Today was an open work day at the high school. During open work we were given time to work on our assignments including research for our case studies, watching videos on the topic of affirmative action in college, and reading of The Gatekeepers in preparation for seminar.
We looked into the issue of race in the admissions process and lawsuits filed against colleges because of the assumption that there was racial preference involved in the selection of students, specifically the Fisher v. University of Texas case and Chinese Students v. Harvard case.
During our discussion about the videos, we shared our personal opinions on the topic of affirmative action and quotas. We talked about how colleges pushing to create a racially and culturally diverse environment could be beneficial and problematic. Schools tend to strive for a demographically balanced student body in order to attract more applicants, but putting a number or limit on how many students of a certain race can be accepted also attracts complaints from students who claim that colleges are racially biased.
According to the Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: Desegregation of Public Education, "it prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance." This made it legal for students to sue public schools for racial preference. We questioned the statistic/demographic awareness of the plaintiffs who made the claims that race was the reason they weren't accepted into a college. The deciding factor of their rejection usually had more to do with their race, because there was evidence that many minorities with scores similar to their's were also rejected.
We took a lunch break, then we researched and read before our last seminar of the day based on chapters 2 and 3 of The Gatekeepers. We each prepared three question for the seminar and prompted our discussion with these questions and observations from the book. The focus of these chapters was on the applicants that were considering a certain college and how the admissions counselors were beginning to select which students to accept and which to reject.
We discussed how colleges take into account the different aspects of each student and how that affected their chances of being accepted. Students with unique characteristics usually have an advantage because their experiences can benefit the learning environment of the school. Colleges are looking to accept a majority of students with average achievements and a handful of higher achieving and lower achieving students. It's risky to accept higher achieving students because they are the ones who might end up in more selective colleges that only accept high achieving students.
An interesting thing we learned is that if colleges recognize that a student's application is above their standards, then there could be a possibility that the student considers them as a backup school. This would make them less likely to be accepted because school would rather not choose an applicant who might not choose to go to their college. And college admissions counselors don't always have time to read every letter of recommendation and all the supplementary material that may come along with applications.
Today was a very informative day, we learned a lot about the perspectives of the applicants and the colleges. After sharing so much information and many opinions we concluded our seminars, taking with us the collective knowledge and ideas from our seminars.
During our discussion about the videos, we shared our personal opinions on the topic of affirmative action and quotas. We talked about how colleges pushing to create a racially and culturally diverse environment could be beneficial and problematic. Schools tend to strive for a demographically balanced student body in order to attract more applicants, but putting a number or limit on how many students of a certain race can be accepted also attracts complaints from students who claim that colleges are racially biased.
According to the Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: Desegregation of Public Education, "it prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance." This made it legal for students to sue public schools for racial preference. We questioned the statistic/demographic awareness of the plaintiffs who made the claims that race was the reason they weren't accepted into a college. The deciding factor of their rejection usually had more to do with their race, because there was evidence that many minorities with scores similar to their's were also rejected.
We took a lunch break, then we researched and read before our last seminar of the day based on chapters 2 and 3 of The Gatekeepers. We each prepared three question for the seminar and prompted our discussion with these questions and observations from the book. The focus of these chapters was on the applicants that were considering a certain college and how the admissions counselors were beginning to select which students to accept and which to reject.
We discussed how colleges take into account the different aspects of each student and how that affected their chances of being accepted. Students with unique characteristics usually have an advantage because their experiences can benefit the learning environment of the school. Colleges are looking to accept a majority of students with average achievements and a handful of higher achieving and lower achieving students. It's risky to accept higher achieving students because they are the ones who might end up in more selective colleges that only accept high achieving students.
An interesting thing we learned is that if colleges recognize that a student's application is above their standards, then there could be a possibility that the student considers them as a backup school. This would make them less likely to be accepted because school would rather not choose an applicant who might not choose to go to their college. And college admissions counselors don't always have time to read every letter of recommendation and all the supplementary material that may come along with applications.
Today was a very informative day, we learned a lot about the perspectives of the applicants and the colleges. After sharing so much information and many opinions we concluded our seminars, taking with us the collective knowledge and ideas from our seminars.
Comments
Post a Comment