Good luck all RD applicants!

[LunarMoon]

<p>

@Colene

No it isn’t. Just make that a requirement and most people would be satisfied.

Then, it would seem that we have nothing to debate about, outside of a few tangent points. I, however, am unconvinced that this is the view of most who have participated in thread, especially when people are still arguing that the average high school is more rigorous than the average community college.</p>

<p>

Rather, use common sense. It’s just absurd.

Common sense is most often the refuge of racist crackpots and religious zealots when science can’t back up their claims. No scientist in his right mind would rely on “common sense” to support a point. “Well, I believe that the Earth is flat because we’ve always thought that way. If it was round we’d fall off. That’s just common sense.” If you can’t reason through a point without it falling apart then that sets up some major alarm bells.</p>

<p>

Ccs do it because they simply don’t care, and most of the students don’t care either. When you get put with a bunch of apathetic kids and get put in a curriculum designed for those apathetic, it isn’t that hard to excel either.

</p>

<p>Have you ever heard of a [Peer</a> Effect](<a href=“http://www.nber.org/digest/apr01/w7867.html"]Peer”>Peer Effects in the Classroom | NBER)? It’s much harder to remain motivated in an environment filled with apathetic, lazy peers than it would be when surrounded by positive role models. And it’s not as if community colleges actually curve the grades, so that the students can pass either. More often the difficulty remains the same, and the vast majority of the class fails out. Just because it’s open admission doesn’t mean that everyone can handle college-level work.</p>

<p>

One of my friends is taking 5 higher level courses @ the local cc such as higher level math (Lin. alg) and he literally spends no time whatsoever doing work (he’s doing this as he waits for his school’s first semester to start), and now he has a 4.0. Our high school was very, very different.

</p>

<p>[Anecdotal</a> evidence](<a href=“http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-anecdotal-evidence-can-undermine-scientific-results"]Anecdotal”>http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-anecdotal-evidence-can-undermine-scientific-results) is the lowest form of data. Anecdotal evidence, gathered with a sample size of one quarter, is on a level of its own. I’ve had friends and acquaintances tell me that the classes that they took at a community college were more difficult then the ones at a university, after they transferred, so which one do you believe? The answer is neither of them, because some guy taking a three day vacation in Paris and telling us that all of the French stereotypes are true doesn’t count as evidence.</p>

<p>

I can say harry potter is absurd because it’s absurd. Can you disprove that we don’t live in a world with magic and wizards, and that all this happened but we were just magically made to not know about it? Can there be technologically advanced aliens on the moon watching our every move who are toying with our existence while hiding theirs? No, you can’t, because there is simply no way for you to disprove these statements without some convoluted methods that nobody on here is willing to go through in order to prove. Rather, use common sense. It’s just absurd.

</p>

<p>The claim that successful community college students are less capable than successful high school students is a claim that can be reasoned through and even assessed empirically. The existence of magic or of any deity cannot be. That is to say, that one presents a falsifiable hypothesis and the other doesn’t. Your claim has already been falsified empirically, and the question that we’re discussing has been tested numerous times. [This[/URL</a>] is why scientists and statisticians haven’t relied upon “common sense”, since The Enlightenment.</p>

<p>

If CC students with 3.9s are as academically qualified as say higher tier high school students with 3.9s (because they are where most 1st year cornell students come from), then how come nobody in the world acknowledges them for it? Is it a worldwide conspiracy? No, it’s just that you are thinking too much about it. CCs are at the bottom of the “academic food chain” and are simply known that way.

</p>

<p>That sounds like an [URL="<a href="http://philosophy.lander.edu/logic/popular.html"]Argumentum"&gt;http://philosophy.lander.edu/logic/popular.html"]Argumentum</a> Ad Populum](<a href=“http://www.jstor.org/pss/3784447"]This[/URL”>Academic Performance of Transfer versus "Native" Students in a Wildlife Bachelor of Science Program on JSTOR). Over-thinking or not, I don’t think I even need to point why this isn’t an effective method to assess the veracity of a claim or viewpoint. In regard to the statement about the origin of most first year Cornell students, I’m curious about the origin of that information. As far as I know, Cornell hasn’t published anything on the high schools from which their students originated from.</p>

<p>

@norcalguy

I don’t know where you got the 45% figure from as your first article implies that 60% of HS still rank their students. 60% is a lot better than 0% and the implication of the article is that it’s the top high schools who don’t rank. I agree with them that rankings are more important for lower tier high schools.

</p>

<p>To be honest, I had quoted from a Wikipedia article, which supposedly cited a now non-existent College Board page. But since I had cross-referenced it, and the figure matched up with everything else I had seen, that doesn’t particularly matter to me. The MNDaily listed a similar figure of [URL="<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost]40%[/URL</a>] and the second link I posted listed the collection of high school class rankings at [URL=”<a href="http://www.nassp.org/Content.aspx?topic=61042"]50%[/URL"&gt;http://www.nassp.org/Content.aspx?topic=61042"]50%[/URL</a>]. The question still remains as to what the admission board should do with such a staggering amount of high schools that don’t provide class rankings, especially when the trend is only increasing. I think it’s safe to say that 40-60% of high schools aren’t “elite”, so why wouldn’t the same methods be applied towards them, as are applied to community colleges?</p>

<p>

@Dan4980

So that just goes to show that hard work and determination can always outweigh adversity.

I feel like a jerk for calling this one out, but this statement is just too naive for words. Does anyone over 20 believe this? That’s a serious question, with no offense intended.</p>