UC slams the door on standardized admissions tests, nixing any SAT alternative • Hacker News Board

Re: UC slams the door on standardized admissions tests, nixing any SAT alternative

#31

Post by rahimnathwani » Sat, Nov 20, 2021, 5:09 AM UTC

lokar wrote: post #27

I feel like a good middle ground would be to use the SAT or alternative as a threshold for consideration, but not for ranking. I could believe that there could be a good evidence based cut off (perhaps with other quantitative measures) to answer "does this student meet the basic requirements" much more so then "will a student who scored 50 points higher do well after 4 years of study"

According to the College Board, which administes the SAT, the basic requirements cutoff is 530 for math, and 480 for English, i.e. total SAT score of 1010 out of 1600.

The mean score for people attending UC Berkeley is 1415 out of 1600.

If the UC admissions office were to use a threshold, it would have to be low enough that they don't get more Asians than they want. That threshold might end up being as low as 1010.

Re: UC slams the door on standardized admissions tests, nixing any SAT alternative

#32

Post by userbinator » Sat, Nov 20, 2021, 5:10 AM UTC

tomatofarmer wrote: post #10

This is a positive development. We need to minimize the extent to which people are exposed to math (which quite obviously reeks of white supremacy, according to like everyone I know including the Gates Foundation) [1] https://www.newsweek.com/math-suffers-white-supremacy-accord... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29273406

Asians are considered white now? Because apparently they consistently come out on top in maths testing.

China must be laughing like crazy while the US slowly destroys itself in a blaze of wokeism.

Re: UC slams the door on standardized admissions tests, nixing any SAT alternative

#33

Post by 0des » Sat, Nov 20, 2021, 5:11 AM UTC

akomtu wrote: post #13

tomatofarmer wrote: post #10

This is a positive development. We need to minimize the extent to which people are exposed to math (which quite obviously reeks of white supremacy, according to like everyone I know including the Gates Foundation) [1] https://www.newsweek.com/math-suffers-white-supremacy-accord... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29273406

The problem with math is its cornerstone concept of "one truth" that can be objectively proven based on other absolute truths. This one dogmatic truth, created by whites (here I'm spitting on the floor), completely disregards personal experiences and the fact that some people may want to see the truth differently. On a serious note, I remember the day a math professor explained the concept of "proof" to me, that was…

> his one dogmatic truth, created by whites

You mean Arabs. Arabic numerals are the basis for these numbers we see today.

Re: UC slams the door on standardized admissions tests, nixing any SAT alternative

#34

Post by anonuser123456 » Sat, Nov 20, 2021, 5:12 AM UTC

temp8964 wrote: post #29

I found what is funny / pathetic about this is that there are tons of psychology / education / especially educational measurement top experts in the UC system, and they know how wrong it is, while they just keep mouth shut. The whole anti-standard-testing movement is pushed by ideology leftists and corrupted bureaucrats, but the supposed experts just quietly watch the world burn. Lol. Update: I found experts in the U…

I have a friend that’s a CSU faculty member in science/engineering. The amount of ideological crap coming down the pipeline is shocking to him… and he’s a pretty liberal guy. But he has a mortgage to pay and dealing with protesting students doesn’t really interest him. He became a professor because he liked teaching, not to become a target.

Re: UC slams the door on standardized admissions tests, nixing any SAT alternative

#35

Post by WalterBright » Sat, Nov 20, 2021, 5:13 AM UTC

xyzzy21 wrote: post #2

UC schools have already become dubious - the entitlement of grads, the actual LACK of skills, not remotely "hungry" enough to have any grit or motivation, etc. My father (an engineering manager) always said: "If you want GOOD employees, you never want to hire from UCB, Stanford, Cal Tech, etc. The best engineers in California come from Cal Poly SLO and Cal Poly Pomona. They are actually trained as engineers". This is…

> If you want GOOD employees, you never want to hire from UCB, Stanford, Cal Tech, etc.

HAhahahahahaaaa (Caltech grad here. BTW, anyone who spells it Cal Tech knows next to nothing about Caltech.)

Re: UC slams the door on standardized admissions tests, nixing any SAT alternative

#36

Post by josephcsible » Sat, Nov 20, 2021, 5:15 AM UTC

Doesn't this make the admissions process less fair, more arbitrary, and more susceptible to biases?

Re: UC slams the door on standardized admissions tests, nixing any SAT alternative

#37

Post by siruncledrew » Sat, Nov 20, 2021, 5:16 AM UTC

Are there any reasons why a private or public university wouldn’t want to maximize the number of tuition paying students?

I’m just wondering because why not just admit as many people as you could for various price tiers of: in-person, hybrid, and online education. So in that sense, as long as money wants to come in, why reject anyone other than to fake exclusivity?

Re: UC slams the door on standardized admissions tests, nixing any SAT alternative

#38

Post by anonuser123456 » Sat, Nov 20, 2021, 5:25 AM UTC

I for one welcome the UC systems choice to erode the signaling value of their degree. Hopefully more universities adopt this approach. Employers may in turn value said degrees less and eventually maybe we can burn down all of higher ed.

Re: UC slams the door on standardized admissions tests, nixing any SAT alternative

#39

Post by b9a2cab5 » Sat, Nov 20, 2021, 5:26 AM UTC

toast0 wrote: post #22

everybodyknows wrote: post #7

Wonderfully empowering for the admissions administrators! Schools will be needing to keep on a lot of low-level staff: >record-breaking number of freshman applications for fall 2021 — more than 200,000 >evaluate the flood of applications without test scores, using 13 other factors And will be able to produce whatever demographics are demanded by the politics of the moment: https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu…

What's the play? College prep K-8, then move to Fresno for 9-12 so you can be in top 9%?

More likely, hire private tutors while you go to a Title 1 school in Santa Ana or some other impoverished area, then mark yourself as part-Native American and non-binary on your college application. If you can't afford private tutors, well, guess you had the bad luck to be born Asian.

Re: UC slams the door on standardized admissions tests, nixing any SAT alternative

#40

Post by WalterBright » Sat, Nov 20, 2021, 5:30 AM UTC

From their criteria page:

https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/fres...

"Special talents, achievements and awards in a particular field, such as visual and performing arts, communication or athletic endeavors; special skills, such as demonstrated written and oral proficiency in other languages; special interests, such as intensive study and exploration of other cultures; experiences that demonstrate unusual promise for leadership, such as significant community service or significant participation in student government; or other significant experiences or achievements that demonstrate the student's promise for contributing to the intellectual vitality of a campus."

Notably absent is achievement in any STEM field.