CalTech adds REA (replacing prior EA), extends test blind policy for 2 years

hebegebe
Fri, 24 Feb 2023 02:56:50 +0000

ColdWombat:

No, see, rich kids get higher test scores, and test scores measure how smart you are. So that means rich kids are just smarter! It’s easy.

Sigh.

People who understand statistics completely expect the correlation between income and test scores. And they understand the reason a positive correlation is expected to exist.

There are two reasons. First, it is because there is a correlation between a person’s income and their intelligence. Simply put, a higher intelligence allows the opportunity to seek higher paying jobs, and many (but certainly not all) take advantage of this opportunity. Second, intelligence is hereditary in the same way that height is. Given these two causal reasons, it is inevitable that test scores and income would be correlated.

Now, saying they are correlated does not mean that the entire correlation is due to parental intelligence and hereditary. Part of the test score result is due to the advantages that come with parental income, including good school systems, and parental encouragement.