College Admissions and Antiquated Policies

I read an article from the Austin American Statesman about the issue of affirmative action and the “top 10 percent” rule in college admissions. The authors intended audience seemed to be anyone who had an interest in attending a college or university and wanted to know about the politics behind the admissions process. The article firstly addressed the recent court case in which the Supreme Court will be hearing about in their next term. A girl who applied to the University of Texas is suing because she believes that she was not admitted and that a “minority” student was admitted due to the fact that the other student was a “minority race” and not more or less qualified than she. The author brings up the 2003 court case that was heard by the Supreme Court where the Michigan Law School was being sued because they considered race as a factor when admitting applicants. The Supreme Court upheld that the Michigan Law School was constitutionally admitting students because they “had an interest in achieving diversity.” For the majority of the rest of the article, the author informs their audience about the “top 10 percent” rule in Texas which grants students guaranteed admission to any state supported college or university as long as they graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school class. The girl, Abigail Noel Fisher applied for admission in 2008; in the entering Freshman class of 2008 at the University of Texas, 81% of the students admitted were in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class…which only leaves 19% percent for students who were not. The 19% consisted of 1,200 students and over 16,000 applied. Fisher was a part of the 15,800 students who were not admitted in 2008 and she believes that her race played a factor in that decision. Personally, I believe that when being considered for admission to any college or university race should not be considered at all; the decision to be or not be admitted should be based on your academic career, extra-curricular activities and ability to succeed in the college or university for which you are applying. I think that colleges should have diversity but not at the cost of denying admission to qualified applicants just because they aren’t of a minority race. The author is very credible, however I would have liked to see more of a stance at the end of their article. The author simply states “What we do know is there is no perfect college admissions policy. To reject one factor from consideration is to favor another.” While this is true, the author sort of took a neutral ground with their argument; I believe that affirmative action is an antiquated policy and that we need to start considering applicants based on their actual qualifications, nothing else.