<p>Thanks to Hunt for opening the other thread that inspires this one. </p>
<p>To make sure the overall nonsystem of higher education in the United States presents clear, transparent choices to high school students applying to college, I propose that we set up one or more branches of G.P.A. University, a university that admits students solely and entirely on the basis of their high school grade averages. The admission policy of G.P.A. University will spare students the expense and loss of sleep on Saturday mornings of taking standardized college admission tests. It will give high school teachers the lead role in determining which high school students are admitted to G.P.A. University. </p>
<p>For administrative convenience, G.P.A. University will operate with a strict system of taking high school transcripts at face value. The high school teachers report what grade each student had in each class, and the high school administration decides what grade average the student has gained. Weighting of courses, rules about retaking courses, and what courses count for G.P.A. purposes are all high school issues, and G.P.A. University will have no policy on those issues. </p>
<p>The policy of G.P.A. university will ensure that students are rewarded for their long term effort in using any means necessary to gain a high G.P.A. No longer will counselors have to write up detailed letters about how one student's schedule of courses differs from another's. The G.P.A. University admission office will neither trouble teachers to submit letters of recommendation nor trouble students to submit descriptions of extracurricular activities or essays about the students' interests.</p>
<p>Any required or strongly suggested courses, or could a kid take underwater basketweaving, health, PE, band, choir, and basic drawing and be admitted with his/her perfect grades?</p>
<p>My guess is that every student from every school would end up with straight 'A's. Imagine that, you've solved college admissions AND NCLB at once!</p>
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My guess is that every student from every school would end up with straight 'A's.
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<p>As it is, half of the largely self-selected group of high school students who show up to take SAT tests self-report that they have straight-A averages.</p>
<p>I don't live in Texas, so I don't know if the top 10 percent rule for UT admission works in way suggested in this modest proposal, to take high school G.P.A.s at face value. I THINK (but please correct me if I'm wrong) that a somewhat similar "eligibility in local context" rule in California is based on a G.P.A. calculation defined by the University of California system, but I may not be aware of the rules of that state either.</p>
<p>That would be great. Let the 4.0 students who toe the line and march according to the rules go there. That would help cut down on the applications to the schools the truly best and brightest want to go to. It still wouldn't solve the problem of getting into the elite schools though as they would still be too smart to eliminate all those other factors.</p>
<p>In Texas, if you are in the top 10% of your HS class, you will be admitted to the UT of your choice. (UT Austin and Texas A&M are the ones people choose - UT had to admit about 85% of next year's class under the 10% rule.) Top 10 percent kids from poor rural schools or poor inner city schools end up in UT and 11th percentile kids with high SAT test scores from fancy suburban schools are told to be part of a special summer admissions program or told to go to another UT for a year and then transfer in. With each passing year, the UT admissions office has fewer slots left to use a "holistic review" on after the top 10 percent kids have all been admitted.</p>
<p>In California, if you are in the top 4% of your HS class, you will be admitted to one of the UC's. UC Merced is new and not highly competitive. My understanding is that the top 4 percent kids from poor rural schools or poor inner city schools end up told they have been accepted to Merced.</p>
<p>If the current trend continues, UT Austin will become G.P.A. University in a few more years.</p>
<p>Possibly the worst idea I've ever heard. Could only come from someone for whom the educational system catered to his or her type of intelligence.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The educational system is designed to equate intelligence with testing, even though for most that simply means regurgitation rather than true analytical and philosophical intelligence. Trust me. The system rewards memorization and punishes creative intelligence. The whole system would have to change in order for your idea to be effective.</p></li>
<li><p>What about the relative difficulty of schools? I went to an extremely competitive and difficult private high school. Is my GPA considered on par with someone from a cakewalk school?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Too, too many intangibles. It's bad enough how much people obsess over the SAT scores as if they reflect intelligence. This would just amp that up even higher. We need to rethink what intelligence really is before we do something like this. </p>
<p>Or, perhaps you were just joking. I can't tell.</p>
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If the current trend continues, UT Austin will become G.P.A. University in a few more years.
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<p>Am I to take that to mean that UT does not distinguish among the different kinds of classes that high school students can take as the high school students gain their G.P.A.s? I'm quite unfamiliar with the admission process at the UT campuses.</p>
<p>I am from Texas. I went to a private, highly competitive private school, graduating class of about 90 with average SAT score of >1300(V&M), did not rank students. Very few graduates go to UT as the classes are nearly filled with the '10 per centers'-even those with scores hundreds of points less on SAT etc.. Kids get into Harvard and Yale but not UT-Austin under the crazy policy. I was happy to go out of state to college. Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.</p>
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In Texas, each HS uses its own system to declare who the to 10% are. All of the high schools weight or don't weight classes as they prefer.
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<p>Good. Then G.P.A. University can point to established precedent as a basis for its enlightened policies.</p>
<p>Yes, tokenadult, the Texas state legislature accidentally created the school you thought you were inventing with your lampoon.</p>
<p>My cousin lives in Texas and he tells me that this is the 10% automatic admission rule only issue the rural congressmen and the inner city congressmen agree on; it helps students in their districts.</p>
<p>I like the idea of making UT more diverse, racially, ethnically, and economically, but allowing 10% of every HS in Texas to enroll in UT is filling UT to the brim. The university is enriched by international students, out of state students, and really smart Texas students whose schools don't rank or who missed the 10% mark at their schools, and fewer students from these groups are allowed entrance each year.</p>
<p>I think allowing, say, the top 5% of every HS in Texas to be automatically admitted to UT would be enough to enhance diversity and provide opportunities to disadvantaged students.</p>