Too white to study medicine

reply to post by Equidae

Are you aware of the college basketball player who had not yet learned to write his own name? You actually believed he passed his own entrance exam? You actually believed he, on his own, maintained whatever grade level was required?
In contemporary American society where a professor can be sued for not giving a student the mark the student felt he deserved do you think a college with a disproportionately small number of minority graduates wouldn't suddenly throw in a few A's or A+'s to avoid both a charge of racism and an expensive court case? Do you purchase many bridges?
I believe this was the very reason that a decade or so ago a degree from NYU had become almost worthless as it was understood that obtaining a degree had evolved into something having very little to do with actually earning it.

Originally posted by Puck 22
reply to post by Equidae

 

Are you aware of the college basketball player who had not yet learned to write his own name? You actually believed he passed his own entrance exam? You actually believed he, on his own, maintained whatever grade level was required?
In contemporary American society where a professor can be sued for not giving a student the mark the student felt he deserved do you think a college with a disproportionately small number of minority graduates wouldn't suddenly throw in a few A's or A+'s to avoid both a charge of racism and an expensive court case? Do you purchase many bridges?
I believe this was the very reason that a decade or so ago a degree from NYU had become almost worthless as it was understood that obtaining a degree had evolved into something having very little to do with actually earning it.

Sorry for the late reply, I've been swamped by finals.

And athletic based admissions have nothing to do with race. The United States service academies are some of the best universities in the country, and getting into one can be harder than landing an acceptance letter to Julliard or MIT; however, if you're a good athlete (for football at least) you're pretty much guaranteed to get in. Just like being a good athlete can get you into Stanford, UPenn, or USC even if you have a GED and an ACT score of 12.

I'm most familiar with the Southeastern Conference, which is one of the top athletic conferences in the United States. Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia is notorious as a finishing school of sorts for talented, but stupid athletes. They spend an extra year there (usually courtesy of some rich alumni of a university with a big athletic program), continue to play football, and get their test scores above the state minimums. Then they play football for a big time university, more than likely never get a degree, and if they're lucky make it to the NFL Draft. That happened to several football players with the combined brainpower of a pile of bricks from my high school (not going to name names for my own anonymity.)

So while being a great athlete will get you a full ride for an undergraduate degree, it will not get you into a grad school unless you're more David Robinson than Ben Roethlisberger. It will also not grant you a medical degree.