Advanced Essay #3: School Acceptance

Introduction

My goals for this essay had been to use sources and analyze sources well. I really wanted to try and make sure that my sources made sense and had been chosen well in order to fit the theme of the essay. I know that which sources you choose can make your essay amazing or simply not work so I had spent a lot of time searching for the right sources and the right quotes. Something that I am proud of is my thesis along with my theme. I think it is an interesting topic and had been unique as well. There are not many people which would have gone down the route I had and i think my originality is what I am proud of. An area for improvement is my analysis. I think could have done a bit more analysis and that would have strengthened my argument.

White Acceptance

Growing up I was told we were all unique, there is something special about all of us. Something that we can all identify from and call our own. This is a lie. Some people are unique, others are generic and basic. I’m part of that basic category. I'm white, I don’t have any disabilities, no allergies, and worst of all, I'm from Europe. So the whitest of the white.

When applying to college we all as students seek to stand out from the thousands of other applicants that apply to the school you absolutely want. Pristine colleges such as Harvard University say that they value “Growth and potential” but this idea is completely dependent on the person reviewing your application. One man could see you as the perfect applicant but another simply doesn’t think your the right fit. It is absolutely true that an amazing transcript and an amazing SAT score will raise your chances of getting into the college of your dreams but that many of the won’t even help with the cruel and unjust societal system which plagues our school admission system. Due to the mandatory requirement of racial diversity, the admission offices in colleges deny qualified students and accepts less qualified applicants, lowering standards and expectations for some while unjustly raising standards and expectations for others simply because of their race.

Schools base their opinion not off of your transcript but on how many of you there already are. We can all be grouped. Colleges group their students based off of their race and it is in no way a system which produces the most academically capable students and instead creates a damaging culture for minorities.

A study done by Princeton University had showed that white students had to score 340 points more on their SAT to have the same chances of admission. When compared to hispanics, whites would have to score 130 points higher to have the same chances of admission. This is unacceptable and simply not right for discrimination like this to occur. In that same study, it had shown that Asians have an even larger disadvantage. An SAT score of a 1500 by an Asian student, would have the same chance of admission as a black student who had an SAT score of 1020. By enforcing such policies we decrease the quality of work and lead to a lack of caring among students because they don’t have to commit as much effort as others. Hard Work, discipline, and achievement in academics should be rewarded. A reward should not be given to a student simply because they are a certain race and someone should not be punished for not being a certain race.

During the civil rights movement, a new law had been put into place called Affirmative Action. According to the NCSL, “Affirmative action policies are those in which an institution or organization actively engages in efforts to improve opportunities for historically excluded groups in American society.” The purpose of this program and the effects of it, do not align a single bit. In an interview conducted by BBC, a student had stated that “During law school I had a male classmate talk to me about how he believed that I that was admitted to the law school simply because of affirmative action...there was a number of white applicants, particularly white male applicants, who were qualified and denied admission to our law school simply because the school had a commitment to diversity on campus.” With this wrongful prioritization of diversity on the Campus and enaction of such a program, students are discriminated all while having every one of their achievements demeaned. We should believe in students and their ability to get into a school if they put in the effort but when we hand them this acceptance letter simply because of their skin color, we insult them by disbelief of their ability to achieve it on their own.

The longer such actions continue, the worst the problem will get. The lack of caring, the normalization of privilege, and the loss of incentive will continue to grow in the minority society. College acceptance is not a right, it is an accomplishment of the highest level for those who have truly earned it.

I’ve worked hard to get to where I am right now. Others have even harder and I give them credit for that. For every hour I spent studying, someone spent two. Those are the students who should be accepted and enrolled in the most pristine colleges. I am white. I admit it's a part of me. But it's not what defines me. I can just pray when the time comes, white isn’t all they’ll see.

Bibliography

“Affirmative Action: Do White American Students Really Get a Bad Deal?” BBC News, BBC, 3 Aug. 2017, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40804848.

Hultin, Brenda Bautsch Suzanne. Affirmative Action | Overview, www.ncsl.org/research/education/affirmative-action-overview.aspx.

“The Power of Race.” Inside Higher Ed, www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/11/03/elite.

“What We Look For.” Harvard College, college.harvard.edu/admissions/application-process/what-we-look.