division problem.

285 / 15 is far too difficult for a college student.

I take it you did not finish high school?

I was reading the first post and noticed the misspelled words and incorrect grammar as well. WTF?

285 / 15 is far too difficult for a college student.

Well, the students must have gotten much smarter since then. Pressing 2 8 5 DIV 1 5 EQUALS will solve it for them.

See how smart they are now. </sarcasm>

In my post, I said that regardless of what fancy college you graduate from, your performance on the job is uniquely yours, and I observed graduates of city colleges getting faster promotions that MIT graduates. It should not be a requirement to write an assay. ONLY GRADES. Remember, part of the grades comes from English assays in high schools.

Guarantee admission is another form of quotas.

HEY NOW! I resemble that remark! I'm in college (UCONN, Electrical Engineering) and I can do long division. Of course, I'm probably in the minority, but that doesn't mean that ALL college students are mush-brained. Notice gitmo didn't say they were an Engineering TA...HA! :-)

You probably did go to high school, since you know how to pell? Either discuss the subject or shut the f## up! If you want to be in English grammer class go to one.

You mispelled the word spell (pell). And essay (assay). And grammar (grammer). This isn't grammar school, but there should be at least a minimum level of literacy displayed on this board, since we are discussing education. If you have Microsoft Word, you can spell check your posts.

I don't doubt it having once taught remedial math. When I see a test filled with tedious mind numbing calculations such as dividing 10 digit numbers by 3 digit numbers I know I will ace it. If one in a thousand knows how to calculate a square root without a calculator I would be shocked.

And apparently all people are writing in ebonics now not just Black militants.

"We should simply grade people on their ACADEMIC achievement."

I agree. In addition to affirmative action, legacy admissions should also be eliminated.

In a nutshell,the problem cannot be solved,because everyone has an opinion.

I think "KISS" is an appropriate declaration here, as in most endeavors.

There is absolutely no way one can satisfy the masses.

If there are so different criteria for college admission,the administrators will be chasing their tails far more than they are now.

Thanks for letting me vent.

If admission to colleges is purely on grade level only, a computer can process the applications and send back acceptance letters. The rest of the admission staff may end up flipping hamburgers.