A Chinese IB Diploma Candidate is applying to Princeton. A Black speech and debate champion is applying to UVA. A Caucasian honor roll student applies to Virginia Tech. The more students start to scrutinize themselves and their peers, it becomes undeniable that race plays a factor into the college admissions process. However, the socioeconomic background of the student is far more important than the racial background, as it provides valuable insight into the student’s needs, activity restrictions, and capability.
In 2003, the Supreme Court ruled in Grutter v. Bollinger that race can be used as a tipping factor for college admissions in a 5-4 vote. However, the achievements of race has increased significantly since 2003. We have had a black Secretary of State and are now under the administration of a black President. There is no reason to continue the notion that some races need help to be successful.
Socioeconomic background and income level should be more of a defining factor than ethnicity, as income and wealth help students to be more active in the community. There is a direct link between financial stability and the amount of time people have to focus on school and activities. This can best be seen in the Annandale community in how Wakefield Chapel was the most active and rich demographic of AHS. This is because students who have to maintain a job to help pay for college, or even to get through high school, will have significantly less time for extracurricular activities and homework.
Wealth and monetary status are also directly correlated to the quality of education and activities in which a student can participate. Attending the world’s top boarding school or studying abroad during a student’s high school years sets one apart in a transcript, but that kind of luxury is not available to everyone. Monetary supports goes a long way in opening doors of opportunity for students, and the benefits and advantages students receive from having a higher income level than their peers is too much to be overshadowed by race.
Looking at income level as a comparison point can provide valuable insight to the amount of obstacles the student has had to overcome in order to participate in the activities he/she has (or has not). It also helps admissions officers determine who is really in need of a high education to stand out and have a greater chance of being employed in the future. A student fromAHS, where over 50% of the students have free or reduced lunch, needs a much stronger pillar of educational support much more than a wealthy Harvard alumnus whose son gets accepted due to a million dollar donation. If a family is wealthy and financially stable, their children is going to get into college anyways, colleges should tend more to the people that need the education more, such as the impoverished.
Yes, the aforementioned system would lead us back to the problem of inequality in racial distribution. These disproportions can lead to prejudice, misunderstanding, and racism of other cultures by ethnocentric people. This can be seen in the recent viral video of a now-infamous female UCLA student. The video describes how she is a “American girls raised with American manners” who experienced Asians filling up the libraries and how they spoke “ching chong ling tong ding wong” dialects she could not understand.
The fact is, America is a meritocracy, a policy which the finest universities of America should reflect and adopt.The fact is, America is a meritocracy, a policy which the finest universities of America should reflect and adopt.
