Being Noah Tesfaye #2: College Admissions and Affirmative Action — What Does it Mean?

I. The Introduction

By the title alone, I assume you are probably thinking that this is yet another piece by a black student arguing for affirmative action. And the truth is? You are right, sort of. As a first generation student, I sometimes struggle to understand the issues that plague the African American community. But the really honesty of the situation is that I’m a part of that group of American citizens, and I absolutely love it. Being a literal AFRICAN first, American second is something I am proud of and I wouldn’t change anything in the world about it.

As a person who will be applying in a year to universities, I cannot help but try to understand how colleges pick applicants and what they are looking for in order for me to get accepted. Last night, I stumbled across this New York Times article titled “What Colleges Want in an Applicant (Everything).” It pulled me in by its funny, albeit accurate description of the college applications process in the United States. It had an interesting argument for the fact that merit is no longer the only thing universities should think about in applicants, although it is a priority. The author, Eric Hoover, believes that schools are attempting to quantify all the skills and characteristics of applicants is impossible to do right for everyone. He shares that although some schools will attempt to evaluate accomplishments out of the classroom, it becomes difficult to assess those…