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What's far more egregious than people buying their way in is the legacy and sport admissions system. I would go after those long before those that make large do
by adjkant 8y ago
What's far more egregious than people buying their way in is the legacy and sport admissions system. I would go after those long before those that make large donations to schools, which at least benefit other students attending in the process.
Counting legacy in admissions not only advantages the already privileged but also reinforces the idea of this selective network of graduates. Schools love to tout their alumni networks, but if a graduate is giving preferences in hiring to people from their school simply because it is their school I wouldn't consider them a smart person, or at least not a moral one. There are tons of great schools out there and any educated person should know that being preferential to one school arbitrarily only means you will miss better candidates. It's not only unfair, it's not good hiring from a capitalist perspective.
As far as athletics, I see a bit more sense there from a school perspective if the athletics drive name recognition and sometimes money, but it seems particularly silly that a college, academically motivated first, would more or less forget their admissions standards for sometimes as much as 10% of the incoming class.
- testpostpls 8y agoLife isn’t fair. People don’t want to catch grief for it. They don’t want to be “gone after.” Part of the draw of hiring from these pools is you’re less likely to get folks who have the hang ups you’ve displayed in your post.
- Nasrudith 8y agoI really hate "life isn't fair" as an excuse to be an asshole. It is like excusing tripping a guy with a limp for being slow and prone to injury anyway. Just because it may be so is no excuse for making it worse. Not to mention it demonstrates the exact flaws they are warning about but reality cannot be fooled. Those ignored talents will go elsewhere and the competitors will lack those particular flaws by necessity. And then they'll cry "Why did nobody warn me we were falling behind!" After doing their best to not to listen.
- int_19h 8y agoLife is as fair as we make it; it's not like there's some force of nature that makes some people screw over others. It's their choice.
- solidsnack9000 8y agoMaybe universities are not merit based institutions and gateways for advancement of the underprivileged, but finishing schools funded by the elite to help elite children gain the training and social skills needed to become semi-functional elite adults? Of course, these institutions do need some serious scholars to serve as professors, just like a good gym needs some serious athletes to serve as trainers -- but selecting and training athletes is not the point of a gym and maybe scholarship is not the point of a university?