Do Minorities Deserve College More Than The Rest? | Teen Ink

Do Minorities Deserve College More Than The Rest?

January 11, 2010
By Zinkerman SILVER, Houston, Texas
Zinkerman SILVER, Houston, Texas
6 articles 0 photos 6 comments

Poor and starving kids in East St. Louis walk through halls laden with sewage. They don’t even have the chance to go to school half the time because the sewage is toxic and could harm them. More than half of the senior girls are pregnant and don’t care about life anymore. This is something that every kid that is working hard to get into a good college is thinking about. They are wondering if they won’t get into the college of their choice because of affirmative action. Affirmative action gives you extra brownie points on your resume, which makes you more likely to get in. Many teenagers that have great grades and test scores are not getting accepted because they are not part of a minority. The arising question is affirmative action the right thing to do or is it just making racism worse? Or is it fair that someone that is poor and came from a bad school should get extra points, because they didn’t get as good of an education as someone who went to a private school? What has America come to, accepting minorities just to have diversity in their school, even if it is sacrificing integrity and school pride.

Working hard your whole life and having a resume as long as the Chicago Towers is high and still getting rejected by a college. That’s what affirmative action is, it allows minorities extra points on their resume just because they are a minority. I don’t about you but I don’t think that is even close to being right. Someone could work their whole life to get into a good college and another person could coast their whole life and get in just because they are a minority. You should have to meet standards because it is not fair that this should ever happen to any hard working American. We should make sure that person that gets in on extra points is actually tries and doesn’t waist it, and if he waist it then they should kick him out and accept the hard worker. Sounds like something Obama would support.

True the people in poverty stricken areas don’t have the best education, but they could make the most of it and try harder. By trying harder and showing the colleges that you try hard even though you don’t go to the best school will set you apart from the rest of the applicants. I think they should look longer and harder at your resume if you come from a poverty stricken area, but not give you bonus points and especially not a lot. As long as you have good grades and try hard then they aren’t going to be beat out by some lazy rich kid.

Racism has been around for hundreds of years and will probably continue for a while. Race should have nothing to do with getting into college, it should be based on how you perform. So many people have tried to create diversity in the colleges, but is that really better? Do we want to accept someone that might not be as good as another person but is a minority? This could lower their schools average test score if you do this too much, but if you control it then it could give benefits. If you control it then you will have diversity and keep the high test averages. Besides when you use affirmative action it is just flipping the tables on racism. You just started to accept a lot of minorities but now you left out the middle class white person and that’s not fair. So you have to find that perfect median or else it doesn’t work.

Lowering test scores to create diversity in colleges, and sacrificing school pride to make sure the diversities get an equal shot at getting in. If you are trying to get into Harvard and get rejected because they accepted someone that isn’t as smart as you, but they are a minority that doesn’t seem fair. It’s not fair that the smarter person wasn’t accepted because he isn’t a minority. This is why many people don’t like affirmative action, but I think there can be a balance between minorities and none minorities. That is what affirmative action should try to do! It should create that balance so that smart people get a chance and the minorities that try hard and work hard get a chance.



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This article has 62 comments.


on Feb. 10 2010 at 3:42 pm
Me and my friend applied for some of the same schools. I'm white, and he is Indian, both born and raised in the U.S. My grades are by far better than his, my involvement much more, and overall a much more powerful resume. He got into everything. EVERYTHING. Even schools where his grades didn't match up. I got denied from a few and deferred from a few, and accepted into a few. I find it hard to believe that race doesn't have a play in this, in fact I'm sure that's the only reason he got in. Apparently schools would rather have a average minority over a smart white guy. Go figure.....suddenly I think I'm half Spanish.

on Feb. 6 2010 at 12:39 pm
First off, TYPING LIKE THIS DOES NOT HELP MAKE YOUR POINT. Anyway, no they dont. Would you rather the black or hispanic doctor who has lower grades but got into the same medical school as then the white or brown doctor who had higher grades. If their grades arent even high enough to get into the school, how do they even plan on passing the exams? But no, reverse racism is acceptable because the population with a history of slavery and persecution against it is benefiting from it :)

on Jan. 21 2010 at 4:06 pm
SonOfApollo GOLD, Katy, Texas
13 articles 0 photos 40 comments
I AGREE,

I AGREE THAT SMARTER KIDS SHOULD BE ACCEPTED INTO COLLAGES.

I'M A MINORITY, BUT I MAKE ALL A'S

MY LOWEST GRADE WAS A 95 THIS TIME.

WILL I GET IN COLLAGE, I HOPE SO

STUDENTS SHOULD BE ACCEPTED INTO COLLEGES BASED ON GRADES NOT MONEY OR RACE