Why is Affirmative Action bad?

[Vladimir7]

Socioeconomically speaking, I can't see why some people say it should be gotten rid of.

Say a student, who works hard, and has the family support to afford a tutor gets a 4.0 GPA.
Say another student, who works hard, but can't get a tutor gets a 3.5 GPA.

Note: this extrapolates to MCAT score, networking/opportunities etc..

I just want to know why someone would deem it wrong to take a students background/past experiences into consideration. (I know a lot of schools, if not all, already do this with personal statements and stuff but why shouldn't they?)

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[Lawpy]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/anonymity-bedside-manners-and-sdn-membership.1176729/

As a heads up. The topic has been discussed many times in the past, and the threads have been prone to flame wars.

 

[numbersloth]

I think one of the problems is that parents income or color of their skin doesn't reflect how much they are willing to give to their kids. For example, my parents are well-off European yet the idea of spending the kind of money that some Americans do on education is outrageous to them (lol the idea of paying for high school at all in Europe is laughable) and the idea of me not having a part-time job in college is equally outrageous, despite the fact that they have the money to both afford tutoring/etc. and for me not to have to work a job next to studying/volunteering/research.

Despite this all, I still support affirmative action. Until I actually walk in URM/poverty-level students shoes, I can't make any statement about how difficult it must be.

 

[freak7]

Until I actually walk in URM/poverty-level students shoes, I can't make any statement about how difficult it must be.

Pro Tip: It sucked. There's nothing like going to the bread outlet and digging through the expired bread (that they'll let you take for free) to teach you some humility. Also the food bank was like... right next to my high school. So so humiliating.

 

[ChymeofPassion]

I don't think most people care about the financial side of affirmative action. Its the racial side that rustles peoples jimmies, is that racial differences can give rise to huge GPA and MCAT differences in matriculates. Ex. AAMC Table 24. People don't believe its fair just because you are an URM, in many cases just the color of your skin (not all black people are relatively poor, not all white people are relatively rich) , you should receive special treatment to fit a diversity quota provided by the school in hopes that that doctor will return to under served communities (based on the statistics of that happening by race). AKA its very political and very charged, and no one really knows whats the right answer. But people will complain about it because of how competitive medical school admissions are.

 

[Vladimir7]

I think one of the problems is that parents income or color of their skin doesn't reflect how much they are willing to give to their kids

But wouldn't this classify the kid therefore as socioeconomically deprived?

It sucked. There's nothing like going to the bread outlet and digging through the expired bread (that they'll let you take for free) to teach you some . Also the food bank was like... right next to my high school. So so humiliating.

I feel you so much on that. It's like the free insurance policy in the US like medi-cal. It's actually a very poor system that isn't really doing much to save lives. And I don't blame the doctors, considering how many patients they get of course they can't have quality one on one time with all their patients.

 

[Vladimir7]

Ex. AAMC Table 24

Just looked at that yeah...some huge discrepancies. And yes while its true that white =/= rich and black =/= poor, there are certainly enough stats/metrics out there to show that generally speaking that's how the way things are...

And ofcourse, we'd wish the world was perfect, but it's not, so we should compensate for that imo.

 

[WheezyBaby]

We don't use URM in admissions because "blacks tend to be poorer than whites". It's to increase the representation of URM physicians for their respective communities. Economic hardship and admissions is a different matter. Not going to bother arguing for or against the value in either

 

[bananafish94]

I don't want to get into a whole political brouhaha but I think that a great many people have a fundamental misunderstanding of affirmative action and its purpose.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

On one hand you want the most qualified student for the job regardless of race. You could even say it's a bit racist to give someone an advantage simply because of the color of their skin/ancestry.


However the major argument for AA is that URM physicians often return to practice among their own communities which are often healthcare underserved.

 

[Vladimir7]

I don't want to get into a whole political brouhaha but I think that a great many people have a fundamental misunderstanding of affirmative action and its purpose.

So as you mentioned, and the guy above you said, affirmative action is to increase representation for communities that are lacking? Not due to economic backgrounds?

 

[Vladimir7]

You could even say it's a bit racist to give someone an advantage simply because of the color of their skin/ancestry.

Right, I heard it labeled as positive discrimination in the past. Which is technically still discrimination...

 

[Lost In Transcription]

oh god this thread could turn ugly fast.

It's not "bad". Just controversial. There are a lot of threads about this already. Personally, I think it is statistically valid for the majority of the time, but there are definitely crapshoots while implementing it..
I genuinely believe MOST of the pre-meds who complain about AA have no idea why it is a good idea because they cannot see past their own nose and are butthurt about the competitiveness (and don't understand the natural advantage they likely have):

 

[tantacles]

I think this thread veers into a place we're trying to avoid: Affirmative action debates. See @Lee 's sticky for more information on why we don't allow these types of threads.

Closing.