State school admissions should not be wholistic
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Anonymous
Not the OP or PP but.... Wholistic vs. Holistic - "Holistic" is the standard and preferred spelling for referring to systems that treat the whole, rather than just parts, commonly used in medicine and philosophy. While "wholistic" is sometimes used to intentionally emphasize the "whole" or total, it is generally considered a variant or, in some contexts, a misspelling. Both terms are, however, used interchangeably to describe comprehensive, integrated approaches. |
Anonymous
So your argument is simply that the only thing that matters is GPA (and, subsequently, class rank) and this should be the only deciding factor, based on an arbitrary threshold (decided by you). Not test scores, class rigor, intended major, anything else. Got it. |
Anonymous
I have been saying this forever about Crook-VA, Dollar-Billiam and Mary, and Pickpocket Tech. Rejecting a kid with a 4.0 is ludicrous and should be condemned. |
Anonymous
Why not guaranteed admission for all high school graduates? |
Anonymous
No one is commenting on this? This seems key. UMDCP knows about RMIB and the Blair magnet, they know Wheaton bioengineering and Poolesville etc. So if your kid is getting all As in those kind of classes, a secret formula weights them higher? |
Anonymous
Grades and test scores are how most of the world selects its undergrads, and I think it takes away an enormous amount of stress from families. You know where your kid is likely to get in, based on their high school grades. It makes life easier. My oldest kid's safeties were UMD (our state school), McGill and St Andrews, which he got into based on grades alone. He has autism and did not have any extra-curriculars to speak of, and eventually chose a different US college, but we were so thankful to have decent safeties he could rely on. McGill relies SOLELY on grades and test scores and apparently UMD accepted him largely on the same. By far the most inequitable part of US college admissions are the extra-curriculars - some of them are incredibly expensive to keep up and stand out in. It's a racket by an industry of youth sports and youth arts, and the American higher education system is complicit. My second child has gone quite far in her main extra-curricular, so we are playing that game, but I don't like it. |
Anonymous
New York is the only state with TWO Ivys. One of them is the state’s land grant institution, it charges SUNY tuition for certain schools. UConn does a great job serving most kids in Connecticut. The ones with really great stats go to Yale. Alabama is filled with kids from the northeast because 1) they give enormous merit discounts and 2) very few HS kids in Alabama go to college compared to other states, plenty of room for outsiders. |
Anonymous
Being top 10% at Whitman is way easier than living in poverty and being a target of systemic racism and still managing to make it to the top 10% at an under resourced school. Furthermore, the latter student brings a much needed perspective to the University that the UMC kid from Whitman does not bring. |
Anonymous
There’s not enough spots at UMD to guarantee acceptance to the top 15% of all public high schools. UT Austin went from top 10% to top 7% to top 6%. With the state’s growth, it’s only a matter of time before its top 5%. I do think the UT Austin system is best - it desegregates some schools because parents want their kids to get into UT. |
Anonymous
When did Donald Trump join DCUM? What’s with the grade school playground name calling? |
Anonymous
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Ultimately, it's a supply and demand issue. Plus a cost issue. And a state flagship has to take students from every corner of the state.
The cost of private or OOS colleges has become so expensive that nearly every student applies to the state flagship these days. But there are only so many spots available. Of course there are thousands of high performing students at MCPS. But UMDCP also has to take students from Garret County and Somerset County and Baltimore County and so on. That's their mandate. I do like the Texas system, where UT Austin admits the top 5 percent of students from all public high schools. But even if you apply that to Maryland, there will still be thousands of 4.0 MCPS students frozen out of UMDCP. And being a top 5 percent student at schools like Whitman or Churchill is incredibly difficult regardless. States like California have tons of great public options - from the UCs to the Cal States. But most states don't invest that much in public colleges, so everyone needs to work with reality. UMBC is pretty good these days. But again, supply and demand is always going to be the main issue. There aren't enough seats at UMDCP and UMBC to accommodate every strong student in Maryland. And the competition is so fierce because no one wants to pay or can afford $200,000-$400,000 to go elsewhere, especially since most families have more than one kid. |
Anonymous
Like what? What are they bringing to a CS class or an EE class specifically related to their background of poverty / systemic racism? What they are (or should be) bringing is their intellect which contributes to enhancing the content/quality of the class. |
Anonymous
When did Virginia's public colleges start catering to Richie Rich and rejecting qualified students? |
Anonymous
+1 this is basically the entire thread. |
Anonymous
DP. Perhaps you should open a history book. |