Is race still an unwritten factor for admissions?

[PhizKid]

I've recently been reading some articles and discussions:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/educat...sian-students-college-applications/51620236/1
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1228264-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-9-a.html
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/2/8/lawsuit-admissions-fair/
http://thedartmouth.com/2012/02/13/news/discrimination

And I know formally, schools can't discriminate based on race, right? So are people just being paranoid when they say there're different admissions standards for, say, Asian-Americans (as the articles above note)?

 

[deluks917]

It is often a stated factor.

Read MIT's pages on admissions. Ex:

http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/diversity-or-merit

 

[ModusPwnd]

"And I know formally, schools can't discriminate based on race, right?"I've never heard of that. AFAIK schools are among the most openly discriminatory institutions.

 

[PhizKid]

Maybe I am not understanding how the admissions process works, then...what about U.C. vs. Bakke? http://scholar.google.com/scholar_c...&q=Bakke+Regents+California&hl=en&as_sdt=2002

 

[deluks917]

yeah schools openly discriminate on the basis of sex and race. Pick any major USA school and I am willing to bet somewhere on their website they openly state "minorities" and women have an edge in admission. At least for physics/math programs.

 

[Pyrrhus]

I wouldn't worry about it. The USA is a country with so many fine schools that you will end up somewhere with great faculty, and resources. Other countries have less Universities than the USA, and just a few are that good (if at all) at specific areas. However, admission practices may also differ.

 

[Angry Citizen]

I'm a white male, and I managed to get into a physics/math program at a very good school that is filled to the brim with minorities and chicks. The minority/woman thing is overblown in importance.

 

[TMFKAN64]

Maybe I am not understanding how the admissions process works, then...what about U.C. vs. Bakke? http://scholar.google.com/scholar_c...&q=Bakke+Regents+California&hl=en&as_sdt=2002

Bakke says you can't have explicit quotas, not that it can't be a factor in admissions.

EDIT: After a little reading, it explicitly says that race *can* be a factor in admissions. However, you can't exclude candidates *solely* because of race, and in the Bakke decision, Berkeley had a pool of admission slots that were only for minority candidates, and this was found to be illegal.

 

[Skrew]

Yes, according to university policy makers too great a percentage of white people creates an unhealthy academic enviroment.