The New York Times reports that Rice University has developed a complex internal code to apply different standards to black and Hispanic students.

But like other colleges, Rice says it remains fiercely committed to having a diverse student body, so in the years since, it has developed creative, even sly ways to meet that goal and still obey the court. Thus the admissions committee, with an undisguised wink, has encouraged applicants to discuss "cultural traditions" in their essays, asked if they spoke English as a second language and taken note, albeit silently, of those identified as presidents of their black student associations.

Later on, the students comment:

Some minority students at Rice said that the university's abandonment of affirmative action, at least in its classical definition, has made them feel an enhanced sense of pride at getting in. Vanessa Costilla, 18, a freshman from Anton, Tex., who is Mexican-American, said her admission to Rice probably meant more than her admission to two Northeastern colleges, Smith and Wellesley, which still give a lift to minority applicants. "I don't think that just because I was Hispanic-American I got into Rice," said Ms. Costilla, the valedictorian of her 25-member high school class and president of "everything except the Future Farmers of America." "I got in," she added, "because I earned it." But Kristin Dukes, 19, a sophomore from Greenville, Tex., who is black, said that many of her classmates were unaware of the university's admissions policies. "At Rice, probably in the back of their minds, kids are still thinking I was privileged to get in because of the color of my skin," said Ms. Dukes, a psychology major. "Just because they have new standards at the university doesn't mean the students at the university feel the same way."

1) So it seems that affirmative-action does have a debilitating effect on the self-esteem of those who get admitted based on different criteria 2) Even this quasi-affirmative action retains a patina of disrepute Stories like this are disheartening, because it shows that the law doesn't matter, college presidents will make sure that their quotas are filled. Perhaps we should just abandon our attempts at meritocracy. Why don't we set quotas-we might save a lot of bureaucratic maneuvering and get the same result.