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Does affirmative action help arabs get into college?
So you know affirmative action and like how if helps minorities get into colleges
I kknow that that is like hispanic people and stuff...but what about arabs?
Like I know that they like "kurdish" and "samoans" are really liked, but what about arab people?
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The short answer is: No. Probably not.
Arabs have historically been classified as Caucasian (or white) on the US census. So I can't imagine many colleges taking that racial background into account.
They might consider more specific cultural or national backgrounds (like being Palestinian or Syrian) but probably wont use the term Arab.
Here is the long answer, and an explanation about what Affirmative Action is, and isn't:
Affirmative action for college admissions IS NOT just about getting racial minorities into colleges.
Three really important things to know about affirmative action in the states:
ONE
Quotas are against the law in the US and have been since the 70s. Colleges don't have let in X number of people of Y race. That's not how it works.
TWO
Only a third of American colleges actually take race or ethnic background into consideration at all. The rest simply admit the majority of their applicants anyways - so it's not an issue for them.
THREE
In 2003 the US Supreme Court decided that for purposes of college admissions, policies like affirmative action based on RACE could only be use to help foster diverse communities.
You see, admissions isn't just about being 'fair' to each student who applies, it's also their job it to try and maximize the experience for every student who actually GETS INTO a given program. Going to school with a bunch of people who look and think just like you isn't what college is about, and they know it.
So when admissions officers review applicants many use a scoring system (in addition to grades) that given students certain amount of points for things like playing a instrument, or a sport, or how many advanced classes they took, or their time on student goverment, or speaking another language - or yeah - having of a minority heritage or being of a historically underrepresented race.
Admissions isn't an exact science. They take a lot of things into account to try and quantify all the ways in which student can have achievements.
Some colleges also consider the socioeconomic status of students and look at are things like the poverty in their school or hometown - those programs can also end up benefiting students of minority backgrounds, but they are NOT considered affirmative action programs, since they are based on class and opportunities associated with wealth, not just race.
I really don't know why you think Kurdish students or Samoan students are particularly 'liked'. Schools do like international students because they pay higher tuition, but other than that, I think that's just a myth.
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As a rule, colleges are bastions of liberal thinkers and most colleges do not discriminate against arabs. In fact many arabs are in this country just to attend college, and there are many arab professors. The more liberal the college the more likely that you will not be discriminated against. You must be sure that you have good grades and the more extra curricular activities and groups or organizations that you belong to in high school, the better.
Why not google something like Arab Studies US College. And it will give you a list of all the colleges in the US that offer courses in arab studies, maybe in that list, you can find a college that you will like and that will feel welcoming.
All that affimative action stuff goes on behind the scenes. It only gets in the news when someone sues the college to say that they didn't get in because they were the wrong color. As a rule colleges try to be eclectic and choose students from a large selection of applicants. I just heard on the news that Yale University's freshman class this year, has students from all of our 50 states and from 26 different countries.
But grades are still the first determinant of being able to attend the college of your choice.
Michele
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