<p>Inside Higher Ed article: "Lessons in Cynicism and Sales". LT of the EC to release themes of research culled from high school focus groups held to discuss reform of the college admissions process.</p>
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The study found that for some, the admissions process also was a lesson in humility, learning that they were not as unique as they had thought they were.</p>
<p>While Thacker said that his initial goal in releasing the research findings is to attract interest for a larger study, he thinks that there are clear conclusions from the findings. I think colleges need to look at their applications and evaluate whether the signals they are sending are contributing to behaviors that are not educationally desirable, Thacker said....
<p>(The EC is conducting pivotal research regarding the impact of college admission processes on student attitudes and behaviors: "What Students Learn: The Educational and Social Consequences of College Admissions")</p>
<p>Taking an SAT prep course as a SCHOOL course rather than taking a Shakespeare course? That’s idiocy, but I don’t think college admission processes should be blamed for that, especially because PSAT scores don’t play any role in college admission and ALL admission officers who speak to the public say that the best single thing a high school student can do to prepare to make a successful college application is take challenging courses in high school. </p>
<p>After edit: the link given by asteriskea leads a page on the Education Conservancy site which in turn has a dead link. Not much to look up there about the “research” project.</p>
<p>As faculty at a med school I have to ask why is unique, as opposed to prepared for college, the valued quality here? We don’t look for unique, we look for qualified- in all regards (personality as well as coursework and MCAT scores, recs). I’m sure law schools, vet schools, dental school, business school, etc, etc. do the same.</p>
<p>Tokenadult- I noticed the “dead link” on the EC site as well. Here is another link to the page that gives an overview of the “pivotal research”. Again, according to the EC site, results from the research focus groups will be presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for College Admission Counseling September 26-29 in Austin, TX.</p>
<p>Of course we see this sort of immature behavior here on CC, but we also see mature high school students with strength of their convictions, unwillingness to cheat, and genuine curiosity about challenging subjects. Colleges don’t have a PERFECT system for comparing applicants, but we all know which kind of applicants they prefer along that dimension. </p>
<p>The HUGE problem with any “study” conducted by the Education Conservancy is that its study design is inadequate for establishing causation. College admission practices, or at least rumors about college admission practices, are part of the environment of high school students, but high school curriculum design, academic advising, teaching, and discipline practices are a much bigger part of their environment. Maybe it would be good for more high school students to actually meet college admission officers </p>
<p>and ask those officers what makes sense for getting ready for a competitive college. MIT has an admission officer going around the country, saying, as he said in Minneapolis on the 15th of this month, “Many MIT students are solid B students who take the hardest classes they could,” which certainly suggests a different strategy for preparation for admission from shirking a Shakespeare course to take a PSAT prep course. </p>
<p>I don’t worry about this a lot. Anything Lloyd Thacker can do to help clueless high school students get a clue College Confidential can do faster.</p>
Being prepared for college is important, but more qualified students apply than there are spaces for these days. I guess we could just take the kids with the most AP/IB classes, highest GPAs, and best test scores and call it a day, but along with admitting qualified students, we’re charged with forming an interesting and eclectic class. Often times, the essays, teacher recs, and activity lists help with that.</p>
<p>Students don’t have to be completely unique, but being interesting and creative can help when so many great students are applying for a limited number of spaces in the class.</p>
<p>That depends on the grading standards of each high school. Not all high school students take “the hardest classes they could.” But, yes, I’m surprised more parents haven’t landed in the thread about college information sessions </p>
<p>Only 61% of those enrolled submitted class rank. Most of those not submitting class rank come from very competitive, usually private, schools where class rank doesn’t make much sense. e.g., > 10% are national merit scholars.</p>
<p>Agreed, but nearly all are included in the average GPA. You can’t have “many solid-B students” and keep 3.9 incoming class average unless everybody else has straight-A’s.</p>
<p>I don’t think that the solid-B kid from your typical competitive well-to-do private school has much chance of getting into MIT, with or without class rankings. Maybe they spout this “solid-B” line to cast a broad net looking for diversity candidates with potential. If so, that’s great. Maybe I’m wrong on my stats, but I don’t think it is ethical for MIT to encourage applications from HS kids who have zero chance.</p>
<p>Interesting comments posted on Inside Higher Ed include those by Peter Van Buskirk and Edward Hershey (whose pr firm represents Reed among other IHEs).</p>
<p>I am also very skeptical that MIT accepts many B students. Although, because of the impact of weighting, those B’s turn into 4.0’s for the sake of calculating GPA.</p>
<p>However, I could believe that many students who are at MIT are earning Bs. Could that be what the officer meant?</p>