If affirmative action results in minority students at elite schools having much potential but weak preparation, then we may expect minority students to start o§ behind their majority counterparts and then catch up over time. Indeed, at the private university we analyze, the gap between white and black grade point averages falls by half between the studentsífreshmen and senior year. However, this convergence masks two e§ects. First, the variance of grades given falls across time. Hence, shrinkage in the level of the gap may not imply shrinkage in the class rank gap. Second, grading standards di§er across courses in di§erent majors. We show that controlling for these two features virtually eliminates any convergence of black/white grades. In fact, black/white gpa convergence is symptomatic of dramatic shifts by blacks from initial interest in the natural sciences, engineering, and economics to majors in the humanities and social sciences. We show that natural science, engineering, and economics courses are more di¢ cult, associated with higher study times, and have harsher grading standards; all of which translate into students with weaker academic backgrounds being less likely to choose these majors. Indeed, we show that accounting for academic background can fully account for di§erences in switching behaviors across blacks and whites.
Of course, instead of being angry at the young men and women who take the easy way out, the race hustlers blame the school.
So, the point of research is to further some goal or other?
Wow, who woulda thunkit?
Global Warming, here we come!
grading standards di§er across courses in di§erent majors.
Note to self: Do not type while hiccuping.
I wonder what the thoughts of Duke’s White Student Alliance were on the matter.
Changing majors, baloney...
I’m betting a good many of them stopped reading the paper before they finished. ;^)
Translation :
Without exploring ways to award the incompetent grades and diplomas that they can't otherwise earn...
Here we go again...
“The Bell Curve”
In other news Asian Parents are still disappointed their children only got a 4.0 GPA.
If the NAACP really was interested in the ‘advancement’ of colored people (as their acronym proclaims) you’d think they would view this information as a call to action. But that’s not really what the NAACP is about now, is it?
OK, so the report’s findings are “...hurtful and alienating...”
But are they factual?
A number of years ago Thomas Sowell addressed the issue of affirmative action in major university acceptance standards stating that allowing minorities with substandard education backgrounds into the more academic demanding universities was dooming them to failure. And such failure would create nothing but increased hostility towards the white dominated schools and the white population in general.........
This is not NEWS, just simply TRUTH.
ping to #1
Face it . . . sometimes the truth just simply hurts.
Ping to hilarious source material!
Reality is not PC.
Eighty eight Duke faculty members wrote a letter in support of the Black Student Alliance without having read any of the study.
Any studies comparing and contrasting the average high school GPAs, SAT And ACT scores for incoming Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, South Asians, East Asians that enter Duke their freshman year ? College students often have stories of students getting into schools like Duke where if they were White students their application would have been viewed as purely entertainment.
Reality is always devastating to people who live their lives in Fantasyland.
Wouldn't surprise me if the "remedy" is the conferring of actual science degrees without the "hurtful" and "alienating" process of passing courses.