“The Other 75%” claims that students who were underperforming in high school, but attend college without finishing, make about 17% more per year than people who graduate high school but do not attempt to attend college. What can this wage disparity be attributed to?

“The Other 75%” states that Pell Grants and other federal aids are now merit based since they require recipients to maintain a certain GPA (usually around 2.5). This reading also states that the aid is not enough for nontraditional students to graduate within a 4 year period. Do you think that by raising the required GPA for federal or state student aid, and thus reallocating those funds for better performing nontraditional students, the time for BA completion can be brought closer to the 4 year expectancy?

According to the ACE Report, it is clear that the highest academically achieving ethnicities are Asian and White respectively, while the lowest achieving is American Indian. Aside from the incredible leap in achievements by women, it seems that increases in completion and success categories involving strictly ethnic comparisons is quite scattered. Is the call for greater minority access to education just a mechanism of political correctness, or do you think there is a legitimate need to increase access for these groups?

In the Affirmative Action article by Lederman, a majority of university presidents and others polled maintained that it is important to admit students somewhat based on Affiirmative Action. The justification is that the higher education experience and gain in overall education is significantly increased in an ethnically diverse environment. Do you think that this would prove accurate if the colleges were lowering their normal admission criteria to create this more diverse environment? Also, do you think that colleges should be able to use race/ethnicity as a factor in deciding whether someone is admitted or not?