Most Unfair Rejection on CC?

[mathboy98]

<p>

It’s not ever student A or student B. It’s not choosing someone over someone else

</p>

<p>I already acknowledged this parenthetically, and that wasn’t the point of the example! </p>

<p>

There’s absolutely no reason or grounds on which to guess.

</p>

<p>Agreed, I never suggest guessing what made people get rejected – often a futile attempt. However, I have made many points about things I worry are emphasized in the application process, which don’t really do a good job of capturing what applicants are like.</p>

<p>

Never argued that that should be done. And like I said before, and I’ll say again, most of these applicants are ALL talented, all have potential, and one more award, AP, this that, whatever, isn’t what ‘proves’ they are inferior to another person.

</p>

<p>We are overall in agreement then, but really, not all applicants are at the same level.</p>

<p>

So the idea that this 40 point score difference, that award, or this EC makes one person talented and the other not talented doesn’t make sense.

</p>

<p>I don’t care about test scores and grades beyond a point. Remember, I am not supporting whining. I am saying there are trends in the admissions process which are dangerous, and do not make sense. This is not from the standpoint of being fair to students. It’s from the standpoint that I believe what is special about HYPMS is the wealth of things they offer, the top quality curricula, and such things – which, admittedly, are found in a few other places, but not altogether many actually. </p>

<p>

You say that they need to admit those who they ‘know’ are talented. They do. It’s not even a debate.

</p>

<p>

And yea those types of interviews would be great. I’m not saying college apps are perfect. I’m saying there is more to life and students and admissions than test scores

</p>

<p>What I am saying is that until measures like these interviews are conducted, we cannot know enough about someone to admit them for their talent without having certain measures. You don’t yourself believe that colleges “know” for sure what they’re doing, it seems, from the two statements you’ve made. On one hand you think AOs know what they’re doing; on another, you acknowledge the process isn’t perfect – all I mean is it’s farther from perfect than it has to be. And I don’t blame you for the ambivalence. Because I don’t think admissions officers know enough info either. AOs make their best estimates. All I’m saying is that until we start extensively interviewing candidates, and doing much, much more than we are now to find out about them, it’s very hard to detect talent in someone without their having done some things we can simply measure. This, and we can ask them to produce a statement of intent as to what they’ll do in college, and look for maturity. This is why I say we have to mainly resort to basic measures of talent. That means, for instance to a scientist, doing research, performing very well in high school, maybe winning a competition, writing a mature essay about academic interests they developed through their reading. No frivolous essay questions please! </p>

<p>There is too much guessing today, in my opinion; I’m not judging this by who got in and who got rejected, I’m judging this from the way the applications are structured, and what is said to be very important in them! And, what do you know, very surprising results happen all the time.</p>