More than 20% of Harvard undergrads are "disabled"

[Swammerdami]

I saw this link to an Atlantic article on another message-board.

At many universities a large number of undergrads are given special treatment due to attention deficit, social anxiety or depression. The beneficiaries of these policies are typically NOT the traditionally disadvantaged (i.e. poor) students, but elites! (Why elites? Perhaps in part because elites have the connections to get useful diagnoses but mainly, I think, because of admission policies?)

 

[laughing dog]

I doubt it is admission policy. If a student has a diagnosis of a learning disability and asks for accommodation, they receive one. If they ask for one without a diagnosis, whether or not they get one depends on the institution’s policies.

 

[Swammerdami]

I doubt it is admission policy. If a student has a diagnosis of a learning disability and asks for accommodation, they receive one. If they ask for one without a diagnosis, whether or not they get one depends on the institution’s policies.

What I was suggesting -- too tersely -- is that students poor BOTH financially AND scholastically are unlikely to be admitted, IF they apply at all.

 

[Derec]

What I was suggesting -- too tersely -- is that students poor BOTH financially AND scholastically are unlikely to be admitted, IF they apply at all.

Unless they have a woke skin color.

 

[Shadowy Man]

What I was suggesting -- too tersely -- is that students poor BOTH financially AND scholastically are unlikely to be admitted, IF they apply at all.

Unless they have a woke skin color.

That’s the wrong plot to address the point of likelihood of admittance. What is the fraction of students that apply who are admitted? swammerdami is suggesting that fraction is small irrespective of financial or scholastic status.

Your plot just implies lower standards for the “colored folk” but doesn’t directly address the actual probability of acceptance.

 

[Spacetime Inhabitant]

What I was suggesting -- too tersely -- is that students poor BOTH financially AND scholastically are unlikely to be admitted, IF they apply at all.

Unless they have a woke skin color.

There are a lot of artificial concepts here. How is race determined? What if someone is half-Asian and half-black - if they get a good score let's class them as Asian, and if they get a bad score let's call them black.
Why are Asians so much higher? It's because SAT is something that one can study for. This is a cultural thing.
What if chose basketball playing ability as your prerequisite? Or knowledge of rap music?
Also , there is not much difference between 720 and 760.
Plus, the graph only shows averages by "race". What if have an individual Native American who gets 790, and a "white" who gets 680?
That "white" person is getting in based on some form of DEI (their parent is influential, and so on).

 

[Shadowy Man]

What I was suggesting -- too tersely -- is that students poor BOTH financially AND scholastically are unlikely to be admitted, IF they apply at all.

Unless they have a woke skin color.

There are a lot of artificial concepts here. How is race determined? What if someone is half-Asian and half-black - if they get a good score let's class them as Asian, and if they get a bad score let's call them black.
Why are Asians so much higher? It's because SAT is something that one can study for. This is a cultural thing.
What if chose basketball playing ability as your prerequisite? Or knowledge of rap music?
Also , there is not much difference between 720 and 760.
Plus, the graph only shows averages by "race". What if have an individual Native American who gets 790, and a "white" who gets 680?
That "white" person is getting in based on some form of DEI (their parent is influential, and so on).

It would be interesting to see the actual distributions overplotted not just the averages. Wonder what the median scores would show. Is there a threshold score for admittance? What if all those “races” are above the threshold then does it matter if one race does ‘worse’ than the other? Is SAT performance the only metric worth considering for admittance? Seems like a plot designed to make a specific statement and couching it in damned lies statistics to make it seem legitimate.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Is SAT performance the only metric worth considering for admittance?

No and there is some evidence Asian Americans may tend to participate in extracurricular activities less, especially sports. So, apparently, if we saw a chart like that of sports (and other activities) there would be a different set of lines.

Why are Asians so much higher? It's because SAT is something that one can study for. This is a cultural thing.

Yes, there is evidence that Asian American families invest more resources in test prep and tutoring. If the effects of tutoring and test prep were somehow subtracted out, the graphs would be different.