UCLA Bake Sale Stirs Up Controversy

UCLA Daily Bruin ^ | 5/22/03 | Adam Foxman

[Yardstick]

The "right" is just more interested in excellence (I don't even really like the word "right" because excellence and responsibility and true fairness are such *central* American values).

BTW, did you read the article in post #29? It's an account of the first bake sale that the UCLA pubbies held, and it was extra clever (the bake sale mentioned in the original article was actually the second bake sale).

[lainie]

That was Twiggy.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

We got the same grades and the same SAT scores.

WRONG!

Many, many of you got lower grades and vastly lower SAT scores and were still admitted to UCLA and Berkeley while better qualified, non-minority students were turned away.

Affirmative Action lives on under the guise of "obstacles the student had to overcome" which rewards the student's application with something like 12-20 points.

A perfect SAT score or four years of a varsity sport nets the student ONE point!

"Business Week" has a cover story saying over 60% of college students are now girls.

Where are those boys who should be in college but have been displaced by girls?

Pathetic.

It was never about "equality" or "50/50." It was always about turning the educational system over to lesbian socialists.

They follow orders better than anyone.

[CatoRenasci]

When I was at UC, there was a serious debate whether to institute the form of affirmative action I described or the form that was adopted and now plagues us. Had our version been adopted by the UC system, I think the model might have spread around the country, and we'd all be in a better place now.

Don't take the glossy brochure and the like from the collges seriously. My daughter, graduating from high school next month, got the same thing in bales. She was also solicited by at least a hundred to two hundred colleges. Most of which she wouldn't even think of considering. The fact is, if you have a bright child with good grades, test scores and some sports or extra curriculars, there are only about 350 colleges and universities that are on the radar screen. Of those, you will self-eliminate all but 50 or so pretty quickly. Then you'll compare your daughter's interests and profile with the schools strengths and profiles and come up with a short list of maybe 15-20 that you'll be looking at fairly seriously by junior year, perhaps visiting most of them, but at least spending real time on their web sites and with their viewbooks. By senior year, you'll have a list of 5-10 that she'll apply to, and you may find one or two unexpected possiblities that come up in unusual ways.

Chances are [unless your daughter has an "ivy only" mentality and doesn't have the qualifications (i.e. not only the grades and scores, but a serious sport or legacy status)] she'll be accepted at at least 2-3 on her list and have a choice of colleges at which she will be very happy.

[bt_dooftlook]

Think watermelon - green on the outside, red in the middle...

[Onelifetogive]

It's a very versatile degree that allows one to become a...um...Professor of African-American Studies.

Yeah...right!!!! They fill the positions of Admissions Officers, Human Resource Managers, etc.

They make full use of what they have learned.

[Onelifetogive]

It's all silly...but this takes the cake:

"I just think it's sad to know that they think of us as people who got in here just for our race," said Ana Fernandez, a third-year political science student.

This is one of the reasons why conservatives have opposed preferences! This is exactly what preferences HAS to lead to.

[Dengar01]

"We got the same grades and the same SAT scores, and they think that because I'm Latina I got an easier break," Fernandez said.

I'm not familiar with UCLA's system but if they follow the same quota system as Michigan, I'm guessing Ms. Fernandez "ethnicity" counted more than here SAT score.

I'm a college student and my tuition is going up 10% primarily due to Affirmative Action. They want to "diversify" the student population. I call it socialism.

[INSENSITIVE GUY]

Next time the conservative students should bake cookies with little penises on them.You could'nt bake them fast enough to feed those liberals as they so sexually obsessed!

[AnAmericanMother]

The fact is, if you have a bright child with good grades, test scores and some sports or extra curriculars, there are only about 350 colleges and universities that are on the radar screen. Of those, you will self-eliminate all but 50 or so pretty quickly.

Tell me more . . . these days are coming up pretty quickly, and I have been out of the loop since I attended college - which was back in the dark ages (1973-1977).

I went to Princeton, but I have been wondering whether to even consider applying her. She has the grades (honor roll and low to mid 90s in her first year at the best prep school in Atlanta) and the extracurriculars (music, athletics, BSA Venturer), but the school has gotten so selective (and disgustingly liberal - vide Peter Singer -) not to mention outrageously expensive, that I wonder if it's worth it. It was only the second or third year that they admitted women when I got in, and they were heavily recruiting women from the South. I think they may have even mistakenly believed I was black (because my third choice was Clark College in Massachusetts where my aunt was the registrar, and there is also a Clark College in Atlanta that is one of the "traditionally black schools". One in the eye for them if they did!)

Anyhow, do you have any suggestions? If she decides to go pre-vet (she is toying with that idea at present), it's the University of Georgia all the way. Otherwise, we're looking at small but top-drawer, liberal arts schools. Preferably conservative, although my daughter is a very strong-minded libertarian-leaning conservative and a whole university full of liberals could not change her mind one iota (she argues with her more liberal teachers now.) Davidson is on the radar, as is Rhodes College.

I'm sure the college advisory phalanx at her school will have lots of helpful advice as the time draws near -- they were certainly full of it when I came along!

[jern]

good read.

[Modernman]

During my time at the University of Michigan, I had a professor tell me (off the record, of course) that White and Asian freshman coming to U of M were probably ready to deal with sophomore and junior college classes from day one. On the other hand, his experience with Black and Hispanic students was that they were generally at the level of a sophomore or junior in high school and that a lot of them went through remedial classes during the summer before their freshman year. U of M is not a place to play catch-up, which probably explains some of the appalling drop-out rates for minorities.

[applemac_g4]

The pricing structure for this was brilliant and very reflective of reality today. In fact, this whole idea was brilliant, but the execution of it could have been handled a little better...

1. pick something neutral to sell like chocolate chip cookies.

2. "They also went one step further, labeling those staffing the bake sale table "The Man," "The White Oppressor," "The Self-Hating Hispanic Race Traitor," "Uncle Tom" and "Admissions Officer."

Stick to "admissions officer" and "human resources manager".

There's only so much truth you can hit people with over the head at one time and have it sink in. The pricing structure is enough of a shock to start a good debate.