Where there really IS an economic disparity is in the grad/professional school admissions tests (MCAT, LSAT, etc). Those courses are much more expensive AND there’s stuff in the classroom course that even smart students won’t get out of publically available materials. Interestingly, the grad/professional tests are much more valid tests than the SAT.

Speedy

And doesn’t the University of Houston have mad desis?

Yash Gupta, who is if Indian origin is the dean of the business school of University of Washington.

There are low caste succesful entreprenuers and businessmen in India too. In fact it may be argued that the bania or the trader caste is the richest people in India, yet they are considered somewhere in the middle of caste hierarchy. The Irish were looked down upon , but they are WASPy looking so they could move up. I am in middle management in middle of blue collar red-neck america, and some of the workers have made comments that ‘I will never be considered an american’ and have been openly hostile to the idea that they have to report to a brown man. Admittedly the situation is much better on the coasts. I do not have a defeatist attitude. I am a realist and work within the system and make it work for me.

While your chances of ‘standing out’ like that are obviously higher if you go to a school with lots of funds, your parents can afford to drive you around, etc. – these kids still have to stand out on their own, and that’s not something paid and bought for.

I would argue that this is also highly driven by whether or not your folks, or your school, have the funds to allow you to do this. And it’s true that colleges want a “stand out” person, but that doesn’t negate the point that money can often buy you the CHANCE to stand out. Some families don’t even have access to that opportunity. Can you be an Intel champion without proper lab equipment? It’s unlikely. And how will you find the time? I’m a scholarship reader for 4 different “non-academic” achievement scholarships for my alma mater, and I can’t tell you the number of times I have to explain to the reading committee why we should take into account whether or not someone had to work to support their family in high school. I think there are heavy assumptions about what is feasible/infeasible for low-income families, and oftentimes low-income applicants are dinged for that. (and that’s assuming they’re able to get together the resources to nail the SAT)

Brij, if that’s your argument, then do you also favor (race/ethnicity-based) affirmative action? I personally think the madness over the “SAT/GPA” is silly, largely because people like to think it’s an indicator of merit when it is highly correlated with the same factors that already benefit a small % of people in the admissions process. All that said, I think there’s a difference in whether an aspect of your educational mission values diversity (of background, class, gender, etc.), or whether its purpose is to give yet ANOTHER “leg up” to those who already enjoy the benefits of a high SES. When you give hugely disproportionate benefits to legacy students (who would not otherwise be admitted in their own right), you promote a social order that continues to benefit a small elite with little acknowledgment of what might build a dynamic or forward-moving learning community.

Yes, you can–first, not sure politicians are at the top of the US caste system, but there’s Jindal, second, there are desi CEO’s, entrepreneurs, etc.—drop the defeatism. It’s ironic, too, you mention “Kennedy” as high-caste–that shows how flexible things are here–Irish weren’t anywhere near the top 100years ago!