Followup on Affirmative Action

My wife pointed out to me this morning (in a cute, sleepy, grumpy kind of way) that the post about affirmative action seemed to suggest that preferential treatment should be given to the poor for college admissions but that I advocated a meritocracy. I do not see those as mutually exclusive. Much like baseball scouts have to look at the pitchers in a league when they evaluate the hitters, so too should schools have to examine the environment a student was in when they evaluate an application.

Three things are important for colleges that they try to glean from test scores, grades and applications. How smart is this individual, how driven is this individual, and how prepared is this individual. Drive can only be measured by essays and interviews but intelligence and preparation is largely guessed at by the test scores and grades. It's the school's duty to look at the scores and grades and apply some kind of formula to them so that the output is as accurate a guess as possible for the intelligence and preparation of the applicant. I do not view this kind of Affirmative Action as a hand out. You don't get in just because you're poor. You get in because people from your school district tend to be equivalent to people from another district that scored 50 points higher on the SAT. There is ample statistical data available from which to base these kinds of decisions.

However, let's look at the flip side. Preparation is a key component of college. A student that is very smart but horribly unprepared is probably not well served by jumping straight in to a university curriculum. Those types of student are the ones that will truly excel in a Community College type of environment.

There may or may not be one other factor in regards to admissions. When I went for my UNC interview the guy made a big deal about the value of diversity. I found myself thinking more and more on this issue as the days rolled on and I was eventually wait listed. There's a part of me that is bitter that I may not get in when I'm technically better qualified then some other applicants who did get in. I am a white male in banking from the Southeast though. I have to accept that I am pretty much their generic candidate. However, I believe that the first half of that diversity problem (white male) is something that would work itself out with fair admissions standards. The second part, however, is important. For any institution of higher learning it is critical that the environment does not become stagnant. There is academic danger in admitting classes full of similar people with similar experiences and backgrounds. Every student (ideally) should have a niche that they fill and a uniqueness that they bring to the school.