Article re Bias and Bigotry in Academia

[Skarp]

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=181357

Worth a read for those shooting for an Ivy or the like.

One sobering excerpt:

As Nieli puts it, "Being Hispanic conferred an admissions boost over being white ... equivalent to 130 SAT points (out of 1,600), while being black rather than white conferred a 310-point SAT advantage. Asians, however, suffered an admissions penalty compared to whites equivalent to 140 SAT points."

"To have the same chance of gaining admission as a black student with a SAT score of 1100, a Hispanic student otherwise equally matched in background characteristics would have to have 1230, a white student a 1410, and an Asian student a 1550."

Was this what the civil-rights revolution was all about – requiring kids whose parents came from Korea, Japan or Vietnam to get a perfect SAT score of 1600 to be given equal consideration with a Jamaican or Kenyan kid who got an 1150? Is this what it means to be an Ivy League progressive?

[Joe]

I think these folks have the right idea and got all the Academia bases covered....except for that Asian thingy. Either that..or moma ain't tellin' the whole truf...

She looks like she might be hiding something...

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3060907/Black-parents-give-birth-to-white-baby.html

[Redcup]

The smartest and most qualified should get in to the university they choose,but have you seen the demographics for the top 10 universities in the U.S.?It's a socio-economic issue.jmo.

[Joe]

....but have you seen the demographics for the top 10 universities in the U.S.?

Why yes I have...

...I believe their names end with Patel or Wang.

[Skarp]

The smartest and most qualified should get in to the university they choose,but have you seen the demographics for the top 10 universities in the U.S.?It's a socio-economic issue.jmo.

Which means what? If you read the article, the study shows that poor/middle class whites are the most underrepresented group relative to their numbers, and certainly in relation to their measured qualifications. Is that socioeconomic "justice"?

There are universities available for people of every level of intellectual ability and preparation (whether there should be is another question). The idea that elite universities should admit underqualified persons based on some nebulous socioeconomic or historical justice rationale is absurd. And it plays out in predictable ways at the universities themselves, which have had to water down their grading and academic rigor to the point where they aren't truly elite anymore. Who, pray tell, is served by that?

[Killer Rabbit]

State U for my offspring!

[0to60in2.5]

The part that got my attention:

For these schools are not interested in a diversity that would include "born-again Christians from the Bible belt, students from Appalachia and other rural and small-town areas, people who have served in the U.S. military, those who have grown up on farms or ranches, Mormons, Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses, lower- and middle-class Catholics, working-class 'white ethnics,' social and political conservatives, wheelchair users, married students, married students with children or older students just starting into college and raising children."

How did they determine that born-again Christians from the Bible belt are having a tough time clawing their way into Harvard? Given its a small group and debatable on whether they were all born-again, I can't recall anyone in my high school years pushing for Ivy. Most went on to bible-college. One jumped out of the shell and went to Baylor, another to Clemson.(he was a sinner...) While my experience is probably not the norm I wonder how many applications are received by these schools from some of these groups above.

[Little Cat's Dad]

Skarp, interesting post. It does make you think. It seems as if every problem politico went to Harvard with our president.

We visited Harvard! Columbia! Etc. They were so eager to help other students. My DD has a dad (me) who earns too much for assistance. My parents didn't go to College. My dad left school at 14 to work in the woolen mill. I'm getting to pay the whole bill for a near-IVY D3. It will hurt like hell. Hopefully DD will get a 4.0 academic average, go on to graduate school and spend the rest of her life, like me paying off the deficit and bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Then again she has a Fantastic Coach for next year.........

[Skarp]

How did they determine that born-again Christians from the Bible belt are having a tough time clawing their way into Harvard? Given its a small group and debatable on whether they were all born-again, I can't recall anyone in my high school years pushing for Ivy. Most went on to bible-college. One jumped out of the shell and went to Baylor, another to Clemson.(he was a sinner...) While my experience is probably not the norm I wonder how many applications are received by these schools from some of these groups above.

Answer: a hell of a lot more than are received from urban blacks and hispanics.

"Born again" is simply another way of saying "Evangelical Christian," which is how such people would self-identify. From Wikipedia:

The 2004 survey of religion and politics in the United States identified the evangelical percentage of the population at 26.3 percent while Roman Catholics are 22 percent and mainline Protestants make up 16 percent.[22] In the 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States, the figures for these same groups are 28.6 percent (evangelical), 24.5 percent (Roman Catholic), and 13.9 percent (mainline Protestant.) The latter figures are based on a 2001 study of the self-described religious identification of the adult population for 1990 and 2001 from the Graduate School and University Center at the City University of New York.[23] A 2008 study showed that in the year 2000 about 9 percent of Americans attended an evangelical service on any given Sunday.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelicalism

So that's over a quarter of the population...and approaching 50% when you include Catholics, which the author also identifies. Hardly small groups.

Some percentage of evangelicals probably do choose to go elsewhere despite being qualified for the Ivies, but, as you point out, those people wouldn't submit an application in the first place. So if the analysis is done based on submitted applications and the admissions decisions made with respect to each, such self-selection would not skew the results at all. If, on the other hand, the analysis was done on the basis of overall population percentages and relative representation on Ivy campuses, direct sampling and statistical analysis could easily be employed to negate the effects of polluting influences.

Fact is though, most people who qualify for admission to Ivy League schools, evangelical or otherwise, would be willing to attend if admitted--even if it means holding their noses for 4 years in order to get that piece of paper. But if you're poor and/or religious and white, the numbers say that you've got two chances of getting in: slim and none. And slim left town.

[pvsportsfan]

Yup, sad but true. My DDs will definitely lose out with these kind of metrics, but striving for top academia like the Ivy League schools is still in their agenda.