Is It Really Racism?

Rehema Nshatsi
February 4th,
2014 Rough Draft

You would think that all it took to get into college would be how
well you performed in high school academically rather than the color of
your skin. Well Abigail Fisher is not the first person to argue that her grades and test
scores would have admitted her to a university if she were Black or Latino, according to
John McWhorters article Rethinking Affirmative Action At Colleges. I myself once
felt and thought the same way Abigail did, except the roles were reversed. I believed that
I wouldve been admitted if the color of my skin were white.
The three years I spent in high school leading up to my senior year, I was
preparing for my college applications. I was told colleges focus so much on your GPA,
class rank, and standardized test scores. According to the article What Matters Most to
colleges(collegedata), the people at the admissions office of most colleges tend to look
at the grades the applicant received throughout high school, and whether or not they
challenged themselves by taking higher level courses; this would be including AP and
honors classes, along with college prep courses, and how well they performed in them.
Commitment to extracurricular activities, letters of recommendation, and essay responses
are also key factors that colleges look for during the application process (collegedata). So
when I was applying I made sure I highlighted all my achievements, all the sports and
clubs I have ever participated in, as well as my academic performance. I wanted the
people at the admissions office at the colleges I was applying to, to see how great of an

attribute I would be to their school. Honestly, I never would have thought that the color of
my skin would affect the chances of me getting into a college.
I was rejected from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington for the fall of
2014. UNCW is a good school, and has gotten more competitive as the years go on. I
knew that people would be rejected from schools because universities cannot accept
everyone, but honestly I didnt expect to be one of those people. I dont mean to sound
cocky, but for the grades I made and all the extracurricular activities Ive participated in,
and having a unique family background I was pretty confident that my application would
have been very appealing to the person who would review it. And constantly hearing my
friends say, Rehema you have nothing to worry about, colleges have to admit you,
youre black! gave me a sense of security, that schools were not going to turn me down.
I knew my friends would say it jokingly but I actually believed them. According to the
article Does Affirmative Action Still Exist in College Admissions? it is believed that
admissions committees are more interested in building a certain breed of diversity in each
freshman class. This is why most blacks and Latinos are accepted to highly selective
universities. if this was true then Why was I rejected? that was the question I not only
asked myself, but my family, my peers, my teachers, and even my assistant principle
pondered the reason as to why I was not admitted. One of the first responses I got from
one of my friends after I told them I was rejected was UNCW is racist! I asked myself
is it really racism? or did I really not meet there qualifications?. When I found out a
friend of mine was also rejected from UNCW, and she was Latino. I started to question
their judgment, because her SAT scores and GPA were higher than mine, and most people
would have agreed that her performance in school was well above average. And the fact

that we know two girls who were admitted and there academic performance, and
participation in clubs and sports outside of school were not as impressive as ours, and
they were not minorities, got me thinking what exactly are colleges looking for?
So colleges are racist when they admit minority students over those who arent,
but they are also racist when they admit non-minority students, over those who are. I
dont understand why race should be a factor? What happened to all the hard work and
effort you put into your classes and extracurricular activities and all the time you put into
taking extra courses or volunteering? What about all the stress students put on themselves
over getting good grades, and having a high GPA? When in the end the reason for an
applicant to be admitted into a university or rejected from one, could be because of a
factor they cant control. I guess Im confused as to why colleges say they look for the
best of the best, and those that perform above and beyond the average student, when they
except people who dont even meet their requirements.

Citations

"What Matters Most to Colleges." COLLEGEdata. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan.

2015.
McWhorter, John. "Affirmative Action and College Admissions: Racism Isn't
the Only Problem." The Root. N.p., 01 Mar. 2012. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.
"Does Affirmative Action Still Exist in College Admissions?" Cardinal
Education. N.p., 06 June 2012. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.