maxparrish
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Scalia: "slower-track school where they do well"
- Thread starter Nice Squirrel
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Nice Squirrel
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Jimmy Higgins
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Someone needs to show me where Texas University is "Elite U".
maxparrish
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The problem with loose bombast, as Trump observers will tell you, is that such claims will be held accountable. And for those who use bombast in place of actual thinking, they often react to criticism by flooring it into the swamp they thoughtlessly drove into.
Herein Nice Squirrel is instructive - for what could be more bombastic than this slur: "US News takes bribes. It's (U of Texas, Austin) far from elite." And what could be more reckless that providing us links to sources that mock his own statement?
Where does the NYTimes say anything about "taking bribes" to be placed higher on USNWR rankings - how about nowhere. Does NS bother to extract and evidence quote his link, nope.
The NYTimes article is little more than Nice Squirrel on meth; an irrelevant and grumpy polemic snarling at those "methodologies" as "just lists". It spins a fantasy about how all the national universities waste hundreds of millions so they can to get higher on a popular press periodical's rankings, because, in case you didn't know, according to this guy all the high SAT students only apply to schools that USNWR ranks high. (I kid you not). The perception that Harvard is better than some Panhandle State College is an illusion!
Like Mr. Squirrel, the author has no real evidence of bribery or lavish and wasteful spending to game a magazine ranking, but hey, it has that Donald Trump theatrical flair.
Once my chuckling subsided, I then read the article's link to the alternative "ranking" system that the author says "trys harder" to be fair. In a list of 281 nationally ranked University's UT Austin does not rank 52 (USNWR's rank) but 23rd. No one said UT Austin was elite, but Mr. Squirrels link just pushed him chin deep into the quicksand.
I stopped reading Mr. Squirrel links at this point - why bother? When you get impeached by your own first source, the case is closed.
But the NYTimes article did conclud with a point of merit:
Gee, that was Scalia's understanding as well - the argument that Mr. Squirrel (et. al.) are fuming over!
Oh dear.
Even the lefty Atlantic recognizes the issue: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/10/the-painful-truth-about-affirmative-action/263122/#
Yet it's Scalia who's horrible for noticing.
Colonel Sanders
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Scalia's specifically referring to law schools and he's been saying this for years. It's not a new opinion on his part.
The so-called top law schools accept students based on LSAT, LSAT, and LSAT. And then they look at GPA, and the prestige of the undergrad school. And of course their robust legacy programs ensure quite a few students will get into Hah-vahd who otherwise wouldn't qualify to get into what known as a "Tier IV" school. Yet those legacy admissions do just fine. That should tell you all you need to know about whether one's law school truly matters in terms of practice readiness.
What prestigious law schools offer is post-grad job opportunities. That's it. That's a big "it" of course, but it has nothing to do with quality of education... Fuck this. I can feel a rant brewing and an utter lack of desire to show what Scalia is referring to within a Constitutional framework. I'm on vacation.
The so-called top law schools accept students based on LSAT, LSAT, and LSAT. And then they look at GPA, and the prestige of the undergrad school. And of course their robust legacy programs ensure quite a few students will get into Hah-vahd who otherwise wouldn't qualify to get into what known as a "Tier IV" school. Yet those legacy admissions do just fine. That should tell you all you need to know about whether one's law school truly matters in terms of practice readiness.
What prestigious law schools offer is post-grad job opportunities. That's it. That's a big "it" of course, but it has nothing to do with quality of education... Fuck this. I can feel a rant brewing and an utter lack of desire to show what Scalia is referring to within a Constitutional framework. I'm on vacation.
fast
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What does race have to do with anything? Even if it were true that they don't do well because they are black and therefore ignorant, there presumably isn't any acceptable evidence identifying a causal link between race and how they are doing. To put it another way, if there were statistics to show that students who drive motorcycles faired equally as well, we wouldn't use the number of wheels on students vehicles as a basis of discrimination. We track race, and when we do, we're going to see some whopsided statistics on occasion, but absent a causal factor, we shouldn't conclude that the statistics we see is a causal function of what is being tracked. It reminds me of the very high instances of heart disease by those who drink diet soda. Of course we're going to see some surprising statistics, but the variables apart of the research isn't necessarily causal in nature.
Nice Squirrel
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52/200 schools. It is not even on the top 25%. Unless everyone gets a prize.
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Stopped reading at this point.
Last edited:
AthenaAwakened
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Your Annual Reminder to Ignore the U.S. News & World Report College Rankings
The list's real purpose is to "exacerbate the status anxiety" of prospective students and parents.
The list's real purpose is to "exacerbate the status anxiety" of prospective students and parents.
Jimmy Higgins
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There is no doubting it is a good school. There is no questioning that. It is just the idea it is elite, compared to the umm... actual elite colleges in the nation... seems a bit off target.
What the fuck does this matter?
This is a 14th amendment equal protection case.
All that matters is:
a) They have more people applying than they have space
b) They use race as a criteria for admissions
The people trying to get admitted obviously think it's more "elite" than their next best alternative. Hence the school has been hauled into court to defend its racial preference policies again.
untermensche
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Equal protection?
From what? Universities understanding that diversity is a positive thing and they should strive for it vigorously?
Where in the Constitution does it say past conditions can't be addressed today?
Derec
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I find it amazing that the idea that universities should not discriminate by race (and gender for that matter) when it comes to admissions is in any way controversial.
I find it equally amazing that the idea that if you admit people to schools that they would not be admitted to based on their academic chops they would have a greater likelihood of struggling academically and dropping out is controversial.
I find it equally amazing that the idea that if you admit people to schools that they would not be admitted to based on their academic chops they would have a greater likelihood of struggling academically and dropping out is controversial.
untermensche
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The are trying to address centuries of massive discrimination that put us here.
This is a societal issue, not an individual issue.
If whites had been the victims of centuries of torture and abuse, instead of the perpetrator, I suspect they would call for a lot more than is happening now.
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I would imagine the real purpose of creating these lists is for the paper to make money when the colleges cite the report in their advertising. Like car companies when they cite Motor Trend or J.D. Power.
In the 14th Amendment it says public institutions may not discriminate based on race.
Nice Squirrel
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No the OP is about how a Supreme Court Justice is pretty much saying that Blacks are not as smart as whites.
And to prove this is not true we've created a thread to show how much some whites struggle with reading comprehension?
untermensche
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In other words they cannot make decisions based only on race.
But they certainly can make decisions based on circumstance.
And the circumstance just happens to be centuries of massive discrimination and torture by whites against blacks.
The history you speak of is not relevant and does not excuse racist policy today.
Happening to identify or be identified with a historically discriminated against group should not entitle you to special perks of any sort; not unless you yourself can show how you have been hard done by and that it hides your potential. Otherwise this is simple racism.
Where Scalia went off the rails in that quote was the assumption that black people won't be as bright or suitable for the "elite" school. But I didn't read all that he said, so he may have been talking only about less intelligent black people.
Happening to identify or be identified with a historically discriminated against group should not entitle you to special perks of any sort; not unless you yourself can show how you have been hard done by and that it hides your potential. Otherwise this is simple racism.
Where Scalia went off the rails in that quote was the assumption that black people won't be as bright or suitable for the "elite" school. But I didn't read all that he said, so he may have been talking only about less intelligent black people.