I've never heard of NC A&T so I went to Wikipedia [0] and learned their average undergrad SAT on intake is ~1,000. Average SAT at Duke is something like 1,500.
One of those is top 5%, the other is sub-50%. It seems a stretch to say the biggest problem the NC A&T group faced was not being invited to the right parties.
SAT isn't the be-all and end all, but those difference are far too large to be brushed aside. It is not at all obvious that race is the major factor here.
There is a case here that the recruiters were being realistic; the smart black candidates would presumably be working to get into some university other than NC A&T. The CS program entrants would need to look like legitimate geniuses compared to the average to qualify for red carpet treatment.
One of those is top 5%, the other is sub-50%. It seems a stretch to say the biggest problem the NC A&T group faced was not being invited to the right parties.
SAT isn't the be-all and end all, but those difference are far too large to be brushed aside. It is not at all obvious that race is the major factor here.
There is a case here that the recruiters were being realistic; the smart black candidates would presumably be working to get into some university other than NC A&T. The CS program entrants would need to look like legitimate geniuses compared to the average to qualify for red carpet treatment.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina_Agricultural_an...