"Why do some individuals get ahead and some fall behind? Certainly, genetic endowment helps. Being tall, slender, good-looking, healthy, male, and white helps in the race for success, and these traits are totally or partly determined genetically" (Grusky 20).
I think the use of the word "certainly" may be a bit strong. If being male and white helps, why do white-males have to put their gender and skin-color on college and job applications? The landmark Supreme Court case, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) found that the use of race as a criterion in admissions decisions in higher education was constitutionally permissable. Women make up nearly half (over 47 percent) of all law students in this country while minorities make up over 20 percent. As for medical school applicants, the 2007-2008 class is 49 percent female. As for being white and male making all the difference in whether or not one will be a "success", I think that idea is becoming less and less of a certainty.
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I completely agree. I think if anything, being a white male and trying to get into graduate school is more difficult than being a minority. After reading the article "All the Girls I've Rejected" I started thinking about how this issue is more widespread than just girls. It seems as though to an admissions office, a white male is undesirable, because it IS such the norm. They are looking for different kinds of backgrounds to fill their rosters with. This is what I imagine an admissions office candidate selection meeting would be like
ReplyDelete"Oh great MCAT scores, volunteer, president of his fraternity, Dean's Scholar,! Wow, what a great candidate...Wait what's this? Applicant name: John Doe? Reject pile." However, it seems as if that candidate had good scores-instead of great. And maybe one extra cirriculars and a few honors, but in the ethnicity box is checked anything BUT "white, Non-hispanic", this candidate would be a shoe-in. So maybe being a minority in some ways works for them instead of against them.