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The current educational system utilizes SAT scores with a variety of other sources for determining acceptance. While there are other factors such as athleticism

by gtr32x 13y ago

The current educational system utilizes SAT scores with a variety of other sources for determining acceptance. While there are other factors such as athleticism, social endeavors etc. SAT score is still often viewed as one of the key determining factors. It is of no doubt that Asians that apply to these top universities as a whole have higher SAT scores. However it does not say of their other qualities, those were perhaps the reasons why there was a lower acceptance rate for them. In our current educational system, the only transparently comparable bar is the SAT score, while every other factor is more or less arbitrarily judgmental, e.g. can be manipulated. Asians learn that in order to become better, they'll at least put down efforts to increase the clearly visible bar to increase their chance. It is not to say that they will overlook the other factors, just since they aren't as apparent and obvious, they will make sure their SAT score does fare better. One argument can be that because Asians put down more effort and time in their SAT (bookworms), then they will not be able to fare better in other metrics. I won't say that this doesn't make sense, it does, but it calls for generalization bias. Especially when a data set has been collected that speaks for a year's worth of group, I do not believe the general idea that Asian are less adept in other metrics is true. Under this assumption, when we see data that SAT score (the only visible metric) is actually leveraged against a person's race, that is plain racism. Not saying racism is a bad thing, if schools determine that collectively as a whole they need diversity to strength the core values, racism is just one factor to play with to achieve their goals. The only problem that I do have with though is, with all the metrics you throw out there, the group of people that just naturally put down more effort to increase their chance gets punished, because of racism/diversity reasons.

jsnk 13y ago
You did mention it in the last paragraph, but let's reiterate that. In the end, it is plain racism against Asians, solely for being Asian. People can continue to shroud this fact with more comforting language such as "diversity" that's politically salient, but end result for Asians is all the same, plain old racism. No one is saying that SAT is the sole standard of admission. But does anyone really believe that Asians as a group collectively are so horrible in admission standard (with exception of SAT score) that huge disparity in number of Asian applicants and Asian admissions are justified?
- roguecoder 13y ago
  Asians are not underrepresented relative to population-wide demographics, so it is only "obviously" discrimination if you assume that more Asians are qualified than students of other races. Otherwise, it is possible that these studies are failing to take into account some dynamic. To play devil's advocate, for example: Asians may be more likely than other groups to apply to these schools. It may be that Asians with high SAT scores but weaker applications in other areas are more likely to apply to highly selective schools than comparable students of other races, which would lead to lower admission rates. The numbers here wink suggestively, but they present a far from airtight case.
  - jsnk 13y ago
    <<Asians are not underrepresented relative to population-wide demographics, so it is only "obviously" discrimination if you assume that more Asians are qualified than students of other races.>> I am not assuming that Asians are more qualified than students of other races. Purely from the statistics provided by the blog, I find it hard to believe that Asians are doing so poorly in other admission standards that having several hundred extra SAT score doesn't put them in equal footing. Aren't you the one who is assuming that Asians are obviously failing in admission standards other than SAT compared to other races?

by gtr32x 13y ago

jsnk 13y ago

You did mention it in the last paragraph, but let's reiterate that. In the end, it is plain racism against Asians, solely for being Asian. People can continue to shroud this fact with more comforting language such as "diversity" that's politically salient, but end result for Asians is all the same, plain old racism. No one is saying that SAT is the sole standard of admission. But does anyone really believe that Asians as a group collectively are so horrible in admission standard (with exception of SAT score) that huge disparity in number of Asian applicants and Asian admissions are justified?

roguecoder 13y ago
Asians are not underrepresented relative to population-wide demographics, so it is only "obviously" discrimination if you assume that more Asians are qualified than students of other races. Otherwise, it is possible that these studies are failing to take into account some dynamic. To play devil's advocate, for example: Asians may be more likely than other groups to apply to these schools. It may be that Asians with high SAT scores but weaker applications in other areas are more likely to apply to highly selective schools than comparable students of other races, which would lead to lower admission rates. The numbers here wink suggestively, but they present a far from airtight case.
- jsnk 13y ago
  <<Asians are not underrepresented relative to population-wide demographics, so it is only "obviously" discrimination if you assume that more Asians are qualified than students of other races.>> I am not assuming that Asians are more qualified than students of other races. Purely from the statistics provided by the blog, I find it hard to believe that Asians are doing so poorly in other admission standards that having several hundred extra SAT score doesn't put them in equal footing. Aren't you the one who is assuming that Asians are obviously failing in admission standards other than SAT compared to other races?