Meanwhile, the same California government is trying to legalize discriminatory race-based admissions.
How is that related to this?
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UC Berkeley inappropriately admitted students as favors to donors
31–40 of 456 posts
Re: UC Berkeley inappropriately admitted students as favors to donors
#32I have failed to be outraged.
1/3 of them were admitted as student athletes. Everyone knows that it is official policy at most schools to accept people with athletic ability who would not qualify academically. Why? Because those athletic programs make the university a lot of money!
How is admitting someone because their family gave a lot of money any different in principle? It is just a question of reducing how many steps there are to making a profit for the school.
Re: UC Berkeley inappropriately admitted students as favors to donors
#33Note that this is from "inappropriate" donations to school staff who did things like fudge athletic recommendations.
It is entirely legal (though morally problematic) to "donate" your way into a school with a donation to the school directly.
Re: UC Berkeley inappropriately admitted students as favors to donors
#34Have a rule.
Our republic, and the California state government, is based on rule of law. One group makes the laws, another enforces it, and a third interprets the conflicts. This works. What we have here is a 'no rules' set of actions.
How about rules that say "we will take any student for $200K/year". This is enough money to supply extra supervision and also give a full scholarship to another student.
Re: UC Berkeley inappropriately admitted students as favors to donors
#35Upon close examination I think we would find the ALL schools do this. This is just a symptom of the underlying problem with our education system in the US. It’s no longer about educating but about $. When the almighty dolla gets in the way judgment is clouded. Come to think of it... maybe this happens in politics and medicine too? ;)
I would be careful about following this line of thinking too much. Like a few politicians are corrupt, they're all corrupt. It's no longer useful to vote. Or some Hacker News commenters made up stuff on the spot. So all Hacker News comments are garbage. It dismisses the vast majority of people who are doing the right thing.
The vast majority of people are doing the right thing.
The vast majority of people in highly-competitive positions are not doing the right thing.
* A statement like "all politicians are corrupt" is to a first order accurate. You can't get elected without money, and you can't get money without doing donor bidding.
* A statement like "all executives are psychopaths" is not accurate, but becomes pretty close to accurate as you look at organizations with more than 1000-people who are no longer led by founders. You don't make it to the top of the corporate ladder without outcompeting people fighting dirty. People who are clean don't make it to the top.
* Not all academics fabricate data, but a growing number of academics at elite schools do. MIT has 1000 applicants for each faculty slot at CSAIL. You don't make it through that level of competition without cheating at least a little bit, and that makes it into the culture.
* Not all universities are corrupt, but by similar logic, most universities with massive endowments are. Dirty money goes to institutions willing to accept it.
Same thing goes across the board. Most religious leaders are deeply ethical people. Televangelists tend to be corrupt. Most lawyers who make partner tend to be a little bit unethical. Etc.
Anytime you get high enough on the ladders, bad behavior goes up.
Re: UC Berkeley inappropriately admitted students as favors to donors
#36So much virtue signaling from Berkeley and their leaders are as rife with nepotism as any other corrupt entity.
Re: UC Berkeley inappropriately admitted students as favors to donors
#37From a utilitarian point of view, I'm wondering if this could actually be beneficial. The extra revenue from donations could sponsor students with less income. I suppose the real problem is that UCs are no longer financed fully by the state. If they were, there would be no excuse for this.
Re: UC Berkeley inappropriately admitted students as favors to donors
#38Not surprising at all; however, I am curious how someone who didn't meet the admissions criteria is able to graduate CAL with a passing GPA...
The admissions criteria for universities don't make a lot of sense. The standardized tests select for students that are good at writing those tests.
Malcolm Gladwell (yeah, yeah, I know) did a podcast series about the admissions process for law schools and the role that test taking speed plays in the admission process.
This is one of the papers he referenced:
https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?a...
Re: UC Berkeley inappropriately admitted students as favors to donors
#39Meanwhile, the same California government is trying to legalize discriminatory race-based admissions.
How is that related to this?
Because universities such as Berkeley claim they are a bastion of "diverse admission policies" as opposed to meritocracy which they call "a tyranny" which make them hypocrites as they have corrupt admission policies and practice cronyism.