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0 pointswhimsicalism4y ago0 comments

It's not entirely inaccurate. There is a trend for top tier universities to pick Black students mostly from prep & private schools for some reason.

https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674976894

Excerpt: "tiny fraction" of low-income black American teenagers who attend private schools "produces about half of low-income black students at Ivy League colleges."

Anecdotally, looking at who attended Ivies where I grew up, this seems to be true.

I think they worry that Black students from actually Black, and often poor, school districts will not jive well with so many silver spoon swallowers. They want people more accustomed to bougie New England & NYC culture.

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csa4y ago

> There is a trend for top tier universities to pick Black students mostly from prep & private schools for some reason.

My guess is that this “tiny fraction of low income black American teenagers” are mostly, if not entirely, recruited athletes doing a 13th year to fix grades, SAT scores, and (maybe) study skills.

While folks (of any race) from low income areas can theoretically succeed at elite schools via their own initiative, the education at these low income schools does little or nothing to prepare them for an elite education. This is a very significant handicap that many people underestimate the importance of.

amznthrowaway54y ago

Why is it a handicap? I've seen poor Asians who go to the same types of schools tend to do just fine.

csa4y ago

First, I am discussing low-SES schools in the US. It can be very different in other countries, especially Asian countries (first hand experience seeing this).

That said, in the US, many people (Asians included) can go to shitty schools and still succeed. Their success is despite the formal education they got at a low SES school, not because of it.

Generally when you see elite school success from students from low-SES areas, it is due to substantial intervention at home and/or extracurricular education/tutoring.

You ask why it is a handicap. If they could get quality education during school hours, their extracurricular hours could be used for deeper study or more interesting endeavors (e.g., research projects).

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will42744y ago

> for some reason.

Because it makes their racial stats sound good to affirmative action advocates without actually requiring the effort of educating somebody who is underprivileged? I don't think the reason is a mystery at all.

throwawayboise4y ago

I think the worry is more that kids from terrible urban public school districts will be woefully unprepared to do the academic work expected at an Ivy. Wealthy kids (regardless of skin color) who have attended private prep school are a much safer bet.

The mission of Harvard, Princeton, or any university is not to remediate the poor education some kid received in K-12.

whimsicalismOP4y ago

Yeah, as someone who went to one of these "terrible urban public school districts" in a 50% black school - it's a bullshit, racist fear.

I went from my shitty ass physics class to taking one of the hardest freshman physics classes in the country. It is manageable, they are just afraid of cultural inhomogeneity.

There were at least 10 Black kids at my school who could have succeeded at Harvard.

amznthrowaway54y ago

I've seem smart Asian kids from poor public schools do far better than the wealthy corrupt kids. It's not about "poor education".

whimsicalismOP4y ago

I'll ignore the dogwhistle behind your comment.

The really bad inner city school systems usually: a. don't have sizable Asian communities

b. Not many Asian students from those schools are accepted either.

Anecdotally, in 4 years at my inner city school district, which had a small, poor Asian population (mostly Vietnamese), only one Asian kid got into an ivy league, and her dad was a professor at a top-tier university.

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csa4y ago

> There is a trend for top tier universities to pick Black students mostly from prep & private schools for some reason.

My guess is that this “tiny fraction of low income black American teenagers” are mostly, if not entirely, recruited athletes doing a 13th year to fix grades, SAT scores, and (maybe) study skills.

amznthrowaway54y ago

Why is it a handicap? I've seen poor Asians who go to the same types of schools tend to do just fine.

csa4y ago

First, I am discussing low-SES schools in the US. It can be very different in other countries, especially Asian countries (first hand experience seeing this).

That said, in the US, many people (Asians included) can go to shitty schools and still succeed. Their success is despite the formal education they got at a low SES school, not because of it.

Generally when you see elite school success from students from low-SES areas, it is due to substantial intervention at home and/or extracurricular education/tutoring.

1 more reply

will42744y ago

> for some reason.

throwawayboise4y ago

The mission of Harvard, Princeton, or any university is not to remediate the poor education some kid received in K-12.

whimsicalismOP4y ago

Yeah, as someone who went to one of these "terrible urban public school districts" in a 50% black school - it's a bullshit, racist fear.

I went from my shitty ass physics class to taking one of the hardest freshman physics classes in the country. It is manageable, they are just afraid of cultural inhomogeneity.

There were at least 10 Black kids at my school who could have succeeded at Harvard.

amznthrowaway54y ago

I've seem smart Asian kids from poor public schools do far better than the wealthy corrupt kids. It's not about "poor education".

whimsicalismOP4y ago

I'll ignore the dogwhistle behind your comment.

The really bad inner city school systems usually: a. don't have sizable Asian communities

b. Not many Asian students from those schools are accepted either.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse