Affirmative Action: Pros And Cons
Although affirmative action was originally implemented to assist minorities however, it can be argued that in turn affirmative action hurts minorities and in a way puts them at an educational disadvantage. The Most prominent advantage for minorities is that they can attend more elite schools than majorities. In recent years many scholars have noticed several instances where an under qualified student has been admitted to a school and not been successful because of their lack of preparation. For example, if a student has above average grades and is a minority they will likely be admitted to a prestigious school, however, if the student is not adequately prepared for the work load they will fail and in life be set back behind their peers.
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In 1989, Berkeley turned down more than 2,500 white and Asian applicants with straight-A averages. This shows the amount of well qualified people that are unfairly overlooked because they are white. This unfairly causes these students to change majors or universities and not receive the same experience as their possibly lesser qualified minority peers. The programs under affirmative action could very well be illegal under the Title IX policies, the policies prohibit discrimination based upon race, color or national origin. Again, under a law that was made to legally enforce and promote equality and fairness is illegal against another prominent civil rights law. An example of how a university implements affirmative action is represented Berkeley, they carry out affirmative action through a number of programs including the Educational Opportunity Program and Special Action. These programs are used to determine the different standards of education for the different races, it was determined that as an African American a 3.3 (B+) grade point average or higher is virtually automatically accepted, it was also determined that a student with as little as a 2.78-3.29 grade point average could get in with good SAT scores, as long as they are African American. There was once a student named Yat-pang Au a very educated and involved individual at his high school in California. Au had his sights set on Berkeley for most of his life. Au graduated first in his class at San Jose’s Gunderson High School with a straight-A average; his SAT scores were at a 1,340 which places him in the 98th percentile, well above the Berkeley average. The reason this information is relevant is because Yat-pang was not admitted into the university. From Au’s high school ten of his peers were admitted, the
In 1989, Berkeley turned down more than 2,500 white and Asian applicants with straight-A averages. This shows the amount of well qualified people that are unfairly overlooked because they are white. This unfairly causes these students to change majors or universities and not receive the same experience as their possibly lesser qualified minority peers. The programs under affirmative action could very well be illegal under the Title IX policies, the policies prohibit discrimination based upon race, color or national origin. Again, under a law that was made to legally enforce and promote equality and fairness is illegal against another prominent civil rights law. An example of how a university implements affirmative action is represented Berkeley, they carry out affirmative action through a number of programs including the Educational Opportunity Program and Special Action. These programs are used to determine the different standards of education for the different races, it was determined that as an African American a 3.3 (B+) grade point average or higher is virtually automatically accepted, it was also determined that a student with as little as a 2.78-3.29 grade point average could get in with good SAT scores, as long as they are African American. There was once a student named Yat-pang Au a very educated and involved individual at his high school in California. Au had his sights set on Berkeley for most of his life. Au graduated first in his class at San Jose’s Gunderson High School with a straight-A average; his SAT scores were at a 1,340 which places him in the 98th percentile, well above the Berkeley average. The reason this information is relevant is because Yat-pang was not admitted into the university. From Au’s high school ten of his peers were admitted, the