Reply to What's academic top 1%?

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "What's academic top 1%?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Simple. Meets ALL of the following criteria

Within the first five ranks in a class size of over 500
Scores of over 1550 SAT or 35 ACT in a single attempt. No super scoring. 
Scores 5 in most of the 8 or more AP tests taken
Scores of over 750 in every one of Subject tests if taken

Very likely around 5,000-10,000 max such students in the whole country. So not many  You could easily accommodate every one of them in the top ten schools.  But then the diversity goals of the schools would be violated, so they are rejected routinely in favor of  less academically accomplished students through all kinds of twisted rationalizations. [/quote]

As someone who used to be an academic star in high school back when tutoring wasn't so prevalent, when I read your list, my mind mentally automatically adds up the hours/$$ of tutoring/prep and the parental involvement for most of the kids on your list to achieve those "accomplishments."
Yes, some will have done it naturally. They are the real thing. Others were hoisted there, going past others who may not have had that support. It's a game now and I don't take the things you list at face value anymore. 
[/quote]

I agree that this might be one way of measuring the academic 1%--  But do having THE HIGHEST test scores and grades really matter so much more than having VERY HIGH scores plus other achievements/capacities? Colleges are aiming to produce people who will be creative, entrepreneurial, community-involved--most evidence suggests that the threshold approach works--so in terms of creative contributions an IQ of 125 is a good threshold, but you aren't more likely to make valued creative contributions if you have a 145 IQ than a 125 IQ (except perhaps in a few particular areas like PhD level math/physics). So a 1400 SAT or so is probably a good threshold with other indicators of creativity.  Similarly entrepreneurs may not have the highest grades but they may have shown a competitive spirit in sports or other competitions or initiative through work experience.  As long as they meet the academic threshold needed to succeed academically in a college, they might be more valuable to a school and society than someone who focus all their energies on optimizing test scores.  Competitive PhD programs in highly technical areas might do well by selecting the highest scorers, but I'm not convinced that undergraduate programs don't do best by selecting on a wider range of criteria above a given threshold--including some of those high scorers, but also others. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics