How to deal with Affirmative Action

So Fisher v. Texas got a ruling… Sort of.

Wait, What’s Fisher v. University of Texas?

Fisher v. Texas is a court case about everyone’s favorite hot-button issue, Affirmative Action.

Basically, an applicant was rejected from the University of Texas at Austin. She was on the low-end of the middle 50% SAT wise, and was in the top 15% of her class (the top 10% of students are automatically admitted, so she was applying for one of the 20% of spots in the incoming class that remained).

She sued the school, saying that she was being discriminated against for being white.

If I were advising her, with her package, I would have told her that The University of Texas was a high match and that she was being ridiculous.

But nobody had the heart to tell her this, so the case went all the way to the Supreme Court.

The ruling of the court was basically a non-ruling. It did basically nothing about using race as an admissions criteria, neither condoning nor condemning the practice.

But, as it is, race is still a totally valid criteria for holistic college admissions.

And you know what? It should be.

I say this as a White Jewish girl from the North East. Which isn’t quite being Asian on the “Holy crap, way too many of us apply to college and it’s way harder for us to get in,” scale, but is pretty high up there.

So where I’m from there is a pretty common argument against using race… Basically, “Ugh they’re taking spots away from more qualified students”

Or you’ll hear someone whine “Ugh that kid took my spot!”

Well guess what? You don’t have a spot.

Nobody has a spot.
The admissions committees are allowed to accept students on whatever criteria they prefer.  They can dole out “spots” as they choose. And having a diverse group of people makes the campus more interesting.

You might think oh but my SAT scores are so much higher! I’m so much more qualified!

Well what makes you qualified?

The whole point of holistic admissions is that a variety of factors are taken into account. Your personality. Your life story. Your background. Your Passions. And yes, this can include your race.

We could have numerical admissions. Where it is entirely about your SAT/ACT score. But that could make colleges so homogenous. And that takes away from what makes college so interesting.

You want a variety of people from a variety of backgrounds.

I will be the first to say that if I did not have the opportunities I was given (like an amazing public school with an incredible curriculum, supportive parents, a crap load of tutors and extra help from teachers who cared) I wouldn’t have been as academically successful as I was in High School.

Affirmative Action has the good intentions to give those who succeeded without advantages the opportunities to thrive. To go to a great school. To get that education. Even if on paper they’re not as numerically qualified, things like a unique background or an incredible work ethic trump that.


And you are now thinking, “But I know someone who had all of the same opportunities as me who got into a school they shouldn’t have because they were (insert URM here).”

Well that stinks. But they still weren’t taking “your spot.”

Because you don’t have a spot.

I know that it sucks that some people have what you perceive to be an “unfair” edge. Or some people “abuse” the system.

Maybe affirmative action should be adjusted to be more economically based, instead of racially based. Or geographically based.

But universities should be able to accept students on whatever standards they deem important. Yes, even public universities.

Because I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want politicians deciding who gets into my school.

So yes, sometimes affirmative action sucks. But sometimes it does great things for people who worked hard. And yes, affirmative action and the use of race in admissions needs to be adjusted for the realities of today.

But stop complaining about it because you think it’s hurting your chances somewhere. And please don’t sue a school over it.