Heriot: The Sad Irony of Affirmative Action Forum

[LSTfan]

Interesting article on the unintended consequences of AA:

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog ... .html#more

http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publicat ... ive-action

I still think it would be crazy not to take the bump in admissions, even if it does cause a person to struggle in school.

[PRgradBYU]

Those articles make sense, although it's virtually inevitable that any ethnicity or cultural group with lower entering credentials will perform worse than their counterparts with higher credentials.

[wbrother]

Those articles make sense, although it's virtually inevitable that any ethnicity or cultural group with lower entering credentials will perform worse than their counterparts with higher credentials.

Excuse me... that avatar is taken. LOL JK JK, but really though boondocks and successful black guy meme seem to take up like 80% of our avatars.

[wbrother]

On a more substantive note, there was a study I read at U Mich that stated AA students perform worse in school, but just just as well/better than their white counterparts in post school employment. That only holds true at top schools like U Mich though, where graduates actually get jobs. So it's definitely worth it to struggle in school for awhile if you're looking at the same jobs as your peers.

[PRgradBYU]

Excuse me... that avatar is taken. LOL JK JK, but really though boondocks and successful black guy meme seem to take up like 80% of our avatars.

Haha whoops! Your avatar has a better resolution quality than mine, too, so I ought to change mine.

So it's definitely worth it to struggle in school for awhile if you're looking at the same jobs as your peers.

+1. I think people forget that law school is merely a means to an end, so a poor performance in law school--given that it doesn't hamper entry-level job prospects--won't necessarily correlate with an unsuccessful legal career. Placing in the top 10% of your class will obviously lead to a better starting job but once we're out of law school, the playing field is more level and it's up to us to make the most of our respective careers.

[LSTfan]

That only holds true at top schools like U Mich though, where graduates actually get jobs.

This is an important point. If AA gets you into one of the handfull of schools that has real name recognition, it might still be a benefit even if you don't do well. But once you fall down into the undifferentiated mass of good, but not great, schools, the AA bump probably does more harm than good.

[vanwinkle]

No debating AA in the on-topic forums.