Standardized test scores are correlated with income. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/11/new-study-finds-wide-gap-in-sat-act-test-scores-between-wealthy-lower-income-kids/ children of the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans were 13 times likelier than the children of low-income families to score 1300 or higher on SAT/ACT tests. |
And wealth is also correlated with cognitive ability. Peer reviewed study by the same organization (Opportunity Insights) show that regardless of wealth, test scores predict academic performance equally well. You are cherrypicking data in order to make inferences that the authors of the study would not support. https://opportunityinsights.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/SAT_ACT_on_Grades.pdf |
There’s this strange implication that “wealth” is somehow separate from ability. And we are really just talking MC/UMC here. But it’s true that intelligence is a heritable trait. And it takes a bit of intelligence and hard work to be MC/UMC. This is no secret.
Sorry but people with money aren’t just a bunch of idiots with inheritances. And there aren’t a whole bunch of poor geniuses. |
Kids who were admitted under the old TJ admissions process were mostly not prodigies. Plop those same kids into economically-disadvantaged families at birth and it's very unlikely that most would still end up at TJ. |
Yet massively over performed in just about every measurable including grades, SATs, SOLs, admissions tests… etc. Sorry, but middle class successful Asians have smart kids. Your make believe life swapping is not accepted as truth but the results are. |
“Smart” wasn’t enough to get into TJ. When they changed the admissions process to remove some of the advantages of wealth what was the result? More Asian students from low-income families. |
And less middle income Asian students with other scores. |
DP Why? The non-traditional kid had their opportunity to show they were smart in non-traditional ways during the first 18 years of their life. The fact is there are almost ZERO kids that are smart in non-traditional ways that are not ALSO smart in traditional ways. The number of kids who are exceptionally smart and "just don't test well" This phenomenon is far more common among average to above average kids who don't present at average or above average. For really smart kids, they pretty much all test well. That JMU kid simply didn't earn a spot at harvard and we shouldn't bend over backwards to shoehorn them in there. |
I am not sure how other industries work, but... Not a single hedge fund or bulge bracket firm recruits this way. Not a single top law firm recruits this way. |
DP WTF are you talking about? All tech works off the same basic skill set, and being smart is vital to all of it. And people still go to places like IVY+ to find traditionally smart kids. |
And yet you have schools like stuyvesant, bronx science and brooklyn tech where most of the students are in fact from poor families. |
If you don't test well, then what evidence is there that these kids are "smart" |
Exactly! It's just like if you only test well because you could afford to purchase the test answers... |
NYC has a different admissions environment/process. For TJ, less than 1% of the class of 2024 came from economically-disadvantaged families. |
Yes, in NYC admissions is based purely on an admissions test. They don't care that you can transcribe the compelling prepared essay about the the summer you spent at a robotics camp that ignited your passion for stem. And frankly the FARM percentage is not really relevant. TJ is not an anti-poverty program. If poor kids are not being prepared, then your problem is with to the people who are supposed to be preparing them, not the people that are pointing out that they are not prepared. |