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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Admissions should be based on merit and not on subjective criteria like EC’s which can be easily embellished and manipulated. It will stop all this madness to a great extent. [/quote]

If "merit" is solely grades and tests scores then hard pass from me. I live in NYC. My kid got into top SHSAT schools but we opted out. Because the majority (but not all) of the kids who get in on "merit" have zero personality. And before someone has a cow, this refers to white kids, Asian kids, Indian kids, etc. And to avoid another cow, again, there are plenty of exceptions. But a university full of these types would be a miserable place to go. I want my kids to go to a school not only with smart kids but ones who have non-academic interests, who have some charisma, emotional intelligence, compassion, and a sense of humor. People who not only will find the cure for cancer in the lab but could also do well at a cocktail party, potentially do well in a sales job, getting really excited at a football game but also appreciate a classical music concert, an art gallery and a rock concert, and would be fun to have a beer with (at the appropriate age, of course).

Admissions people are pretty good at sniffing out fake EC's from real ones. Again, I'm sure we all know someone who snuck one by them. But they know what they are doing.[/quote]

Why are these characteristics mutually exclusive? Students can still have other interests, just because they don’t have to list their non-academic interests doesn’t mean they don’t have any. What are you even talking about? Do you think students from the rest of the world (canada, Europe ) have no interests? [/quote]

As I said at the top of my admittedly too long post, "Merit" does not seem to work out well at the selective high schools where that is the criteria. Though that depends on your definition of "merit" and "working out well."

The American system has been completely corrupted and undoing that will be very difficult. But going to a strictly test/grade based system will lead to even more rampant grade inflation and a cram school mentality towards testing even worse than it is now.

Schools should be allowed to prioritize whatever they want. If they think non-quantitative factors are important, then that is their prerogative. Then the market will speak for itself, both in terms of admissions stats and exmissions stats. For many jobs, I would be perfectly fine with someone with slightly lower stats who has the people skills I referred to. For many posters here, what I am saying is completely impossible to understand. Particularly those who come from places where admissions are strictly test-based. Guess what - I don't want to be like those places.[/quote]

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