University Of Washington Law School, Angry White Female Sues Univ. of Washington Law

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Q. Here's one for the list: a white woman with a 3.65 GPA and 94th percentile LSAT was denied admission to the Class of 1997, and now has filed suit alleging reverse discrimination. At first glance, her case seems strong: those numbers are very strong, and many "diversity" admits have weaker statistics. So what made her different?

A. Washington posts its 1996 admission stats by GPA and LSAT at: http://www.law.washington.edu/ This woman would fall into the 3.50 - 3.74 GPA row and, I believe, in the 166-168 LSAT column. If that's correct, then in 1996 out of 54 applicants with those numbers, 52 were accepted. This should make it obvious that she was not discriminated against; something was WRONG with her file. When 52/54 are accepted, the 2 that aren't had serious problems of some sort -- maybe an arrest or honor code violation, maybe a correspondence school degree, maybe strong letters of UNrecommendation. . If 100 white people with lower #'s were admitted, she flunks the "but for" test. I say her case is a loser becasue it's nmot about discrimination at all; it's about selection. This kind of scenario is what people are always arguing against affirmative action, but it's not that cut and dried. For one thing, economic factors are often taken into account by admissions committees. For instance, I know a white guy who grew up on welfare who made that fact the central theme of his personal statement and got in to a better school than his grades would indicate. Also, you are leaving out the personal integrity of the people applying. I went to a very famous and exclusive prep school and many of the black students there, though comparatively priveleged, were heavily recruited by top colleges. A close friend of mine, who is African-American (and who somewhat fit your Theo Huxtable archetype), ultimately elected to attend a less famous college rather than go to an Ivy League school and risk wondering if he was accepted on account of his ethnicity. Two problems with arguments I hear against Affirmative Action are 1) admissions boards are portrayed as suspending all other criteria in the pursuit of darker faces, and 2) minorities are always portrayed as cut-throat opportunists. --WB.

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