How has affirmative action actually affected admissions policies?
To achieve its broadly representative goals without compromising high academic standards, the university developed a number of criteria for selecting students for admission….A great deal of thought has gone into elaborating mixed standards of admissibility to college. The system is based on a belief–confirmed by years of experience and systematic study–that merit and potential cannot be assessed solely on the basis of grades and test scores….Typically, admissions committees seek balance with respect to geography, socioeconomic background, race, gender, ethnicity, alumni ties, parental wealth and/or fame, academic interests, extracurricular activities, and so on. It is wrong to call this system of selection a system of racial preference, because many considerations go into creating a freshman class. And, [in most cases] race is not given priority over these other considerations….Race is only one of the factors taken into account about an individual’s characteristics and achievem
