In your opinion, how should the elite colleges decide conduct admissions?

[Anonymous]

Some people care a lot about the SAT, while others think the extracurriculars are what count. What do you think?

[Anonymous]

The SAT needs to go back to being an IQ test and should be the basis of admission along with gpa. No more extracurriculars! They are turning high schoolers into freaks who can do research but can barely process information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The SAT needs to go back to being an IQ test and should be the basis of admission along with gpa. No more extracurriculars! They are turning high schoolers into freaks who can do research but can barely process information.

Sounds like a boring crowd of admits, all with the same profile then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The SAT needs to go back to being an IQ test and should be the basis of admission along with gpa. No more extracurriculars! They are turning high schoolers into freaks who can do research but can barely process information.

Not the American way. The culture of college in the US is academics plus social life/athletics/clubs/etc.

[Anonymous]

By height

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The SAT needs to go back to being an IQ test and should be the basis of admission along with gpa. No more extracurriculars! They are turning high schoolers into freaks who can do research but can barely process information.

Not the American way. The culture of college in the US is academics plus social life/athletics/clubs/etc.

It was the American way for most of America. This shift is relatively recent and has become poisonous to our institutions who've had to reduce the quality of te education to keep up with the test optional dummies and the 1520, which now means nothing. We need smart people back in our top colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some people care a lot about the SAT, while others think the extracurriculars are what count. What do you think?

It's not either or. With elite colleges, the academic profile is the the baseline and everyone meets and exceeds that threshold. ECs are differentiators. With lower level schools, ECs don't matter. They just pretend it does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The SAT needs to go back to being an IQ test and should be the basis of admission along with gpa. No more extracurriculars! They are turning high schoolers into freaks who can do research but can barely process information.

Sounds like a boring crowd of admits, all with the same profile then.

+1

How about we just let the universities decide what they want to do. Simple easy solution.

If you have the "resume" for a T25, then you will likely gain admission to several in the 25-75 range (if not a T25). I prefer the diversity and variety of students that the current system brings. I wouldn't want to attend school with 1600 kids who all had 1580+ and 10+ APs, there are plenty of "equally smart" kids who only got a 1500 but have done so much more already with their path in life. Admit them.

[Anonymous]

No recruited athletes - sports as just another EC. No legacy. Standardized test required as part of admissions decisions. One application deadline - no ED/EA/REA. Schools can only have one supplemental essay and one LOC that must be from a teacher.

Admissions staff say they care about the mental and emotional well-being of the students but the system they are part is f is almost abusive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The SAT needs to go back to being an IQ test and should be the basis of admission along with gpa. No more extracurriculars! They are turning high schoolers into freaks who can do research but can barely process information.

Sounds like a boring crowd of admits, all with the same profile then.

+1

How about we just let the universities decide what they want to do. Simple easy solution.

They get a lot of taxpayer money and they charge Americans a lot of money and every American has a legitimate concern for how higher education is conducted. Therefore they should absolutely not be allowed to do whatever they want.

And, it is already true that they alone are allowed to decide what to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The SAT needs to go back to being an IQ test and should be the basis of admission along with gpa. No more extracurriculars! They are turning high schoolers into freaks who can do research but can barely process information.

Not the American way. The culture of college in the US is academics plus social life/athletics/clubs/etc.

It was the American way for most of America. This shift is relatively recent and has become poisonous to our institutions who've had to reduce the quality of te education to keep up with the test optional dummies and the 1520, which now means nothing. We need smart people back in our top colleges.

Our top colleges have never been filled with smart people--only a handful of colleges fit that description, e.g., MIT and Caltech.

https://www.educationnext.org/sat-scores-comparison-over-time-1985-2016/
https://www.erikthered.com/tutor/historical-average-SAT-scores.pdf

[Anonymous]

They already so what they want and will continue to do so. This thread is about what a better system would look like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The SAT needs to go back to being an IQ test and should be the basis of admission along with gpa. No more extracurriculars! They are turning high schoolers into freaks who can do research but can barely process information.

Not the American way. The culture of college in the US is academics plus social life/athletics/clubs/etc.

It was the American way for most of America. This shift is relatively recent and has become poisonous to our institutions who've had to reduce the quality of te education to keep up with the test optional dummies and the 1520, which now means nothing. We need smart people back in our top colleges.

Wrong. The PP who said height has a better grasp on reality.

[Anonymous]

The UK limits each student to 5 applications. If we could limit to 6 or 8 or something like that, people would sort themselves out with 3 reaches, 2 matches and a safety or something similar. The workload would be decreased for AOs, acceptance rates would rise, and our kids could get on with it.

Each school can set its own criteria for admission.

The solution lies in limiting the number of apps.

Anyone else see the relationship between a 20% domestic admit rate at Cambridge and Oxford, where the best and brightest can only apply to one of them, and can only submit 5 apps total? One in 5…20%…

Because we do not have a national curriculum, I don’t see how we could ever get away entirely from holistic admissions. But yes to required testing (can evaluate in context) and limit the applications.

That would make me happy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The SAT needs to go back to being an IQ test and should be the basis of admission along with gpa. No more extracurriculars! They are turning high schoolers into freaks who can do research but can barely process information.

It never was an IQ test. Debunked. Inform yourself.