Thank you oh so much for your armchair quarterbacking of our admissions process

The BBQ Pit
1

Okay, blah blah blah, Supreme Court decision today on affirmative action in admissions; one thing upheld, one thing not, several statements that need interpretation to figure out what the hell the justices meant and so on. Yeah yeah.

Now comes the deluge of commentary, opinion, reactions, and so on.

I am intensely grateful for the people who are generously providing insight into the issue, the court, the justices, and the prior cases. God knows we need it. I need it.

But a few people, upon opening their mouths, are magically transformed! Suddenly they don’t just have a mere opinion, they are actually experts on all of the following things:
[ul]
[li] admissions processes in general[/li][li] admissions processes at U-M[/li][li] the complete profiles of the applicant pools over the last decade[/li][li] the actions, thoughts, beliefs, and hopes of the admissions committees at U-M, starting from when they instituted the challenged policies right through to today[/li][li] the desired characteristics and qualifications of college students and law students at U-M[/li][li] every detail of the files of the plaintiffs, and the same information on the ‘less-deserving’ students who got their place in the class[/li][li] the ideal way to recruit, evaluate, admit, and retain minority applicants[/li][li] the price of tea in china[/li][/ul]

I could go on, but you get the idea.

My message to those of you who suddenly think you are the Amazing Carnak: Please, for the love of god and all that is holy, please know your limitations. I hate to break this to you, but your crystal ball isn’t always accurate. You do not, in fact, know everything about the case. No one person does. Ponder the difference between speculation and fact. Open your eyes, look around, and realize that those smooth red surfaces you see all around are in fact THE WALLS OF YOUR RECTUM. Pull your head out, take a deep breath, and rein yourself in a bit.

2

In addition, it seems like a lot of people don’t realize that even though in a lot of places affirmative action doesn’t officially exist, there are ways both admitted students and admissions committees can recruit minorities, just not under the AA aegis. (I’m a minority who applied to colleges last year, so this is still quite fresh in my memory. For instance… most colleges may not require you to put down your race, but require essays. If you write an essay about being a poor & undereducated minority & your attempts to rise up & go to Uni Y, they can admit you with race as a factor, but file it under essay strength. When rulings pass, there are often subtle loopholes that people who haven’t stepped onto a college campus in years don’t notice.

3

I don’t care for the tradition around here of responding to the style of Pit rants rather than the substance, but I must say that if it’s original, this is an impressive line:

4

However, Cranky, you do have to admit that the admissions process at Michigan has been under attack for several years now, and is usually the first example given in an AA discussion. They are also a fairly unique case, as they have a slightly different way of weighing a minority candidate than the average affirmative action program.

Regardless, I too am tired of people peripherally joining a discussion they know very little about, or whose knowledge comes solely from the headlines.

5

I don’t mind discussion from those who know very little about what they’re discussion, provided they frame their contributions in that context. What I object to is their presenting their views as if they had written a Ph.D. thesis on it.

6

Oh come on, Cranky, you can’t fool us. We know what the real process is at U-M.

The University admissions committee gets all liquored up, goes down to a basement rec room, and throws beer cans as slides of the applications get projected onto the screen. Whichever applications get the most beer cans thrown at them get admitted.

[sub][sup]That was the admissions committee they were showing in Animal House, right?[/sub][/sup]

7

Wasn’t there a similar OP from the Topeka, Kansas Board of Education in 1954? :wink: