Reply to What happens when elite schools shift away from test scores, grades, and AP?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Absolutely true, and some of the brightest, most passionate kids do not do as well in school these days because their form of learning does not correspond to the competition and demands of high school.  My DS is an example of this.  A well-read, passionate kid with math skills who really struggled in school before knocking the SATs out of the park (no prep), getting into college, and blossoming in a more intellectual environment. The structure of high school stifled rather than nourished his learning curve.  And this was one of the top schools in this region.[/quote]

I have a child like this. I think he should go to Harvard, but he'll never get there. He's an extremely thoughtful kid who rails against the idiocy of many of his classes, does indifferent work (I can hardly blame him) and gets Bs when he could easily get As if he jumped through all the hoops. I'm sure he'll do fine in college, but he won't be able to attend a highly selective college under the current admissions structure. He does not have the GPA, and that eliminates him before any of his other qualities, his intellectual abilities, his curiosity, his creativity can be considered. Even if he gets perfect SATs, he's out of the running.

I have a friend who does alumni interviews for Harvard. He agrees that my son would be great at Harvard, would thrive and grow and be a superb addition to the community. But without those grades, my son has no chance to have that experience. [b]I'm sure my kid will do fine elsewhere, and in the long run, it doesn't matter. [/b]But there's a symbiosis at places like Harvard that's cut short when kids like mine are not part of the mix. A child who won't jump through hoops is more creative, more intelligent, more interesting than the ones who do. I admire iconoclasts, and perhaps Harvard and the other elite schools are finally realizing that if they want to continue to produce the most innovative thinkers, they will have to expand their admissions process to include kids whose minds do not fill little boxes and circles.[/quote]

This. So why care at all about what Harvard's missing?

I have a similar kid who won't get into Harvard or its ilk and I have wasted not one minute worrying about it. (Since they give only need-based aid, we couldn't afford it anyway.) As you noted, my kid will do fine elsewhere and so it doesn't matter.

And as said previously, I can value the contributions and potential of kids like ours without denigrating the contributions and potential of the kids who ARE being accepted to Harvard. There are plenty of bright, thoughtful, innovative, creative kids who also get good grades and have high test scores. They will have more options than our kids do. Good for them. It doesn't have any bearing on my kid.

The real concern we should all have as parents is whether the system as designed benefits any of these kids. I think increasingly we are finding that it doesn't. I do think elite colleges could help relieve some of the pressure (internal and external) to fill meaningless little boxes and circles (for example, by advertising that they will recalculate GPA using a formula that only allows weighting for up to, say, 4 or 5 AP or IB classes and allowing spaces for kids to report test scores for only 4 or 5 (making it pointless to take additional AP classes unless the student really finds them interesting or useful)), but I can't envision a world in which elite colleges don't value good grades and so there will always be smart and creative kids with unimpressive grades or test scores who will be overlooked in the elite admissions process. And again, it generally doesn't matter. Those kids will be fine without Harvard, and Harvard will be fine without them.[/quote]

The OP raised the question because the elite schools, including Harvard, plan to change their admissions criteria. Why are they doing this? Obviously, they are concerned that they are not getting the right pool of kids they want. Mixed in among those creative, thoughtful, accomplished kids with high grades and scores, are some kids with similar stats who are neither creative nor thoughtful. Their talent is getting grades and scores and positioning themselves for the elite schools based on the current admissions requirements for those schools. Change the requirements, and will the same type of competitive strivers (that's the best way I can find to describe them) become chameleons and change their profiles to match the new set of criteria? It's an interesting question that will only be answered if the elite schools follow through with their idealized plans. I'm doubtful they'll achieve holistic admissions, nor that they will end up with any more interesting, creative students attending their schools than they have now. But I could be wrong.

Harvard probably does need my kid and yours. At least they are pretending they want kids like mine. My kid will do fine elsewhere, but he'd also really benefit from spending four years around similar people. Where he's going to college, he's only going to meet a few people who are like him. That's fine and OK, but probably not the most stimulating experience for him. Harvard would be better for him, maybe, but it's not going to happen. And Harvard would be better off with my kid and yours among its student body because our children would challenge their peers in different ways. Kids who always achieve know nothing about failure, one of the most powerful learning experiences a person can have.

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