Record number of colleges drop SAT/ACT admissions requirement
washingtonpost.com
Record number of colleges drop SAT/ACT admissions requirement
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Re: Record number of colleges drop SAT/ACT admissions requirement
#2It makes sense.
To uphold the value of their degrees, elite institutions are more interested in selecting for real-life performance rather than paperwork-wizards. For some fields--like mathematics--I'm sure those things track closely. For other fields, not so much. Throwing the standardized tests away will probably spare them from a great deal of admissions apologetics.
For less prestigious institutions, they like money--as evidenced by how low their ACT/SAT admission cutoffs already are. This move is great for plausible deniability when admitting illiterates for cash and prizes.
edit: would add that Gates and Zuckerberg are prime examples of pre-selecting performance rather than creating it
Re: Record number of colleges drop SAT/ACT admissions requirement
#3It makes sense. To uphold the value of their degrees, elite institutions are more interested in selecting for real-life performance rather than paperwork-wizards. For some fields--like mathematics--I'm sure those things track closely. For other fields, not so much. Throwing the standardized tests away will probably spare them from a great deal of admissions apologetics. For less prestigious institutions, they like mo…
[deleted]
Re: Record number of colleges drop SAT/ACT admissions requirement
#4The GRE is increasingly being dropped as well. The motivation is racial diversity.
For example at Brown: https://www.brown.edu/news/2019-10-03/gre
The GRE is no longer needed for...
American Studies
Biotechnology
Biomedical Engineering
Chemistry
Comparative Literature
Computational Biology
Computer Science
Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
English
French Studies
German Studies
Hispanic Studies
Italian Studies
Mathematics
Modern Culture and Media
Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry
Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology
Neuroscience
Pathobiology
Portuguese and Brazilian Studies
Religious Studies
Slavic Studies
Theatre and Performance Studies
Re: Record number of colleges drop SAT/ACT admissions requirement
#5Common sense should tell us that standardized tests like this are not fair assessments of actual student academic potential. To the extent these tests predict success in college, it's only because they are biased in the same ways that most college support structures are biased. And once the "predictive" tests are in place and accepted, they form a reinforcement loop with college results, each proving the other "right".
But as our society has come to realize how deeply ingrained many systemic biases are in our institutions, in order to break the cycle, you can't just change the support structures at the college, but you have to change the external barriers that have grown up over the years in support of that old system as well. And these standardized tests are a huge part of that. So I'm glad to see this is changing.
Re: Record number of colleges drop SAT/ACT admissions requirement
#6Common sense should tell us that standardized tests like this are not fair assessments of actual student academic potential. To the extent these tests predict success in college, it's only because they are biased in the same ways that most college support structures are biased. And once the "predictive" tests are in place and accepted, they form a reinforcement loop with college results, each proving the other "right…
Do you know Goodhart's law? It explains so much ...
"When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure"
Re: Record number of colleges drop SAT/ACT admissions requirement
#7This is because they want to enroll people too stupid to solve basic math problems.
Re: Record number of colleges drop SAT/ACT admissions requirement
#8Common sense should tell us that standardized tests like this are not fair assessments of actual student academic potential. To the extent these tests predict success in college, it's only because they are biased in the same ways that most college support structures are biased. And once the "predictive" tests are in place and accepted, they form a reinforcement loop with college results, each proving the other "right…
> Common sense should tell us that standardized tests like this are not fair assessments of actual student academic potential.
Common sense should tell you no such thing!
Why wouldn't a test that measures a list of aptitudes (writing, comprehension, logic, math, etc.) not correlate to some extent to academic success in a liberal arts degree?
Literally the classes you have to take are related to writing, comprehension, logic, math, etc!
> most college support structures are biased
I am not even sure what this is getting at!
If you are arguing that most of our colleges should not be centered on liberal arts, then the alternative is centered on professional or technical degrees ... which, in most cases, lean even more heavily on math, logic, writing, and comprehension!
Many universities have decided that they value diversity (ever how they define that) higher than or equal to pure academic results. And that is fine for them to make that choice, but it is silly to say that, "... common sense should tell you that there is no correlation between people that are good at lots of things and those same people being good at lots of things in college."
Re: Record number of colleges drop SAT/ACT admissions requirement
#9Next: no grades needed to get BS, MA, PhD. and no attendance necessary. After all some groups are at a disadvantage and they will not be able to attend the classes.. While we're at it - why don't we have The Degree Lottery (tm), or better yet, give degrees right after conception.
Re: Record number of colleges drop SAT/ACT admissions requirement
#10Common sense should tell us that standardized tests like this are not fair assessments of actual student academic potential. To the extent these tests predict success in college, it's only because they are biased in the same ways that most college support structures are biased. And once the "predictive" tests are in place and accepted, they form a reinforcement loop with college results, each proving the other "right…
"But as our society has come to realize how deeply ingrained many systemic biases"
Look. If you want to go to an Ivy school just pay off the administrators, proctors and teachers like everyone else.