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Are Blacks and Hispanics More "Holistic" Than Whites And Asians?

I concluded a discussion of this question on Minding The Campus today by asking:

Could the turn toward ?holistic? criteria (and the infinitely elastic discretion that it requires) possibly be no more than a pretext for sneaking race and ethnic preferences past gullible lawyers, judges, and obstinate citizens who continue to believe in colorblind equality? But I suppose only a real cynic ? or a close observer of American higher education ? could believe that.

Read the whole thing to see what precedes that conclusory question.

Now, if you?ll indulge me, here?s a personal anecdote about an experience we had with at least a partial ?holistic? qualification when daughter Jessie was applying to college.

Regular (and perhaps even occasional) readers of DISCRIMINATIONS will be aware that Jessie?s college experience was a bit unusual, in that she skipped high school, went off to Mary Baldwin College (which has an impressive program for gifted young girls) at 13, transferred to Bryn Mawr at 14, and graduated at 17. (After a Caltech PhD in Applied Physics last December, she now has a research staff position at IBM?s Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York.)

Early in her freshman year at Mary Baldwin, her interest in physics intact, it became clear that Jessie would need to transfer, probably after her sophomore year, to a school with more depth in physics and math. With that excuse in mind, my wife and I took off on a tour to view Fall in New England, with interviews along the way at several of the remaining Seven Sisters women?s colleges.

We thought these interviews would be purely academic, in the sense of my Apple dictionary?s second definition: ?not of practical relevance; of only theoretical interest,? because at the time we were pretty sure her road would lead to Wellesley. We have close friends and family who went there, it had then (and perhaps still) the highest SAT scores among the Sisters, and even more impressive to us was its longstanding joint registration arrangement with MIT. So certain were we that Wellesley would probably be Jessie?s next destination that I steeled myself before our visit there not to hold its close and prominent association with Hillary Clinton, an alumna, against it.

And, for the most part, I succeeded, despite the provocation of the hall leading to the admissions office being lined with pictures of formidable, scowling CEO-looking ladies and the mantra of ?empowerment? that characterized so much of the vision of Wellesley communicated to us by the young assistant admissions officer who had agreed to see us.

We had explained before this meeting, of course, that Jessie?s situation was not typical and that my wife and I were exploring several transfer possibilities for her for a year or so down the road. We were well aware that plopping a 15 year old girl (as we thought she would be when transferring) down as a junior in a high-powered college was problematical, both for the girl and the college, and that?s what we had expected to discuss, since by then Jessie?s academic qualifications (including very high SAT scores) were already well-established and documented before our arrival.

Boy, were we surprised. Because Wellesley had so many academically well-qualified applicants, we were told, the college?s concern with empowering women caused it to look beyond academics to ?leadership potential.? There was no question about Jessie?s academic qualifications, the serious and no doubt empowered young admissions officer assured us, but it was simply too soon to determine if Jessie was Wellesley material because 13 (as she then was) was too young for her to have a demonstrated track record of ?leadership.?

For reasons that are beyond the scope of this digression, Jessie wound up transferring to Bryn Mawr, and doing so the following fall as a sophomore, a year earlier than we had expected. It turned out to be a very successful match.

Full post as published by Discriminations on November 19, 2010 (boomark / email).