I’m a senior with time on my hands, so I read the news so you don’t have to. Here’s what’s news at Penn . . .
Buy
Ivy League entitlement: As we engage in what has come to be an annual debate every November on the meritocracy of Early Admissions, legacy applicants continue to successfully justify how being conceived from the sperm (or egg) of a Penn alum is a perfectly fair and objective measure of their academic ability.
No more diversity training: With the recent failure of diversity training at the University of Delaware, diversity is the new hot topic in today’s issue of the DP. After DuBois college house was deemed the metaphorical “whipping boy” (no pun intended) for culture-based residential programs at Penn last week, the American Indian Cultures residential program, East Asia House residential program, and the Latin American residential programs all breathed a collective sigh of relief as they went unnoticed for doing the exact same thing.
Sell
Not another murder trial: With the third mistrial of former Wharton undergraduate Malinovskaya and the upcoming trial of former professor Robb, DP writers rejoice in the wealth of future stories to come while DP readers weep for the same reasons.
Giving students a say in the campus expansion: Forget more student housing and buses to the airport. What students really want is Greek Lady and Qdoba to go back to their late night hours! Tell us UA, what are your YouTube videos going to do about that, huh?
Hold
Baby Oil: Some videos just speak for themselves and are funnier than anything I could even hope to write. This one goes out to all the ladies.
Not so “secret” secrets: Look forward to the soon-to-be-public unveiling of a giant display of “secret” postcards sponsored by the Pan-Asian American Community House. Despite blatantly stealing the idea from the popular blog "_blank">Post Secret, Penn students will always welcome yet another thing to gossip about. As for my favorite postcard submitted thus far,
I think more people give me credit than they should.
Sounds like a Wharton student to me.
Thoughts?
Tags: Buy sell hold
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November 12th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
About legacies: ever care to think that if one or both of your parents is a Penn grad, you’ve probably inherited their good genes and grew up in an affluent household that valued education?
40% of legacies get accepted. I think it’s safe to say that if your parents were bright, there’s a 40% chance you’re pretty bright too, no?
Sure, you can look at the statistics…or you can put two and two together. Almost all the legacies I know are pretty smart.
November 12th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
About the above post: Sounds like someone is a legacy student. I would rather go to school with less people whose parents were affluent, Ivy League grads who “passed on their smart genes.” Maybe, if we shared some of that Ivy League entitlement, we would have a more diverse community of Americans who could then “pass on their smart genes” and value education too. But no, that would be just plain wrong. After all, we need to meet that bottom line, and what better way than to milk the admissions process for alumni donations? Sure we could look at the statistics, but we could just put two and two together: we have the greatest amount of economic disparity in contemporary America since the hey-day of laissez-faire capitalism from the gilded age through the 1920’s. Less legacy, more diversity!
November 13th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
Go back to the Soviet Union, you commie.
I’m not a legacy, but I am an Early Decision acceptee. And nobody has ever made a coherent argument why Early Decision is so “inherently unjust,” or “socio-economically biased.”
If it’s about financial aid, Penn is pretty generous with that, and not getting an affordable package is good grounds for breaking ED. If it’s about legacies getting extra consideration, I don’t see what’s wrong with giving people whose parents or grandparents went here a slight boost. Nepotistic? No, for reasons I’ve already said.
All Early Decision does is give an advantage to people who want to be at Penn…not quite sure what’s wrong with that.
November 13th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
Oh yeah: if you want to rip into legacy admissions, you better rip into under-represented minority admissions too.
November 14th, 2007 at 11:44 am
You have some cloudy glasses as you walk around Penn and obviously have not been here long enough to realize the facts about Penn’s student body, let alone our admissions office and process.
Why are you linking alumni donations with Legacy? They are irrespective of each other. Sure, many would presume that a small minority of the Alumni of our institution have become affluent through out their lives and have donated to Penn and therefore use their “pull” and legacy status to get their kids in her. But I know plenty of students who are not affluent but are legacy. So whats your point?
But more importantly your argument for “Less Legacy, More Minorities” is a hot topic on campus. Props for bringing it, but boo to you for your own ignorant beliefs. Legacy students are in no way related to minority students. Sure we should strive to be as diverse as possible, but STUDENTS SHOULD BE ADMITTED ON MERIT, not on their race. Race shouldn’t even appear on part of the application. We are admitting too many minorities over others just because of the color of their skin. We need major reform in our admissions process that is not based on race, but on one’s merit to attend Penn.
Natural selection and the natural progression of our society should reflect the admissions review of applications.
Why should we give special treatment to minorities? Sure, many minorities with great merit should be admitted, but I am glad Stetson left, we need reform in this area. Minorities’ admission decisions should not be given any special treatment like “alumni-donation” students (if thats what you want to call them).
Let nature take its path. Talk about your “minority” status or “legacy” status if you want in your essay where Penn REALLY can see what you are really about and have to offer. Don’t base it on some check mark that gives you some extra points with admissions. Many would agree that this “race” section on the app is in itself racist within itself.
A diverse campus will become diverse NATURALLY over time.