Recommendations and holistic review for 2021

[Anonymous]

My junior finished taking the SAT and a bunch of APs, but wondering how recommendations will work. What if we don’t go back in the fall? If colleges are easing up on tests and grades, what will they use to replace those factors in their consideration? Essays? Will there be new topics? ECs are basically over.

[Anonymous]

Essays and supplements.
CA essay prompts remain the same.

[Anonymous]

Or, they might pull a Princeton (credit Oxbridge) and require a sample of graded, written work. More requirements for interviews via FaceTime or Skype.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or, they might pull a Princeton (credit Oxbridge) and require a sample of graded, written work. More requirements for interviews via FaceTime or Skype.

This is what many of the schools that are test optional at present do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or, they might pull a Princeton (credit Oxbridge) and require a sample of graded, written work. More requirements for interviews via FaceTime or Skype.

This is what many of the schools that are test optional at present do.

Spots are prestige colleges are limited. Perhaps the best way to allocate them is to use a market approach. Auction off the seats, using the Dutch auction procedure. For an Ivy, you could start the auction out at, say, $100K/year total cost of attendance, with an inflation escalator for subsequent years. See how many seats attract bidders. Then, offer seats at $95K; then at $90K, and so on, until the seats are sold out.

Schools of lesser perceived prestige would start their auctions at lower prices.

This way, schools maximize revenue, and students are, in effect, evaluated on an objective, rather than a phony holistic (i.e., anti-Asian) basis.

Under this system there will be some schools for which there are no bidders; these schools will fold, and they should.

Other schools will have to price themselves more realistically. Inflated sticker prices will become a thing of the past.

And, if worthy but demonstrably poor students need vouchers, it may be deemed advisable for state or the federal gov't to provide them. But the vouchers would be valued reasonably. The elite schools won't necessarily want to take voucher kids if they can auction their seats at higher prices, but many schools will want the voucher kids. Just like some landlords will accept Section 8 rent vouchers.

This system will allocate educational resources in a more efficient and sane manner. Fewer people will be going to college, and that's as it should be. And fewer schools will be financially viable, and will have to close. This too is as it should be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or, they might pull a Princeton (credit Oxbridge) and require a sample of graded, written work. More requirements for interviews via FaceTime or Skype.

This is what many of the schools that are test optional at present do.

Spots are prestige colleges are limited. Perhaps the best way to allocate them is to use a market approach. Auction off the seats, using the Dutch auction procedure. For an Ivy, you could start the auction out at, say, $100K/year total cost of attendance, with an inflation escalator for subsequent years. See how many seats attract bidders. Then, offer seats at $95K; then at $90K, and so on, until the seats are sold out.

Schools of lesser perceived prestige would start their auctions at lower prices.

This way, schools maximize revenue, and students are, in effect, evaluated on an objective, rather than a phony holistic (i.e., anti-Asian) basis.

Under this system there will be some schools for which there are no bidders; these schools will fold, and they should.

Other schools will have to price themselves more realistically. Inflated sticker prices will become a thing of the past.

And, if worthy but demonstrably poor students need vouchers, it may be deemed advisable for state or the federal gov't to provide them. But the vouchers would be valued reasonably. The elite schools won't necessarily want to take voucher kids if they can auction their seats at higher prices, but many schools will want the voucher kids. Just like some landlords will accept Section 8 rent vouchers.

This system will allocate educational resources in a more efficient and sane manner. Fewer people will be going to college, and that's as it should be. And fewer schools will be financially viable, and will have to close. This too is as it should be.

But under the system you devised, YOUR kid will be going to Harvard. This too is as it should be.

[Anonymous]

Why wouldn’t the kid ask a teacher from 11th or 10th grade? I don’t see the issue.

And 11th grade teacher would probably be best for early applications since a 12th grade class would only be a few weeks in when the recommendation needs to be written.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn’t the kid ask a teacher from 11th or 10th grade? I don’t see the issue.

And 11th grade teacher would probably be best for early applications since a 12th grade class would only be a few weeks in when the recommendation needs to be written.

+1 We've already received info from our school counselor about requesting recommendations from 11th grade teachers and providing the counselor with info so she can write her letters.

[Anonymous]

Recommendations are always suggested to be from 11th grade teachers.

[Anonymous]

I think "always" means something different this year. I have no doubt that many applicants will ask tenth grade teachers to give recommendations.