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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’ve heard anecdotes from professors there that there has been a decline in the quality I’d the student body and the tutoring halls are constantly filled.

I think the push to enroll non-privileged students has had consequences. The sad truth is that a privileged background (attentive parents with resources and excellent K-12 schools) tends to create strong students. So if you count “privilege” against an applicant and aggressively favor a lack thereof, you are not tilting your student body in the direction of academic preparedness. [/quote]

There is no doubt this is true.  My college roommate is now a professor at Princeton (and has been an Ivy professor for 12 years, across 3 schools). She says that many of the current kids are absolutely not as prepared as kids even 5 years ago.  It's "shocking."  However, they can (and do) catch most of these kids up.  Isn't it a good thing that smart kids from diverse backgrounds are being given this opportunity?

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I find it hard to believe and overly idealistic to think you can bring any student up with a little extra tutoring to the point where they are on par with the absolute best in the country.  It's arguably admirable Princeton is doing this, and I prefer the focus on economic based disadvantages over racial preferences, but there can be too much of a good thing.  I mean, you admit it yourself, the quality of the students entering is shockingly worse than just five years ago.  The idea that after a few hours with a professor this gap disappears does not ring true to me.  I am thinking back to the difference in my roommates who were admitted based almost entirely on academic merit and the ones who were recruited athletes.  The ones admitted on academic merit were, in a very real sense, geniuses.  The athletes were bright.  No amount of extra attention would ever bring my athlete roommates up to the intellectual capability of my academic merit roommates.  Just as no amount of extra attention would transform my academic merit roommates into elite athletes.  I think what they are doing now is bring bright kids into the school who help them fulfill the social/political agenda but it's a zero sum game, so they are squeezing out really really really bright kids.  Sure, the bright kids may be smart enough and gritty enough to graduate with a lot of tutoring, but Princeton is supposed to be a factory for intellectual leaders of the future (at least in my opinion) not just bright kids who can get by in a competitive world.[/quote]

You really think the leaders of our country - Congress, governors, mayors, etc., are geniuses? Also, no one is talking about a few hours of tutoring. What they mean is that by junior year, the low income kids have mostly caught up with the elite kids academically. You are nuts lady and not too bright either [/quote]

This guy is. Mid-nineties grad. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Polis[/quote]

Yes, Polis is very bright! People like Ted Cruz and Wes Moore have specific credentials that would lead you to believe they might be genius level too. [/quote]

They ARE geniuses. Ted was number one debater in the country. [/quote]

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