> I do not understand how attracting members of underrepresented classes benefits them when the standard needs to be lowered to do so.
I’m a woman with an undergrad economics degree. I struggled with intermediate micro and econometrics so much that I nearly lost my scholarship. The professor was known for having one of the toughest curves and certainly didn’t “lower the standards” for anyone. I was woefully unprepared for these classes. All of my classmates had taken statistics and calculus and I had only gotten as far as y=mx+b. My peers were learning econometrics. I was learning econometrics and statistics. My peers were learning micro. I was learning micro and calculus.
I had always been a good student but I was really proud of those two terrible grades because I worked my ass off to get them and I learned more (and taught myself more) from those two classes than any other undergrad course I took.
Not only did struggling through undergrad econ put me head and shoulders above my peers in law school where a lot of people are afraid of math, it gave me a whole lot of confidence. It was a small miracle that I managed to pass those classes. But I did. Not because the standard was lower, but because I didn’t give up or let myself feel too embarrassed by how little I knew. And now when I don’t understand something or I want to learn about something that’s completely over my head and outside my comfort zone, there’s not a doubt in my mind that I can. And that’s been pretty fucking beneficial.
I’m a woman with an undergrad economics degree. I struggled with intermediate micro and econometrics so much that I nearly lost my scholarship. The professor was known for having one of the toughest curves and certainly didn’t “lower the standards” for anyone. I was woefully unprepared for these classes. All of my classmates had taken statistics and calculus and I had only gotten as far as y=mx+b. My peers were learning econometrics. I was learning econometrics and statistics. My peers were learning micro. I was learning micro and calculus.
I had always been a good student but I was really proud of those two terrible grades because I worked my ass off to get them and I learned more (and taught myself more) from those two classes than any other undergrad course I took.
Not only did struggling through undergrad econ put me head and shoulders above my peers in law school where a lot of people are afraid of math, it gave me a whole lot of confidence. It was a small miracle that I managed to pass those classes. But I did. Not because the standard was lower, but because I didn’t give up or let myself feel too embarrassed by how little I knew. And now when I don’t understand something or I want to learn about something that’s completely over my head and outside my comfort zone, there’s not a doubt in my mind that I can. And that’s been pretty fucking beneficial.