Last June, our own Snipy wrote about a Supreme Court case involving one Abigail Fisher, a young lady who had a giant sad because the University of Texas declined to admit her to its august halls. Abigail couldn’t believe it, so she did what any young person would do: She set aside her disappointment, went to another school, and had a great undergraduate career. Ha ha, we’re kidding, she blamed the darkies for taking her spot and sued the shit out of UT.
My white male offspring is currently deciding of which schools to apply & I'm nervous as hell about it.
He attends a nationally ranked public school (within top 230), has taken all honors & AP classes and maintained a consistent 4.0, National Honor Society, yadda yadda yadda... and he is STILL only ranked 196 out of 558 students in his graduating class.
I mean I know he'll get into college somewhere but FFS I can't help wanting my kiddo to go where he wants & have the best college experience ever... ya know? BUT we aren't going to sue any schools that don't accept him & especially not because he's a white male.
Wanna be my pretend dealer & hook me up with the inside scoop on the latest stand out college applications? (See my immediately preceding post)
I will reluctantly concede your claim regarding Berkeley (Badger here), but your larger point has been true for at least my lifetime -- where you get your B.x. is pretty irrelevant to your career prospects, and even to your chances of getting into your grad school of choice.
But, you may still have reasons to favor one diploma mill over another. I ended up at Wisconsin because of an Easter vacation college trip I took in my senior year of HS. MIT was, in 1965, just too nerdy – I actually thought part of college was supposed to be “liberal arts” – and even at seventeen, I could tell that no amount of exposure to eating clubs at Princeton was going to turn me into an Ivy Leaguer. I was a little intimidated by Cal Tech, without a visit. Also, in-state tuition at Wisconsin was somewhere around $100 per semester, whereas MIT, Princeton, Tech were happy to LOAN me (or, more accurately, my folks) the requisite $25K (1965 dollars), because my schoolteacher parents made too much for me to get an actual scholarship. Also, as I realized years later, my dad went to Wisconsin, and had been subtly biasing me that direction for my entire life.
But hey. My point is that, even though all accredited undergrad universities are roughly equivalent from a grad-school-acceptance or career standpoint, there are still reasons why a person might prefer one over another. (Incidentally, I enjoyed the hell out of my four years in Madison).
On the other hand, suing about it is pretty stupid (or, in this case, attention-whoring), because the sloth of the legal system guarantees that even if you win, you won’t get what you allegedly want, because you’ll be too old.
Thanks for the pep talk. He'll likely have to settle for UGA (in-state) but would sell me down the river if he could go to UF. ;) I'm trying to talk him into attending Santa Fe for freshman year then he'd qualify for in-state at FL & would have a much higher chance of transferring.
College athletes on scholarships are an elite group too, just not (typically) an academic elite. Don't doubt for a minute that each one had to scratch and claw their way through the ranks just to get to that point.
Okay, I need to calibrate myself. Your offspring maintains a 4.0, is in the NHS, and ranks 196 / 558 in his class?
Back in 1965, I graduated with a cumulative 3.97 (there were no grades over 4.0). I was third in my class of about 200 (the two 4.0's didn't piss off their final lab science teacher). We had about 15 NHS kids (7.5%), and four National Merit Scholars (2%), including me.
I know times have changed, but are you really saying someone can have a 4.0 GPA and only rank in the 35th percentile in their class? Something something get off my lawn.
The only thing I don't like about your non-existent (don't let them know) comment is the idea that there is such a thing as a 4.2 GPA.
It doesn't necessarily mean that she didn't try hard enough. There might simply have been an overabundance of high-wattage people in her graduating class for some random reason. I'm serious; it does happen from time to time. In any event, top 12% isn't exactly slacker territory. None of what I just said should be read as a defense of her legal action though.
I don&#039;t understand why HS seniors (and especially their parents) get so worked up by getting turned down by ONE undergraduate school, especially if that college is competitive. It&#039;s just <i>one school</i> for god&#039;s sake; if they have the quals there will certainly be several equivalent schools who will accept them. In the end, getting into a particular school is a bit of a crapshoot; for most applicants there is no automatic acceptance.
College admissions committees consider a lot of factors in deciding on an application. While it may not seem fair when you are on the losing end, a decision about one person&#039;s application can be influenced by the makeup of the pool of applications that have already been accepted.
Admission committees are in essence &quot;building&quot; a new class each year, and your application is just one of the parts in the parts bin that they have available to work with. If a school decides to accept 50 applications that are all but identical, it doesn&#039;t mean that they will also accept the 51st one. They may decide that they have accepted enough students with that profile for that year and will turn their attention to applicants with other profiles. In such a case the 51st applicant is just a victim of bad luck. For every bid for admission that a student &quot;loses&quot; due to intangibles there will be others that he or she will &quot;win&quot; for essentially the same reasons.
It&#039;s good practice for the applicants, because once they graduate and enter the workforce they will find that getting hired by a particular company involves pretty much the same process. But the competition will often be even more brutal then, and so will be the role of blind chance.
She sued because she was rejected by the state school she wanted? Not some prestigous university or private college, but the fucking University of Texas?
I&#039;m waiting for a Black, Hispanic, Asian or female applicant to sue a college or university over its preferential admissions policy for legacies - children of graduates.
AKA &quot;Affirmative Action for White People.&quot;
My white male offspring is currently deciding of which schools to apply &amp; I&#039;m nervous as hell about it.
He attends a nationally ranked public school (within top 230), has taken all honors &amp; AP classes and maintained a consistent 4.0, National Honor Society, yadda yadda yadda... and he is STILL only ranked 196 out of 558 students in his graduating class.
I mean I know he&#039;ll get into college somewhere but FFS I can&#039;t help wanting my kiddo to go where he wants &amp; have the best college experience ever... ya know? BUT we aren&#039;t going to sue any schools that don&#039;t accept him &amp; especially not because he&#039;s a white male.
Wanna be my pretend dealer &amp; hook me up with the inside scoop on the latest stand out college applications? (See my immediately preceding post)
I will reluctantly concede your claim regarding Berkeley (Badger here), but your larger point has been true for at least my lifetime -- where you get your B.x. is pretty irrelevant to your career prospects, and even to your chances of getting into your grad school of choice.
But, you may still have reasons to favor one diploma mill over another. I ended up at Wisconsin because of an Easter vacation college trip I took in my senior year of HS. MIT was, in 1965, just too nerdy &ndash; I actually thought part of college was supposed to be &ldquo;liberal arts&rdquo; &ndash; and even at seventeen, I could tell that no amount of exposure to eating clubs at Princeton was going to turn me into an Ivy Leaguer. I was a little intimidated by Cal Tech, without a visit. Also, in-state tuition at Wisconsin was somewhere around $100 per semester, whereas MIT, Princeton, Tech were happy to LOAN me (or, more accurately, my folks) the requisite $25K (1965 dollars), because my schoolteacher parents made too much for me to get an actual scholarship. Also, as I realized years later, my dad went to Wisconsin, and had been subtly biasing me that direction for my entire life.
But hey. My point is that, even though all accredited undergrad universities are roughly equivalent from a grad-school-acceptance or career standpoint, there are still reasons why a person might prefer one over another. (Incidentally, I enjoyed the hell out of my four years in Madison).
On the other hand, suing about it is pretty stupid (or, in this case, attention-whoring), because the sloth of the legal system guarantees that even if you win, you won&rsquo;t get what you allegedly want, because you&rsquo;ll be too old.
I wonder if there is an O&#039;Donnell-Brazilian Corollary by now.
Because there are a ton of wichad smaht kids at his school. :/
Yep... You are exactly correct. While it&#039;s wonderful he attends a great school the peer competition is brutal to his class rank.
Thanks for the pep talk. He&#039;ll likely have to settle for UGA (in-state) but would sell me down the river if he could go to UF. ;) I&#039;m trying to talk him into attending Santa Fe for freshman year then he&#039;d qualify for in-state at FL &amp; would have a much higher chance of transferring.
College athletes on scholarships are an elite group too, just not (typically) an academic elite. Don&#039;t doubt for a minute that each one had to scratch and claw their way through the ranks just to get to that point.
Okay, I need to calibrate myself. Your offspring maintains a 4.0, is in the NHS, and ranks 196 / 558 in his class?
Back in 1965, I graduated with a cumulative 3.97 (there were no grades over 4.0). I was third in my class of about 200 (the two 4.0&#039;s didn&#039;t piss off their final lab science teacher). We had about 15 NHS kids (7.5%), and four National Merit Scholars (2%), including me.
I know times have changed, but are you really saying someone can have a 4.0 GPA and only rank in the 35th percentile in their class? Something something get off my lawn.
Pew. Pew. Pew.
The only thing I don&#039;t like about your non-existent (don&#039;t let them know) comment is the idea that there is such a thing as a 4.2 GPA.
It doesn&#039;t necessarily mean that she didn&#039;t try hard enough. There might simply have been an overabundance of high-wattage people in her graduating class for some random reason. I&#039;m serious; it does happen from time to time. In any event, top 12% isn&#039;t exactly slacker territory. None of what I just said should be read as a defense of her legal action though.
I don&#039;t understand why HS seniors (and especially their parents) get so worked up by getting turned down by ONE undergraduate school, especially if that college is competitive. It&#039;s just <i>one school</i> for god&#039;s sake; if they have the quals there will certainly be several equivalent schools who will accept them. In the end, getting into a particular school is a bit of a crapshoot; for most applicants there is no automatic acceptance.
College admissions committees consider a lot of factors in deciding on an application. While it may not seem fair when you are on the losing end, a decision about one person&#039;s application can be influenced by the makeup of the pool of applications that have already been accepted.
Admission committees are in essence &quot;building&quot; a new class each year, and your application is just one of the parts in the parts bin that they have available to work with. If a school decides to accept 50 applications that are all but identical, it doesn&#039;t mean that they will also accept the 51st one. They may decide that they have accepted enough students with that profile for that year and will turn their attention to applicants with other profiles. In such a case the 51st applicant is just a victim of bad luck. For every bid for admission that a student &quot;loses&quot; due to intangibles there will be others that he or she will &quot;win&quot; for essentially the same reasons.
It&#039;s good practice for the applicants, because once they graduate and enter the workforce they will find that getting hired by a particular company involves pretty much the same process. But the competition will often be even more brutal then, and so will be the role of blind chance.
So did she? asking for a friend.
Wait, wait...
She sued because she was rejected by the state school she wanted? Not some prestigous university or private college, but the fucking University of Texas?
&quot;Millenials are the WORST.&quot;
-Rebecca
I&#039;m waiting for a Black, Hispanic, Asian or female applicant to sue a college or university over its preferential admissions policy for legacies - children of graduates.
AKA &quot;Affirmative Action for White People.&quot;