I have chosen Ross Douthat as my columnist and I came across one of his articles that focuses on the college admissions trilemma. College admission trilemma is an argument that seems to increase with the justification of a newspaper that uses Harvard admissions data to estimate the importance of preferences for athletes, legacies, the children of donors and Harvard faculty. Although Douthat does not say it implicitly, the colleges and universities being targeted seem to fall into the category of status or elite institutions, as its main target is Harvard University private Ivy League research university. This article, like the definition, continues an unhelpful obsession with how the most elite private (preferably Ivy League’s) schools manage their admissions.
I disagree with what Douthat tries to convey due to the fact that the problem comes down to the fact that there are too many high school graduates who do not have the academic skills to thrive and be successful at these eminent institutions. Why should a naïve academically unqualified football player steal the spot of an intelligent motivated driven student who does not play a sport to a “prestigious” university? The university’s goal should be accepting the brightest students to pursue their education of choice. When we focus on a prestigious school such as Harvard, you can tell that their primary mission is not to educate, but to establish and maintain an artificially small elite and to keep a reputation that claims to focus on diversity, but with an such a large undergraduate population (of almost 6700 students) it remains as just an institution devoted to propagating diversity. This undergraduate side has the legacy preferences, preferences for rich kid sports, preferences for children of big donors and quotas for blacks and Asians.
Douthat does have a hidden point and that is that admission to elite schools should be based on merit. Because the diversity being implemented by the Ivies makes them seem racist. These Ivy League schools are taking away Asians students who have earned the right to be there by studying harder. Douthat cites and focuses mainly on Harvard which becomes understandable as Harvard is one of the most prestigious and known school all over the world.
This article focuses on the problem of college admissions trilemma, Douthat asking what is there to do? And the answer should be obvious that America being capable of overcoming many obstacles that we have been faced with can overcome this unfair justice and focus on giving admission to these fairly smart and deserving students the opportunity to challenge themselves and being accepted into universities such as Harvard University.
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