If you’ve ever taken a train through the less glamorous fringes of Paris, you’ve seen another side of the city, one that is a far departure from Hollywood fantasies. There’s a palpable gulf. Before reaching the glamorous eighth arrondissement and scenes that look straight out of Emily in Paris, one must traverse what the French […]
Tag: Affirmative Action
Dear Supreme Court, Affirmative Action Deserved Better
“Why was I rejected?” is the most common question students have after receiving a college rejection, and it’s a fair one. Even with high SAT scores, GPAs, and plentiful extracurriculars, the upper echelons of higher education can remain out of reach for many students like Calvin Yang. Yang was a plaintiff in “Students for Fair […]
Affirmative Action and the Model Minority Myth
On October 31st, 2022, the Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments for Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, marking a significant development in the topical debate around affirmative action. At the center of the conversation are Asian Americans. Edward Blum, co-founder of Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), is the vanguard […]
Good Riddance, Affirmative Action: What’s Next?
There’s no way around it: affirmative action was a failure. Affirmative action sought to help non-White Americans overcome systemic barriers to equal opportunity. Considering the racial imbalances in education–funding inequities in primary/secondary schools, advanced coursework inaccessibility, and various non-academic factors–a system like affirmative action is necessary for approaching equal opportunity. A system like affirmative action, […]
Dear Supreme Court, Affirmative Action Needs To Go
He scored 1550 on the SAT, maintained a 3.9 unweighted GPA as an IB student, played two varsity sports, won state and national rewards for debate and international recognition for his start-up. Like thousands of other qualified applicants, he didn’t make it into Harvard. Why? Because he ticked “Asian” for ethnicity on his Common App. […]
Affirmative Action: Failed Promises & The Brighter Future
During the time of Dr. King, when America boldly established that its original promise would live up to the meaning of its creed, that equality under the law must be the privilege of all Americans, this country began on a path of reimagined possibility for the victims of its oppressive past. And in 1965, President […]
Affirmative Action: Back on the Ballot
This November, one line could change California dramatically. Proposition 16 reads simply “That Section 31 of Article 1 [of the California Constitution] thereof is repealed”. And yet on a ballot packed full of controversial issues, Proposition 16 could be the most controversial of them all. In this installment of On the Ballot, we discuss Affirmative […]
Creating A College Admissions Process Based On Disadvantage
Affirmative action policies have been adopted by universities across the country for at least four decades, in the hopes of ensuring a diverse campus by creating an equal playing field. The motivation behind these policies is admirable. As someone who was born in a country where over 98 percent of the population shares the same […]