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Top colleges should select randomly from a pool of ‘good enough’ (2005)

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Re: Top colleges should select randomly from a pool of ‘good enough’ (2005)

#291
post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If rank was the only factor, that’s a bad choice considering you can fairly easily make that same rank in less time by simply enlisting.

Community college is a lot more pleasant than military sevice.

Sure, but the statement seemed to allude that the incentive was gaining rank, not taking the easiest route.

>You can do 2 years of community college and enter a couple of ranks higher.

Point being, if your goal is to maximize rank the fastest, it doesn't make sense to go to community college for two years. If two people consider enlisting at the same time but one defers to community college, that deferment will likely mean they are lower rank/seniority than the person who joined without any additional school.[1] Both will still have the same enlistment term, but the non-deferring person would be considered senior because they also have more time in service and time in grade.

If the intent is to go to school to qualify for a commission, that's a different matter.

[1] e.g., Person1 joins immediately, Person2 joins two years after community college. Person1 is at least an E3 in most cases and likely and E4 (rare cases E5) plus two years time in service and more time in grade when Person2 joins. Person2 comes in at an E3 with zero days time in service/time in grade. (Time in service/grade are applicable to gaining the next rank on a scoring system). Meaning Person1 is more competitive for the next rank, with all other things equal

Re: Top colleges should select randomly from a pool of ‘good enough’ (2005)

#293
post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If rank was the only factor, that’s a bad choice considering you can fairly easily make that same rank in less time by simply enlisting.

Community college is a lot more pleasant than military sevice.

The most 'pleasant' option is sitting at home and doing nothing. Most people aren't optimising for 'pleasant'.

Re: Top colleges should select randomly from a pool of ‘good enough’ (2005)

#295
post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there good evidence this makes a difference in the outcome of their children?

https://opportunityatlas.org/

This is interesting but I'm not sure it supports that moving to affluent areas will help scholastic achievement.

For example, looking at the "median household income" feature, it doesn't seem to correlate well with "fraction of college graduates".

Re: Top colleges should select randomly from a pool of ‘good enough’ (2005)

#296
post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, and all the programs I referred to are also guaranteed promotion after Basic as well. But you'll still be an E-1 in Basic and so if you are looking at some outstanding scores on something posted for E-1s in Basic, well, it's possible those E-1s are people who enlisted with a guarantee of higher grade on successful completion of Basic, not starting at the bottom except insofar as everyone enlisting starts at th…

It's potentially different for each branch, but the Navy advertises higher rank prior to completion of basic: "The Navy provides opportunities for you to advance to pay-grades E-2 or E-3 while you wait to leave for boot camp. "[1] My limited understanding is you are paid the higher rank salary while in training but cannot wear the rank until graduation. [1] https://www.navycs.com/navy-advanced-paygrade.html

TIL:

Apparently the navy considers scouting to be roughly equivalent to an AA.

"Scouting Provide evidence of successful completion of Eagle Scout or the Girl Scout Gold Award requirements and you are entitled to be enlisted in pay-grade E-3."

Re: Top colleges should select randomly from a pool of ‘good enough’ (2005)

#297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't think parents make decisions based on what they believed to be in their child's best interest?

If they can’t afford to, they don’t. Welcome to America. Most working people here simply don’t have this kind of flexibility.

I'm not sure why this is getting downvoted... it's true. If you can't afford to move, you don't.

Re: Top colleges should select randomly from a pool of ‘good enough’ (2005)

#298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The AMA doesn't restrict the number of people in medical school, you're thinking of residency slots, and they don't restrict that either. They're in favor of expanding the number of residencies available since everyone knows there is a shortage of doctors. The restriction comes from funding since it's all Federal dollars to pay for the training. https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-bui... Congress…

Why do federal dollars pay for all the training?

It's extremely expensive to pay to train residents, so somebody needs to pay for it.. We incentivize 'teaching hospitals' to use their most expensive and valuable employees spending time as mentors to train the next generation of physicians by paying those hospitals to host residents.

Re: Top colleges should select randomly from a pool of ‘good enough’ (2005)

#299
It's not mentioned in the article, but one benefit of this approach would be as an A/B test to see which group was more successful in life - the successful applicants or the rejects. This would allow the college to see exactly how much value they are providing.

Re: Top colleges should select randomly from a pool of ‘good enough’ (2005)

#300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both my undergrad uni, and the university I am teaching at, in Pakistan, have an outreach program, where they find ~50 excellent students from the poorest sections of society, and give them a full ride (tuition + living expenses). Some of these students would not even have gone to any uni, let alone to some of the best unis in the countries. Based on my non-statistical observational view, these programs are insanely…

fellow paki, which uni is this?

LUMS and Habib Uni
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