Probing question: Do you think it is right for colleges and universitites to determine someone's accaptance into their school by their race? Why or why not?
Original link: Here
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Laura F's Current Event: Civil Rights
Colleges and universities, public and privatte alike, have been requiring all potentital appliacants to record their race on their appliacations. In most cases. the potential studen'ts race is a determining factor in whether or not that applicant gets accepted to these coleges. In a case, Fisher v. The University of Texas, a white female student claimed that she wa not accepted to the University of texas solely on her race. It was ruled in a another similar case, Grutter v. Bollinger that colleges may use the race of the applicant to determine their acceptance or not. This was passed to ensure Equal Opportunity for women and people of color.
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ReplyDeleteI understand and agree that women and people of color should be given equal opportunities and for that reason I believe that the case Grutter v. Bollinger was ruled very fairly. On the other hand, I understand where the female student applying to Texas University is coming from as well; I believe that everyone should be given an equal opportunity and that the students with the best grades should be admitted to the University first. With this in mind, I do not think it is right for colleges and universities to determine someone acceptance by their race, but I believe that it is the only way to give women and students of color the equal opportunity they deserve.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Michaela that for a student applying to college to check off their race and gender so that the school accepts equal amount of diverse students is somewhat justified; however there as some disadvantages as well as advantages. The advantage of marking off their race and gender, is that no student will feel discriminated for being rejected because of their ethnicity or gender from a school. The disadvantage to the idea is that there could be a student applied who is more qualified to be accepted into a public or private university than another, but because the school has to accept a certain amount of people of diverse ethnicities and gender the student may be rejected just like the female student who applied and was rejected from the University of Texas. It is helpful to give everyone an equal opportunity to be accepted but it also is not fair to those students applying that may be more or equally qualified.
ReplyDeleteUnlike Michaela and Greg, I think that colleges should not be able to send and receive applications that require the student to disclose their race. I think that colleges should judge a student on their grades and activities, not on their race, which is a factor they cannot control. I would be very upset if I was rejected from a college because someone else was accepted who had a similar transcript, only because of their race. I do not think that it would be fair, mainly because the student is born with their skin color, so while you have the power to get good grades, you may still not have what it takes to get into a college if you were born with the skin color of the majority of whatever place you are in. While I do not support colleges doing this, I understand that they want to have a "balanced" student body, but I do not think that they should include race on their applications.
ReplyDeleteEven though I think that it is wrong that Universities consider your race a big part of your application, I do understand that they do that because they want diversity through out the school. But I don't think it should be a major part of being accepted or not because of the color of their skin.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that you should have to disclose your race on your college application because it should in no way affect if you get into a school or not. It doesn't matter if you are black, white, Asian or any other race, it should matter that you are a good student.
ReplyDeleteI completely disagree with Michaela and Greg because I do not think that letting colleges knowing your race makes it fair for everyone. In fact, I believe that it makes the college deciding process unfair because white people that are smarter and more deserving of getting accepted into the college are being rejected in order to ensure that there is greater diversity amongst the school, as Kailey said. In my opinion, people should be let into a college based on their credentials, not whether they are in the majority or minority group. Also, I agree with David’s statement that race is not something that they can control, so why should it even matter anyways. I think that Grutter v. Bollinger was ruled unfairly, and everyone should actually get an equal opportunity to get into colleges. I know that I don’t want to be rejected from going to the college of my choice because I was the perfect candidate for the school, except I was not part of the minority group.
ReplyDeleteI believe race should be anonymous on college applications. I think race is irrelevant to someone's academic potential and it makes no sense to me why race is required on college applications. I agree with Lauren in the sense that it definitely isn't fair for a college to ask for someone's race and I also agree with her because I think that a college knowing someone's race makes it very unfair for everyone who is white. Colleges want diversity among their student body, so it makes sense why they ask for race but it's definitely unfair to people who are caucasian who have the same academic abilities as people of different ethnicities. Therefore, I think acceptance should be based on academic achievement and participation in other activities that make someone a good student. Race shouldn't be a determining factor in whether someone gets into a college or not, everyone should have a fair shot.
ReplyDeleteI think that people both African-American and white should be given both equal opportunities and fair chances in admissions into college. Stating that, I do agree with the Grutter vs. Bollinger case and its ruling- I believe it was fair. But I understand the unsettling feeling that the girl applying to Texas University. I believe that everyone should be given the right to an equal opportunity, and a fair chance that the student with the best grades and best looking application should be admitted into a school over another, disregarding race as a factor. Concluding that I don’t think it’s morally right for schools to determine or help decide depending on someone’s races; but I believe everyone of all races deserve an equal opportunity in admissions.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it is right that colleges can determine to accept someone or not based on their race. Although I would love to have an advantage for being of a different race to get into college, I have to admit that it is unfair. I agree with David that colleges should base their acceptance on grades and activities. People can't control what race they are. They can only control their grades and activities. Some people shouldn't be born with an unfair advantage. I can see why colleges do this; they want a more diverse student body. When I was researching colleges, I noticed that many of them had a student body that was around 70% white. So colleges may be wanting to balance that ratio of race in their school. To do this they would have to take a look at the applying students' race. But I don't think they need to do this because I believe over time the percentages will become more balanced out. This country is becoming more diverse, so the colleges will eventually be too. So even though it would kind of be nice to have an advantage in being accepted into a college, I do think it is unfair for everyone if colleges base their decisions on race.
ReplyDeleteI do think at times race should be a factor in determining whether a student will get in to a certain college or university. Having said that, schools should determine someone's acceptance into their school based on the credentials, and whether they have earned it or not. In my opinion, race should have nothing to do with it, as long as the school is diversified. For example, if a certain college is predominantly white, and two students with the same transcript, one black and one white, and only the white one is accepted, then yes this is an issue and race should become a factor. We always hear about how in the job world, sometimes if two people have the same exact resume but one person is the minority, then that is who will get the job. I think that schools should have the mind set in the same way. As Allie stated, Black and White students and any other races should all have an equal opportunity to get in to colleges. I just think that some times race may be needed in the equation in order to make that true.
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