Established 1826 — Oldest College Newspaper West of the Alleghenies

Letter to the Editor | Continuing the discussion on affirmative action

Sara Nielsen, nielsese@miamioh.edu

I was very interested to read the Weighing Opinions feature in the May 2 issue. Affirmative action is a complicated topic, and I wanted to add another perspective to the discussion. One of the arguments made was that if race and gender were not considered on college applications, then all applicants would have an equal chance of being admitted. As a former high school teacher, I disagree.

I taught high school science in a small rural high school in South Carolina. Most of my former students were African-Americans. They would not have an equal chance if race were left off the application for many reasons. First of all, the high school I taught at offered no AP classes and did not have an International Baccalaureate (IB) program. Even if it had, many of my students would not have had the money to pay for the AP tests, as 74 percent of the students at the school qualify for free/reduced lunch. AP and IB classes and tests look great on college applications. A student who has high grades but no AP classes won't be able to compete with a student with high grades and AP classes.

Second, the extracurricular opportunities at the high school I taught at were limited. There were very few clubs and activities for the students to participate in. Furthermore, many of my students did not have the time for after-school activities because they had to work to help support themselves and their families.

Third, most colleges require students to take either the SAT or the ACT, and some colleges require both. Students who come from more economically advantaged backgrounds can afford test prep classes and tutors. Most of my students could not, nor could they afford to retake the tests to get a better score. Research also shows that standardized tests such as the SAT are biased against women and racial minorities. My African-American students would not have the same chance for success as white students.

There are many more reasons that my former students did not have an equal chance when compared to most white students, but I hope I have made my point. It is true that affirmative action is not a perfect system, and does not work as well as it should. However, it does help those students who would not otherwise have a chance (much less an equal one) at going to a great school.