by Renee Millican

Created on: August 22, 2009

This question is posed by many different people for many different reasons, be it for their own self advancement or to illustrate a point they are trying to make. Everyone wants to get ahead in the world and this does not exclude college students. It is an extremely competitive field of entry. You and I both would want an edge of betterment that would put us ahead of in the race so that we would come out on top, but should that be the color of your skin?

Colleges are the battle ground for numerous academic, moral, and political beliefs and this will never cease to be true and we should hope it will never end because to one end or another, it shows us how we should handle different controversial issues and provides us with certain advantages and advancements through discovery. Colleges are a place of learning and this is how it should always be, but when issues like this arise, knowledge is absent in the decision. It's about genetics at this point. You, through no ability or will of your own, are born a certain way and you are given special treatment based on the genetic lottery. How come?

In a country where equality is important, it is nearly blasphemous to consider that race should be taken into consideration for a college admission. If we are to uphold the Constitution, then nothing must favor a specific race. According to the Declaration of Independence, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."

If we violate that, then it means nothing.

If we favor a specific group regarding something as important as admission to a college, why not favor them for other things? Jobs (which we already do), where they or other people can live, or even how many children they can have. It sounds ridiculous, yes, but is it out of the question if this is going on already? We have examples of numerous below average examples of people getting into schools through affirmative action over people who are more qualified, but get passed over because someone of a different color decided to apply. Some notable names are Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Ginsburg.

The main issue is that to go to a specific college it should be based on merit and your intelligence, not some genetic prerequisite. Colleges are for learning and for people to advance themselves. Would you want someone less qualified than yourself getting entrance into a school over you because of their skin color? I think not. Places for academic greatness should be filled with those who qualify based on determination and intelligence and not those who qualify just because they happen to be a certain shade. If this is allowed to be a factor then test scores mean nothing, ACT/SAT mean nothing, and hard work mean nothing. It is all those things that should qualify you for a good education and nothing more.When there are 29,112 applicants for Harvard this past year alone, how can we play favorites? It's about the wrinkles in your head, not your skin.

So, if we would like to forget 233 years of what our country is founded on and forget what should qualify someone to participate in an academic field, then sure. We can consider race only if we forget everything else.

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