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I suspect this will increase, not decrease the anxiety of applicants. I wonder if they actually think this will help with anxiety, and are wrong, or are just b

I suspect this will increase, not decrease the anxiety of applicants. I wonder if they actually think this will help with anxiety, and are wrong, or are just being duplicitous. If the goal is merit based admission then the measured of merit should be transparent and accurate as possible. This seems like “we’re going to stop publishing salary info to decrease anxiety of applicants” for companies.

zahma 5y ago
Doesn't it signal to prospective students to submit their best application and be judged holistically? Supposedly that's what all universities claim to do. It's easy to start quantifying application success based on several indicators like GPA, SAT/ACT scores, number and volume of extra-curriculars, and may some others. However, there are circumstances and other factors that are not quantifiable that universities claim to take into account. Sure a good SAT score works to your advantage, and everyone will know that until society's worked out something better. But an SAT shouldn't be the golden standard, and supposedly with holistic admissions it isn't. I can see how masking the SAT score data might look duplicitous, but it may be an earnest attempt to encourage prospective students to see themselves as more than a matrix of numbers.
- prepend 5y ago
  I don’t think so. I think it signals a secret level of expectations and information asymmetry as the average sat score is still available to admissions people. It will be interesting if this leads to higher or lower mean and median scores. I expect that scores will go up as the assumption by applicants is that only super high scores will result in admission. Part of their “holistic” process includes SAT so the score does matter. I consider “holistic” BS marketing speak as of course everything in the admin packet is used and there’s never been a situation in my lifetime that a specific score meant automatic admission.
  - olsonjeffery 5y ago
    There’s actually another, simpler explanation: they’re doing exactly what they’re saying. Not releasing SAT scores of admitted students might mean that their experiments with “holistic” admission results in lower average SATs. Hence their de-emphasis of test scores.
    - prepend 5y ago
      Perhaps, but that seems stupid as test scores are very useful for determining if someone will successfully complete college, and many other factors. If their goal is to de-emphasize SAT scores then they should be cool with releasing SAT scores to emphasize that their de-emphasis approach has changed the patterns in SAT.
- buscoquadnary 5y ago
  People that remove objective transparent measures often do so because they are preventing them from doing they want to do that are contrary to those measures. The more objective, open, and clear the measures are the better everyone can understand what is required, when you change to a "Holistic" measure it suddenly goes to whatever the admissions officer wants to do or feels like doing. Remember the opposite of objective is arbitrary.
  - glitchc 5y ago
    Hit the nail on the head, you did. Princeton is moving to a more exclusive admissions model where the top SAT score does not guarantee acceptance anymore. Luxury Brand indeed! For shame.
deleted 5y ago
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paulpauper 5y ago
I think it's a bad move, but i don't think it will increase anxiety if top universities drew names out of a hat, you won't feel any more anxious than buying a lotto ticket and losing. But the quality of the student body would be much worse, obviously.
- prepend 5y ago
  I think I would feel more anxiety if it was random and I had no control at all. So up until names were chosen, I expect anxiety would go up. Lotto tickets are low consequence, but college is high consequence. If I had to test the anxiety of two processes for job application where one is merit based and the other is random, I’d choose the merit process because at least I can prepare.

zahma 5y ago

Doesn't it signal to prospective students to submit their best application and be judged holistically? Supposedly that's what all universities claim to do. It's easy to start quantifying application success based on several indicators like GPA, SAT/ACT scores, number and volume of extra-curriculars, and may some others. However, there are circumstances and other factors that are not quantifiable that universities claim to take into account. Sure a good SAT score works to your advantage, and everyone will know that until society's worked out something better. But an SAT shouldn't be the golden standard, and supposedly with holistic admissions it isn't. I can see how masking the SAT score data might look duplicitous, but it may be an earnest attempt to encourage prospective students to see themselves as more than a matrix of numbers.

prepend 5y ago
I don’t think so. I think it signals a secret level of expectations and information asymmetry as the average sat score is still available to admissions people. It will be interesting if this leads to higher or lower mean and median scores. I expect that scores will go up as the assumption by applicants is that only super high scores will result in admission. Part of their “holistic” process includes SAT so the score does matter. I consider “holistic” BS marketing speak as of course everything in the admin packet is used and there’s never been a situation in my lifetime that a specific score meant automatic admission.
- olsonjeffery 5y ago
  There’s actually another, simpler explanation: they’re doing exactly what they’re saying. Not releasing SAT scores of admitted students might mean that their experiments with “holistic” admission results in lower average SATs. Hence their de-emphasis of test scores.
  - prepend 5y ago
    Perhaps, but that seems stupid as test scores are very useful for determining if someone will successfully complete college, and many other factors. If their goal is to de-emphasize SAT scores then they should be cool with releasing SAT scores to emphasize that their de-emphasis approach has changed the patterns in SAT.
buscoquadnary 5y ago
People that remove objective transparent measures often do so because they are preventing them from doing they want to do that are contrary to those measures. The more objective, open, and clear the measures are the better everyone can understand what is required, when you change to a "Holistic" measure it suddenly goes to whatever the admissions officer wants to do or feels like doing. Remember the opposite of objective is arbitrary.
- glitchc 5y ago
  Hit the nail on the head, you did. Princeton is moving to a more exclusive admissions model where the top SAT score does not guarantee acceptance anymore. Luxury Brand indeed! For shame.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

paulpauper 5y ago

I think it's a bad move, but i don't think it will increase anxiety if top universities drew names out of a hat, you won't feel any more anxious than buying a lotto ticket and losing. But the quality of the student body would be much worse, obviously.

prepend 5y ago
I think I would feel more anxiety if it was random and I had no control at all. So up until names were chosen, I expect anxiety would go up. Lotto tickets are low consequence, but college is high consequence. If I had to test the anxiety of two processes for job application where one is merit based and the other is random, I’d choose the merit process because at least I can prepare.