So if it can all be faked, how should college admissions work?

[Anonymous]

ACT and SAT are faked and forged.
Essays are ghost-written.
Accommodation for learning disabilities is easily and fraudulently obtained.
Grade inflation is rampant.

So how do we genuinely fix this so actual merit is identified?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ACT and SAT are faked and forged.
Essays are ghost-written.
Accommodation for learning disabilities is easily and fraudulently obtained.
Grade inflation is rampant.

So how do we genuinely fix this so actual merit is identified?

Your problem is believing that "merit" is something that actually exists. It doesn't and hasn't for millennia. It's why a rich, landed family in 1700s France would marry their dumb son to the smart daughter of a rich landed family in Spain. The wealthy and powerful will do whatever they can to keep the wealth and power intact for future generations. Even if that means helping a genetic dummy across the finish line; hopefully their offspring ends up being savvy.

[Anonymous]

Oxbridge / caltech model is the best.

German model is good as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ACT and SAT are faked and forged.
Essays are ghost-written.
Accommodation for learning disabilities is easily and fraudulently obtained.
Grade inflation is rampant.

So how do we genuinely fix this so actual merit is identified?

Your problem is believing that "merit" is something that actually exists. It doesn't and hasn't for millennia. It's why a rich, landed family in 1700s France would marry their dumb son to the smart daughter of a rich landed family in Spain. The wealthy and powerful will do whatever they can to keep the wealth and power intact for future generations. Even if that means helping a genetic dummy across the finish line; hopefully their offspring ends up being savvy.

So you are saying the status quo should just continue? We should just give up?

[Anonymous]

Lottery--seriously. A certain percentage of the incoming class is offered admission by lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oxbridge / caltech model is the best.

German model is good as well.

Caltech is vulnerable to faked test scores.

[Anonymous]

All of these tools should remain,, but schools need to get rid of side door ways in. Shameful that administrators have “fixed” SAT scores. That one shocked me the most. Massive crackdown is in order.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lottery--seriously. A certain percentage of the incoming class is offered admission by lottery.

[Anonymous]

Steven Colbert nailed it last night.

"You know how the conspiracy theorists say, 'Everything is rigged for the wealthy and famous'? Well, as a wealthy and famous person, let me just respond by saying: You're absolutely right," Stephen Colbert said. ...


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/13/arts/television/colbert-college-admissions-scandal.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oxbridge / caltech model is the best.

German model is good as well.

There's multiple problems with the German model.

First, if you don't get into the right high school, you will NEVER go to college. You'll be sent to trade school as a teen. This obviously blocks teens with learning issues from getting into college. Some people mature later in life and could end being a brilliant academic in college, if just given the chance. I know many people who had terrible high school experiences and grades (usually due to a traumatic home life or school bullying), but then excelled once they got into college.

The 2nd big issue with the German system is that people would literally be in an undergrad program for 8 years before finishing. Once you got into the university, it was very difficult to get you out. The education was basically free, plus the German government gives you a monthly subsidy as a student to pay your living expenses. The professors in many German universities are very strict about failing 30-50% of the class, so you'd need to take a single class perhaps multiple times before passing. This kept Germans in their 20s in college for way too long. I think they've recently enacted a time limit to finish your bachelor degree (7 years?). That said, the German up-and-out method produces very smart individuals who have a mastery of the material. I've met many who come to the U.S. for grad school and find it to be way too easy compared to the German system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oxbridge / caltech model is the best.

German model is good as well.

Oxford had a cash for places scandal too. In fact, the Oxbridge model, which is highly subjective to each college, is ripe with opportunity for bias and / or corruption.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oxbridge / caltech model is the best.

German model is good as well.

Caltech is vulnerable to faked test scores.

But the caltech model isn’t becuase work there is so hard that faked score kids would be exposed.

The problem at Yale is fake scores don’t expose kids once they get on campus becuase there isn’t much rigor in curriculum if you decide to take it easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ACT and SAT are faked and forged.
Essays are ghost-written.
Accommodation for learning disabilities is easily and fraudulently obtained.
Grade inflation is rampant.

So how do we genuinely fix this so actual merit is identified?

Snap out of the passive voice and identify the actors if you want to help change things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oxbridge / caltech model is the best.

German model is good as well.

Oxford had a cash for places scandal too. In fact, the Oxbridge model, which is highly subjective to each college, is ripe with opportunity for bias and / or corruption.

Much less than what we have in our system.

The interview run by tutors filters out a lot of rich but dim kids.

[Anonymous]

If I could wave a magic wand ...

1) Eliminate activities as a consideration. Do not even have it as an option on the Common or Coalition App -- no preferences for athletes, ballet stars, musical prodigies, marching band members, debaters etc.

Schools can offer these activities to anyone in the freshman class who tries out for them, like high school.

2) Blind admission files, with the exception of perhaps geography and gender (same as with an academic journal; no one knows who the author is).

No names on apps, no interviews with applicants. The record must stand on its own. Recommendations and calls only accepted from teachers or employers.