November 20, 2005
"Who cares why Harvard picks some students... especially when you know the guy is being less than completely honest"?
Readers over at Volokh Conspiracy react to the news that the assistant dean for admissions at Harvard Law School has a blog. But, of course, law school applicants will care, and they will read that blog trying to see through to what will help them. You can probably read between the lines and pick up some tips. There are all kinds of blogs. I'm tempted to say there are real blogs and fake blogs. There are the blogs written to express the thinking of a human individual and PR that takes the form of a blog.
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12 comments:
"I'm tempted to say there are real blogs and fake blogs."
This post, and especially, this line, immediately brought to my mind the following:
Q: When is a weblog not a blog?
A: When it's either institutional or a PR tool--or both.
The former being just a tool and the latter an individual project--as you allude to.
I'm sure when I was young--and if I were young now--I'd be combin' ever word for its deepest implications as it related to me, an applicant.
But in my current context, I certainly hope I'd look at in the same skeptical way as I used to view a PRN (a story from the PR wires) as opposed to one with an AP, UPI, or Reuters designation--at least back in the day when the wire services seemed to operate in a bit differently.
Darn, this word verification is darn near unreadable! That, or my eyesight has taken a deep dive this afternoon!
I read his first post yesterday. He was bragging about the "diversity" of thought by the Profs at Harvard law. I sent him an email that said,
"really? How many Law Profs at your school would ever be considered by a Republican admin for a bench appt?" Very narrow definition of diversity, to say the least.
Steven: You read my mind.
Also, most "real blogs" are interactive, and aren't afraid of allowing responses to be posted.
There are all kinds of blogs. I'm tempted to say there are real blogs and fake blogs. There are the blogs written to express the thinking of a human individual and PR that takes the form of a blog.
The world seemed so simple before this moment.
Cheers,
Victoria
I'm wondering if one can claim that a great-grandmother was part black, and therefore the applicant is black.
What is the minimum blood requirement? How is it controlled?
What would be quite interesting to me is if this blog actually went interactive. Could you imagine kids (i.e. prospective Harvard students) trading tips on how to get in there?
As I see it, admission to the "elite" colleges, led by Harvard, is a big game any more - assuming that you aren't a reasonably qualified legacy whose ancestors have given generously (apparently, many fewer of these today).
Top grades and SATs are no longer enough. After all, how many valditorians are there every year? Far more than can all go to Harvard. So, the game is to distinguish oneself from all the others equally well qualified. Which gets into why Harvard picks one kid and skips the next, despite having similar qualifications. To some extent, it is almost like reading tea leaves - which is why I see a lot of kids obsessing over this blog and blogs like this from other similar schools, should this be picked up by them.
(I should add that it isn't totally tea leaf reading from high school counselers who routinely send kids to that school - but a vast majority of the kids in this country are not going to the private schools or elite public schools that do).
Tom Gray
I do have one friend who got a kid in Cornell based on this sort of racial thing. The mother is white, and the father about 3/4 black. Living in a very expensive white community, the kid was raised white, seeing the white grandparents regularly, and only occasionally the full black grandmother. But then, the parents changed the kid to "black" to get into private school, and later college.
If there are going to be racial preferences, I really don't see a problem with gaming them this way. In other words, I oppose them at a global level, but accept their reality at a personal level. If I were faced with something similar, I would probably do the same.
That said, I was still a bit taken aback in law school with one "Hispanic" woman who could easily pass as Swedish. Definately norther European stock. She did have a Hispanic surname - but I always wondered why.
I should note that my previous comments were based on an overly hasty reading of the subject. It is admissions for Harvard Law school, and not the undergraduate school.
That said, I think that the point is even more notable. Although a lot of us would like to pretend otherwise, what college you graduate from for your terminal degree is much more important than which undergraduate school you went to - esp. in law (though I have also seen it in engineering, and hear that there is some of it in medicine). I saw a statistic awhile back as to how many graduates each year are accepted as clerks for the Supreme Court. And Harvard and Yale together probably account for over 1/3 of the total. And note that Chief Justice Roberts is a Harvard law grad, and judge Alito is a Yale law grad.
That said, I was still a bit taken aback in law school with one "Hispanic" woman who could easily pass as Swedish. Definately norther European stock. She did have a Hispanic surname - but I always wondered why.
Jesus H. Christ, Bruce. What an insular thing to say.
I don't even know where to begin, so I'll just leave it after a brief, disgruntled comment.
This is what you get for thinking that "Hispanics" are brown people.
Hispanics refer to the language, it's not a "race" (itself, a nonsensical category which doesn't exist in science).
If you go to Spain, I guarantee you you'll see any number of blond blue-eyed people.
And in Mexico too.
Cheers,
Victoria
Harvard could always institute a reverse paper bag test.
(That seems to be the goal of ethnicity based set asides, just make it explicit, and be done with it)
The irony of correctives against historic discrimination is that to be successful they must perpetuate discrimination (hardly seems logical, or fair).
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