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Record number of colleges drop SAT/ACT admissions requirement

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Record number of colleges drop SAT/ACT admissions requirement

#151

Post by sct202 »

thatfrenchguy wrote: post #64
TomVDB wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The SAT and ACT are a fantastic detector to identify rich and motivated parents who are willing to drop off their kid for 2 years at cramming centers for weekly tutoring sessions and trial tests... and who are willing to pay thousands for it. I’ve been there, his scores went up significantly. I don’t think it made him smarter in any way. Combine that with our ability to buy a house in a very good school district and…

> It’s all bullshit. And it's terrible for most upper (middle) kids because they end up thinking they're better than everyone else and that they deserve what they have.

It's easier for the upper class kids to pad their applications (and self-esteems) out with arts, sports, volunteering, and fundraising that a normal family couldn't afford.

Re: Record number of colleges drop SAT/ACT admissions requirement

#152

Post by so_tobeclear »

spicyusername wrote: post #21

No disagreement that there are fundamental elements of our socio-economic system that suppress certain groups of people, but this approach seems to be tackling this problem from an extremely misguided direction. The end goal is certainly to increase college enrollment among groups who have historically been underrepresented, and removing all academic and skill prerequisites from academic and skilled trades programs w…

This guy gets it

I would add to what you have stated that there's now a great deal of pressure for universities to continue to grow and increase profits. With enrollment beginning to slow it's rapid uptick of the last decade due to reduced unemployment, Universities are looking for the next bump.

Re: Record number of colleges drop SAT/ACT admissions requirement

#153

Post by thaumasiotes »

geitir wrote: post #149
freetime2 wrote: post #75

As someone who dealt with severe depression during high school, I feel like the SATs really helped me out during college admissions time. Just getting out of bed every day was a real struggle for me and as a result my attendance was poor, my grades were spotty, and I didn’t have any formal extra curriculars I could show off. But I did get the highest SAT scores in my class, and I feel like that helped demonstrate tha…

I completely agree with this. Also, I feel like scandals always come out where certain high schools were inflating grades to reach funding goals, etc. It might even come to the point where admissions office take into account the high school you attended to calculate an effective grade which given a lack of standardized tests might very well lead to an even larger admissions gap based on wealth

> It might even come to the point where admissions office take into account the high school you attended to calculate an effective grade

"Might even come to the point"? They do this now. They've been doing it for many, many years.

Re: Record number of colleges drop SAT/ACT admissions requirement

#154

Post by luord »

> Vice [...] said "we don't need any more studies."

That's not shocking given who said it, but it makes it seem as if their support of the initiative is rooted on anti-intellectualism.

My family was basically homeless when I was young, the only reason I could get access to quality higher education was the standardized tests we have here.

I'd like to see the data that one college used to decide that there hadn't been any academic impact between students who submitted tests and those who didn't.

Re: Record number of colleges drop SAT/ACT admissions requirement

#155

Post by privateSFacct »

Aperocky wrote: post #143
privateSFacct wrote: post #123

As someone doing hiring we have begun doing a very basic screening exam - quick writing sample, some basic (EXTREMELY basic) applied work - 1st year college quality is fine. We have folks with degrees who can barely string together the most basic concepts (literally out of the intro to X course) in their field. I'm seriously curious how this is even possible. Yes - some are from degree mill places - but even those ha…

Sounds like fizz buzz.

I learned something new today - "FizzBuzz" is a basic programming task used for screening.

We do stuff easier than this as a screen, but same idea, yes. We've now done half as multiple choice to speed it up.

It usually takes 3 - 10 minutes range for most folks - so really light weight.

Re: Record number of colleges drop SAT/ACT admissions requirement

#156

Post by heavenlyblue »

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #79
xyzzyz wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve also learned a lot in my degrees, and greatly enjoyed my time in the university. However, I’ve only ever needed a tiny fraction of what I learned there in my jobs at Google and Facebook.

> " However, I’ve only ever needed a tiny fraction of what I learned there in my jobs at Google and Facebook. " That's interesting. What did you do at those positions? I was at a different FAANG and used the hell out what I learned at university. RF knowledge, embedded systems, creating physics simulations, and a bunch of other stuff. Hell, I wish I'd learned more; some DSP knowledge would be hella handy right about…

What do you do there, exactly? Are you building hardware, or are you implying those skills were somehow transferable to software development?

Re: Record number of colleges drop SAT/ACT admissions requirement

#157

Post by alpineidyll3 »

dragonwriter wrote: post #61
alpineidyll3 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Colleges are in the business of marketing prestige, why lend credibility to a test anyone can take to prove they are intelligent without paying to attend for four years. Ex professor here. Faculty have the power to end this bezzle if we admit students are learning nothing and we'd all be better off with real jobs.

> Ex professor here. Faculty have the power to end this bezzle if we admit students are learning nothing and we'd all be better off with real jobs. I learned quite a lot in most of my classes in college; if your students weren't maybe that's not an indictment of the education system so much as their particular institution & instructors.

Motivated individuals can learn tons in Universities. I certainly did. The average student is wasting their time and furthering inequality. This is true at Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley etc.

Re: Record number of colleges drop SAT/ACT admissions requirement

#158

Post by bsanr2 »

tnecniv wrote: post #106
bsanr2 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>For people who want to go to college purely for rigorous academic study with the brightest young academic minds, this is going to be a shift. Will it? The academic cheating scandal and what we know about legacy admission tells us that many prestigious colleges very decidedly don't put pure academic rigor above all else. I've heard tell that getting into Harvard and surviving its social scene is harder than actually…

You might not fail out of a lot of big name schools that like to keep their graduation rate high, but you'll come out with a boatload of C's. You may have a degree, but that's not a great outcome, and why go to school for four years if you aren't learning effectively? I know that people say that it's a networking opportunity, but most of my friends that got good jobs they were happy with out of college were the ones…

Because the networking thing is real, and often supercedes one's grades or demonstrated competence in a job market based primarily on networking.

Re: Record number of colleges drop SAT/ACT admissions requirement

#159

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

heavenlyblue wrote: post #156
ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> " However, I’ve only ever needed a tiny fraction of what I learned there in my jobs at Google and Facebook. " That's interesting. What did you do at those positions? I was at a different FAANG and used the hell out what I learned at university. RF knowledge, embedded systems, creating physics simulations, and a bunch of other stuff. Hell, I wish I'd learned more; some DSP knowledge would be hella handy right about…

What do you do there, exactly? Are you building hardware, or are you implying those skills were somehow transferable to software development?

I work on the software side but have had a lot of jobs that dealt with interfacing with hardware and sensors.
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