A good read.... yes, believe it or not, from the AJC (Link)

[MWBATL]

It should be easy. Make a spreadsheet that calculates a rank based on their academic achievements and then plug in all the students that applied. Start at the top and go down to fill all the slots. If there is a tie at the bottom then use extracurricular activities and an essay to break the tie. Done!

It only gets "hard" when you bring in subjectivity and demand diversity.

To be fair, it would be that easy if every high school was the same. they're not.

 

[gtg391z]

To be fair, it would be that easy if every high school was the same. they're not.

I agree but AP courses and tests and standardize testing are and that's why it should be a weighted rank based on all those.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

To be fair, it would be that easy if every high school was the same. they're not.

Some people pay thousands of dollars for SAT testing classes and spend hours aa week for months taking previous SAT tests over and over. Some schools (we have one of the top public high schools in the nation near us that does this) don't even publish class rankings. In some places finishing in the top 10% of your class is nothing to brag about. In others its an amazing accomplishment. Admissions isn't as cut and dry as we think it is.

I go back to my 13 year old son again. We're not going to have him ruin his high school life taking 27 AP classes and SAT classes all in the hopes of getting into Tech, which might still not happen. I suspect he will graduate with a 5.0, a 1400 SAT, have about 6-8 AP classes under his belt, be in the top 5% of his class, and not get in. And that's okay if it happens. There are tons of other great schools in this country and when Tech has gotten as difficult to get into as it is, we all can't say in unison our kid deserves to get in.

 

[gtg391z]

Spending money and hours taking old tests is called studying but there is no way to know that when reading their scores anyway. You have to judge them based on those scores unless GT wants to give their own test. My point is only that the criteria needs to be completely open and should have nothing to do with race and gender. The standard, whatever that is, needs to be the same for everybody.

 

[LibertyTurns]

Spending money and hours taking old tests is called studying but there is no way to know that when reading their scores anyway. You have to judge them based on those scores unless GT wants to give their own test. My point is only that the criteria needs to be completely open and should have nothing to do with race and gender. The standard, whatever that is, needs to be the same for everybody.

Don’t let the Liberals see you write stuff like this. You’ll get labels.

 

[yrp]

Spending money and hours taking old tests is called studying but there is no way to know that when reading their scores anyway. You have to judge them based on those scores unless GT wants to give their own test. My point is only that the criteria needs to be completely open and should have nothing to do with race and gender. The standard, whatever that is, needs to be the same for everybody.

If the standard should be the same for everyone, then the starting line should be the same for everyone.

Unfortunately it is not

 

[LibertyTurns]

If the standard should be the same for everyone, then the starting line should be the same for everyone.

Unfortunately it is not

That’s a pretty racist statement. You want to eliminate those “below the line” & purify the racial stock to achieve parity?

 

[yrp]

That’s a pretty racist statement. You want to eliminate those “below the line” & purify the racial stock to achieve parity?

How old are you?

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

I don't care about criticism of admissions when it is based on facts. Do you like people opining that they know all about your job when in fact they have no idea? There are a lot of people who think they know what is going on with admissions who have no clue. Admissions is a historically close to the vest business. This leads to a lot of speculation about what is really going on, much of it wrong, this forum is an example. There are some valid points to be sure, many have been raised here, that were not raised by the writer in the original post from the column, which was just a bunch of sour grapes.

Fair points. This is also an example of where better transparency can help overcome such misperceptions. That doesn’t seem to be wholeheartedly embraced by some schools admissions departments though.

 

[LibertyTurns]

How old are you?

Sorry thought you were older and would understand the history.

There was a regime in the 30’s, 1930’s that is, that believed that they should purify the racial mixture of their nation so that they would have a homogeneous population. The lack of diversity, everyone having a consistent and similar “starting point” as you advocate apparently couple being bred to the highest standards (you certainly did not imply this) would result in not only a highly content population but would transform into a dominating power on the back of their master race.

America is the land of opportunity which leads to better outcomes as a nation. Nobody is guaranteed an outcome. Our diversity, people coming together from all walks of life- rich, poor, advantaged, disadvantaged, etc and from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds weaves us a fabric superior to all other nations. Many seem to have forgotten that.

It’s why when you look at the demographics of the rich, it’s rare that you have a family spanning more than 4 generations maintain its wealth and status. They are replaced by newly rich and the old money loses their stature. 70% of families lose their wealth by the second generation, 90% by the third.

You can population engineer all you want and affix whatever label to that you want, but the basic premise is very unsavory. Provide opportunities and let people flourish for themselves or not depending on whether they really want to. Try to give it to them and it will never happen.

 

[forensicbuzz]

this is kind of silly. Any legacy is guaranteed admission to Tech if they really want to go there. They might not get in as a freshman, but they're guaranteed admission as a sophomore if they get 30 credit hours from an accredited school with a gpa of 3.3 or higher. Going to a CC, that's a pretty low bar to meet. Yes, you have to freshman somewhere else, but what's more important, your first year in college or your final year in college?