Reply to Banneker versus School Without Walls

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm impressed by how sure everyone is about their conclusions. (Except that legacy and athletic admits should be dumped. That's clear.)

Yes, it makes no sense that people with the similar socioeconomic backgrounds are treated differently. Except that Asian students are highly overrepresented among applicants with high test scores.

https://www.brookings.edu/research/race-gaps-in-sat-scores-highlight-inequality-and-hinder-upward-mobility/

"But in fact, among top scorers—those scoring between a 750 and 800—60 percent are Asian and 33 percent are white, compared to 5 percent Latino and 2 percent black."

So drop test scores, because they are clearly biased, right? Except what do you think is harder to game? SATs or essays? Grades are also hard to game, but what about the talented kids from bad schools? Admissions experts can correct me, but it seems that those grades  from those schools are pretty meaningless, but good test scores can offset that.

But weighting test scores, along with grades, which are more important, would result in black and Hispanic students being even more underrepresented at selective schools. There's no reason to think that they are less talented, driven, and capable of being successful, so there's something clearly wrong about that outcome. However, if they are too underprepared, then perhaps very demanding schools aren't a good fit.

As selective schools always say, there are many more qualified students than they can admit. So why not choose 3 times as many as they can admit and randomly draw from them? Of course, that will never happen.

[b]This is damn hard, and there are no simple answers.[/b] [/quote]

I really like what the US military academies do with their preparatory schools to help super bright and hard-working but underprepared candidates, mostly from low-income backgrounds.  They give these applicants an extra year, or even two years of extra prep in a "pre-academy setting" before letting them enter the academy.  Participants know that if they do the prep, they will automatically be admitted to the academy eventually. The Ivies have the resources, or could raise the money, to set up a similar system.  Very demanding schools have a way of becoming a good fit for top talent when extra help is in the mix. [/quote]

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