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> They switched a legacy applicant—meaning that a parent had earned a degree from Emory—to “deny” because of his light extracurricular involvement. The original

> They switched a legacy applicant—meaning that a parent had earned a degree from Emory—to “deny” because of his light extracurricular involvement. The original readers gave him a score of 2 out of 5 in that category, observing that he wanted to major in pre-med “but we don’t see activities to support that,” one of the admissions officers said. >But while the student listed neuroscience as a major, “there is no example of neuro in the file” in terms of activities or in the essays, the admissions officer said. She suggested that they move the applicant to the wait list, which would be “a softer landing” than an outright denial. This kind of focus on extra-curricular activities is a complete waste of time, and is actually very discriminatory against low-income students. I believe there is no correlation between being a good doctor and doing "medical related" extra-curricular activities in high school or between being a good neuroscientist, and doing "neuro science" related extra-curricular activities in high school. Having good interpersonal skills, good verbal and written communication skills, and strong math and science fundamentals is far more important. > Among those who didn’t make it into Lafayette that year was an applicant from Pennsylvania who ranked fifth in his high school class of more than 600, with a 3.96 GPA and 1450 on the SAT. His financial need to attend Lafayette: $66,810 for his freshman year. I think they did the student a favor. I am sure that a student with those grades and scores could easily attend a top notch state university for much cheaper and receive as good if not better an education.

throwawaysea 6y ago
I agree. The focus on extra curricular activities is ridiculous. Even for students who demonstrate them, it must be frustrating to have to devote time to those activities instead of your personal life or other passions.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  And all that just to give people illusion that they got in through special merit, not just baseline merit + some luck. It would be much cheaper and much better for both students and universities if applications were handled by a random number generator. That is, from the pool of students that applied to a given facility and crossed some per-faculty grade threshold, just bin then together and pick at random, until all places are filled. (If you're worried about grade inflation, introduce university-provided exams instead. And/or design the first year to aggressively weed out anyone who can't pull their weight.) But alas, there are lots of people making lots of money from handling admissions and providing extracurriculars, I'm pretty sure they'd object :).
  - PhantomGremlin 6y ago
    If you're worried about grade inflation, introduce university-provided exams instead. ? How is that any better than SAT or ACT?
JumpCrisscross 6y ago
> This kind of focus on extra-curricular activities is a complete waste of time Strongly disagree. A big part of university is the campus experience. A college with low extracurricular participation is different from one with lots of it. A good predictor of students who won’t go to class and then be hermits is past activity. Controls need to be in place to ensure this doesn’t proxy for discrimination. But we’d be amiss ignoring e.g. coding projects, community organisation and other accessible, self-guided extracurricular activities.

throwawaysea 6y ago

I agree. The focus on extra curricular activities is ridiculous. Even for students who demonstrate them, it must be frustrating to have to devote time to those activities instead of your personal life or other passions.

TeMPOraL 6y ago
And all that just to give people illusion that they got in through special merit, not just baseline merit + some luck. It would be much cheaper and much better for both students and universities if applications were handled by a random number generator. That is, from the pool of students that applied to a given facility and crossed some per-faculty grade threshold, just bin then together and pick at random, until all places are filled. (If you're worried about grade inflation, introduce university-provided exams instead. And/or design the first year to aggressively weed out anyone who can't pull their weight.) But alas, there are lots of people making lots of money from handling admissions and providing extracurriculars, I'm pretty sure they'd object :).
- PhantomGremlin 6y ago
  If you're worried about grade inflation, introduce university-provided exams instead. ? How is that any better than SAT or ACT?

JumpCrisscross 6y ago

> This kind of focus on extra-curricular activities is a complete waste of time Strongly disagree. A big part of university is the campus experience. A college with low extracurricular participation is different from one with lots of it. A good predictor of students who won’t go to class and then be hermits is past activity. Controls need to be in place to ensure this doesn’t proxy for discrimination. But we’d be amiss ignoring e.g. coding projects, community organisation and other accessible, self-guided extracurricular activities.