5 ms·

How about not discriminating at all?

creaghpatr 8y ago
Personally, I'd love to see Harvard set aside 75% of their spots for a lottery of students who meet an insanely high threshold (98% percentile in the SAT, for example, or some other objective measurement), and then use the other 25% for athletes, legacies, diversity, etc. That way you may not get in, but you know you won't get cut because you got assigned an arbitrary 'personality' score if you scored high enough; enables kids to save face with friends/family too. Not a fully baked idea here, just a potential avenue.
- opportune 8y ago
  Over half of all students accepted to Harvard already have test scores in the top 2%
  - jessaustin 8y ago
    Lots of people dislike the current situation. They might very well prefer a random sampling of the 2% to the weighted-against-asians portion of the 2% that Harvard "already" admits.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 8y ago
  Yes but then you invite the idea that the “meritocracy” is biased because only rich kids have the opportunity to study and achieve the top 2 percentile scores needed for admittance. This argument has been used against Texas schools, specifically A&M and UT, who currently work with a “Top 10%” rule where the top 10% of any class in state is automatically admitted to any state school. Note that I am not expressing any opinion about any of this, merely pointing out the counter argument.
- thaumasiotes 8y ago
  > I'd love to see Harvard set aside 75% of their spots for a lottery of students who meet an insanely high threshold (98% percentile in the SAT, for example Insanely high threshold? That's... a very low bar. https://www.statista.com/statistics/195908/number-of-births-in-the-united-states-since-1990/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/195908/number-of-births-... (no idea how good this source is) shows roughly 4 million births a year. A 98th percentile cutoff would admit 80,000 kids per year to Harvard. By contrast, according to https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/admissions-statistics https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/admissions-statistics (hopefully a strong source), the class of 2021 admitted 2037 people of which 1687 enrolled. You would hope that 100% of Harvard admits would have 98th percentile (or, really, better) scores, but they don't.
lordnacho 8y ago
Basing it on academic achievement might seem reasonable.
deleted 8y ago
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seatdrummer 8y ago
Its just the discriminate is a loaded word now, but it just means to differentiate, which is perfectly ok to do. Like by IQ, achievements, attitude, etc.

Personally, I'd love to see Harvard set aside 75% of their spots for a lottery of students who meet an insanely high threshold (98% percentile in the SAT, for example, or some other objective measurement), and then use the other 25% for athletes, legacies, diversity, etc. That way you may not get in, but you know you won't get cut because you got assigned an arbitrary 'personality' score if you scored high enough; enables kids to save face with friends/family too. Not a fully baked idea here, just a potential avenue.

opportune 8y ago
Over half of all students accepted to Harvard already have test scores in the top 2%
- jessaustin 8y ago
  Lots of people dislike the current situation. They might very well prefer a random sampling of the 2% to the weighted-against-asians portion of the 2% that Harvard "already" admits.
SOLAR_FIELDS 8y ago
Yes but then you invite the idea that the “meritocracy” is biased because only rich kids have the opportunity to study and achieve the top 2 percentile scores needed for admittance. This argument has been used against Texas schools, specifically A&M and UT, who currently work with a “Top 10%” rule where the top 10% of any class in state is automatically admitted to any state school. Note that I am not expressing any opinion about any of this, merely pointing out the counter argument.
thaumasiotes 8y ago
> I'd love to see Harvard set aside 75% of their spots for a lottery of students who meet an insanely high threshold (98% percentile in the SAT, for example Insanely high threshold? That's... a very low bar. https://www.statista.com/statistics/195908/number-of-births-in-the-united-states-since-1990/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/195908/number-of-births-... (no idea how good this source is) shows roughly 4 million births a year. A 98th percentile cutoff would admit 80,000 kids per year to Harvard. By contrast, according to https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/admissions-statistics https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/admissions-statistics (hopefully a strong source), the class of 2021 admitted 2037 people of which 1687 enrolled. You would hope that 100% of Harvard admits would have 98th percentile (or, really, better) scores, but they don't.

lordnacho 8y ago

Basing it on academic achievement might seem reasonable.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

seatdrummer 8y ago

Its just the discriminate is a loaded word now, but it just means to differentiate, which is perfectly ok to do. Like by IQ, achievements, attitude, etc.