Class of 2013 admit rate?

gonzo20
Thu, 09 Apr 2009 05:56:32 +0000

I’m not a big fan of the SAT either, as I think one’s grades in high school are a much better indication of how well they are likely to do in college. If an applicant with an underprivileged background gets a 1600 on the SAT, it shouldn’t mean that they should be automatically rejected. However, it really makes no sense if we accept this applicant while rejecting someone else who scores 2000+ (all other factors being equal except for socioeconomic status). You can’t say that just because the first applicant comes from a dysfunctional family or had a hard childhood, that they would have scored better had they been given more opportunities. When it comes down to it, a score is a score. It makes no sense whatsoever to favor someone who scores 400 points lower (which, for the SAT, is definitely not a trivial margin) based on some kind of “projection” that they would have done much better had they had more educational resources.

There’s always this implied stereotype that students from underprivileged backgrounds work harder to get into a college than students from well-to-do families or who are more “naturally smart”. In my experience, there’s absolutely no ounce of truth in this statement. Kids who are born with head-start in life, whether it’s socioeconomic status or better genes, are the ones who usually work the hardest, and also end up being the ones most likely to succeed. My peers in high school who had the highest GPA’s or SAT scores also usually happened to be the leaders in extracurricular activities, such as sports, music, and clubs. I don’t know too many people who had excellent extracurriculars but bad grades and test scores. These two sets of criteria are in no way mutually exclusive, and in fact I would say there’s a strong positive correlation between them.

Of course, there are a few who are good, and I mean really good, at one thing, such as an instrument, but happen to have poor academic abilities. For example, this one guy in my high school was really good at piano - he won several regional and state competitions, and almost even got into Juilliard, but he failed Algebra II/Trig two years in a row. And he failed the class twice not because he didn’t know the material; he simply just didn’t do any of the homework, but passed all the tests. I would probably admit a guy like this even if he got a 1400 on the SAT. But in this case, he really shouldn’t be applying to Berkeley in the first place; he should be applying to conservatories.