College Discussion - View Single Post - Another applicant rejected from all Ivies.

epiphany · 05-10-2008, 09:52 AM

The same can be said for hiring employees, and for voting for political candidates.

A college is admitting a person with multiple attributes, not a machine or a scantron. Clearly it's not possible to be assured of *accurate* evaluation of those multiple attributes, certainly not 100% of the time, anyway. Naturally there will be mistakes: just as in hiring employees, just as in electing political candidates who sound good and look good. And clearly from a statistical point of view, the larger an applicant pool within a predictably small time period, the greater likelihood of error.

It's one reason that some of us elsewhere on CC have suggested a match system, in which one of the benefits would be more opportunity to evaluate both for qualification and for 'fitness' for that institution.

If colleges wanted to admit test scores and grades, they could do so; they could be like certain Asian institutions. But they prefer to admit people.

Some of you are quite unrealistic.

05-10-2008, 09:52 AM	#393
epiphany Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Threads: 57 Posts: 3,294	"Too much subjectivity" The same can be said for hiring employees, and for voting for political candidates. A college is admitting a person with multiple attributes, not a machine or a scantron. Clearly it's not possible to be assured of accurate evaluation of those multiple attributes, certainly not 100% of the time, anyway. Naturally there will be mistakes: just as in hiring employees, just as in electing political candidates who sound good and look good. And clearly from a statistical point of view, the larger an applicant pool within a predictably small time period, the greater likelihood of error. It's one reason that some of us elsewhere on CC have suggested a match system, in which one of the benefits would be more opportunity to evaluate both for qualification and for 'fitness' for that institution. If colleges wanted to admit test scores and grades, they could do so; they could be like certain Asian institutions. But they prefer to admit people. Some of you are quite unrealistic.