2. Are you FOR or AGAINST affirmative action in regards to the role it plays in the college admissions process?
I am for Affirmative Action in regards to the role it plays in the college admission process. I believe that it opens doors, opportunities and avenues that were not originally afforded to people who are at a loss, financially as well as racially.
I was annoyed that this blog doesn't allow comments. Ideas like these and directives like Affirmative action create a stigma that minorities are in some way inferior to perpetuate that they are victims who need help which I do not believe. It is not impossible for minorities to become successful even if they come from a difficult background.
Affirmative Action is meaningful to me because I'm an underrepresented minority in the lowest income bracket. My mother works part-time as a hairdresser (and in my opinion--- as a involuntary client---she's not very good; plus her customer base consists mostly of old ladies who are thinning out as time goes on...) and my father has been unemployed because of a disability all my life. We made do, I feel fine. Where you come from, I believe, only has a little to do with what you can accomplish.What I think needs to most attention in admissions process and in dealing with who needs to most help is income. Which I think is mixed up with race far too much. There are/may be a lot of minorities who live in "bad neighborhoods" but I do not believe they should receive more help than the white residents. I hope to more closely address the issue of income in my next blog which I have just introduced.
"I believe that it opens doors, opportunities and avenues that were not originally afforded to people who are at a loss"
Shouldn't everyone be given opportunities?
2 comments:
I agree with you partially. I am against affirmative action based solely on race. It doesn't make sense to me that establishing quotas for one race (thus eliminating the number of other races that can be emitted) will be more equitable to "underrepresented" races. Furthermore, I feel that there are a lot of people who are disadvantaged economically for attending post-secondary education institutions. For admissions, I would like to see a completely discrimination-free process, based solely on merit. I would like to have items like geographic location, gender, age, race, income, etc. be all left out of the equation. Then, when you are deemed worthy of the standards of the institution, you are in. From there, this is when I think that there should be an excess of availability to financially pay for attendance. If I am good enough to go to ... say, Boston College (a high-merit school that I personally was admitted to but ended up not going for financial reasons), I should not have to temper the decision to go there with my financial limitations.
Going to college and receiving an education benefits society in tremendous ways. There is a positive externality present (sorry, economics term ...) in that my consumption of a college education not only benefits me personally, but benefits society. This is seen with better doctors, lawyers, accountants, scientists, etc. that make our society run. It adds GDP, economic security, and prowess as a developed nation. And with all this, if you can't afford it, you can't go. Sure there are a lot of scholarships out there, but if you are like me and have parents unwilling to finance your education, getting $25,000 off the $50,000 yearly costs doesn't do much help.
So, perhaps we just need to invest our time and money into our primary and secondary education (NOT No Child Left Behind) systems so we can create students who meet the necessary qualifications (purely academic merit) to attend our post-secondary institutions. Then, when we have that base, they can comfortably choose to attend the institution that they are best qualified for, and fits them the best.
Really great comment, I hope to address this...soon
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