6 ms·

The author is failing to take into account the distribution of the applicants themselves. Discrimination can be interpreted many ways. In this scenario I prefer

The author is failing to take into account the distribution of the applicants themselves. Discrimination can be interpreted many ways. In this scenario I prefer to word it as 'if you are in this class, you will have less of a chance to be accepted.' Thanks to Bayes' rule, we know that we can't ignore a priori probabilities - they are the only way to get a true probability without 'confidence intervals' and other junk. Classiscists avoid Bayes because the a priori distributions are often inconvenient or uncomputable. By measuring scores we can get a rough estimate of these probabilities and work with them. Thus, simply being born in a certain class dramatically alters your SAT scores without you performing a single action. It's an unfortunate reality that race and gender based inequalities exist and affect real people. Attempting to build a 'meritocracy' without considering all factors creates a cycle that only exacerbates this effect. Chances are you think this way already and don't even know it: who in your opinion works 'harder:' the poor immigrant who builds a business, or a trust fund child who builds a business of equal size? Both are equal on your 'meritocratic' measure but chances are you'd have a strong preference to choose one over the other to run your own business. This isn't some kind of charity, it's recognizing that this person applies a much larger multiplier to what they are given than other people. Therefore, giving them a 'proper' base to work on would have an even greater effect.

jsnk 15y ago
Whenever someone underplays the systematic racial bias top universities have against Asian students, imagine the reverse scenario. If the table turns and suddenly some other racial groups, be it aboriginals, blacks, hispanics etc, are targeted with the same racial bias, would these people still doubt that there is racial bias citing reasons like this?
- bilbo0s 15y ago
  I tend to agree. Given the number of Asians applying to these universities, you have to wonder how non Jewish whites, blacks, and Latinos are gaining admission to these schools at all? There HAS to be something going on to give them a leg up.
- wickedchicken 15y ago
  For your situation to exist, those groups would have to have dramatically higher SAT scores and a societal status to have the leisure of many extracurriculars. Which is the exact fucking thing we're trying to achieve. I'm not trying to say that there isn't discrimination going on, just that a more reliable indicator would be comparing the ratios inside top universities versus the real world. I don't have those numbers, but trying to play games with test scores can too easily be done incorrectly.

jsnk 15y ago

Whenever someone underplays the systematic racial bias top universities have against Asian students, imagine the reverse scenario. If the table turns and suddenly some other racial groups, be it aboriginals, blacks, hispanics etc, are targeted with the same racial bias, would these people still doubt that there is racial bias citing reasons like this?

bilbo0s 15y ago
I tend to agree. Given the number of Asians applying to these universities, you have to wonder how non Jewish whites, blacks, and Latinos are gaining admission to these schools at all? There HAS to be something going on to give them a leg up.
wickedchicken 15y ago
For your situation to exist, those groups would have to have dramatically higher SAT scores and a societal status to have the leisure of many extracurriculars. Which is the exact fucking thing we're trying to achieve. I'm not trying to say that there isn't discrimination going on, just that a more reliable indicator would be comparing the ratios inside top universities versus the real world. I don't have those numbers, but trying to play games with test scores can too easily be done incorrectly.