Journal #8

Need help with my English question – I’m studying for my class.

Journal #8:

By now, you’ve hopefully read the two articles I posted last week. For this journal, I’d like you to think about and compare these two articles a bit. In the Stauffer article, she argues that our admissions process is flawed and unfair because it privileges kids from wealthy families who can afford to pay for advantages that other students can’t afford (or don’t even know exist). Towards the end of her article, Stauffer includes a quote from Harvard professor Natasha Warikoo about the fairness of the current admissions process. She says:

“‘A fair system to me would produce an outcome in which people who are selected are representative of 18-year-olds overall in the United States,’ Ms. Warikoo said, noting that while wealthy students are overrepresented, working class and poor students, black, Latino, Native American and first generation students are underrepresented on most campuses. ‘We don’t have consensus in the United States about what is a fair system of selection.’”

On the other hand, Dylan Hernandez argues that the current system works and that the students who get into good schools genuinely deserve to be there. Unlike Stauffer, he doesn’t think that the system is unfair and says that lower-income students have the same opportunities to get into good schools as their wealthier peers–they just need to work harder and take advantage of different resources to do so. He says that students like him “must work hard; remain affable and appreciative; be a quick study; surround [themselves] with sharp, humble peers and compassionate, wise mentors; and — this is key — capitalize on donor-supported resources.”

With this in mind, I’d like to return to what you were thinking about last week. Did these two perspectives change your mind at all? And who do you agree with? Do you agree with Stauffer that our current admissions process favors wealthier students and gives them an unfair advantage over students from low-income families? Or do you agree with Hernandez that our current system is fair and that if low-income students work hard and take advantage of different resources they have the same chance at admission as their wealthier peers? Explain why you agree with the writer you chose.