[253] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: admissions policy...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Christopher D. Beland)
Fri Apr 27 19:10:31 2001
Message-Id: <200104272309.TAA08074@Press-Your-Luck.mit.edu>
To: Aimee L Smith <alsmith@MIT.EDU>
cc: mit-talk@MIT.EDU
In-reply-to: The events that comprise the history of the universe.
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 19:09:43 -0400
From: "Christopher D. Beland" <beland@MIT.EDU>
After talking to Admissions staff, and from my own personal experience
at MIT, I agree that there really aren't any people admitted who
aren't qualified enough academically to succeed here.
Merely being qualified doesn't get you into MIT. You also have to be
lucky enough to make the pick of qualified students who are actually
admitted.
The procedure *after* this point, however, is suspect. After
identifying a certain set of more-than-qualified applicants, the
Admissions Office accepts all the underrepresented minorities (not
including the underrepresented majority of women). The remainder of
available slots are filled by some selection of "white" and "Asian"
people.
So for some set of more-than-qualified applicants "I didn't get in
b.c. I was a white man" is an accurate assessment of the situation.
(Obviously, it doesn't hold for most people, but it does reduce the
chances of admission for any non-member of some underrepresented
racial minority.)
This policy clearly discriminates based on ethnicity. I would label
it "racist" because I find any such discrimination to be wrong; such a
policy only creates more victims of discrimination. Other people
label it "fair" because they believe that past injustice (or perhaps
present injustice) necessitates it. I can appreciate that view, and
don't want to argue politics here.
-B.
===============================================================
Christopher Beland - http://web.mit.edu/beland/www/contact.html
MIT STS/Course 6 (EECS) - MIT Athena User Interface Project
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