{"id":124,"date":"2011-10-19T16:56:10","date_gmt":"2011-10-19T21:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ssc.wisc.edu\/~whansen\/?p=124"},"modified":"2011-12-16T12:48:03","modified_gmt":"2011-12-16T17:48:03","slug":"better-answers-required-to-justify-holistic-admissions-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/users.ssc.wisc.edu\/~wlhansen\/?p=124","title":{"rendered":"Better answers required to justify holistic admissions process"},"content":{"rendered":"

October 19, 2011
\nThe Badger Herald<\/a><\/p>\n

Exactly how are minority applicant admissions decisions made at the University of Wisconsin? At Monday\u2019s Legislative Assembly committee hearing, Provost Paul DeLuca and Admissions Director Adele Brumfield described the process. They also dismissed the Center for Equal Opportunity study of UW undergraduate admissions that reported \u201csevere discrimination\u201d favoring African Americans and Hispanics.<\/p>\n

DeLuca began by stating, \u201cNo student is admitted simply because of race or any other factor alone. Academics are the most important factor in our admission process. We also have a desire to create a diverse academic community.\u201d<\/p>\n

But nobody contends that targeted minority students are admitted solely because of their race or any other single factor. What most people don\u2019t know is a great many targeted minority applicants are academically competitive and would be admitted without regard to their race, ethnicity or national origin.<\/p>\n

UW\u2019s preferential admissions policy is criticized because some targeted minority applicants receive special consideration not afforded by other applicants. This is evident from admissions office documents obtained in response to an open records request.<\/p>\n

As UW students know, applicant files include a wealth of information that goes beyond high school class rank and ACT\/SAT scores. They also include details on courses taken in high school, extracurricular activities, letters of recommendation and personal statements. The comprehensive review of this information conducted by admissions counselors provides the basis for deciding whether or not to admit applicants.<\/p>\n

Applicants with strong credentials, particularly those with high ACT\/SAT scores and the requisite course preparation, are admitted without question. Applicants with less strong credentials are put into a \u201cpostpone\u201d category for later reconsideration. Applicants with weak credentials are rejected.<\/p>\n

But files of rejected applicants who are members of \u201ctargeted\u201d groups, most notably minorities, but also athletes, veterans, returning adults and music or dance majors, receive additional consideration. It is at this stage that \u201cother factors\u201d come into play, and they include \u201cstudent experiences, work experience, leadership qualities, motivation, community service, special talents \u2026 and [being] socio-economically disadvantaged.\u201d<\/p>\n

How these \u201cother factors\u201d affect admissions decisions has never been described. How much evidence of, for example, \u201cleadership qualities\u201d or \u201ccommunity service\u201d is required to overcome the weaker academic preparation (e.g., high school rank, ACT scores, difficulty of high school course work) that led to an applicant\u2019s initial rejection? Or \u201cmotivation,\u201d \u201cspecial talents\u201d and \u201csocio-economically disadvantaged\u201d?<\/p>\n

The CEO study is criticized for failing to consider these \u201cother factors.\u201d But UW can be criticized for being unable to produce any evidence that taking into account these \u201cother factors\u201d improves the ability of the admissions office to determine which of these less academically-competitive (initially rejected) targeted minority students have \u201cthe potential and the capacity to succeed.\u201d Shouldn\u2019t \u201ca world-class research university\u201d like UW have long ago undertaken research to answer this simple question?<\/p>\n

UW officials continue to maintain their \u201cholistic approach\u201d to admissions is consistent with the University of Michigan Supreme Court decisions. To regularly assert their compliance is not enough: We need to see the evidence.<\/p>\n

W. Lee Hansen<\/em> (wlhansen@wisc.edu) is a professor emeritus of economics.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October 19, 2011 The Badger Herald Exactly how are minority applicant admissions decisions made at the University of Wisconsin? At Monday\u2019s Legislative Assembly committee hearing, Provost Paul DeLuca and Admissions Director Adele Brumfield described the process. They also dismissed the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/users.ssc.wisc.edu\/~wlhansen\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/users.ssc.wisc.edu\/~wlhansen\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/users.ssc.wisc.edu\/~wlhansen\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/users.ssc.wisc.edu\/~wlhansen\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/users.ssc.wisc.edu\/~wlhansen\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/users.ssc.wisc.edu\/~wlhansen\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155,"href":"https:\/\/users.ssc.wisc.edu\/~wlhansen\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions\/155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/users.ssc.wisc.edu\/~wlhansen\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/users.ssc.wisc.edu\/~wlhansen\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/users.ssc.wisc.edu\/~wlhansen\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}