AA is simply a way to enforce civil rights by remedying current patterns of discrimination against a group or class. College admissions are used to determine how the limited resources of higher education will be distributed. As any college administrator worth their salt will confirm, there’s a lot more to ‘merit’ than high GPAs and SAT scores. Conversely, GPA and standardized testing don’t reveal much about aptitude, talent, or character, among other things.

Therefore, should ‘race’ be a legitimate consideration in college admissions? Given how colleges and universities strive for acadmic vigor by way of cultural diversity, it would seem that race is a valid admissions criterion. Admissions officers, then, would be compelled to strike a balance among several factors, including race.

The statistics in this study and Schmidt’s article are disinformative.