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It's not really an edge case, though. Asian-American students should (based on merit alone) make up almost half of top colleges. I realize you probably didn't m

It's not really an edge case, though. Asian-American students should (based on merit alone) make up almost half of top colleges. I realize you probably didn't mean "edge case" as in "a small effect", but the effect here is so large it really is front and center - it would radically change the makeup of top college student bodies, with a large corresponding impact on affirmative action for underrepresented minorities. It's also historically not a small issue either. The same was true for Jewish students a few generations ago, and Harvard acted then as it did now - to limit the representation of those groups and prevent them from being a big chunk of the student body. This also isn't new about Asian-American students, for that matter - for many years now the evidence has been piling up that colleges are discriminating against them. So bringing this up isn't like someone found an interesting theoretical problem with college admissions policies - it's a huge long-standing issue.

magduf 8y ago
>It's not really an edge case, though. Asian-American students should (based on merit alone) make up almost half of top colleges. I'm not sure I see the problem here. Top colleges are educational institutions. So what's the problem if people who come from a cultural background that highly emphasizes the importance of education greatly outnumber people who come from cultural backgrounds that eschew education? No one ever complains that Asian-Americans are underrepresented in country music and NASCAR. If these institutions were to ignore race altogether as a factor, then of course people who come from pro-education backgrounds are going to outnumber those who don't. Why is this a problem? This is just an effect of a culture (or subculture) getting the outcome it's working for. This doesn't mean outlier individuals in anti-education cultures are barred from it, as they're free to compete too, and a truly race-blind system will choose some of them as well.

magduf 8y ago

>It's not really an edge case, though. Asian-American students should (based on merit alone) make up almost half of top colleges. I'm not sure I see the problem here. Top colleges are educational institutions. So what's the problem if people who come from a cultural background that highly emphasizes the importance of education greatly outnumber people who come from cultural backgrounds that eschew education? No one ever complains that Asian-Americans are underrepresented in country music and NASCAR. If these institutions were to ignore race altogether as a factor, then of course people who come from pro-education backgrounds are going to outnumber those who don't. Why is this a problem? This is just an effect of a culture (or subculture) getting the outcome it's working for. This doesn't mean outlier individuals in anti-education cultures are barred from it, as they're free to compete too, and a truly race-blind system will choose some of them as well.