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Racial Discrimination In College Admissions

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In the pursuit of knowledge one should not be discriminated against in regards to race, religion, sex, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. These factors should not be factored in when making decisions for the undergraduate admissions in universities. Academic performance should be the priority when the selection is made because there are several disadvantages for making decisions based on, let’s say race. Some of them include violating the rights of people, promoting a biased and unjust society, widening the social and financial inequalities between the races. Also it results in under qualification of that race and can lead to failure in the future.
In 2008, a female student named Abigail Fisher applied for undergraduate admission to University of Texas; however, she was denied admission to the university. Fisher’s argument over this rejection was racial discrimination. She filled a lawsuit against the university because she felt racially discriminated as many minority …show more content…

People cannot choose their race when they are born, rather they have choice to work hard and excel in life. There should be standards on admission criteria based on academic achievements. It violates their right as an equal citizen of the country when they face discrimination based on race. Fourteenth Amendment protects the equal rights of the citizens and any discrimination towards them. It would not be fair to people to certain race not being admitted because of their skin color or ethnicity. It could be really difficult for the under qualified students to keep up with the university standards. Many students fail their classes because the course load is unbearable to them. This leads to negative thinking and causes stress; many students choose to drop out. Students feel that they are putting a large amount of money towards their education and failing classes wastes all of

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In 1997, a legislation was passed in Texas, requiring all high school seniors who ranked in the top 10% of their classes to be admitted to the school. Fast forwarding to 2008, both Plaintiffs Abigail Noel Fisher and Rachel Multer Michalewicz applied to the University of Texas at Austin, but where denied. They believed that they were denied due to the fact that they were white. In 2009, United States District Court judge Sam Sparks upheld the University's policy, finding that it meets the standards laid out in Grutter v. Bollinger.[8]

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Though in Grutter v. Bollinger we deal with the 14th amendment of the Equal Protection Clause and racial classifications too, the way race is used is slightly differs. In this particular case, the court had to decide whether the use of race at the Univeristy of Michigan Law School during the admissions process violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment. Barbara Grutter, a Caucasian applicant, applied to the University of Michigan in 1996 with a 3.8 GPA and a score of 161 on her LSAT. Grutter was placed on the waitlist, but was subsequently denied admission to the school. Grutter claims that she was only denied because of her race, as the University uses race as a factor in the admission process.

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In 2008, Abigail Fisher, a white female, applied for admission at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1997, Texas passed legislation which guaranteed all students who graduate in the top 10% of Texas’ graduating class, admission to all Texas state-funded universities, regardless of other factors. Fisher did not qualify for Texas’ “Top 10%” with a GPA of 3.59 and an SAT score of 1180, but applied for general admission in the top 12% of her class. At the University of Texas, about 75% of admissions are comprised of students who qualified as Texas’ “Top 10%”, and 25% of admissions are based on several factors including, but are not limited to, grade-point average, extracurricular activities, and race. When Fisher was denied admission, she enrolled

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The Supreme Court made a mistake when they decided with the University of Texas; no college should take in race as a factor when selecting applications of students. In 2007, two female high school students applied to the University of Texas; one of the girls being Miss Abigail N. Fisher. Abigail was a caucasian, in the top 12% of her school at Stephen Austin High School, but she was denied by the University of Texas along with a friend of her’s. However,

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With the help of Edward Blum, her case was taken to the nation’s highest court in 2013. In 2003, The University of Texas Austin, said that race would become a factor in admission forms. That same year, The University of Texas had the highest race of diverse student, mostly Black and Hispanic. So the question started to rise, “Was Fisher really rejected because of being

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n the Supreme Court case University of California v. Bakke in 1978, Allan Bakke, a white applicant, was denied admission to the University of California, Davis Medical School because he was white, although he had great MCAT, GPA, and test scores he was denied twice, because the school was using “racial quotas” during admission and had “reserved 16 out of 100 seats in its entering class for minorities, including "Blacks," "Chicanos," "Asians," and "American Indians"’’("Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. " West's Encyclopedia). Bakke sued the University of California for using “racial quotas” as well as claiming that the schools admission processes was a violation of “Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fourteenth

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In “Net (Race) Neutral: An Essay on How GPA + (reweighted) SAT - Race = Diversity,” Christine Goodman illustrates the opposing viewpoints in regards to the racial discriminatory efforts by the college institutions to help diversify the incoming freshman class. With this, Goodman provides statistics and opinions of experts on the matter, which includes comparison of such discriminatory acts against other institutions. To begin, she brings up an enlightening, yet controversial court case decision: Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin (2013). This court case demonstrates significance to this topic because it counteracts a previous court case, Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), which, “upheld diversity as a compelling interest that would justify narrowly

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The U.S. Supreme Court Case Regents of the University of California v. Allan Bakke was officially decided June 28, 1978. The case addressed the issue of use of affirmative action in university admissions processes. Affirmative action, also referred to as positive discrimination, was a result of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and was intended to ensure equal entry to educational institutions or employment entities to certain groups that “have historically suffered invidious discrimination” (Janda et al., 477). However, sometimes this method causes discrimination of other groups, through establishment of racial quotas. University of California employed the process of affirmative action and instituted racial quotas in its admissions

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The University of Texas is a prime example of inner workings of government institutions. This represents U.S. Political culture in many ways. No one wants to take the blame. Abigail Fisher is one of many students who have been denied, but she did not take no for an answer. Justice Elena Kagan worked on this issue while she was a solicitor general under Obama but removed herself from the case.

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In Regents of University of California v. Bakke (1978), the Supreme Court ruled that a university 's use of racial "quotas" in its admissions process was unconstitutional, but a school 's use of "affirmative action" to accept more minority applicants was constitutional in some circumstances. " The college was asked to at least consider blacks in the admittance of college and they were asked to not use quotas in the admission

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The Supreme Court case of The Regents of the University of California versus Bakke questioned the use of affirmative action in applications. The medical school of the University of California at Davis reserved sixteen out of one hundred seats of every entering class for minorities (Blacks, Chicanos, Asians, and American Indians) (Banfield pg.82). Allan Bakke a white male in his mid-thirties was twice denied access to the University strictly based on quotas, although Bakke had MCAT scores and GPA higher than other minority applicants admitted (McBride par.3). Bakke would later sue The University of California on the basis that the school had violated the civil rights act of 1964.

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When I first started researching Fisher vs. Texas, I believed discrimination in college applications was very wrong and unlawful. I believed everyone should have a fair opportunity to go to the school of their choice. As I researched the issue more, it became apparent to me that diversity is truly important to our learning experiences while in college. In college, diversity has taught me many different viewpoints and has helped me understand different cultures. The learning aspect is important but I also believe that students that come from poorer communities and challenging childhoods should have an opportunity to attend top universities.

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Because if someone of another race and ethnicity is applying

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According to the dominant theory the affirmative action was firstly introduced to deal with two types of social disruption in the 1960s as campus protests and urban riots in the North. However, this article is based on different theory as dominant theory's empirical evidence is limited. It examines the initial reason for advent of race-conscious affirmative action in 17 undergraduate institutions in the United States. And according to the research this article concludes that there were two waves that contributed to affirmative action: 1) first wave in the early 1960s introduced by northern college administrators 2) second wave in the late 1960s introduced as a response to the protests of campus-based students. This article will help me to establish the main reasons for introduction of race-conscious affirmative action in undergraduate

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Throughout many of the affirmative action legal cases, one of the main arguments from proponents is that it is necessary in order to right the wrongs of past racial discrimination. Some say that affirmative action is justified because even though white applicants may be more qualified, this is only because they did not face the same hardships as their minority counterparts (Rachels, Ethics, 1973).  Many argue if we do not integrate disadvantaged minorities into mainstream social institutions, they will continue to suffer the discrimination that has plagued our country for centuries and that this is detrimental to not only the minorities but also society as a whole (Anderson, 2002, 1270–71). However, the debate has recently shifted to the benefits of diversity in the classroom which the Supreme Court has affirmed as being a positive thing

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