Quote: (04-05-2013 12:20 AM)basilransom Wrote:
Like I said, most miss the ironic reality that if there were no affirmative action, she still would not be admitted. It's a little like seeing the one handicap parking spot that's empty while all the other spots are filled - if you took away the handicap only designation, you'd probably still not have a parking spot.
Elite college admissions in America is shot through with so much bullshit it's hilarious. You have these phony extracurriculars that were first instituted to keep the Yids out, and are now used against Asians and middle class whites. Legacy admissions, same story - keep Yids out before, now discriminates in effect against Asians. Then there are the sports teams, 90% of which no one gives a fuck about, and most are used by upper class parents to get their kids into the school.
All of the above is essentially accurate, and the bit about the athletes is especially illuminating and often overlooked. Sports like Crew, Lacrosse, Sailing, and Equestrian are built for the elite. Those are the only folks who closely follow them and they tend to be the bulk of the actual competitors as well.
These parents know that if their kids gets good enough to be a recruited athlete in any of these sports, he/she will have a much easier path into an elite university/college. Only Ivies and a select few others compete at a high level in most of these sports, so they truly are pipelines to the top.
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You do have to wonder if some of it is rational though.
It all is, make no mistake about that. You hit the nail on the head with the guess about donors. That is a big reason why things are the way they are.
Consider what I mentioned above about why admissions directors care to even consider the ethnic composition of their classes:
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Why are they so concerned with creating that image?
Politics and money, with a little bit of ideology thrown in. The motives are actually not as charitable as many think.
This is where those less than charitable motives come in.
Here is a typical breakdown for the ethnic composition of an Ivy League school:
Black: 8%
Hispanic: 8%
Asian: 15%
Native American: 1%
White: 51%
Ivies want to be diverse, but they can't go too far without compromising their financial model, which depends in large part on having wealthy donors provide a lot of cash and on having a bunch of parents who can handle full tuition as well (financial aid is costly to these schools, even with their huge endowments).
These crucial donors are generally white (jews included here), and this in turn limits the amount of "diversity" the schools can have. It ensures that most Ivies and similarly elite schools are still generally dominated by the (almost entirely white) socio-economic elite-these are the folks who keep the schools running, and their kids are still overrepresented in the student body for that reason.
Their hold on the Ivies may have taken a hit (they don't compose 90% of the student body the way they did 30 years ago), but this elite group still leads the way. Their financial clout allows them to make most of the rules discreetly and influence nearly all key administrative decisions, and their culture still dominates student life at the school.
Claims of "diversity" aside, there can be no doubt about who really runs things in these places. These institutions are part of the American Aristocracy's world-everyone else present merely lives in it and/or seeks to become a fully integrated part of it down the line.
Is this good or bad? Neither, in my opinion. It just is.
These realities also partially explain why Asians get the shorter end of the admissions stick. Schools can't provide the (deserved) increase in their representation without cutting into the more economically valuable white contingent or the politically valuable under-represented minority (URM) contingent.
This is also why the majority of the whites you see at Ivies are one percenters or very close to it-more middling whites lose out here. The school's white population is, as I mentioned, the source of most of the schools big money donors. Schools want as many of these elites in their corner as possible. There is little room for middle class whites in this model-they do not bring the scores of the Asians, nor the political value of the URMs, nor the money of wealthier whites. This is why they're not so easy to find at the institutions-a few trickle in as athletes, but further exceptions are quite rare.
Finally, you will also notice that the Blacks and Hispanics are still under-represented in this model. That is by design-schools admit enough of them to provide a sense of diversity and the political/economic value that comes with that, but want to make sure there is still plenty of room for members of the big money group and for talented Asians.
Blacks and Hispanics tend to eat up a lot of financial aid as well (they're the poorest of all the demographics), further ensuring that their numbers remain limited relative to their actual share of the population-schools can only support so many kids on 100% financial aid without breaking their business model. Add in the fact that black/hispanic alumni generally can't come close to matching the charitable clout of big money white donors and the motives for their continued under-representation (despite all the rhetoric about diversity) become very clear. Don't expect this to change anytime soon.
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And maybe those pointless athletes make up for it with donations and future prominence.
Sports are still part of the mission for elite schools. They provide some financial benefit and plenty of exposure, hence the insistence of some smaller elite schools (ex: most of the Ivies) on remaining at the D1 level.
Athletics are also deeply ingrained in Ivy culture (games like American football were born there, remember) and in the culture of the demographic that sources most of the school's student body and donations (Elite whites, to whom fitness is important and whose upbringing and education tend to emphasize sport and competition). Schools will not let them go for these reasons.
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Elite colleges are obsessed with breeding future leaders.
Yes, this is also very true and very important to understand.
Quote: (04-05-2013 12:33 AM)houston Wrote:
What do you think about this Athlone?
The girls makes a decent point or two, but is still an entitled try-hard and entirely too difficult to feel much empathy for. She'll still be able to go to a decent school if she wants it (the four she listed aren't the only ones on Earth), so she'll be fine.