Month: March 2017

We’ve all been lectured with the importance of education. Knowing that without an education, getting a job nowadays is near impossible. Education is highly valued in the workforce, and represents a lot about a person’s character, and ability to function in reality.

Getting into college is challenging, it is not just handed to you; but even if you work hard all throughout high school you still may not receive the acceptance letter that you deserve. What decides if you get into college nowadays? What is that factor that pushing you to getting in over someone else? Are admissions looking at GPA, SAT scores, essays, everything combined, what is more heavily weighted?

It is tough to know what helps you get into college; I work for admissions here at Penn State and the criteria that sets a student apart varies drastically. When a parent or student asks me what they need to do to get in, I say generate a strong application, and hope for the best because it is hard to tell what will push you to the top of the list.

Colleges that were once considered “safety” schools have now dropped their acceptances as low as 20-30%. This is unsettling to know that if you have the same qualifications as another person, you are not accepted because of your race, ethnicity, or income background. An article written by the Heritage foundation addresses the concern of students being emitted into college because of their minority background, “Abigail Fisher argues that the school’s policy of giving racial preferences to preferred minorities is discriminatory and violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” It is understandable that colleges look to diversify their campus, and select a class that promotes diversity, but comments such as she got in because she is a minority should not be the deciding factor of who gets in and who gets denied.

Not only is minority selection a problem with admissions, income inequality is prevalent, and prominent in recent college acceptance studies.

“Students from high-income families are eight times more likely to get bachelor’s degrees by the time they’re 24 than those from low-income families.”

“Historically, colleges and universities served as a great “equalizer” by providing gateways for social mobility for the poor.”  The student affairs administrators in higher education share their take on what changes admissions is portraying in their acceptance today. Students in lower income families are not receiving equal opportunity in the admissions process. There are various arguments as to why, perhaps the environment is which they grew up did not harvest their abilities to get into college. However, college was not as competitive in previous decades, and it opened doors for everyone to have the opportunity to obtain a higher education. Now it seems as though if you are not coming out of a wealthy private school, or middle class family and above getting into college is a lot more challenging. The income gap seen in admission rates in recent years is large.

“It’s not about academic ability. The lowest-income students with the highest scores on eighth-grade standardized tests are less likely to go to selective colleges than the highest-income students with the lowest test scores, according to the Education Trust” this is disturbing to think that in this day and age we select people because of their money, not because of their intellect.

When I tour around students and parents, it becomes difficult to determine what will actually get their student in because inequality in admissions is high and prevalent today. Average tuition rates have doubles since 1970, and are continuing to go up. This makes it hard for students to pay for the college of their choice unless they are making a large sum of money. Even for wealthy family’s college tuition is unreasonable.

It is apparent that minority profiling and a large income gap make college harder to get into (if it is not hard enough already). I guess if someone asks me what they should do to get into the college of their dreams is to not have one set college in mind. Getting into the top college of your choice is undeterminable, and it is better to apply to a wide-range of universities to guarantee acceptance nowadays. Admissions changes every year, and research shows that it is getting harder to get into any school today, and certain qualifications that set people a part are sometimes not attainable for others. Therefore, it is not about being the smartest person in high school, or getting a perfect SAT score, it is about what the college is looking for that year. Whether it is a class of wealthy students, or a class that is predominantly minority, this is not something one can control; inequality is present and continues to rise as applications come in every year.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-h-schmidt/educational-inequality-system_b_1679243.html

https://www.naspa.org/publications/journals/posts/favoring-wealth

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/06/inequality-public-schools/395876/

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/05/why-american-colleges-are-becoming-a-force-for-inequality/275923/

http://hechingerreport.org/the-socioeconomic-divide-on-americas-college-campuses-is-getting-wider-fast/

“On average, a woman working full-time in 2016 earned £5,732 less a year than a man.”

“The gender pay gap reduces women’s lifetime earnings and also affects their pensions – this is one of the significant causes of poverty in later life for women.”

“In terms of women in leadership positions, in 2009 only 24 percent of CEOs in the US were women and they earned 74.5 percent as much as male CEOs” (BLS 2010 p.9).

The gender gap in the workplace is an on-going issue, and further highlights a form of inequality seen in American culture. As addressed in my previous blogs, I discussed the inequality issue in Hollywood, the inequality in the Presidential cabinet selection, and now I am choosing to discuss a broader, but heavily noted topic of gender inequality. The gender gap in the workplace started early on when women began working; research shows evidence from the 1960’s; trends show that the gap has been closing, but at a very slow rate, “Since the Equal Pay Act was signed in 1963, the wage gap has been closing at a very slow rate. In 1963, women who worked full-time, year-round made 59 cents on average for every dollar earned by men. In 2010, women earned 77 cents to men’s dollar. That means that the wage gap has narrowed by less than half a cent per year!”

“It wasn’t until the passage of the Equal Pay Act on June 10, 1963 (effective June 11, 1964) that it became illegal to pay women lower rates for the same job strictly on the basis of their sex.” Although the intent of the equal pay act was meant to eradicate gender inequality in the workplace the wage gap is still significant. Two court cases were meant to strengthen the equal pay act, but there is still a large pay difference. Schultz v. Wheaton Glass Co. and Corning Glass Works V Brennan both exemplify cases to mitigate this inequality.

Some reasons people believe women receive less pay then men is due to pure discrimination. Women’s skills are not valued as highly as men, and therefore receive a lower means of compensation. In the United States, the gender pay gap looks at the ratio of male to female yearly earnings. In 2012, women received 77% as much as male workers. This percentage, although low, rose significantly in the past decade from 60% to 77%. The inequality seen in the workplace is definitely improving, but is still present today; having problems with gender inequality seems quite absurd for 2016. As stated in my earlier blogs, I was quite clear that America’s values center around the fact that each citizen in America has equal rights and opportunities. Yet, this gap still exists in America. The only measure that can be taken to address this means of inequality is to bring greater attention to it, and continue working towards equal opportunity.

These facts below show percentages of reasons for the gap existing in the workplace:

• 22% of the gap is due to industries and occupations in which women work
• 21% of the gap is due to difference in years of full-time work
• 16% of the gap is due to the negative effect on wages of having previously worked part-time or of having taken time out of the labour market to look after family
• only 5% of the gap is due to formal education levels

I am not a feminist, and believe there are certain roles that men do better than women, but I also think there are roles women are better fit for than men. Coming from an unbiased and honest standpoint, I think the facts show that there is a gap in the workplace that favors men over women, and this should not exist. Especially not today. It is surprising to me that when women are performing the same tasks as men they receive less compensation. Who decided that women did not deserve the same pay as men?

Evidence shows women are consistently paid less for doing the same work as men, which is disturbing; modern society should move away from this gap of inequality. “Based on research, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research estimated in 2015 that women won’t receive equal pay until 2059.” This is not reassuring, and is in fact disturbing that women should receive this treatment, especially in today’s society.

Inequality proves to be a major issue in civic life, effecting various people in different ways. Whether it has to do with race, education, economics, or gender it is all present and relevant to our life as citizens. As I continue my blog on this issue more examples will demonstrate the prominence of the existence of this civic issue for our nation.

https://www.summer.harvard.edu/inside-summer/gender-inequality-women-workplace

http://www.ilo.org/washington/areas/gender-equality-in-the-workplace/WCMS_159496/lang–en/index.htm

https://www.pay-equity.org/info-time.html

http://www.striking-women.org/module/workplace-issues-past-and-present/gender-pay-gap-and-struggle-equal-pay