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If Harvard is trying to admit the top students academically, they must be race blind. If they are trying to admit the future powerful citizens of America, they
by fipple 8y ago
If Harvard is trying to admit the top students academically, they must be race blind. If they are trying to admit the future powerful citizens of America, they can use a metric that accounts for that. For example, Beyoncé is more powerful than me, even though I probably had better grades. It wouldn’t be outrageous for Harvard to say we want Beyoncé as an alumnus more than me. But be honest about what you’re doing then, and don’t call your institution an academic one.
- hackinthebochs 8y agoThis really gets to the heart of the matter. Harvard wants to increase its prestige, and it does so by having future CEOs, Senators, and Presidents go to Harvard. But the distribution of potential leaders of society is not equal to the distribution of top GPA/test scores. Should Obama have been passed over from Harvard Law for someone with a higher GPA (or GW Bush for Yale)? If you want to argue that Harvard should only use the grades/test scores metric, you have to argue for it, as it is not self-evident.
- TheCoelacanth 8y agoIn what world is the goal of an academic institution to produce students with good grades and not to produce students who are capable of accomplishing things?
- erikpukinskis 8y agoJust because an institution is an academic institution doesn’t mean they’re only trying to train people to be academics.