Antonin Scalia is a racist ass, of course, but there’s an even worse aspect to the Fisher v. University of Texas case that deserves everyone’s attention, and it comes not from Antonin Scalia but from the University of Texas itself.
Without a race-conscious admissions policy, nearly all of the slots awarded via the “holistic review” process (for those students who are not admitted under Texas’s top ten percent law) would go to white students. How does that happen?
There’s a far more basic question at the heart of this debate that few people want to talk about. Who, exactly, are the “most qualified” students for admission?
Under the standards applied by most universities, high school grades (GPA) and standardized test scores (SAT/ACT) are the largest factors — and these are, perhaps, what most people mean when they claim to want the “most qualified” students to attend college. Of course, these aren’t perfect measures. High school grades can be influenced by a variety of factors, but one important factor that can really influence a GPA is the extra weight usually given to Advanced Placement (AP) courses. Taking a bunch of AP courses not only can give a boost to your GPA, but they’re also taken as an indication of a rigorous high school curriculum. Standardized test scores are touted as a measure of college readiness — but given the gains that some students make after taking a test prep class, they’re certainly an imperfect indicator of preparedness. (If a month-long SAT prep course is what it takes to be prepared for college, then it’s probably not a good measure of preparedness.) Or, hell, simply taking the test again. When I was in high school, my ACT score went up by four points (on a scale of 36) when I retook the test a few months later, with no test prep course in between the two.
You probably know where this is going, of course. The number of AP courses offered varies from school to school — some high schools offer a large number of AP courses, to the point that a particularly motivated student can take almost nothing but AP courses during their last couple of years of high school. Other schools have few AP offerings. And, even when students have access to a variety of AP courses, their school may have extra hoops that students have to jump through before they can even take those courses. If your sophomore English teacher doesn’t think you should take AP English, at many schools, this shuts you out of AP English. And I probably don’t have to tell you which schools are generally the ones that offer wide varieties of AP courses — and which students are the ones whom schools will shut out of the AP courses they do offer. There are also private tutors, which, aside from the extra weight given to GPA by AP courses, can also boost a student’s academic standing.
As to SAT scores, guess which students are more likely to have access to pricey test prep courses?
Another thing university admissions offices love to see: extracurricular activities, and particularly athletics. After all, universities have to find student-athletes to fill all of their sports teams. While everyone focuses on the two main revenue sports — football and men’s basketball, which frequently have numerous minority students who otherwise might not be able to attend college — in other sports offered on college campuses, minority students are few and far between. Soccer? Lacrosse? Swimming? Golf? The non-revenue sports account for far more student-athletes than the revenue sports, and in these, minority students frequently don’t have a chance. In fact, as much as some complain about high schools sponsoring athletic teams, the alternative is “club teams” that put barriers to entry in place. Your kid probably isn’t getting a college soccer scholarship unless you can afford to pay for them to join a private club team — and then pay for them to travel to soccer tournaments. And even if you’re not good enough to play a sport in college, just playing a sport in high school — even if you were a benchwarmer — is frequently a boost to your college application. But less affluent high schools may not have as many athletic teams available. Many high schools, for example, don’t even field a golf team. So there goes your opportunity to impress a college admissions officer by telling him you were on your high school golf team.
It’s not difficult to see what’s going on here. Without affirmative action, college admissions works to the benefit of white students, and particularly white students from affluent backgrounds. Not because they’re more qualified, but because aside from race-conscious admissions policies, the entirety of the college admissions process is set up to favor affluent white students. Not because they’re more qualified, but because they’re in a far better position to game the system.
The University of Texas knows this. Abigail Fisher knows this. Antonin Scalia knows this. But only one of these people sees a problem with this; fortunately, it’s the one party in this case that is in a position to do something about it. And if the Supreme Court (in their infinite wisdom) rules against them, it’s on them to do something to make the rest of the college admissions process so that minority students are really on an equal playing field.