Insider Higher Ed today reports on a Harvard researcher who found that some top schools make that final selection not on academic qualifications but on the somewhat murky ”issues of ‘fit’ between a college’s needs and an applicant’s needs.”
The research finds that at some elite schools, race or ethnicity can be a key admissions factor, along with “exceptional talent:”
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25 years down the road and I’m still pissed that Fordham Law rejecetd me.
The exceptional talent rule seems to be commonly replaced by “I set my daughter up in her own charity benefiting inner city kids and immigrants.”
In reality that means she knows how to read to 2nd graders; how to use a web content tool to publish a few articles about literacy and culture; and knows how to dress up and Power Point well with adult advisors and get a few school chums involved.
I can’t knock it: my sister went through the roof after I suggested her daughter learn to schmooze at an early age. Fine. Pay the full boat at a lesser school tool. Oops!
The #1 deciding factors have nothing to do with an academic talent or record. Of course it has to do with ethnicity & geography. Elite schools (most of which are in the east) don’t want x# of kids from the same state or same ethnicity. That in fact is discrimination. But suppose a given applicant class comprised 500 kids A+ from CT & 500 A+ from NY & the rest of the nation got 300 on their SATs. God help us all. Colleges examine your last name-that is the sad fact. The process needs to be blind from the start but as long as you have to check a box it will likely factor into the picture. Sad.
So ethnicity “along with ‘exceptional talent’” can be a determining factor. The tone here seems to suggest (as the comments confirm) that the selections are based solely on ethnicity. What’s the point to this non-article?
The point, George, is that this is not an article… it’s a blog where writers post what’s on their minds… not necessarily hot news items.