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The tests have been gamed by a test prep industry that extracts money from wealthy families. Colleges aren't admitting students based only on diversity. They ar

The tests have been gamed by a test prep industry that extracts money from wealthy families. Colleges aren't admitting students based only on diversity. They are taking kids with excellent grades, volunteer work, etc. and giving them a closer look. It relies on the judgement of all of the student's high school teachers, rather than a centralized corporate assessment. Poor kids don't get second or third tries at tests that cost money to take. Even the most brilliant students can have a bad day. Colleges are held financial accountable to enroll students they can retain, so they can collect a full-term tuition. They aren't going to risk giving a valuable spot to a student that won't be able to perform well academically, just because they are 'diverse'. Professors would rather teach exceptional, motivated students from all walks of life than the wealthy, entitled children that can afford to spend $5000 on a test prep coach.

mhuffman 7y ago
> The tests have been gamed by a test prep industry that extracts money from wealthy families. No matter what you do, it will be gamed by money from wealthy families, because successfully graduating from one of these schools opens doors! For example, one thing that rich families are doing now is getting apartments in "ghettos" so that certain institutions that use an address as a proxy for "diversity" will include them. Whenever you have something of value (like an Ivy League education), people are going to compete for it. Short of a literally random lottery that cannot be sold, there is zero way to change that. > Professors would rather teach exceptional, motivated students from all walks of life Exceptional, motivated students have never had a problem getting into schools. Universities have long adored the idea of having "church mouse" geniuses, but it turns out that there are only so many of them. These self-motivated, exceptional students never had to worry about the SAT, because they knocked it out of the park ... without coaching!
GarrisonPrime 7y ago
>Colleges are held financial accountable to enroll students they can retain, so they can collect a full-term tuition. They aren't going to risk giving a valuable spot to a student that won't be able to perform well academically, just because they are 'diverse'. One would hope this to be the case, but considering only about 50% of college freshmen come back for a second year, it doesn't seem like they're doing that well picking applicants with staying power.

mhuffman 7y ago

> The tests have been gamed by a test prep industry that extracts money from wealthy families. No matter what you do, it will be gamed by money from wealthy families, because successfully graduating from one of these schools opens doors! For example, one thing that rich families are doing now is getting apartments in "ghettos" so that certain institutions that use an address as a proxy for "diversity" will include them. Whenever you have something of value (like an Ivy League education), people are going to compete for it. Short of a literally random lottery that cannot be sold, there is zero way to change that. > Professors would rather teach exceptional, motivated students from all walks of life Exceptional, motivated students have never had a problem getting into schools. Universities have long adored the idea of having "church mouse" geniuses, but it turns out that there are only so many of them. These self-motivated, exceptional students never had to worry about the SAT, because they knocked it out of the park ... without coaching!

GarrisonPrime 7y ago

>Colleges are held financial accountable to enroll students they can retain, so they can collect a full-term tuition. They aren't going to risk giving a valuable spot to a student that won't be able to perform well academically, just because they are 'diverse'. One would hope this to be the case, but considering only about 50% of college freshmen come back for a second year, it doesn't seem like they're doing that well picking applicants with staying power.