Affirmative action is on my mind, yet again.
Well, it never really left, because as an Asian man at a Nerd School, I can rest assured that I must be brilliant to beat all the other Asians who had the exact same qualifications as me. (Oh, dear Lord, I am not an original person).
Regardless, the ban was definitely some more food for thought because we’re now going through the first full year of admissions and acceptances post-ban.
We’re in a post-race world now, right? Racism was solved?
I’m being told no.
Still, the actions have had a significant impact on how enrollment continued, and honestly, that’s something we should probably take a look at here at the Arbiter of All That is Good and Evil, or, as I like to call it, The Tartan Forum Section.
What happened then? Well, Black and Hispanic enrollment declined. This was expected. As for Asian enrollment… Well, it’s much too complicated for me to explain here.
The first two are, unfortunately, expected results from pretty much any modeling done for a post-affirmative action world. One of the big things affirmative action did was improve and bring more diverse classes by improving the acceptance rates of Black and Hispanic students, and without it in place, it seems that race-blind admissions means fewer of these students getting into selective colleges.
Which honestly sucks. Like, I’m sorry, I know you might want a complex opinion with nuance, but man, it just sucks that for a lot of people, college just got a little harder to get into. Like, dang, could you imagine being someone who was struggling, still hoped things would somehow turn out all right, and then saw some numbers that just made you realize it would be even harder to get into college?
I’ve been that kid. It genuinely, completely sucks. Except my numbers were my own fault (my grades), and these kids’ numbers are just… statistics being cruel again.
Meanwhile, the share of Asian students did everything from stand still to grow to decline, which is all three possible outcomes and so apparently any bet would’ve won. See, Asian students have, allegedly, started putting down “no comment” on race questions more and more, something which is making it less obvious how many Asians are applying, but also seems to be in response to affirmative action fears. However, in places where students are still identifying their race, it seems like Asian enrollment is up — a lot.
As an Asian guy, cool. This might be good news to a lot of people out there.
However, it still comes at a pretty devastating cost to many members of our community, and it’s something for which we need a smarter solution.
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