Americans were arguing about race-based college admissions at the Supreme Court this week.
Colleges talk about their commitment to diversity, but this commitment is tough to see. There are plenty of 35-year-olds with no college degree and a different perspective on life than an 18-year-old, yet elite schools make no attempt to find those 35-year-olds so as to get people of diverse ages into classrooms together. Nor do most schools make a real effort to get students from other countries, except those who can pay substantially more in tuition than the average American student. (There are probably plenty of Syrians, for example, who would be delighted to be issued four years of student visas and financial aid. It seems safe to predict that they would have no trouble earning a Bachelor’s in Arabic Studies from the typical U.S. school.)
I’m wondering if there isn’t a simpler explanation for the persistence of sorting college applicants by skin color. Imagine what would happen to the employees of the admissions office if affirmative action were eliminated and students were admitted on the basis of test scores and high school grades. The sorting process could be done by a free computer program, e.g., Open Office or Google Spreadsheets. The verification process could be done by workers in India to check to make sure that the test scores and high school grades were authentic. People who currently earn above-market wages would be unemployed.
What do readers think? Are the bureaucratic interests of college employees part of the motivation for running race-based college admissions?
Everything could be done with software and Indians without eliminating affirmative action. Just put all of the application data into a database, including the race, creed and color of each applicant. Then give the Indians access to the database. Tell the Indians the racial breakdown that is required for next year’s freshman class, and they can take it from there.
I don’t think much of your theory (“theoroid” akin to “factoid?”) of bureaucratic interests of college employees somehow contributing to, or rigging race-based college admissions… inertia and unwillingness to rock the well-paying boat play a higher rôle. However, were “offshore Indians” given the entire DB of applicants, and the racial admission targets, I suspect that in the year after that, a larger than usual part of the accepted would be Indians of just the requested “races” (reference: Dr. Atul Gawande’s report of being dispatched to India to vet M.D. applicants published in The New Yorker some 10? years ago – can’t research and link to it now).
People who currently earn above-market wages would be unemployed…Are the bureaucratic interests of college employees part of the motivation for running race-based college admissions?
These bureaucrats don’t know enough about labor markets to think of this. They run race-based college admissions because they think they’re doing good, altruistic work and helping the less fortunate (all at no cost to the bureaucrat).
Creating work to justify its own existence is indeed a common phenomenon in bureaucracies. However, university applications ask for a LOT more information than just race, SAT scores and grades. It seems unlikely that “sorting applications by skin color”, to the extent that it occurs, is a major driver of workload in the application evaluation process. Thus, it seems unlikely that keeping up the workload is a major motivation for the persistence of race based admissions criteria. Also, just because colleges don’t pursue every possible dimension of diversity with equal vigor doesn’t mean that they aren’t committed to the pursuit of racial diversity (that is, I believe the post contains a non-sequitur).
One could ask: How much of this proposal to have the college admissions game scored based on metrics
FInishing the previous post…
One could ask: How much of this proposal to have the college admissions game scored based on metrics which the poster happens to excel in is based on self interest?
The fish stinks from the head. This is driven not by bureaucracy but by policy decide from the top.
Once upon a time (before the 1920s) , US universities had exactly the kind of rank ordering system that you describe. Then “too many” Jews started getting in and the top universities switched to a “holistic” system in which they could evaluate applicants for “well roundedness” which was defined as having interests and characteristics uncommon among Jews at that time – an interest in athletics, blond hair, etc.
Read Karabel’s book to have your eyes opened – our whole American university admissions system was born in sin.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Chosen-Admission-Exclusion-Princeton/dp/061877355X
Later it was repurposed from its original job of excluding Jews to a new job of excluding whites (since the number of seats is fixed, “including” minorities is exactly the same thing as “excluding” whites). Other countries (e.g. Japan) still have the exact system you describe because they don’t have to deal with juggling racial constituencies.
Your point has validity to this extent – it would be (were it not illegal according to Supreme Court rulings) a simple matter to just spot black applicants 100 points or so per SAT section (this is about the average difference between blacks and whites/Asians at most top universities) and proceed with a simple selection process from that point, just like a golf handicap. But the S. Ct. rulings expressly state that race can only be a vague “plus factor” among many others in a “holistic” admission system, so having the whole BS system that we have with essays and recommendations and evaluation of extracurriculars, etc. is in effect government mandated if you want to practice AA.
> except those who can pay substantially more in tuition than the average American student.
My alma mater accepted a scarce 40 students/yrs in computer engineering eons ago. Today probably 1/3 of those are filled by out-of-country students paying full tuition, ostensibly to lower the tuition for native students. While the 40 student quota has not increased since I attended, the number of admin staff per student has doubled. Seems all the additional funding has gone to bureaucratics rather than students.
“The verification process could be done by workers in India to check to make sure that the test scores and high school grades were authentic”
I nearly fell off my chair laughing… Given Indians know a thing or two about academic cheating, it seems an aptly appropriate offshoring supplier of labor to check grade authenticity.
Though I am sure Philip had low costs in mind, the irony made me chuckle.
@anon: My alma mater accepted a scarce 40 students/yrs in computer engineering eons ago. Today probably 1/3 of those are filled by out-of-country students paying full tuition
Not exactly eons ago, but in the late ’90s, my graduate computer science classes at the University of Florida were, except for me, entirely filled by foreign students – mostly Chinese and Indians. One female Indian student sitting next to me on the first day of one class asked me where I was from, expecting some European country. She was shocked (and disappointed) to learn I was merely a boring White American.
Oh, and many, many of those foreign grad students slide into part-time tutoring and teaching assistant positions and get cut-rate or free tuition.
I am curious if this chart of bureaucratic expansion matches with anyone’s observations…
http://www.oftwominds.com/photos10/lifecycle-bureaucracy.png
@ Smartest Woman: “[Indian student] was shocked (and disappointed) to learn I was merely a boring White American.”
No offense intended, but as per Philip’s oft-voiced opinion of bleak future prospects for American scientists, programmers (he used to be one), and the like [#investinasia!], your career choice can’t have been that smart, hence you’re hardly THE Smartest Woman on the Internet… at best Smart Enough? (and not even in the state of Florida, as you seemingly never parlayed your innate 3-kids-with-3-dentists-bearing-ability into a comfy work-free career).
Philip wrote “[College admission] verification process could be done by workers in India to check to make sure that the test scores and high school grades were authentic,” to which I objected in my #2 comment above. Because, judging solely by what I read of widespread corruption in India, I can’t imagine how such a offshore-vetting process there could be considered trustworthy.
An example in point, if not in the same call-center league: [A Guardian Longread] The mystery of India’s deadly exam scamIt began with a test-fixing scandal so massive that it led to 2,000 arrests, including top politicians, academics and doctors. Then suspects started turning up dead. What is the truth behind the Vyapam scam that has gripped India? [also peruse the comments].