I was reading an essay in the Wall Street Journal about affirmative action and the research-based negative results that occur as a result of mismatching. To summarize, the whole process ends up being more destructive than constructive in that students who are admitted through affirmative action tend to be isolated because they cannot perform academically, they tend to abandon majors in math, science, and engineering more quickly than other students, and their self-confidence plummets. They call this phenomenon mismatching because of the wide discrepancy between the rigor of the school and the capability of the student. Hence the solution is to align kids with colleges that are more suitable for them.
One of my roommates at Berkeley (I say “one of” because I lived in a triple my freshman year.) faulted the system for accepting her, yet not providing the resources and the mentoring to help her succeed. She was Latino and eventually left after our 2nd year. She makes a valid point, but I have a counter-point to all of this. And that is…take accountability! I have been saying that a lot lately and think that is the root of most people’s problems: lack of accountability.
Problem: I hate my job. Solution: Take accountability and find something better.
Problem: I have so much credit card debt. Solution: Take accountability and start paying it off.
This is not rocket science, people. It’s called life and life is manageable if you get off your ass and do something about whatever is bothering you or keeping you from finding glory.
Back to affirmative action. If you’ve had your heart set on Princeton and believe you may have gotten in because you’re part Cherokee, then take accountability! It’s not hard to determine whether or not you’re mismatched for a school. Let me walk you through it. We all take standardized tests, yes? What’s your score? Let’s say it’s 1100. I’m alluding to my age because I know the SATs are no longer on the 800 – 1600 grading system I remember. Or are they? I have no idea. Ok back to the example. Your SAT score is 1100. You find the average SAT score of Princeton and you see that it’s 1350. That’s a guess, but let’s just say that’s what it is. All these stats are easy to look up, so no student can feign ignorance. Whoah! That’s a pretty big delta. 1100 compared to 1350? What do you think that tells you about the school you’re about to enter? Mainly, you’re going to have to work pretty damn hard to compete. This is where self-awareness comes to play. Do you think you are a hard enough worker to be able to compete or not? Are you willing to forgo sleep to study your ass off?
Getting into a school and then matriculating should not be a shock. It’s quite simple, actually. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am pro-affirmative action. But given my stance, I would also expect 100% accountability on the student’s part. Know the stats. And be self-aware.
Rhett posted that article on his facebook too. But he knew non-affirmative action folks who had the same attitude and dropped out, they just didn’t have a “program” to point to. It is double edged. The culture (and it would family, socioeconomic, of whatever cultures) that these students come from make them pioneers in their social circles for going to college. This is good, we want that kind of diversity. However, we have to understand that those same cultures that bring us diversity also make it more difficult for them to succeed, which is why social structures and retention organizations are that much more important once these students enter school.
At the grad school level, Rhett witnessed how when the one African American grad student dropped out, a professor raged on about “see affirmative action doesn’t work” when 40-50 white grad students had dropped out well before the token African American student.
in both cases, while affirmative action isn’t perfect, but we are failing to address the biases that are inbred into both the people who get in under affirmative action and not. The article also points to an area not emphasized that while we use a stat like top 10% of your class, there is a great disparity of students once they come together. Everyone at Berkeley felt it, yeah we were all top 5% of our classes in high school, but some people’s top 5% were better academically than your own 5%.
So affirmative action supposedly isn’t working, then why didn’t it work and what’s are the real issues we need to deal with to really create a diverse society? That’s my question to the naysayers, what else do we have?
I would never have gone to college without affirmative action. I come from the wrong side of the tracks, I was making $2.00 an hour (that was minimum wage in 1974) and I could never have bought $50 worth of books on my own. So there is a continuum. Someone saying, “I work in the affirmative action department and because you are a woman and have some american indian blood I can get you $50 a semester for books” changed my life. I paid for law school by working full time, but without that original start I would never have been there. My concern is that without that money sloshing around these days people like me will not be able to change their lives and go to college. A study would never have seen someone like me…