Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Current Information Need

I think I will stick with the topic of affirmative action in college admissions. I believe that it won't be to difficult finding sources of information. I'm sure if I go to the library there will be atleast a few books on the subject and even more on specifically affirmative action. There will be tons of information on the internet about it but the only difficulty here will be deciphering which sources are reliable. I'm sure many people may write about this controversial topic in a biased viewpoint and since I'm trying to use a strictly objective view, I'll need to avoid using some of the websites I find.

One of the main reasons I want to stick with this topic is because I feel like I could get a lot of insight from an admissions counselor right here on campus. My other ideas would have been much harder to find an expert and even if I did I don't think they could shed much more light then what I could find in books and on the internet. However, actually speaking to an admissions counselor, I could see what goes through their head as they are reviewing a minorities application and how much of a factor it is for them. They may even have insight into how other colleges do it.

The only thing that may change about my topic is whether or not I decide to focus it more. I may try to narrow down my research to a certain region like the south but I'll only do this if I find sufficient information while I'm researching.

4 comments:

Beth said...

I think you have a great topic but there is so much subjectivity in it. I would be weary of what a college admission person says because he will always try to put his decisions and job in a good light. I think it would be interesting if you could find the statistics for races of people applying and races of their acceptance.

Leo C said...

There are many aspects to affirmative action, the rationale, the law, the pro/anti parties. It's also very diff from school to school, based on the factors above. If you want to stick to local you may want to just look at unc and the intricacies here. Or go national and look at the big cases that happened and its developing impact (umich's case, u of calif system removing aff act).

or simply look at what role race play in college admissions, this needs further focusing but that might be a track of interest

Jesse Pegg said...

I also think this is a very interesting topic, and you're right that there will be no shortage of information once you begin researching. I actually think that unless you narrow your subject down a bit you'll be overwhelmed with the amount of information that you find. As you've read in our readings though, this is completely normal in the beginning steps of a research project.
"How does affirmative action affect admissions" is a really broad subject. You could probably pick any one of hundreds of ways that affirmative action affects admissions and run with it as a project.
After reading some of your thoughts on information sources it sounds like you're interested in comparing different universities, some that practice affirmative action and others that don't. If that's the case then maybe you want to explore diversity on campus and compare minority populations on campuses that practice affirmative action against those that do not. This way you could get an idea of whether or not affirmative action increases diversity on campus.

Brandon Flowers said...

You may want to consider narrowing your topic down from just affirmative action. Are you examining the effects, the efficacy of, the political aspects of...? There is a lot you can do with the subject and if you narrow it down it can be a really good project.