Posted on 05/26/2025 4:25:20 AM PDT by karpov
In 2023, the Supreme Court rendered a 6-3 decision that effectively outlawed affirmative-action policies in college admissions, finding in favor of groups representing qualified students whose applications were rejected at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. But, as he often does, Chief Justice John Roberts left a loophole. It allows colleges to continue their discriminatory admissions policies if they desire, and Roberts made sure to point at it in the decision. He stressed that universities can still take into account “an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”
It took Harvard less than a day to signal that it had heard Roberts loud and clear. In the university’s public response to the decision, officials quoted only one line from it: Roberts’s loophole. In the sentence immediately following that quote, Harvard said, “We will certainly comply with the Court’s decision.” Wink wink.
So, affirmative action will live on at America’s leading universities. Instead of giving minority applicants a bonus for checking the right boxes on the demographic questionnaire, however, colleges will simply move those considerations over to the “personal statement” component of the application package.
Many years ago, the personal statement, or admissions essay, was the part of the application where prospective students could make admissions committees aware of merits that might not show up on academic transcripts. But, since the institutionalization of affirmative action, this once-dynamic genre has hardened into a formulaic exercise in pandering for extra points. Recent research published in the Indiana Law Journal proves it.
In that study, Sonja Starr aimed to determine whether reference to race or identity in essay prompts or personal statements themselves had increased since 2023, when Roberts announced the loophole.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
That statement is similar to something that Roberts wrote in an opinion
AI will take care of that issue.
Essays are what higher education is all about. Why does it take so long to get degrees at universities? Testing is largely done by essay, not multiple choice. It’s not about having the right answer, but how the answer is given. It’s not surprising that universities will use essays to favor certain students while disfavoring others. It’s what they do, and how they do it.
The paper requirement is much like the requirement for HR to post job openings. It is a meaningless action to check a box. Neither the paper nor the postings have any influence on who gets selected. The decision was made on unrelated criteria.
Not in a blue book with an exam proctored to excluded access to any device.
LOL! I had an old-school Classics professor do exactly that not all that long ago. It was pure cruelty but funny as hell. Pen and paper, no keyboards, no voice to text, nothing. I was one of three older adults in the class and the Prof took us off the grading curve because it wasn't even fair. I mentioned it to him and he replied, "Yeah, but I have to grade them all."
For decades I have been giving rather than taking exams, but in graduate school I had to pass language exams in four languages. The French and German were relatively easy—ETS multiple guess exams. But for Latin and Greek you had to translate four passages without a dictionary. But at least they were taken from texts you had read at some point in the past, and you didn’t have to take both exams on the same day.
She was partially blind.
Too funny.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.