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Bribery, greed: All for a little bit of Ivy League

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by CD Boogie, Mar 12, 2019.

  1. CD Boogie

    CD Boogie Well-Known Member

    Coincidentally I interviewed the Winklevii when they were in high school, about their rowing. Ultra privileged Greenwich kids, obviously, but they certainly weren’t lazy or stupid. Just robotic and rather boring. Not a life without tragedy either. Their sister died a few years ago when she was iirc electrocuted walking through a puddle on a random New York City film set.

    edit: turns out she overdosed, the film set thing was some kind of cover story. Still...
    The Code of the Winklevii
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2019
  2. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

  3. heyabbott

    heyabbott Well-Known Member

    Round up the usual suspects
     
  4. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    I doubt middle class white kids would have to be any less extraordinary, would they?

    There is a racial component to wealth in America, no doubt - especially this kind of embarrassing wealth. But this is a story about rich people. It’s not like poor whites get to share in the specific privilege enjoyed by Olivia Jade.

    Beyond that, this is a NYT story about a charter school in KC in which all 39 seniors had been accepted to college. Just because said students are going to Miami and Vanderbilt doesn’t mean it’s not a success story. It is.
     
  5. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    Racial Inequality in College Enrollment Patterns | Inside Higher Ed

    The report concludes that white students are disproportionately represented at selective public colleges and make up 64 percent of freshman enrollment despite only being 54 percent of the college-age population. Meanwhile, only 7 percent of black freshmen and 12 percent of Latino freshmen attend selective public colleges, despite making up 15 percent and 21 percent of the college-age population respectively.
    The report notes that more than 340,000 black and Latino students score above average on standardized admission exams, but only 19 percent of these high-scoring students attend a selective college. Meanwhile, 31 percent of white students who score above average on the SAT attend a selective college.



    Even With Affirmative Action, Blacks and Hispanics Are More Underrepresented at Top Colleges Than 35 Years Ago
     
  6. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    And those racial disparities - both of opportunity and outcome - begin in kindergarten.
     
  7. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    When do the gender disparities begin?

    The Gender Gap in College Education - The Atlantic
     
  8. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    I dunno. I find the way that story was written absurd.

    If the simple point was that because of socioeconomic factors, many black kids don't have access to test prep courses or expensive college counselors, or even good enough high schools to allow them to achieve success, fine. That story is just as valid as one pointing out that wealth buys you access to things that others can't afford.

    But to come up with something more sweeping than that, that story really stretched to try to paint a picture of minorities having everything stacked against them. The absurd part to me is that it pointedly didn't acknowledge that at the elite colleges (you need to make a distinction, because most colleges admit almost anyone, there are no quotas, let alone racial quotas), if your skin is black, you can have significantly lower SAT scores and grades, and they are tripping all over themselves to get you come. At that trial of Asian students suing Harvard for reverse discrimination., it came out that if you are black and you get an 1100 on your SAT, they send you a recruitment letter. The average SAT score at Harvard is what, 1450? 1500?

    I just disagree with your broad statement that "minority kids have to be extraordinary just to keep pace with unexceptional white students."

    Some fairly wealthy people, who are NOT the norm, are not representative of most white kids. Most white kids with aspirations to go to Harvard or Stanford or Duke don't come from positions of privilege. But everyone is so eager to make a sweeping generalization and make their case for why some group they are advocating for now needs to be given preference that they speak in absolutes. You have made a few posts about how we don't have a meritocracy because rich people can buy access to things others can't. And that is true, always has been true. But if what you really want is a meritocracy, you would be at least as focused on racial quotas, and the mess advocates of them have made of the playing field because those quotas have had way more tangible impact on people's lives than a relatively small minority of people with FU money who do immoral things to try to get ahead.

    If that story you linked to had focused on Asian applicants, and you had said THEY need to be extraordinary to keep pace, it might have been correct. The stuff that has come out at that trial putting the spotlight on Harvard has been really dispiriting. If it was truly a meritocracy, 2/3 of Harvard would be Asian (that is not an exaggeration). They actually give "personality scores" to applicants, and Asians have the lowest scores by far -- most whom those admissions officers have never even met. All to try to justify having effectively put a 20 percent quota on them as a group. Same as they did with jews in the 20s and 30s.
     
  9. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    Don't blame Harvard. They only need so many televisions turned into watches.
     
    Batman and justgladtobehere like this.
  10. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    Reminds me of a crossroads in my career, about three years out of journalism school. Choice: About to start covering MLB beat at paper where I worked or enroll at a prestigious business school, one of the top three in U.S. cwhere I'd been accepted.
    I went for a campus tour with a current MBA student, and at one point asked him, "What sort of business ethics courses do they have here?" My undergrad studies had required an ethics course, in addition to the one mandated by the J-school regarding media issues.
    The guy gave me a smirk. "Ethics courses? We don't have to take any ethics courses," he said. They don't need no stinking badges, either. It was that kind of response.
    My impression of that lauded business school took a hit, especially given my age and idealism then.
    I opted to cover the baseball team and now, decades later, am probably several million dollars poorer. I do, however, retain my soul.
     
    Slacker, Neutral Corner and HanSenSE like this.
  11. poindexter

    poindexter Well-Known Member

  12. swingline

    swingline Well-Known Member

    Olivia Jade, a Kardashian/Jenner wannabe.

    Next stop: sex tape.
     
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