Merit-Based Admissions Quotes

Neither the University of Michigan nor its law school uses a quota system.

If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn't be here. I guarantee you that.

Without affirmative action I could never have attended Yale University. Without affirmative action Barack Obama would never have gotten into Colombia and Harvard Law school

I believe that Harvard can have, and must have, a strong affirmative action program that reflects our commitment to equal opportunity while fully respecting the academic standards of the University.

I will never allow non-Bumiputra students to enter Universiti Teknologi Mara. I will not compromise on this matter.

Colleges prefer to enroll wealthy students because they know it's more likely that they'll pay for full tuition without needing financial aid. They're also more likely to have parents who will donate large sums of money to the school. When the privileged students graduate, they're expected to join the alumni association and also donate cash.

Everyone praises Harvard 'for the students.' But what makes Harvard's students so great is that they are, in many ways, a cross-section of the larger world. They are normal people who happen to be excellent, and this sets them apart. People who go to Yale go because they want to attend Yale. People who go to Harvard go because they can.

When I got into Stanford in high school, I had some friends from school who told me that I just got in because I was black and whatnot.

I think the minority students that we admit to Harvard are every bit as meritorious as the white students that we admit.

Oddly enough, Asians are a much smaller 'minority' than African Americans in this country. But because Asians are so successful, college admission officers don't feel sorry for them, so they are not a preferred 'minority.'

If this boy passes the examination, he will be admitted; and if the white students choose to withdraw, all of the income of the college will be devoted to his education.

The MBA entrance exams are so quantitative-oriented that it keeps out more and more women from joining the MBA classes. If we were to make the entrance exams more all-rounded, you could see more participation.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology accepts blacks in the top ten percent of students, but at MIT this puts them in the bottom ten percent of the class.

I don't regard the fact that there's a disparity in test scores nearly as importantly as I do the need for diversity, because I know from long experience that test scores, though useful, are a very limited measure of things that matter in choosing students.

When I call myself an affirmative action baby, I'm talking about the essence of what affirmative action was when it started.

Our higher education admissions process is neither fair nor effective.

When you introduce competition into the public school system, most studies show that schools start to do better when they are competing for students.

Let's make the SAT and PSAT free so everyone has a chance to succeed.

You are not stepchildren of Brown. On the contrary, you have been favored by a radical and, to many, unbelievable change in policy. ... You are students in Brown University; you have open to you all its educational facilities ... you are meeting regular curricular requirements

Universities—and medical schools in particular—should go out of their way to recruit good students of every race from … less affluent backgrounds. Over time, such efforts could produce a greater cohort of doctors who are better prepared to relate to the patients who need them the most.

Wealthy parents have long relied on a properly timed donation to improve their children's chances at admission to college.

I don't believe in college admission or any other venue that we should pick one race or sex over another in college admissions. My philosophy and reaction is that I would not support a program that by race or status alone elevates someone over another in a competition of sorts.

It is the policy of the state [of New York] that the American ideal of equality of opportunity requires that students ... be admitted to educational institutions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, or national origin.