Reply to I believe that admission to elite schools were much more meritocratic 20 years ago versus today

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[quote=Anonymous]

[/quote] I have tangible evidence every day at work that the current undergraduate population is _less_prepared_.  I don't learn anything about the HS stats even of the students who are majors in my program.  I don't hear about their GPAs or their APs, and every year I have to tell them to take their HS extracurriculars off their resumes.  All I know is that they cannot do a whole basket of things as well as students could 20 years ago: absorb written material, identify important concepts, and redeploy them in arguments; memorize key details that are too fundamental and important to be left aside for notes or Google; plan ahead for complex or long-term projects; strike out on their own to find potentially appropriate research materials; write in an organized and compelling way, with minimal errors; and assume with humility and maturity the consequences of their own choices.  This is not just a pandemic thing, and those who think high stats are a sign of great college preparation might want to make sure that their students are ready in these other ways, too.  Because I can't see your SAT score: all I know is that I have to show you how to mine your textbook properly for high-priority information or constantly tell you to provide evidence in your papers.  Yes, I'm paid to do that, but you'd get much more out of our time together (and your tuition dollars) if you could already do that and I could teach you how to participate in the wider world of our discipline.

--College prof[/quote]

This is interesting, because last year several “profs” on this board claimed they could see all of that (SAT, GPA, etc. — they used it to justify some argument).  Regardless, I think your viewpoint is the general trend across the country; however, I do believe in this region, this alleged dumbing down is not the case.  Maybe I’m biased because we live in a good school district, but my kids, and their friends are waaaay more intelligent and capable that I ever was at their age.  They are better writers, they get conceptual math, they know their science and history, they can make valid arguments, etc.[/quote]

I, too, teach at a university, one that enrolls students who are amongst the best prepared high school students in their cohort (i.e. many students from privileged backgrounds). I second what college prof (whom I've quoted above) has said and would add that my students also have a lot of difficulty following basic instructions. [/quote]

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