We are astounded at your application and your 4.0 GPA but we feel our school would not be best for you thus we have denied your entrance to our establishment. This is the closing statement for a letter addressed to the growing population of the utterly rejected, over qualified, college applicant in an effort to preserve the “cultural melting pot” that is the supposed college society. Affirmative action is denying highly qualified students from entering the college of their choice because another applicant, with possibly a 3.7 GPA, has scored higher points on the acceptance scale simply because they are a member of an underrepresented race at the school to which they applied. Affirmative action is giving points to applicants who come from hard backgrounds or applicants who are a minority. This is denying overqualified students a chance at a higher college education because they don’t come from a certain background or they are not a certain gender. When you apply to college you definitely don’t want this letter to slip through the mail slot on your front door onto the cold floor awaiting your hands, giddy with excitement to reach down and open it only to find a text that will crush your dreams. Don’t let this letter be addressed to you. Stand up against the injustice that is affirmative action so that

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no more will this letter crush the dreams of a college ready student thirsting for knowledge.
What about us? The universal question of what about me, what about my race, why should I be treated differently from you? In today’s society equality is an undeniable factor. Every one wants to be treated the same as everyone else. The idea of equality simply refutes all that is affirmative action. Affirmative action is a handicap on the movement for racial equality. It counters all that Martin Luther King, Jr. wanted. “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” was a dream of the great Martin Luther King, Jr.; A dream for man to be judged by character not race (http://www.mlkonline.net/dream.html). If we allow people into our great institutions of higher education because their skin color is different from another’s does this not this show that we are allowing racism to occur right under our noses? Affirmative action is simply unfair to peoples of all races.
Affirmative action is allowing incompetent upper and middle class citizens to enter the college of their choice unopposed by other more intelligent students because they are of a certain race or gender while their opposition is a more represented race or gender. This also is another reason to abolish the abomination of affirmative action. Qualified students are being denied entrance into institutions of higher learning. In their place is a flood of under qualified minorities who are not nearly as insightful or brilliant. These minorities are middle or upper classes that are barely qualified to be accepted but with the push gained from affirmative action
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they are being accepted into colleges. Just as “Hoover Institution’s Thomas Sowell has observed, preferences primarily benefit minority applicants from middle- and upper-class backgrounds” not the poor minorities of which are affirmative actions main target (Sacks1). Affirmative action was created for the benefit of lower class minorities to allow them entrance into college but when they are no longer the main recipients of affirmative action why do we still have it?

Shouldn’t the acceptance of applicants into fine institutions such as Harvard and Yale be judged on the grade of a person’s morals, achievements, and scores, not their racial background? Is it not true that “race-conscious programs betray Martin Luther King’s dream of a color-blind community, and the heightened racial sensitivity they cause is a source of acrimony and tension instead of healing”(Sacks1)? To be accepted into college is to be approved into a society of students, eager to be indulged in studies and a higher education. If you were to be accepted into this openly superior group of scholars and intellectuals would you not want your acceptance to be based on the quality of your work and the grade of your achievements rather than the color of your skin? What will help you prevail in your every day quarrels with every day problems: hard work and deft skill, or the racial background from which you came? In almost every possible situation the quality of your work and the perseverance of your mind will come out on top. So why should you be accepted into college based on something that will never be a contributing factor in your every day struggles?


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A believer in affirmative action might say that minorities don’t have a fair chance to get into a college. This is completely incorrect. Although some people may be born into a poor, minority family they can always work hard and persevere to get notable scores and a high GPA. It may be harder for these people to maintain the spirit to succeed with the surroundings they are in but when they prevail their accomplishments will be even greater than any other man or women who was raised in better conditions. Their local school may not have offered a sufficient education but if they have the desire to learn they will branch out and grow mentally on their own. These are the students that colleges are looking for, students that can work hard and prevail without any outside help. So they actually have a better chance if they work hard and do their best. What would look better on a college application, a white boy from Beverly Hills with a 4.0 GPA and a high SAT score, or an African American girl from the Bronx with a 4.0 GPA and a high SAT score? The girl, of course, because it shows that she worked hard and went out of her way to learn and grow a thirst for knowledge. She does not need affirmative action to get into college so no one else should.

Yet another rebuttal to the case against affirmative action may be that college acceptance isn’t based on race. The majority of what gets you into college is not race, that is true, but the boost that affirmative action gives may be the difference between a man with a 4.0 GPA and a high SAT score getting in and another man with a 3.5 GPA and a slightly lower SAT score getting in over the other man.


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Over privileged minorities are not getting in through affirmative action is a completely false counter argument. The majority of minorities getting accepted into college are wealthy or middle class. They are getting in because they went to a nice school and got good grades so they should be accepted, but they are being let in over a white male with a higher GPA and a higher SAT score because the minority is an underrepresented race.

The recipients of the denial letter are growing in number every day. Stopping affirmative action will stop these letters from being mailed out. Don’t let the letter be addressed to you or your family. Affirmative action is denying good college applicants a chance at a higher education and it is outrageous.