One of my friends in high school was a four-year varsity runner on our cross country team, captain his junior and senior years, and career achievement award winner, with a 5.0 GPA for six of eight semesters (and a 4.0 his first two, he wasn't allowed to take APs), a perfect SAT score, ran three different clubs, and was the nicest, most professional guy in the world. He's an Asian male. He got rejected by Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. He's at Wash U now.

There are a ridiculously high number of Asians, particularly male but female as well, in the same kind of boat. They need to start basing their "bonuses" on backgrounds instead of race, because in our society, people of different backgrounds will come from different races, religions, nationalities, religions, etc., and their diversity quotas will be filled anyway, only more fairly.

Law and order first, justice is incidental. -j edgar hoover

Fairness is a concept for managing silly children and that's about it.

The winnas will always win. - old roman maxim.

Im typing this on my phone and sometimes i cant see the post button. Woe to the republic.

What you seem to forget, fiedler, is that humans are all, with rare exception, silly children.

How exactly do I 'forget' it? I have to tailor my opinions to lowest common denom huh?

Wow those redsocks are really... going good this year right? Man I think I'll have a beer, or indeed, a 'brewski'. High five?

Schools should base admissions much more individually, there is no more of an argument I can make than that

Of course if 'positions' in society were actually assigned based on merit, virtually all your doctors, lawyers, police chiefs, politicians etc. would be chinese males. But im sure all the true liberals on this forum would be entirely comfortable with that and will be happy living life at the level they actually deserve meritocrally-speaking, e.g. flipping burgers or picking fruit for min wage or less.

Are we having fun yet?

This is disgusting. Schools should base admissions on individual merit alone. Only when two candidates are equally good should things like this come into play.

"Only when two candidates are equally good should things like this come into play."
Never should this come into play. If two candidates are both amazing you accept them both or toss a coin.

"Schools should base admissions on individual merit alone. "

The problem with this is that there's no way to meaningfully, objectively measure merit in a college setting; plus, most colleges (and many students) don't care about "merit," even if it could be measured, which it can't. To look at the top, do you think Harvard and Yale want the smartest students, or the ones who are most likely to grow up to be presidents and governors?

Private institutions can do whatever they want. Deal with it.

Just to clarify fiedler, is your comment starting "Of course if 'positions'" your actual position, or have you started speaking hyperbolically? If that is your actual belief I would like to know more. Because, unless you're are describing merit differently than I, or understand the various jobs skills necessary for those different positions differently than do I, that comment sounds absurd.

"Private institutions can do whatever they want. Deal with it."

Yes, and you are OK with state schools not then? Your tax money goes to help lots of colleges, so they lose the right to do whatever they want. Why someone who is not as smart, not as likely to succeed, does not work as hard, etc. deserves to beat someone who is a brilliant, hard working, full of potential student into college merely because of the color of their skin is terrible. If a college weighted it opposite, where white students were given priority above all minorities, they would be sued.

I can't wait for Putin to conquer America, and thus give rise to the 2nd great soviet republic

America would be a pain the ass to invade. Once you get past the military, you are looking at a heavily armed population. But, this has nothing to do with the topic.

No one wants to invade America. We're the laughingstock of the West.

"No one wants to invade America. We're exceptional."
FTFY

"Of course if 'positions' in society were actually assigned based on merit, virtually all your doctors, lawyers, police chiefs, politicians etc. would be chinese males." Actually, I think they would be more female than male, because honestly...
And it really isn't all or even most Asian. There would still be a large population of whites in those positions, and a higher-than-what-it-currently-is amount of Hispanics and African-Americans. And, of all Asians, why specifically the Chinese? Every race has people with merits, as well as both males and females having such people. Don't know what merits you're looking at, fiedles.
PS, "Wow those redsocks are really... going good this year right?" You spelled Red Sox wrong. You can't hold up your "high and mighty," "better-than-thou" attitude if you can't spell things that simple. Or hold such simple opinions, for that matter.

I'm kind of disturbed by the fact that asian-americans would need to score around 7 higher on the act than an african american and 6 higher than a Latino, and also that whites need to score in similar margins. This is discrimination at it's highest level. These laws, will often result in a less qualified person getting in, despite the fact that they could very easily have had better circumstances than the other group. The fact that they decide based off of this is essentially stating that blacks and mexicans are inferior to whites and asians. Just because someone is black, or hispanic, does not mean that they are poor, and it also works in the reverse. I support taking someone's circumstances into account, however, i do not support taking their race into account. Trying to gain genetic diversity should play a way smaller part than trying to gain social diversity, and the actual qualifications.

I don't even know why there is still a "Race" box that needs to be checked. The time is long overdue for us to become a post-racial society; i.e. race no longer matters for any reason.

That's great, gunfighter.

Please let us all know when you've stopped race from mattering.

"Private institutions can do whatever they want. Deal with it."

Why is it that so many Americans have a problem with the concept that just because something isn't legally mandated or forbidden doesn't mean you can't critique it? I suppose it helps makes sense why for so many, the only solution they can think of to a problem is to pass a law.

Just because a university is private and has the right to do something does not mean one cannot find what they do to be wrong. Nobody in the thread, that I saw, had suggested that private schools should be *banned* from this practice.

*makes air jerk motion at Tolstoy*

Why? He has a point. If you are Asian and don't fit the perfect student stereotype, you aren't getting into some of these schools even though others at your level that aren't Asian can. It's no secret.

Possibly the most compelling argument Thucy has made in years...

"One of my friends in high school was a four-year varsity runner on our cross country team, captain his junior and senior years, and career achievement award winner, with a 5.0 GPA for six of eight semesters (and a 4.0 his first two, he wasn't allowed to take APs), a perfect SAT score, ran three different clubs, and was the nicest, most professional guy in the world. He's an Asian male. He got rejected by Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. He's at Wash U now.

There are a ridiculously high number of Asians, particularly male but female as well, in the same kind of boat. They need to start basing their "bonuses" on backgrounds instead of race, because in our society, people of different backgrounds will come from different races, religions, nationalities, religions, etc., and their diversity quotas will be filled anyway, only more fairly. "

Oh, oh god no! He went to YOUR High School, and was a top performer and didn't get into his (obviously entitled) spot in the top three institutions in the world. Cruel world! Why must he language at Wash U!!!!!!!

Did I say Wash U was bad? It's fabulous, far better than any school I could ever hope to attend. It has the same name recognition, same prestige, basically the same education, and like the aforementioned, it's incredibly overpriced when you could just go to the University of Toronto instead. You completely missed my point.

you had no point. as usual.

feisty

I take that back, you had a point, one that relies on a high schooler's misconception that is based on the understanding that his provincial existence is more special than it actually is. There are tens of thousands of kids like your friend and they all applied to harvard yale and princeton.