Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

MIT suspending SAT/ACT requirement for next application cycle

mitadmissions.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 220 posts

Re: MIT suspending SAT/ACT requirement for next application cycle

#11

Post by krapht »

chrisseaton wrote: post #2

Seems like at the moment high-school students in the US have to do two sets of exams - their normal high-school graduation exams, and also the SAT or ACT. Is that right? Why don't they use the results from one for the other? Use SAT for high-school graduation, or use high-school graduation results for university admission.

Most students do not have a normal high-school graduation exam. Neither is there a national US school curriculum. Therefore, it is difficult to compare GPAs between students from different school systems.

The SAT is also a thinly disguised IQ test, so it serves a different purpose anyway compared to high school grade records.

A lot of people have strong feelings against the SAT, but I actually think it's somewhat egalitarian. Before the SAT, prestigious colleges would only recruit from well-known feeder high schools whose curriculum was known to be rigorous. Since there is no unifying national curriculum, something like it is necessary so students from worse high-schools have a shot at getting into the nicer universities.

Re: MIT suspending SAT/ACT requirement for next application cycle

#13

Post by porb121 »

> we do expect to return to requiring the SAT/ACT once it is possible for everyone to take them safely

Fine with this being temporary. Much less fine with the schools who have completely abandoned the SAT/ACT in the name of equality while still considering things like personal essays and extracurriculars, which are way more liable to be gamed by the wealthy than the SAT.

Re: MIT suspending SAT/ACT requirement for next application cycle

#14

Post by thaumasiotes »

mattnewton wrote: post #9
chrisseaton wrote: post #2

Seems like at the moment high-school students in the US have to do two sets of exams - their normal high-school graduation exams, and also the SAT or ACT. Is that right? Why don't they use the results from one for the other? Use SAT for high-school graduation, or use high-school graduation results for university admission.

High schools typically do not have graduation exams in the sense that there are standard exams that are required for your degree. It depends on the state; some states may have standardized tests, some may have much looser requirements. The standards for graduation across schools are massively different and the SAT/ACT is a private “solution” to the problem of measuring students across regions, for college admissions.

> High schools typically do not have graduation exams in the sense that there are standard exams that are required for your degree.

Nor do other schools...?

Re: MIT suspending SAT/ACT requirement for next application cycle

#15

Post by bullfightonmars »

chrisseaton wrote: post #2

Seems like at the moment high-school students in the US have to do two sets of exams - their normal high-school graduation exams, and also the SAT or ACT. Is that right? Why don't they use the results from one for the other? Use SAT for high-school graduation, or use high-school graduation results for university admission.

US students don't have graduation exams per-se, there are no standardized tests for graduating.

The final exams High School seniors take are dependent on the curriculum they have chosen and are written/defined by their teachers. The outcome of these tests is reflected in the student's course grades and is reflected in their GPA (Grade Point Average) for their entire High School career.

The SAT or ACT are only used for College/University applications.

Re: MIT suspending SAT/ACT requirement for next application cycle

#16

Post by refraincomment »

Google234 wrote: post #6

This will definitely help make it easier for admissions to discriminate against Asian students.

From a business perspective it must be more lucrative to select candidates by their cultural projection and the money connections than on the basis of academic potential.

I suppose that is true for MIT, for mainstream media, and for US corporations.

Re: MIT suspending SAT/ACT requirement for next application cycle

#18

Post by gkolli »

chrisseaton wrote: post #2

Seems like at the moment high-school students in the US have to do two sets of exams - their normal high-school graduation exams, and also the SAT or ACT. Is that right? Why don't they use the results from one for the other? Use SAT for high-school graduation, or use high-school graduation results for university admission.

note: graduated in 2018 at a public high school in California

we didn't have any "graduation exams" as many other countries do - just needed to pass the required courses to gain the high school diploma. Our state testing exams were mainly to address progress, as the Exit Exam was suspended in 2015.

Even if we had these graduation exams, they also may vary depending on school, district, and state.

Re: MIT suspending SAT/ACT requirement for next application cycle

#19

Post by [deleted] »

chrisseaton wrote: post #2

Seems like at the moment high-school students in the US have to do two sets of exams - their normal high-school graduation exams, and also the SAT or ACT. Is that right? Why don't they use the results from one for the other? Use SAT for high-school graduation, or use high-school graduation results for university admission.

[deleted]

Re: MIT suspending SAT/ACT requirement for next application cycle

#20

Post by easton »

chrisseaton wrote: post #2

Seems like at the moment high-school students in the US have to do two sets of exams - their normal high-school graduation exams, and also the SAT or ACT. Is that right? Why don't they use the results from one for the other? Use SAT for high-school graduation, or use high-school graduation results for university admission.

High schools vary wildly in how rigorous they are, one high school you could get a 4.0 by taking four years of underwater basket weaving, another school you could get a 3.4 because you took AP Calculus/Bio/Physics your senior year and they were tough. Not to mention that sometimes your school weighs your GPA differently and that makes those numbers not make sense.

The SAT is administered by a private "not-for-profit" corporation (College Board) and doesn't test anything like history or science that most schools try to teach kids (well, probably all schools have a requirement). And every time someone wants to put together a national test as a replacement, it gets shot down (sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for not good reasons).

I did AP all four years of high school because I found the normal classes too boring, and my GPA probably would've been higher if I hadn't, but I got into college.

Post reply on HN