Future of Ivy Admissions?

jeckert
Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:03:18 +0000

I think this is honestly very far off if even possible, but I’ve heard a lot of talk recently about moving universities online. It sounds very far-fetched, and it really clashes with what I’d call one of the the fundamental concepts of that highest echelon of higher education: selectivity. Stanford pioneered an open course program a few years ago in which people from anywhere could enroll in a class for free, work through the class with the on-campus students, take tests, and receive grades. It’s not unlike MIT’s OpenCourseWare program; however, it’s slightly more extensive in terms of how involved the online students can really be. Anyhow, the idea behind that format is to reach a point where most, if not all, courses at places like MIT and Stanford are available in a similar fashion online and online students can pursue majors and even earn degrees. For free. According to people like Sal Khan of KhanAcademy and Sebastian Thrun (who started Stanford’s program), that’s a step toward abolishing admissions as we know it. A radical, somewhat frightening idea. On the other hand, though, who doesn’t like KhanAcademy?