Jump to Navigation
Home

Main menu

  • Home
  • Latest Stories
  • Markets Map
  • Trends and Sentiments
  • Leading Topics
  • News Search
  • Comments and Analysis

Secondary menu

  • Latest News
  • Top Rated
  • Most Popular
  • Archive
  • About Us
  • Trump says North Korea agreed to denuclearize. It hasn’t.
  • ...And The Rally Hits The Wall
  • Why President Trump Is Pardoning Boxer Jack Johnson 71...
  • The best projector for a home theater
  • The Most Important Social Security Chart You'll...
  • Alarming photos of the uninhabited island that's...
  • Rare Bits has raised $6 million on the way to becoming...
  • Harley Davidson Has A Bumpy Ride Ahead
  • The Fed Is Mucking Up The Party
  • Southwest Cancels 40 Flights as It Works to Inspect Plane...

    Preferential Treatment

    Sat, 05/30/2009 - 14:43 EDT - Mathew Yglesias
    • Comments
    • uncat

    A couple of more points on the allegedly “preferential treatment” that Michael Goldfarb thinks Sonia Sotomayor received during her Princeton years. First, as Michael O’Hare says:
    I remember arriving at Harvard (a decade before SS went to college) from the Bronx HS of Science, whence Harvard had admitted eleven students a year since forever, out of a graduating class of about 800- of whom, we learned, none had ever graduated less than magna. There I found many things of interest to a New York kid, for example (1) Protestants! (2) …who seemed to be in charge of everything! My social justice gland went into overdrive as I started to meet the thirty-odd Pomfret students (a third of their graduates) in my class through my roommate, and compare them just on general smarts to the BHSS students who hadn’t made the cut with me.
    Right. When I was at Harvard in the early days of the 21st Century, it seemed that there was very little year-to-year variance in the number of kids admitted from Dalton to each class. Similarly, there was very little year-to-year variance in the number of kids admitted from Stuyvesant to each class. These were two very good high schools in New York City. One was very expensive, one was free. Admission to Dalton was competitive, but only a minority of families could afford the tuition, and many of the students had been admitted in kindergarden. Admission to Stuyvesant was done via a standardized test administered to eighth graders. Naturally, the more-or-less fixed formula had Harvard take in a higher proportion of any given Dalton graduating class than any given Stuyvesant graduating class. Consequently, while the Dalton kids were considerably worldlier and in some ways more sophisticated, on average the Stuyvesant kids were smarter.
    Which is to say that, as everyone knows, the main affirmative action at fancy private colleges is for the well-to-do in general and legacies in particular. Read about the “z list” (see also) and then complain about preferential treatment.
    Meanwhile, it turns out that the specific innuendo Goldfarb was peddling about Sotomayor was false in all its key particulars. he didn’t get “preferential treatment” by being allowed to teach her own class


    • Original article
    • Login to post comments
     

    Related

    • The 25 US High Schools With The Highest Standardized Test Scores

      Here's an awesome chart that looks at the areas of the country that are killing it in the standardized testing arena.

    • New York City's elite public high schools have a big diversity problem

      Last Friday was “match day” for New York City’s eighth graders, when they found out whether they’d been admitted to one of the city’s elite high schools. And not shockingly, the numbers were appalling when it came to diversity.

    • The 10 Best Public High Schools In New York City

      Long regarded as an academic powerhouse that educates some of the country's brightest students, Stuyvesant High School is the best public high school in New York City, according to data compiled by FindTheBest. FindTheBest recently partnered with the NYC Department of Education to build a comparison system for public schools in the city. Its "smart rating" is based off of Quality of Education scores and Student Progress Reports.

    • A New York SAT tutor who charges $1,500 an hour says college admissions have become an 'arms race'

      Anthony-James GreenGaining acceptance into selective colleges seems harder today than ever before. Acceptance rates at top schools decline almost every year, and former admissions officers at Ivy League schools say the competition is at an all-time high.

    • Disappointing report card for fourth and eighth graders

      WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's schoolkids turned in a lackluster performance on national tests, with math scores for fourth and eighth graders declining for the first time in 25 years. Reading scores were not much better: flat for fourth graders and lower for eighth graders than two years ago.

    • For the first time in 25 years, 2 indicators of success have dropped for some students in the US

      The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released the results of "The Nation's Report Card" in mathematics on Wednesday, The New York Times reported.

    • New York's hottest public elementary school is harder to get into than Harvard

      AP Photo/Linda Rosier, Pool)The elementary admissions process in New York City is utterly grueling, as evidenced by new kindergarten admissions workshops that have popped up around town.

    • WSJ op-ed calls Asians the 'new Jews of Harvard admissions'

      Top universities such as Harvard have "double standards" in their admissions policies for "favored minorities" such as black students and Hispanic students, an op-ed published Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal argues.

    • John Oliver has an epic takedown of standardized testing in America

      As John Oliver reveals in a new "Last Week Tonight" segment that aired Sunday night, America's standardized testing system is broken. Many critics — including teachers — say standardized tests don't improve students' performance.

    • How A 23-Year-Old Texan Became The Spokeswoman For People Who Hate Affirmative Action

      The Supreme Court will decide a huge affirmative action case as early as Thursday, and a 23-year-old Texan's story could help do away with race-based preferences in colleges forever.

    Latest

    Alarming photos of the uninhabited island that's home to 37 million pieces of trash
    Alarming photos of the uninhabited island that...
    Germany, Italy Refuse To Join Syria Airstrikes
    In Surprise Twist, Europe Now Pushing Trump...

    Markets Map

    Markets Map

    Follow Us

    Follow Us on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and RSS LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Google Plus RSS
    S&P 500: 2579.37 0.16% FTSE: 7487.96 -0.07% Nikk.: 22420.08 1.82% DAX: 13465.51 1.75% HSI: 28594.06 1.22% FX: EUR/GBP: 1.1401 USD/EUR: 1.1618 JPY/USD: 114.1510 Commodities: Gold: 1276.1000

    Bullfax.com - Market News & Analysis 2008-2011
    Contact Us | About Us | Terms & Conditions

    Follow Us on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and RSS LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Google Plus RSS .

    Secondary menu

    • Latest News
    • Top Rated
    • Most Popular
    • Archive
    • About Us