Current admission process is fair
In his support of affirmative action, George Turner
(“Affirmative action still needed to help minorities,”
Nov. 14) not only endorses an inherently flawed system but also
attempts to undermine our current admissions process.
Turner claims that grade point average reflects the number of
honors classes at a school rather than actual ability. However, he
fails to point out that the admissions board examines two forms of
GPA, weighted and unweighted, and the latter eliminates any bearing
honors or AP classes might have. Furthermore, colleges often
calibrate GPA based upon the school that a student attended.
Turner then proceeds to condemn discernment based upon SAT
scores, saying that “socioeconomic status is a better
predictor of college success.” Either Turner has been unclear
in his statement, or he believes that one particular class is best
suited for success in college. Which begs the question, if you are
born a race and into a class, why bother trying when your college
success depends on something you have no control over?
In an attempt to substantiate his claim, he brings up the fact
that SAT scores should be looked at in terms of broad ranges,
rather than strict scores. But by “strict scores” the
writers of the SAT are referring to small differences, not the
obvious disparity between a 1400 and an 1100. Yet rather than
acknowledge this fact, he dismisses the tests entirely.
Turner concludes by saying that if he were a black student with
a GPA above 4.0 and an SAT score above 1300, he would go to an Ivy
League school over UCLA. The irony, of course, is that a white or
Asian student would have no chance of getting into an Ivy League
school with those scores.
Troy Masters
Second-year, computer science engineering