Chicago essays can be purchased from consultants |
Their test scores suck. So how is that fair? |
It's perfectly legal and fair to recruit students based on athletic merit. It would only be illegal and unfair if you discriminated against one athlete versus another based on race or some other protected category. |
yes but I personally think their majors should be restricted to something like physical education |
It call comes down to whether or not you believe it is legal or otherwise desirable to discriminate on the basis of race to help certain groups out that are perceived as falling behind in American society. The new DEI ethos says that not discriminating on the basis of race is racist. This is the crux of the issue. The left pretends the test is racist but knows deep down they are just trying to give blacks and Hispanics a boost. My personal view is the boost should be based on socioeconomic criteria not racial background. We should stick to our non-discrimination paradigm. |
It’s not fair that schools recruit club swim athletes when club swim costs thousands of dollars a year, either. |
The more you insert human decision-making into the process, the less fair it gets, in many ways. Race-based preferences, lower academic requirements for athletes, legacy admissions, admissions for the children of big financial donors etc. Some of these preferences are legal, others not. But, they all make the process more subjective and less objective. Determining admission purely on GPA and test scores would be, objectively, the most fair process, because it would eliminate human bias. |
Last I checked, the high school teachers who give the grades were human beings. |
MIT is different in that all students have to take required calculus, physics, chem, and bio courses. Test scores, especially math, are strong predictors for this. At other top schools, the reality is that kids who aren't that good at math, etc. can avoid hard classes, major in something easy, and do fine. This is esp true at schools like Yale and Harvard w/ major grade inflation. Even at UChicago, which doesn't have grade inflation, everyone is not required to take the same type of classes as MIT students. MIT is just different. |
Can you provide proof of this? Everyone says people purchase their essays, but I've never seen where one would actually buy them and wonder if they are any good. I would assume they are fairly formulaic (assuming they exist). |
But that's not exactly how it's playing out now. Averages are going up but the number of kids submitting is going down. My white kid did not submit and has gotten into better schools than she would have a few years ago because she has great grades but learning disabilities so her test scores are low. She can handle class work (it takes her twice as long but she can do it). There are things on the applications that they like with the holistic review so they want her, but her test scores would have eliminated her in the past. It seems the colleges get the exerts of both worlds with TO. Their test score average go up with the students that submit, yet they can still take the ones they want that don't submit. This is why they tell you not to submit if your score is below their average. |
Can you provide some evidence for this? |
I have a very similar story. My LSAT was low, yet I graduated Summa Cum Laude. I had no idea how to prepare, my parents were not involved at all (and were not paying), and I had not gone to a school that had any sort of pre-law counseling or many students applying to law school. I was so underestimated going into law school, but proved everyone wrong. My kids had the advantage of prep and better schools. |
Fine, then go to pure test scores, if you want. Wouldn't bother me. Or, if we're talking about a state college system, handle admission like the U of Texas system. The top x% based on GPA in each high school in the state gets into the flagship, the next x% gets into the next tier, and so on. There are ways to eliminate, or at least lessen, subjective admission criteria. But, there are too many vested interests to allow that. It's odd, because the SAT/ACT were considered a progressive approach when they came about, versus the old system where admission to a lot of elite schools was very much tied to social class, religion and race. It's darkly funny that a few generations ago, elite schools didn't want too many Asians (unless you were a prominent foreigner like Isoroku Yamamoto), and they continue to want to keep them out. |
This guy scored 790 on the match section. Went to the NFL. Then went back to chool for his doctorate. ![]() |