I see viraptor has provided one of the two examples that readily come to mind. Harvard in 2004 may not generalize to most colleges today, and black people who are biracial is largely irrelevant, because a person with one white parent and one black parent has always been "black" for purposes of enforcing Black Codes
and other mechanisms of legally supported prejudice against black people.
"A counselor told me when my daughters were applying for college admission that the first thing I had to do was withdraw my application for financial aid. When I said that colleges professed to be 'need blind,' she laughed."
Not only is that an anecdote, that is an anecdote from a biased source. Professional college admission counselors use parental anxiety on the part of wealthier parents to generate their business. They are never going to refer to information that might suggest that large categories of applicants don't need their services.
There may indeed be some evidence that colleges favor wealthier rather than poorer students,
and I for one would like to know what the most recent and most carefully gathered data show on this issue, but I wouldn't take a professional college admission counselor as a competent, objective source on such an issue, and no journalist should either.
Your comment upvoted because you asked me to provide evidence for my statement in the grandparent comment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Codes_%28United_States%29
and other mechanisms of legally supported prejudice against black people.
"A counselor told me when my daughters were applying for college admission that the first thing I had to do was withdraw my application for financial aid. When I said that colleges professed to be 'need blind,' she laughed."
Not only is that an anecdote, that is an anecdote from a biased source. Professional college admission counselors use parental anxiety on the part of wealthier parents to generate their business. They are never going to refer to information that might suggest that large categories of applicants don't need their services.
There may indeed be some evidence that colleges favor wealthier rather than poorer students,
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_27/b3840045_...
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ffp0621.pdf
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ff0615S.pdf
http://www.tcf.org/Publications/Education/carnrose.pdf
http://www.tcf.org/Publications/Education/kahlenberg-affacti...
http://harvardmagazine.com/2005/05/a-thumb-on-the-scale.html
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200511/financial-aid-leveragi...
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=510012
http://www.equaleducation.org/commentary.asp?opedid=1240
http://www.jkcf.org/assets/files/0000/0084/Achievement_Trap....
http://www.reason.com/news/show/123910.html
http://www.ihep.org/publications/publications-detail.cfm?id=...
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2008/11...
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hkBGMsvJKR...
and I for one would like to know what the most recent and most carefully gathered data show on this issue, but I wouldn't take a professional college admission counselor as a competent, objective source on such an issue, and no journalist should either.
Your comment upvoted because you asked me to provide evidence for my statement in the grandparent comment.