How did you get your hands on my college entry essay?
Not cool, man. Not cool.
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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I just spent part of yesterday afternoon listening to a 50-something coworker shitting on kids of a friend who donāt do enough work (in his opinion). It really gets old, this petty nostalgia un-moored by present day experience.
High school grunt jobs that anyone could walk into and out of through the course of a summer 25 years ago are competitive now. My 16 year old has not yet had a real (on the books) job. Nothing but babysitting gigs. Her close friends who have worked at all ā without exception ā obtained work through family connections. Whether they were Hispanic (2 girls) or white (3 girls,1 boy) they relied on family connections to get: restaurant, clerical and retail jobs. Because there was no āwalk in and fill out an applicationā work available.
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ā¦ itās not a joke, according to Jia Tolentino, who tutored Fisher in the art of gaming the system.
No he didnāt. He āhelped Abigail Fishers get into collegeā, meaning people like her, āyears agoā.
Yep. Reputation for getting kids in: $450 again, and again, and again.
The essay has always been intended to be a personal expression. Otherwise, just so much scripted and regurgitated fluff.
OT, but I need pics of this, please.
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Iām loving you and @Missy_Pants sharing your early work experience. I totally agreeā¦ my kid will also be expected to work when the time comes (she does that now when she wants to earn $$$, but around the house). Both my husband and I did shit, food service work as teens and I think we tend to appreciate what we do now even more so because of it.
Also, Dirty Jobsā¦
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Actually, I know a prof, who years ago set up a scholarship fund (heās in a science field) for minority students and many of those spots are now being taken by overseas students from minority communities (as weād define it here in the US), not students from minority communities that are working class from the local area, which is what he really intended.
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Iām gonna humblebrag for a moment. I went to public high school east of San Diego in a fairly rural part of the county, one that was never ranked particularly highly and as far as I can tell had no particularly notable alumni. (I note the current principal appears to be somebody from my own graduating class.) I graduated 35th in a class of 349, so juuuust missed being in the top 10%. But I also scored a 1500 on the SAT, which is the highest score anyone got at my school. I considered going to UCLA, USC, NYU, and Emerson, since I wanted to be a Film major. I kinda wanted to study Engineering at UCSD, but figured I didnāt have enough of the right background. My grade point average on my UC application was something like 3.2, since they didnāt count PE grades nor a couple other electives that I scored As in.
In the end I didnāt get in to UC, and though I did get accepted at USC, I couldnāt afford to go. Iām the sixth of seven kids, and the son of a machinist and a part-time real estate agent, and my parents had no money to spareā¦ my educational costs were entirely up to me. So I worked at a Pizza Hut and went to a community college for a few years until I got a job on one of my brotherās movies. So here I am, doing okay but with a high school diploma.
Anyway. There were times when I wished I could find a scholarship or grant or something that would take into account the things that made me a fairly decent candidate for college (high SAT score, fairly decent grades, National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist, stuff like that) and might try to offset my familyās relatively modest meansā¦ but if such a thing existed in 1988 that wasnāt related to Affirmative Action, I didnāt hear of it. Probably because I had an absolutely terrible guidance counselor.
But yāknow, I never resented the existence of Affirmative Action as a result. Iām as white as Bill Gates, so there really arenāt any cultural or social barriers in front of me, as long as I find a way to scrape together the cash. I could have gotten into any school I wantedāand probably had it paid for, tooāif I had only worked harder during my sophomore and junior years of high school. My buddy Jason Barbeau was valedictorian and went to Yale, and he grew up across the street from the same trailer park I grew up in. I could have done that, too.
I think it would be great if we could provide free higher education for anyone who wanted it. But I also strongly believe in Affirmative Action because there simply are a lot of people who have a greater need for that kind of help than I ever did.
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This is false. Jia Tolentino is a deputy editor for Jezebel who, in the past, tutored Houston-area students similar to Abigail Fisher. Nowhere in the article does she claim to have specifically tutored Abigail Fisher.
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is a woman.
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Iām a staff member at UT-Austin. Walking across campus, Iād say plenty of white kids get in. A whole lot of white kids. Like, a real whole lot.
Did I mention a whole lot of white kids get into UT?
PS: My daughter, who is also a white kid, is a student at UT-Austin as well. She got in on her own merits, thank you very much.
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I was sad to see Germany end national service. I donāt know many Germans whoāve done the military option, but Iāve met many who did civil service. Spending a year driving ambulances or wiping bottoms in retirement homes really seems to give people some perspective on life. It makes better, more rounded, compassionate people. I think the effect national service has had on German society is clear and extremely positive.
I donāt like the idea that everybody should have to do a shitty job, if that means poorly paid and bad conditions, probably for someone elseās profit. Iād like nobody to have to do those jobs. But society has many difficult jobs that need doing. Civil service for young adults, irrespective of wealth, seems like a great way to get these jobs done and make better citizens in the process. Iām not sure my younger self would agree, but as I sit here in my 40s I really think a year spent in national civil service, aged around 18, would be a good thing for most people, and for society as a whole.
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Not sure where youāre going with this. Are you saying too many white kids go to UT-Austin, or itās easy enough to be admitted no matter what race you are, or whether or not you have a private essay tutor?
UT-Austin has a 40% accept rate, and Iām sure being the daughter of a staff member worked in her favor rather than against her. Do you think people are saying your daughter only got in because someone was paid to write her essay? That doesnāt seem to be evident in the thread anywhere.
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I think theyāre saying that, contrary to what Ms Fisher might claim, UT-Austin is not systemically discriminating against white people.
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Thanks! Hope youāre right. I just couldnāt figure out which way the argument was going because it seemed to be different ideas strung together without much cohesion.
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I agree with @nimelennar. I think @paxsimius was telling us that U of Texas has a plethora of white kids, so Fisherās contention that affirmative action is taking away slots from otherwise qualified white students is bunk.
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Yeah, I do that sometimes.
Iām just saying that white kids get in and are plenty represented as a group. It wasnāt that Ms. Fisher did not get accepted because UT-Austin gave āher spotā to a non-white person. She just didnāt meet the academic standards. Lots of kids donāt. Thatās why the University of Texas System has a large number of other campuses.
And no, my daughter did not get preferential treatment because of my work status. As I said, she got in because of her own merits. UT isnāt very generous when it comes to staff and their kids. She had straight Aās, was a student leader, worked her ass off, etc. The only help she had with her application was we went over a few points, just like any parent. Her essay was her own words, and not edited for her.
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Thanks for clarifying! I couldnāt tell (weāre nearly at 80 responses at this point) which post you were responding to. In fact, you were responding to the original article. I got it now.
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Back then, teenagers could find a shit minimum wage job. Now theyāre all taken by 30 and 40 somethings trying to support a familyā¦
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