Thu 30 Jun 2005
In a previous thread, HWC claimed that
The bidding for middle and upper class Af-Am and Latino kids this year has taken my breath away. Colleges, including several of our favorites, have no shame in courting these kids. It’s really quite embarrassing as the top schools fall all over themselves chasing the same 1000 students. College admissions is sweet for prep school URMs these days.
Of the top 3 LACs, Amherst appears to be the most..ahem…”creative” when it comes to ciphering a “need-based” aid package (aka hidden merit aid), but even that pales to the offers being thrown around by places like U Chicago to URM applicants.
I don’t have enough facts to comment much, but I suspect the Questbridge folk have a sweet little deal going for themselves, charging a pretty penny in exchange for turn-key diversity stats. I know that Harvard was one of the first schools to sign on after Questbridge was started at Stanford. But, Harvard dumped ‘em a couple of years later.
Having looked at their federal filings, I don’t see any red flags at Questbridge, but it is always hard for an outsider to tell these things.
But I would like to hear more details, from HWC or anyone else, about the competition for talented URMs among Williams and its peer institutions. I believe that the Tyng plays a part in this, but don’t have good data on what percentage of Tyngs go to URMs. Anyone with details is invited to comment.
July 5th, 2005 at 9:40 pm
One infers from a single anecdote at one’s peril, but in the class of 1997, I was the lone white male Tyng Scholar out of a group of seven.
Honestly, I think this is a pretty decent way to use the Tyng bequest, at least in theory. It does run the risk of mistaking racial diversity for broader diversity. We’ve accomplished something, but not enough, if we spend all this money admitting prep school kids of many colors. Hopefully, the admissions staff is thinking more creatively than that.