<p>modestmelody:</p>
<p>I think it would be very good for prospective Brown University students to know that a BU graduate with a 3.8 GPA can pretty much get into any medical school in the country (especially if it’s true).</p>
<p>While that fact, in and of itself, doesn’t tell us whether any particular student will likely graduate from BU with a 3.8 GPA, it tells us a lot (in fact, it tells us precisely what many of us want to know) about those who do.</p>
<p>But BU undoubtedly also knows what kinds of applicants to BU likely will graduate from BU with a 3.8 GPA. Otherwise, either (i) BU is incredibly intellectually incurious, (ii) BU simply doesn’t want to know, or (iii) BU’s admissions process is a total and complete sham.</p>
<p>I am amused by claims that “anything that would suggest that either GPA or SAT scores are adequate predictors of outcomes post-college is guaranteed to disappoint anyone looking to that data as an indicator for their child” made by institutions that rely heavily on GPA and SAT scores. What you are claiming is, in so many words, “while GPA and SAT scores mean the world to us, they are meaningless to you as parents and students making decisions about your and your children’s futures.” No other argument could be more preposterous on its face.</p>
<p>You write that I really should ask “what does that college view as its goals for undergraduates and what examples exist from people who have recently graduated demonstrating having reached those goals.”</p>
<p>I don’t disagree. But neither BU nor many other schools are willing to disclose even those limited kinds of information. BU and other institutions that rely on GPA and SAT scores in admissions decisions cannot be allowed to argue out of one side of their mouths that such data is absolutely determinative in making admissions decisions, but argue that selfsame data is otherwise meaningless.</p>
<p>The fact is, the tools we have at our disposal are GPAs and SAT/ACT scores. It is a poor workman who blames his tools for inadequacy in his craftmanship.</p>
<p>Let me also make one other point absolutely clear: I am not at all concerned about rankings per se. A college that places no one in law school may well be an outstanding engineering school, an outstanding music school, or an outstanding some other kind of school. Similarly, a college that places 100% of its students in law school may be abysmal as an engineering, music, or whatever other kind of school. Rankings (such as USNWR’s) necessarily rank schools as an combination of all of that school’s programs.</p>
<p>Colleges and universities ought to be required to disclose outcome data that they use internally or can easily produce that would be critical to families making significant decisions about their children’s futures.</p>
<p>Even the staunchest libertarian would be comfortable with governmental mandates requiring colleges and universities to operate in the sunshine.</p>