Poll - If you were given URM advantage, would you take it?

[russian_concussion]

lol youre a riot
 
off topic...do you go to umass lowell?

Regrettably yea.

[blake840]

I was up in Lowell a few weeks ago at the Kerouac memorial... 
I go to Emmanuel...

[russian_concussion]

I was up in Lowell a few weeks ago at the Kerouac memorial... 
I go to Emmanuel...

Where's Emmanuel? And what did you think of Lowell?

Would you consider yourself a beatnik(sp?)?. I never dug Kerouac, simply because he liked Lowell and I don't.

[blake840]

Emmanuel is in Boston...its like 2 blocks from

FENWAY PARK
HOME OF THE 2004 WORLD SERIES CHAMPION RED SOX

sorry....it's been an involuntary tick since october lol

i wouldnt say im a beatnik, but i read alot of kerouac, burroughs, amd bukowski (even though he is not considered a beat writer, he pretty much is in actually)

i dont like lowell much either, very dirty.  i was especially unimpressed with the fact that there was grafitti all over the memorial and junk on the ground.

sorry about all the spelling errors...i cant spell to save my life.

[russian_concussion]

Emmanuel is in Boston...its like 2 blocks from

FENWAY PARK
HOME OF THE 2004 WORLD SERIES CHAMPION RED SOX

sorry....it's been an involuntary tick since october lol

i wouldnt say im a beatnik, but i read alot of kerouac, burroughs, amd bukowski (even though he is not considered a beat writer, he pretty much is in actually)

i dont like lowell much either, very dirty.  i was especially unimpressed with the fact that there was grafitti all over the memorial and junk on the ground.

sorry about all the spelling errors...i cant spell to save my life.

Sorry about the grafitti and trash, I'm pretty sure my friends and I are responsible for it.

I despise Lowell, I only hope they'll let me graduate in the f-cking spring. Ugh.

[goodadvice (account resigned)]

Getting back on topic

It looks like this poll validates the URMs on this board. 78% of voters so far, which must includes many non-URMs, would gladly take a URM admission.

[Edster]

I'd check "prefer not to answer" on the application form. I am all for bringing in people with diverse experiences, provided they can do the work at a given school, but I am entirely opposed to the ideas that skin color makes a person different (that's racism in it's purest form, whichever way it's aimed) or that somebody who has never been enslaved, denied entrance to a public library, denied access to a public high school, or otherwise "held down" is entitled to any kind of "plus factor" on an academic measure.

Note: I am not downplaying slavery or the civil rights abuses of the past; I am, however, saying that what happened to a person's ancestors 150 or even 40 years ago has no bearing on whether or not said person can grasp logic or work hard enough to get good grades. 150 years ago, my ancestors were hounded out of their country for their religious beliefs and had to start over with nothing; I don't claim privilege and don't expect anyone else to, either.

[Trevor]

It's not necessarily hypocritical to oppose granting URM status while being willing to accept it if offered.  It's perfectly consistent to hold that whatever the rule smay happen to be, one should seek to maximize one's returns under them, even if one doesn't agree with every rule.

If you'll allow a brief analogy:  I'm a tall guy, standing 6'5".  I don't think being tall will make me a better lawyer.  But suppose that law schools, for thier own reasons I don't even understand, prefer taller candidates.  I think this is silly, but I'm not going to turn down height-based advantages if they are offered.

This stance would rule out prostitution or fraud to get ahead, too.

So yeah, if anyone offered my admission based on thier determination that I was a URM of some kind, I'd accept.  For the record, I think that affirmative action can in principle be done right, but I don't know (or care to know) enough of the specifics of any program to say whether that's happening.  I just check the "White/Caucasian" box and get on with my life.

[WoeIsMe]

hey you tall bastard.. you'll never compete in my limbo school of law.

good point.. man if I was white AND tall... I'd rule the world!

[goodadvice (account resigned)]

It's not necessarily hypocritical to oppose granting URM status while being willing to accept it if offered.  It's perfectly consistent to hold that whatever the rule smay happen to be, one should seek to maximize one's returns under them, even if one doesn't agree with every rule.

It doesn't work that way.

If you say you oppose URM favoritism, for anyone - It would be hypocritical if you then took a URM admission.

If you say you oppose URM favoritism, for others, but would take it if it were offered to you - In this case it would not be hypocritical to take a URM admission. Of course no one would listen to such a clearly self-serving opinion.

If you say the first, but believe the second, then you are a devious liar. You would be described using far worst adjectives than hypocritical.