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At a college meeting a couple of days ago the "diversity" made an appearance and my colleagues started clicking their heels and saluting, just-like the old days.  Some wag asked what was meant by diversity, and no one really was perfectly sure, but they were sure that they were in favor of the thing.  I was a bit surprised by this, haven't seen it in while, thought we had passed through all this stuff; I guess not just yet.  Then today I noticed the U.S. News reporting this:

"A recent study of the applicants to seven elite colleges in 1997 found that Asian students were much more likely to be rejected than seemingly similar students of other races. Also, athletes and students from top high schools had admissions edges, as did low-income African-Americans and Hispanics."

"Translating the advantages into SAT scores, study author Thomas Espenshade, a Princeton sociologist, calculated that African-Americans who achieved 1150 scores on the two original SAT tests had the same chances of getting accepted to top private colleges in 1997 as whites who scored 1460s and Asians who scored perfect 1600s."

I also noticed that in the current issue of Newsweek, devoted to higher education, Sen. Lamar Alexander argues that colleges should adopt something like a year-around schedule, and students take their degree within three years, and thereby save 25% in tuition.
Categories > Education

Discussions - 2 Comments

I don't know where Lamar Alexander went to school but summer quarter is not free, and I don't see many schools willing to offer this kind of incentive when they try to game people into five year plans as it is by offering required courses once every two years. "Our research universities have been the key to developing the competitive advantages that help Americans produce 25 percent of all the world's wealth" The absurdity of this quote makes me laugh.
I really think the diversity thing has more to do with the systemic to heck with everything except what makes me look good thing going on in every sector of the country. I know some schools basicly just game their incoming classes so that they appear better in the US news and world reports and have way lower standards if you transfer in during the winter. What I mean by that is that the adminstrators want to look good without really caring about what their actions are doing to the prospective students or the long term effects of denying admission to potentially more talented students.

Ah, the liberal idealogy screwing up the education system in American again. I wonder how many liberals will be the first patient for surgery of a Africian-American or Hispanic doctor given a pass on their grades because of their race and to make them "Feel Good"? Anyone?

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The moral bankruptcy of academia: NYM On college admissions, via No Left Turns: "A recent study of the applicants to seven elite colleges in 1997 found that Asian students were much more likely to be rejected than seemingly similar students of o Read More


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