Admissions Hypothetical

Matt Yglesias poses an interesting hypothetical regarding class-based affirmative action in college admission:

Kid number one grew up in the suburbs of Albuquerque, New Mexico. His dad was a charismatic college football star at Texas Tech but not good enough to play in the pros and eventually made millions of dollars as one of the most successful fast food franchisers in the Southwest. Mom is dad’s high school sweetheart who was a couple of years younger and stopped going to community college soon after she and dad got married.

Kid number two grew up in the suburbs of Boston. Dad’s a professor at, and graduate of, the Berklee College of Music and mom did her undegrad at Columbia and her PhD work at Harvard and now she’s on the faculty at Boston University.

My brief stint on one of the admissions committees at Georgetown as a student reader involved a high level of selection bias: applications sent to committee were strong enough to not be automatically deferred or declined by the regional admissions officer, and most of them, even those that didn't get in, were right on the border of acceptance.  That said, I still practiced, and witnessed, many of the inner calculations of college admissions-- not what gets discussed in think tanks, but what actually happens.

Yglesias's uses his hypothetical to illuminate differences in conceptions of class (wealth v. privilege, essentially), but the reality is, those aren't the only considerations that go into building a student body, at least at school like Georgetown.   Kid 1 and Kid 2 don't have genders, for example, and depending on the program, that can be a plus factor for an applicant.  Kid 1 comes from New Mexico, a low-enrollment state (plus factor).  Kid 2 comes from Boston, a high-enrollment area of a high-enrollment state.  And, as Yglesias points out, Kid 1 may come from more wealth, but Kid 2 comes from a background of higher education.   On the Georgetown application, Kid 1's parents would check off "some college " and "college degree," while Kid 2's parents would check out post-graduate degrees.  

Moreover--and I assume it's implied--this assumes that their applications are essentially equal.  If Kid 2 has a 1500 SAT (Georgetown still doesn't take the writing), top 1% of class, 8 APs, and captain of the X-C team, all while writing engaging essays and expressing a clear interest in Georgetown, and if Kid 1 has a 1350, top 10%, 4 APs, a modest extra-curricular resume, and cookie-cutter, pre-fab essays, the choice is going to be clear even while considering the backgrounds of the applicants.  Kid 1's profile may have more +s in it, but it's not going to put him/her over the top.   Same the other way around.

In sum, it's a holistic approach; admissions officers don't read the stats, resumes, and essays of applicants, then tie-break based on race/gender/socioeconomic factors.  But a strong application is a strong application, whether from Kid 1 or from Kid 2.