Original Article: http://dartreview.com/archives/2001/12/03/ne_college_admissions_pervasive_preferences.php
Monday, December 3, 2001
The Nellie Mae Educational Foundation recently released a study entitled 'Diversity Among Equals' which extols the use of affirmative action in New England colleges' admissions processes. The researchers sought to dispel their feeling that 'Affirmative Admissions is frequently misunderstood by the general public, which perceives that it results in unqualified minority students being accepted over qualified White students.' The researchers concluded that this perception is false. Still, many detractors of affirmative admissions remain unconvinced that the study offers any sort of compelling defense for a system they find reprehensible.
The study looked at both enhanced rate and reduced threshold criteria in admissions policies. Enhanced rate is accepting a higher percentage of minority applicants because of lower yield rates (the percentage of accepted students who matriculate) for these students; reduced threshold is lowering admissions standards so more minorities can be accepted. The researchers primarily relied on the findings pertaining to reduced threshold admissions to make their conclusions.
The study claims, 'Reduced Threshold Affirmative Admission is not occurring in New England: there is clear evidence that four-year colleges and universities in New England do not engage in the practice of reducing standards to admit greater numbers of minority students.' To prove this emphatic statement, researchers questionably defined reduced threshold admissions as whether colleges 'admitted minority students with lower academic credentials than the minimum required of white students.' Minorities might find this criterion an insult because of its implication that they are only good enough to compete with the worst white students. Comparing the average credentials of minority acceptances to the average credentials of other acceptances might be a fairer approach and could drastically alter the results of this research.
An earlier study entitled 'Pervasive Preferences' performed its research in such a manner. Published prior to 'Diversity Among Equals,' it found that among forty-seven colleges and universities across America 'the average difference in academic credentials among those admitted, whether measured by test scores or by grades and high-school class rank, between blacks and whites, and to a lesser extent between Hispanics and whites, is very large. There are few such differences between whites and Asians.'
With regard to enhanced rate admission 'Diversity Among Equals' noted 'most four-year colleges and universities in New England practice enhanced rate admissions,' but dismissed this practice as compensation for lower yield rates among minorities. Their statement was not followed by any explanation of the implications of the enhanced rate process. By accepting higher percentages of minorities, colleges may not be lowering the bar for these minorities, but they are, in effect, raising the bar for non-minorities. Even if accepted minorities are subjected to the same standards as non-minorities, by accepting more of the minorities, admissions officers make it much more difficult for non-minorities to gain acceptance.
In a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Roger Clegg, general counsel at the Center for Equal Opportunity, spoke out against the report. Clegg concludes from the report's findings that 'there is a significant amount of discrimination going on' in college admissions. Clegg says the reports conclusions are irrelevant to the legality of racial preferences in college admissions: 'The issue is not whether all students have the same floor; the issue is whether students who are above the floor are being treated equally, without regard to race.' Clegg concludes that this study merely further reveals college admissions processes for their 'objectionable, immoral, and illegal' nature.
'Diversity Among Equals' gathered its data through interviews with various education leaders in K-12 and post-secondary institutions and surveys to the undergraduate institutions. As part of its findings, the study highlighted 'the need for affirmative admissions.' One enrollment officer said, 'We would love to have more minority students. So would everyone else. We all want them, and there just are not enough to go around.' Minorities have become a precious commodity at these New England schools, and anything goes in their attempts to attract them, even if it means changing the rules for everyone else.
'Diversity Among Equals' is available at http://www.nmefdn.org. 'Pervasive Preferences' and an interactive program that will predict one's chances of admission at several universities based on one's race are online at http://www.ceousa.org.