The Truth About Affirmative Action: What the Data Reveals
While I now reside in the United States and have American citizenship, I’m only a naturalized scientist. The truth is that I was born and raised in a little coastal town near Barcelona.
Of course, I had to learn many cultural and logistical things about education and universities as I first worked as a university professor and later had children of my own.
And among all things education, college admissions tend to puzzle me.
Back where I was born being accepted into a public university is the most prestigious thing. Your high school GPA gets averaged with a universal selectivity exam that provides a final score for you. You use that score to apply to the universities of your choice. If a university has 200 spots to fill, the 200 students with the highest scores will be admitted. Period.
On the other hand, you never pay more than $2,000/ year for tuition, and low-income students can attend for free and even get scholarships to help them pay for transportation, educational materials, and anything they may need. You need to keep good scores to keep these benefits.
I was one of those “low-income” students. Because of that, I was able to study for a bachelor’s and master’s degree fully paid and graduated debt-free. I then went on to earn a PhD in Australia.
Just like me, there were many students from ethical minorities who were able to get the same results I did. Admissions were based on qualifications, monetary help on income and inequalities.
If you were to ask me, I think it was a fair system built to help everyone regardless of their background. However, I would need data to confirm that.
Now let’s look at the United States. For a while, Affirmative Action helped students who would have had a harder time getting the opportunity of college education. It came about with the idea of helping minorities whose historical circumstances may prevent them from achieving their full potential. But now this protection is gone.
I’m certain that, had I been born in the United States, my academic path may have looked very different. But did Affirmative Action actually help? Was its removal worth the cost it may have in society? Let’s see what science has to say about it.
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