Inequity

This may turn into a rant, so please forgive me.

No, Aidan has not even turned in an application to any college yet (although the goal is to get the one for UT in today). No, he has not been rejected by any college yet.

But after talking with his college counselor a couple of times and finding out just how ridiculously hard it is for WHITE MIDDLE-CLASS KIDS WHOSE PARENTS ARE WELL-EDUCATED to get accepted at some of these universities, I am hopping mad.

Diversity. I hate that word like you wouldn't believe. It's not that I don't believe we should be "equal opportunity" in who gets accepted at colleges -- I'm all for that -- but the "equal opportunity" should be based on MERIT ALONE, not on your race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, or whether or not you'll be the first in your family to go to college.

Everyone should have a chance to get into the university of their choice.

Schools whose senior classes have fewer than 100 kids in them should have a different criteria for automatic entry to UT than "top 8%." In Aidan's school, that is ONE KID. Aidan is SECOND in his class, and just a few hundredths of a grade point behind the top kid. Aidan has better test scores than the top kid. She definitely deserves her valedictorian status, but I don't even think she's applying to UT, and Aidan is. Why shouldn't he have the same shot she does? Just because his school is small and "top 8%" means ONE PERSON, he doesn't get automatic entry into UT even though he is every bit as academically talented as she is. This is wrong.

Bjorn actually suggested at the end of last year that we pull Aidan out of his Christian school and send him to the local public school for his senior year so he could be in the top 8%. In the end we decided this was not what God wanted us to do, so we didn't. I feel pretty sure God will honor our decision to obey him ;-), but I am very peeved that we have to stress over it.

Okay, we don't have to stress over it. God will put Aidan where He wants Aidan (as long as we're being attentive to His will). Still, there is an awful lot of hard work involved in simply applying, and that IS on Aidan's shoulders. God's not going to give Aidan's applications favor with any admissions officials if he turns in a crappy app.

I hate all this stress. I think it's totally unnecessary. I think a whole freakin' lot of it is due to our emphasis on "diversity" that ends up shoving the white middle-class kids off to the side. Yes, in the past these kids have had better chances than their non-white and/or poor counterparts. But MY child (or any other WM-C kid) should not be penalized for something they have no control over (the past). How is that any less "racist" or "unfair" than what caused this diversity-loving thing in the first place?

Again, let me state unequivocally that I am NOT against poor, and/or non-white, and/or otherwise non-academically challenged kids having an equal shot at the openings in this nation's universities. But I AM against shoving the WM-C kids aside in order to meet quotas and be "fair." If these universities are really trying to make themselves the best universities in America/the world, then why in heck would they want to shove aside some of the brightest kids they could get their hands on? (One of Rice University's essay questions is that you write how you can add to the amazing diversity they already have at Rice. How about ... hey, I might be the only white middle-class male in your freshman class! Now that's diversity!)

Okay, I'm done now. I know Aidan's future is in God's hands. I'm just freaking annoyed that, after all the hard work he has put into the last 12 years of his life, he has to work even harder just to make that hard work pay off.