The mismatch hypothesis lives: affirmative action hurts minorities in STEM
From the latest issue of the American Economic Review: University Differences in the Graduation of Minorities in STEM Fields: Evidence from California We examine differences in minority science graduation rates among University of California campuses when racial preferences were in place. Less prepared minorities at higher ranked campuses had lower persistence rates in science and took longer to...
College counselors: look less Asian to get into college
Brian Taylor is director of Ivy Coach, a Manhattan company that advises families on how to get their students into elite colleges. A number of his clients are Asian American, and Taylor is frank about his strategy for them. “While it is controversial, this is what we do,’’ he says. “We will make them appear less Asian when they apply.” […] “The admissions officers are seeing a bunch of...
“The new Jews of Harvard”
The title of an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal: In practice, however, there is strong evidence that racial balance is the highest priority at schools like Harvard, and holistic admissions are used to obscure the racial bean-counting necessary to obtain the desired racial mix. At the California Institute of Technology, a selective private college that uses color-blind admissions, Asian...
Student fakes blackness to get into medical school
But the group bringing the lawsuit, Students for Fair Admissions, won a powerful PR ally this week: Vijay Chokal-Ingam, an Indian American who happens to be the brother of Fox comedy star Mindy Kaling, revealed that he won acceptance to medical school by claiming to be black. Frustrated at being rejected by medical schools in part because of mediocre test scores and a 3.1 grade point average...
Asians turn against affirmative action
“Let’s talk about Asians,” she says. Lee’s next slide shows three columns of numbers from a Princeton University study that tried to measure how race and ethnicity affect admissions by using SAT scores as a benchmark. It uses the term “bonus” to describe how many extra SAT points an applicant’s race is worth. She points to the first column. African Americans received a “bonus”...