Is tolerance intolerant?

[bennyboy]

The issue is that schools are allowed to look at students "holistically," i.e. to arbitrate acceptance without depending solely on grades. Community service, leadership capacity, diversity, and so on. What they aren't required to do, so far as I know, is to define any of those non-academic contributing factors or establish any reasonable metric for them. So far as I can tell, it pretty much means that schools can select whoever they want, so long as they aren't stupid enough to say "We're not going to accept you because we already have way too many Asian students."

Try to look at it from the perspective of an Asian student. You can have a 4.5 GPA and a great SAT score, a burning desire to learn and a dream for the future, and not get into a top school. You've studied 8 hours a day for years with a single dream in mind, and you are not going to be given a clear metric for success in your goal of acceptance into a top school. Maybe the interviewer doesn't think you have a dynamic, "leadership" personality or that you provide enough "cultural diversity" or (fill-in-racist-euphemism-for-not-Asian here).

I don't mind changing the metrics. But I think all students should have an expectation of having metrics which are under their control, and not based on RNG.