Out of all my classmates that went to really prestigious schools, like 20% were genuinely a cut above the rest. The other 80% just gamed everything, taking easier AP classes to boost GPA, random "resume" building activities, these folks just left a sour impression on me.
Bribes to Get into Yale and Stanford? What Else Is New?
101–110 of 157 posts
Re: Bribes to Get into Yale and Stanford? What Else Is New?
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
I could be wrong, but I don't think Jews get much of an affirmative action boost either.
think twice http://www.unz.com/runz/the-myth-of-american-meritocracy/
This is about anti-Jewish discrimination specifically. This is pro meritocracy. Not affirmative action.
Re: Bribes to Get into Yale and Stanford? What Else Is New?
#103Just reinforces my belief that an ivy league degree is much more an indicator of socioeconomic class than it is intelligence or aptitude.
Yes. You pay for the network, the education is free and optional. However: I have worked with a handful of Harvard MBA graduates and . . . they were the smartest people I have ever worked with, and I have worked with a lot of people.
The dim ones don't have to work.
Re: Bribes to Get into Yale and Stanford? What Else Is New?
#104This is why, to me, the entire debate about affirmative action at elite colleges is a complete red herring. The amount of kids, regardless of race, who can be considered "deserving" of a spot has been reduced more so by legacy admissions and these bribes than by any effort of individual institutions to even out racial or gender demographics.
These universities don't have the prestige without the legacy admissions (and alumni donors). There are tons of universities, but it's hard to say anyone "deserves" a spot over someone's family who helped build it.
Then why do European universities, many of them very prestigious and much, much older than American ones, base their admission on grades and tests?
Given that in most European countries (I think, it'd definitely the case in Germany) tuition isn't a thing either, one can reasonably conclude that admission to an elite university is linked to academic prowess, at least to a higher degree than American universities.
I went to an elite university (can't deny that I'm a bit proud of that), and except maybe for the possible of highly limited stipendia, neither I nor my parents would have had any money to make that happen otherwise.
Re: Bribes to Get into Yale and Stanford? What Else Is New?
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're right. Now, if only we could agree on what the "regular citizen's" life looks like. a) It's probably a woman, since they're the majority of the population and have a distinctly different life experience to men b) It's probably someone who lives in a city, since that was 80% of Americans in the 2010 census.
I would be happy if that person didn’t come from an Ivy League school and whose parents aren’t multimillionaires.
Honestly they probably can't do worse.
Re: Bribes to Get into Yale and Stanford? What Else Is New?
#106What does this mean for the future of fake sports that no one watches or cares about that exist purely to help students from a certain class get into prestige schools?
Re: Bribes to Get into Yale and Stanford? What Else Is New?
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
> As of 2013, the median grade at Harvard was an A-. What do you conclude from this? > Anecdotally, I have heard of places that refuse to hire Harvard grads for this reason. That does sound anecdotal.
If everyone is receiving an A, that indicates that everyone receives As regardless of merit.
it might indicate that the course is not designed well and fails to provide gradient among students.
Re: Bribes to Get into Yale and Stanford? What Else Is New?
#108Re: Bribes to Get into Yale and Stanford? What Else Is New?
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Uh...that wasn't antisemetic...when talking about Ivy league representation, Jews are disproportionately represented which is why I distinguished between "Jewish Whites" and Non-Jewish Whites...
Bigger question: Why bring race up at all, then? Class has demonstrably larger effect. The 1% are very disproportionately represented in the Ivy League, too.
A couple of interesting questions:
1. Is being Jewish a race or a religion?
2. Being Jewish is also strongly correlated to class. 44% of Jews earn 100K+. Thats compared to ~20% for Christian, 19% Catholic, 20% Islam. (Interestingly Hindus are close at 36%).
Source: http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/income-dis...
Re: Bribes to Get into Yale and Stanford? What Else Is New?
#110This is why, to me, the entire debate about affirmative action at elite colleges is a complete red herring. The amount of kids, regardless of race, who can be considered "deserving" of a spot has been reduced more so by legacy admissions and these bribes than by any effort of individual institutions to even out racial or gender demographics.
If you're building a picture in your head, you can check it against actual numbers here:
https://features.thecrimson.com/2015/freshman-survey/makeup/