On Our Minds: Affirmative Action
I previously opposed Affirmative Action and similar programs. As an Asian American, I wasn’t fond of the idea of losing my spot in an elite college to someone because of the color of my skin. The pressure of getting into college was intimidating enough without any meddling factors; I needed something to blame just to keep my sanity. “It’s reverse racism, right?” I would joke with my friends. “It’s unjust. Just because someone is black or Latinx, they can steal my spot at Harvard.”
My mom told me before the end of family weekend, “Don’t check off a box for ethnicity on your standardized tests. Just leave it blank.” So on the PSAT, I didn’t fill out the bubble for ethnicity, as if that was the secret sauce to getting me into the college of my dreams. I didn’t really like giving up an aspect of my identity, but the college rat race has forced us to do ridiculous things.
According to Time Magazine, 15 percent of college-age Americans are black, but they constitute six percent of students at Ivy League schools. On a related note, Latinx scholars make up 22 percent of the college-age population, but only 13 percent of them take up spots at these elite schools. Even with efforts to be more equitable in the admissions process, people of color are still underrepresented at top colleges.
Asian Americans make up seven percent of the US population and 20 percent of spots in the Ivy League. Even with so many spots “robbed” by beneficiaries of Affirmative Action, I believe it’s safe to say that qualified Asian Americans get their fair share of admission into elite schools. According to a College Board report on the high school class of 2018, Asian American students scored an average of 1223 on the SAT, while black and Latinx students scored 946 and 990, respectively. But everything must be taken with context.
Black students have been historically disadvantaged and continue to face disadvantages in the schooling system. According to the Brookings Institution, about half of black children are born into families that grade in the bottom quintile of household income, while only one-tenth of white people are in the same quintile. Lower income, due to a multitude of factors including mass incarceration and workplace discrimination, forces many people into the barebones public school system. Lower income also limits their ability to afford test-prep courses and attend summer programs for academic enrichment—a common luxury for wealthier whites and Asian Americans. These social and financial barriers make it challenging for many black students to break this cycle of poverty. Without Affirmative Action and similar programs, this cycle would spiral out of control.
Today’s college admissions process is a race on an unlevel playing field; programs like Affirmative Action are meant to minimize the inherent advantages of the privileged, not for white or Asian American students to pay reparations. Affirmative action is not the problem.
Today, according to Harvard, legacy students constitute 14 percent of their student body. Between 2009 and 2015, the elite institution’s acceptance rate for legacy students was 34 percent, as opposed to their much lower admission rate of 5.9 percent for all applicants. According to Cappex.com, this surplus is consistent with other Ivy League schools, averaging at about a 15 percent difference. From a business standpoint, admitting a lot of students whose parents pay for a good chunk of the respective college’s endowment is a logically sound idea. But even if many colleges are private institutions designed for profits, they are also schools; they hope to prepare us for the complex jobs that make the world run. If the purpose of collegiate education is to prepare the next wave of global leaders and usher in an age of economic prosperity—what are we doing?
I won’t delve into the politics of proposing free universal education, but I think it’s worth pondering why we have colleges that lose sight of their mission when presented with financial incentives. Whether it’s the fake rowing recruits or donating money for a new wing in a building with their name on it, the privileged have gone under the radar amid the Harvard lawsuit. While legacy over admittance is one of many problems with the college admissions system, Affirmative Action isn’t one of them.