SAT "adversity" adjustment

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:just create more opportunities for the rich to game the system. Making up a poor background is actually easier than improving the (hard) SAT scores. Look at all the fake "athletes", "community leaders". ..

+1 So many kids make up essays about how poor their parents were in their childhood. But that doesn't really affect the kid who's applying who has had all the advantages of a middle class/upper class background.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can not believe how many of you affluent advantaged people are now online rallying against this. Have you no shame? As you no empathy? Have you no understanding? This is not designed to hurt your kids, but to help other kids.

+1 it’s like oh I’m so sad I can afford to have a nice house and neighborhood why are these poor students who are dealing with violence and poverty taking our deserved spots?? LOL. Don’t worry your kids will be just fine with all the social capital you have given them by living in your “nice” homogenous neighborhood.

What about regular old middle class people whose kids go to a nice, but not spectacular suburban high school. I can't afford SAT tutoring for my kid, she will have to do the free online prep, but they won't get the benefit of attending a school with a low adversity score.

screwed.

nope big fish small pond will still apply. Frankly I think thats the way to go. Get out of the rat race of this area, NYC burbs, West Chicago or SF. Just go somewhere average and normal your kid will be valedictorian and can go to a great school.

The problem with this plan is that it doesn't always work out that way. Plus let's face it. Parents care about their kid's peer group. Look at how many $40,000 a year private schools there are in DC. Those parents (well most of them) realize that they very well could be hurting their kids college chances as opposed to sending them to a public school. But the fact is, they want their kids to be friends with a certain type of kid. Middle class families are not going to be moving into low income areas in droves even if it would benefit their kids come college application time. Middle class parents want their kids to be friends with other middle class kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can not believe how many of you affluent advantaged people are now online rallying against this. Have you no shame? As you no empathy? Have you no understanding? This is not designed to hurt your kids, but to help other kids.

I do have empathy for others but what about my family? I am the only in my family's generation to go to college (local state u while working). I waited to have kids so my spouse and I could be in a better financial position. Because of that my kids can have a better piece of pie than I did but now that pie is getting sent to someone else. I want my kids to have their pie!

Your kids have the pie already! They have a stable home life, parents who are engaged and emotionally/physically present, presumably support in areas where they struggle and enrichment in areas where they excel.

Presumably they don't need to work after school, or babysit younger siblings while you and your partner work a third shift.

They have healthy food and clean water.

They have a veritable pie buffet. Congratulations!

But how do you know this? Middle and UMC kids could possibly be abused by their stepfathers, have parents who argue non stop, have a mom who went through breast cancer, be bullied mercilessly at school. There is no way that the college board,can determine who is facing adverse situations and who isn't. And quite frankly they are stepping out of their role in even trying to make an attempt to do so.

Then that middle/UMC applicant needs to write about the abuse in his/her essay. Disclosure of this information also adds context to the application.

+1 They are still better off than the poor kid who was abused.

I beg to differ. No kid should be abused and it's not any worse for a poor kid than a rich kid. The damage is the same because it leads to self destruction no matter your privilege.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can not believe how many of you affluent advantaged people are now online rallying against this. Have you no shame? As you no empathy? Have you no understanding? This is not designed to hurt your kids, but to help other kids.

I do have empathy for others but what about my family? I am the only in my family's generation to go to college (local state u while working). I waited to have kids so my spouse and I could be in a better financial position. Because of that my kids can have a better piece of pie than I did but now that pie is getting sent to someone else. I want my kids to have their pie!

Your kids have the pie already! They have a stable home life, parents who are engaged and emotionally/physically present, presumably support in areas where they struggle and enrichment in areas where they excel.

Presumably they don't need to work after school, or babysit younger siblings while you and your partner work a third shift.

They have healthy food and clean water.

They have a veritable pie buffet. Congratulations!

But how do you know this? Middle and UMC kids could possibly be abused by their stepfathers, have parents who argue non stop, have a mom who went through breast cancer, be bullied mercilessly at school. There is no way that the college board,can determine who is facing adverse situations and who isn't. And quite frankly they are stepping out of their role in even trying to make an attempt to do so.

Then that middle/UMC applicant needs to write about the abuse in his/her essay. Disclosure of this information also adds context to the application.

+1 They are still better off than the poor kid who was abused.

I beg to differ. No kid should be abused and it's not any worse for a poor kid than a rich kid. The damage is the same because it leads to self destruction no matter your privilege.

No. Abuse sucks no matter what kid it happens to. But you're not thinking clearly if you don't realize that compounding abuse with poverty and a lack of shelter/food/security makes things worse.

[Anonymous]

Why is the College Board getting involved in social engineering?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is the College Board getting involved in social engineering?

Probably because they're starting to look ridiculous because students can improve their scores by hundreds of points with enough tutoring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is the College Board getting involved in social engineering?

Because they see the writing on the wall regarding the demise of the SAT
$$$ need to stay in the game.

[Anonymous]

Basically the rich kids in the poor schools will benefit from this the most. For example, there are rich kids we attend Justice HS. Lake Barcroft and Sleepy Hollow feed into that school. Those kids are not facing economic adversity. This might work for inner city schools where there are no wealthy kids, but in poor performing suburban schools with low income housing mixing with high income housing, the poor kids are screwed because the higher income homes bring up the average house price and the wealthy kids and the poor kids are going to get the same adversity score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can not believe how many of you affluent advantaged people are now online rallying against this. Have you no shame? As you no empathy? Have you no understanding? This is not designed to hurt your kids, but to help other kids.

+1 it’s like oh I’m so sad I can afford to have a nice house and neighborhood why are these poor students who are dealing with violence and poverty taking our deserved spots?? LOL. Don’t worry your kids will be just fine with all the social capital you have given them by living in your “nice” homogenous neighborhood.

What about regular old middle class people whose kids go to a nice, but not spectacular suburban high school. I can't afford SAT tutoring for my kid, she will have to do the free online prep, but they won't get the benefit of attending a school with a low adversity score.

screwed.

nope big fish small pond will still apply. Frankly I think thats the way to go. Get out of the rat race of this area, NYC burbs, West Chicago or SF. Just go somewhere average and normal your kid will be valedictorian and can go to a great school.

The problem with this plan is that it doesn't always work out that way. Plus let's face it. Parents care about their kid's peer group. Look at how many $40,000 a year private schools there are in DC. Those parents (well most of them) realize that they very well could be hurting their kids college chances as opposed to sending them to a public school. But the fact is, they want their kids to be friends with a certain type of kid. Middle class families are not going to be moving into low income areas in droves even if it would benefit their kids come college application time. Middle class parents want their kids to be friends with other middle class kids.

It doesn't always work out that way. There are smart kids everywhere, and you can't just assume that you will plop your kid down in an "average" school and they be at the top of their class. However, if the realization that schools take into account the resources available to students fights some of the segregation that has occurred in schooling, that's fine by me. (Segregation among schools has been increasing since 1988: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/10/us/threatening-the-future-the-high-stakes-of-deepening-school-segregation.html) Also, if it gets your kids out of the rat-race of test prep, overwork, and achievement anxiety, it's probably good for them.

[Anonymous]

is this going to get applied to international students as well? the vast majority are from the upper classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is the College Board getting involved in social engineering?

Probably because they're starting to look ridiculous because students can improve their scores by hundreds of points with enough tutoring.

no evidence whatsoever that tutoring is that effective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is the College Board getting involved in social engineering?

The lawsuit against Harvard is also a factor. Direct quote from College Board:

"With the future of affirmative action admissions policies at stake with the ongoing Harvard trial, it’s increasingly important for higher education professionals to ensure fair and equitable admissions policies." https://www.collegeboard.org/membership/all-access/counseling-admissions-financial-aid-academic/more-numbers-context-matters-peek

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is the College Board getting involved in social engineering?

They're selling information to colleges to help those colleges with the engineering of their classes. Probably some colleges think that by training future leaders of society, they can improve society. If that's social engineering, so be it. What's the problem with finding talented kids from a variety of backgrounds and educating them to become leaders in their communities or areas of interest (arts, science, etc.)? This added information may help colleges better identify kids with promise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can not believe how many of you affluent advantaged people are now online rallying against this. Have you no shame? As you no empathy? Have you no understanding? This is not designed to hurt your kids, but to help other kids.

I do have empathy for others but what about my family? I am the only in my family's generation to go to college (local state u while working). I waited to have kids so my spouse and I could be in a better financial position. Because of that my kids can have a better piece of pie than I did but now that pie is getting sent to someone else. I want my kids to have their pie!

Your kids have the pie already! They have a stable home life, parents who are engaged and emotionally/physically present, presumably support in areas where they struggle and enrichment in areas where they excel.

Presumably they don't need to work after school, or babysit younger siblings while you and your partner work a third shift.

They have healthy food and clean water.

They have a veritable pie buffet. Congratulations!

But how do you know this? Middle and UMC kids could possibly be abused by their stepfathers, have parents who argue non stop, have a mom who went through breast cancer, be bullied mercilessly at school. There is no way that the college board,can determine who is facing adverse situations and who isn't. And quite frankly they are stepping out of their role in even trying to make an attempt to do so.

Then that middle/UMC applicant needs to write about the abuse in his/her essay. Disclosure of this information also adds context to the application.

+1 They are still better off than the poor kid who was abused.

I beg to differ. No kid should be abused and it's not any worse for a poor kid than a rich kid. The damage is the same because it leads to self destruction no matter your privilege.

Rich kids are usually under a lot more psychological manipulation from the parent(s) to keep up appearances. If the kid doesn't put on a happy face all hell breaks loose behind closed doors.

When a poor kid goes off the rails it's way more common for the "societal safety net" (school, social workers, police, foster care, etc) to step in.

Abuse is abuse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:is this going to get applied to international students as well? the vast majority are from the upper classes.

No, they don't care about that. International kids are full pay and already have seats "reserved" to subsidize universities.