Anyone Heard of Academic Initiative Action (AIA)?

[LawDog3]

Affirmative Action really exists for everyone, if you think about it. Legacies for the rich. Ethnicity considerations for exceptional URM's. Geographic considerations for talented out-of-state applicants. And then there are the "Academic Initiatives".

UCLA and NYU are among the first elite schools to use it, but it's a great substitute for AA b/c it includes EVERYONE!

UCLA's Critical Race Studies option gives applicants a huge bump in their chances for admission at UCLA Law b/c of UCLA's mission of training lawyers who are A) sensitive to society's race issues and B) intent on using that knowledge to address racial problems in the legal and business fields, as well as in their communities.

Schools that steer students into public interest fields, offering scholarship/fellowship incentives (like NYU Law), and offer binding scholarships on their basis, are also practicing AIA.

So...if white students would like to benefit from theior own form of AA, these options are available and have been for a long time. The only thing you must be wary of is that, professing a specific academic interest means a a real commitment, so don't lie. You may get called on it if you gain admission but don't follow the script. And schools like NYU will yank your scholarships and/or expell you.
 
This all goes to say that...nobody should be griping about Affirmative Action. If it exists for everyone, then, somewhat paradoxically, it really doesn't exist at all.

[penumbra]

And schools like NYU will yank your scholarships and/or expell you.

name one instance where this has happened.  thanks.

[LawDog3]

And schools like NYU will yank your scholarships and/or expell you.

name one instance where this has happened.  thanks.

Any non-urm student who has been admitted to UCLA's critical race studies program can attest to it. So can anyone admitted to NYU's public interest programs, the Fuhrman Fellowship Program, Golieb Legal History Program, Hayes Civil Liberties Program, or a host of other academic specialties. They're open to all, and it is well-known that applicants who express sincere interest in such programs are given a "bump" in their admissions prospects...so long as their interest rings true, based on their history of public service. You'd need to have some good community service in your backgrounds, or have demonstrated your interest through your undergraduate studies, or even your job, but it's doable.

And Georgetown's Global Scholars Program works the same way.

This is irrefutable, and it's been right up under everyone's noses the entire time. That's why I think people need to chill on the anti-AA talk. Just about every applicant can benefot from some form of AA if they market themselves strategically.

[penumbra]

And schools like NYU will yank your scholarships and/or expell you.

name one instance where this has happened.  thanks.

Any non-urm student who has been admitted to UCLA's critical race studies program can attest to it. So can anyone admitted to NYU's public interest programs, the Fuhrman Fellowship Program, Golieb Legal History Program, Hayes Civil Liberties Program, or a host of other academic specialties. They're open to all, and it is well-known that applicants who express sincere interest in such programs are given a "bump" in their admissions prospects...so long as their interest rings true, based on their history of public service. You'd need to have some good community service in your backgrounds, or have demonstrated your interest through your undergraduate studies, or even your job, but it's doable.

And Georgetown's Global Scholars Program works the same way.

This is irrefutable, and it's been right up under everyone's noses the entire time. That's why I think people need to chill on the anti-AA talk. Just about every applicant can benefot from some form of AA if they market themselves strategically.

not my question.  let's try again: when has nyu ever yanked someone's scholarship or expelled someone for not "talking the talk"?

in the big-picture sense, i agree with you that there are lots of ways for interesting applicants to pump up their applications and shift attention away from the numbers.  it just doesn't seem as if you have much grasp on the way these programs actually work.

fyi, with respect to the nyu fellowships, the hays is open only to rising 3Ls and the golieb is for non-law student historians.  of the named fellowships you listed, only the fuhrman works at all as you've suggested, and it does not give students a leg up in admissions.  it is, rather, a very selective honor for students who would be admitted anyway (because they must demonstrate promise as legal academics before ever taking a single law school class - which means they are very high-index applicants).

[bl825]

I was under the impression that the NYU scholarships actually existed to recruit people who might otherwise go to Yale/Harvard/Stanford but who looked like they could be swayed through targeted scholarships that focused on their areas of interest, and that they were actually more competitive than general admission.  I suppose I could be mistaken I guess.

[heartbreaker]

I was under the impression that the NYU scholarships actually existed to recruit people who might otherwise go to Yale/Harvard/Stanford but who looked like they could be swayed through targeted scholarships that focused on their areas of interest, and that they were actually more competitive than general admission.  I suppose I could be mistaken I guess.

No, you're right.

I'm sure you're shocked (shocked!) that LawDog once again is talking out of his ass.

[bl825]

Well, I never!

[LawDog3]

I was under the impression that the NYU scholarships actually existed to recruit people who might otherwise go to Yale/Harvard/Stanford but who looked like they could be swayed through targeted scholarships that focused on their areas of interest, and that they were actually more competitive than general admission.  I suppose I could be mistaken I guess.

Not really...or it could partially be right. But that would assume that ANY HYS admitee would, under all conditions - and in every year - gain admission to CCN. And I don't believe that.

The point, it still provides a fair opportunity for any applicant, regardless of ethnicity, gender or other background/status. 

And the "AIA" acronym is my own, but the schools practicing it all have different names for it.

[heartbreaker]

Oh my god your monumental stupidity makes me want to cry. Please see the bios of, for example, IILJ scholars at NYU below. Please tell me which ones of those are anything less than stellar candidates:

http://www.iilj.org/aboutus/iilj_scholars.asp

[bl825]

I was under the impression that the NYU scholarships actually existed to recruit people who might otherwise go to Yale/Harvard/Stanford but who looked like they could be swayed through targeted scholarships that focused on their areas of interest, and that they were actually more competitive than general admission.  I suppose I could be mistaken I guess.

Not really...or it could partially be right. But that would assume that ANY HYS admitee would, under all conditions - and in every year - gain admission to CCN. And I don't believe that.

The point, it still provides a fair opportunity for any applicant, regardless of ethnicity, gender or other background/status. 

And the "AIA" acronym is my own, but the schools practicing it all have different names for it.

There's no reason why every HYS admittee would have to be admitted to CCN in every year in order for it to hold true.  The folks deciding to whom to give the NYU fellowships could just look at the applicants and pick out the ones that are exceptionally qualified.  That would mean that they would usually (though not always) be picking people who were cross-admitted at HYS.  It would advantage NYU by giving such applicants an additional reason to choose NYU over HYS (or anywhere else for that matter).  On the other hand, if NYU was the best school that such applicants got into, then it wouldn't really advantage NYU because they would just be getting students who probably would have come to their school anyway.

If what you said was true, that such students had an easier time getting admitted than the average NYU student, then it would make no sense from NYU's perspective to give them money on top of admitting them, since they would probably enroll at NYU regardless.