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I am proud (or ashamed) to admit that I read the whole thing. The article is pretty dense and it took me a little over two hours to get through it. Around the

I am proud (or ashamed) to admit that I read the whole thing. The article is pretty dense and it took me a little over two hours to get through it. Around the middle of the article, the author argues that Jewish whites are overrepresented in top colleges relative to non-Jewish whites, also arguing that white Jew academic performance has declined over the past decade. He argues that in essence, Jewish whites disproportionately dominate colleges, and that both Asians and non-Jew whites are underrepresented relative to the proportions of top students that are Asian and non-Jewish white. However, much of his analysis is based on analyzing the last names of students who earned National Merit Scholarship awards (these are awards given out nationwide among nearly all high school students), a method which might work for Asian surnames (which are highly distinctive), but one that is highly flawed when trying to distinguish between a white Jewish and white non-Jewish surname. This is rather shaky ground. In the author's defense, this is probably the only source of data that he could get, given that it is difficult to find data on Jewish vs. non Jewish white scholarly performance and college admissions. If there's any section you should skim, that's it. The later sections of the article are particularly eye-opening: the author enters into a discussion of the personal biases that admissions officers can hold. One example is that a researcher found that participating in certain "high school activities actually reduced a student’s admission chances by 60–65 percent, ...these were ROTC, 4-H Clubs, Future Farmers of America, and various similar organizations." Another interesting fact is that people (and by extension admissions officers) have a tendency to drastically over-estimate the proportion of blacks/Hispanics/Jews in the US population. However, the article ends rather weakly; the author basically suggests that the best solution is to have top colleges select a small portion of their students by pure talent (geniuses), and then select the rest by lottery out of a pool of academically qualified applicants. To me, this seems just as unfair as the alternatives, and de-motivational for academic success.

valgaze 14y ago
Yah it's very long- truth be told, when I first came across the talk about Jewish administrators & saw the length of the article I assumed it was written by some crank with an axe to grind. Whatever one makes of the analysis & conclusions, if you hear the author out it becomes clear that this was done in a very thoughtful & thorough manner. For some context: The author is Ron Unz, an "activist" type & former financial software guy whose company was acquired by Moodys in the mid 00s. He's quite difficult to pin down with traditional USA political shorthand (see his other positions on social services for immigrants vs bilingual education in CA for example.) It seems that whatever subject on which he focuses, he really goes all in. This is a pretty interesting profile of him from the late nineties: http://www.onenation.org/9907/071999.html http://www.onenation.org/9907/071999.html If you're familiar with Steven Colbert's SuperPAC shenanigans you might remember that someone named Trevor Potter (former FEC) was Colbert's legal advisor & "straight" counterbalance. This is what that Potter said about Unz's unsuccessful campaign finance reform initiative: "[...] Unz's "California Voters Bill of Rights" includes voluntary spending limits accompanied by partial public financing, a ban on corporate giving to candidates, overnight Web-based disclosure, and reasonable contribution caps (e.g., $5,000 for statewide races) that should survive a court challenge. "It's far wider-reaching than McCain-Feingold," says Trevor Potter, former chairman of the Federal Election Commission This post was provocative & definitely passed the "...anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity" test.
aidenn0 14y ago
"However, the article ends rather weakly; the author basically suggests that the best solution is to have top colleges select a small portion of their students by pure talent (geniuses), and then select the rest by lottery out of a pool of academically qualified applicants. To me, this seems just as unfair as the alternatives, and de-motivational for academic success." Not only that, but part of the value of the Harvard education is that you end up being at the school where everyone recruits from. They are on shaky legal ground giving you an IQ test, but "Was admitted to Harvard 4 years ago" is a decent proxy for one.

valgaze 14y ago

Yah it's very long- truth be told, when I first came across the talk about Jewish administrators & saw the length of the article I assumed it was written by some crank with an axe to grind. Whatever one makes of the analysis & conclusions, if you hear the author out it becomes clear that this was done in a very thoughtful & thorough manner. For some context: The author is Ron Unz, an "activist" type & former financial software guy whose company was acquired by Moodys in the mid 00s. He's quite difficult to pin down with traditional USA political shorthand (see his other positions on social services for immigrants vs bilingual education in CA for example.) It seems that whatever subject on which he focuses, he really goes all in. This is a pretty interesting profile of him from the late nineties: http://www.onenation.org/9907/071999.html http://www.onenation.org/9907/071999.html If you're familiar with Steven Colbert's SuperPAC shenanigans you might remember that someone named Trevor Potter (former FEC) was Colbert's legal advisor & "straight" counterbalance. This is what that Potter said about Unz's unsuccessful campaign finance reform initiative: "[...] Unz's "California Voters Bill of Rights" includes voluntary spending limits accompanied by partial public financing, a ban on corporate giving to candidates, overnight Web-based disclosure, and reasonable contribution caps (e.g., $5,000 for statewide races) that should survive a court challenge. "It's far wider-reaching than McCain-Feingold," says Trevor Potter, former chairman of the Federal Election Commission This post was provocative & definitely passed the "...anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity" test.

aidenn0 14y ago

"However, the article ends rather weakly; the author basically suggests that the best solution is to have top colleges select a small portion of their students by pure talent (geniuses), and then select the rest by lottery out of a pool of academically qualified applicants. To me, this seems just as unfair as the alternatives, and de-motivational for academic success." Not only that, but part of the value of the Harvard education is that you end up being at the school where everyone recruits from. They are on shaky legal ground giving you an IQ test, but "Was admitted to Harvard 4 years ago" is a decent proxy for one.