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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There are two ways to fix the current college application crisis and let students really shine:

1. For each top private college, among all the applicants, have a cutoff of SAT at 1400 or something, then randomly select whatever number of students they want to admit. They can also put those students on the dean's list, donor's kids, etc in the same selection pool.  I am pretty confident, that those randomly selected students will perform as well as those selected based on the current admissions standards in college as well as after college graduation.

2. For each top 10 private colleges, instead of admitting only 1000 students per year, admit 7,000 to 10,000 students per year.

Those 2 methods will immediately reduce the corruption in the college admission process. Kids also do not need to fake their ECs to go to colleges which reduces all those wasteful spendings in EC activities.  As a result, kids can really work on things they really want to do.

Still, top colleges will lose their signaling effect a bit, however, they are still able to get the best students they can get.

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Your step 1 only moves the chaos bubble down to the next level. There are plenty of kids who would achieve 1400 eyes closed, they’d for sure be freed from the frenzy. They’d be one and done. But the kids who are at 1320 will go bonkers with tutors, test prep, takes and retakes to try to surmount the 1400 threshold, competition would rise amongst those who currently are relatively placid and outside the fray throughout the college application process.[/quote]

Well, the most obvious reason for people to want to go to top colleges is potentially lucrative job opportunities.

In a lottery admission, a hypothetical 1400 sends the same signal to potential employers as a top college degree.  After all, how can you identify students' abilities if they are selected randomly? There are far more students who have 1400 than a top college degree.  Students would need to work really hard in colleges to stand out. So they are really not one and done. This would also reduce the incentives to go to top colleges and push students to work harder on their potential.  Of course, students can always retake SAT and put 1400 on their resume and claim they are equal to those who graduate from top colleges.

I always doubt whether anyone can identify thousands of talents among 18 years old, especially with parents' help.  It is really a crap shot.  It would be far better to identify talents when they are 22. College AOs have been faking that they can identify talents at 18 years old.  With wealth so much concentrated on top private colleges, they of course need to fake it, but is it good for society?

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