<p>what would be the ONE and ONLY thing you could change?</p>
<p>get rid of affirmative action.. do the opposite.... get rid of legacy... care more about gpa and sat... etc..</p>
<p>i would just get rid of the one aspect of affirmative action of females > males and keep the rest in tact.</p>
<p>Remove legacy.</p>
<p>Limit the number of colleges that kids can apply to.</p>
<p>Score report fees. ...</p>
<p>Let me into my dream school...</p>
<p>Um...make my admission a part of the mission statement of every college.</p>
<p>come on guys i want more serious answers</p>
<p>I would definitely kick out legacy. Then kick Affirmative Action. Then possibly cut the teacher recommendation part of the app cause it is greatly affected by flawed human likeness and reasoning, often a benefit to an ass-kisser.</p>
<p>All the admission sites seem to say the same things: take the challenging courses, do well in those, show diverse interest in EC's etc.</p>
<p>If you are looking for oboe players this year, say so. Pull back the curtain and show the non-stat factors that affected admissions. Create a "chance me" where kids can enter stats, ec's, geographical, financial, etc. info, and compare themselves to similar applicants from previous years. If 50% of kids like you got in, that might encourage you to spend the $65 and take a shot. If they've admitted one kid who is similar to you in the last 10 years, maybe you'd rather spend the time and money to apply to a school where you have a better shot.</p>
<p>BTW, in terms of teacher recommendations... I'm a teacher, and a pretty good judge of the behavior mentioned in the last sentence in the post above. The hardest I've ever worked on a letter was for one young lady who had overcome some very serious personal issues (over which she had no control) and worked her tail off for the grades she got, NEVER using (legitimate) excuses for not pushing herself to the max. A truly great kid, who would work herself silly if given the opportunity at any university, SAT scores notwithstanding. I think (hope) those are the kinds of situations that the schools are looking for when they ask for recommendations. And frankly, if she had gotten in (I don't know where she ended up), even if someone "more" qualified in terms of SAT and GPA had not, I'd still applaud the wisdom of the adcom for admitting this student.</p>
<p>Serious answers:</p>
<p>You already have one: Post #2.<br>
In that regard, an EDI/EDII system for every college, combined with waiver of mandatory admission for strictly financial aid offer reasons IF the full f.a. application without changes has been submitted within those ED deadlines.</p>
<p>Contributing to that change, a maximum # of allowable applications set by all high schools. Further, school counselors could exercise more leadership in requiring a list not composed of "strictly top schools."</p>
<p>Contributing to that, a match system among consortia of colleges (academic leagues as opposed to athletic leagues). Some of us proposed this a couple of years ago on CC.</p>
<p>If you think that lowering the application numbers has less effect on your own admission than AA or legacy, you're fooling yourself. It has a huge effect on your personal chances. If nothing else, fewer applications allow your own application more visibility, thus more chance for a good read & a decent consideration.</p>
<p>id remove the section on the application that asks for EC's.</p>
<p>
[quote]
i would just get rid of the one aspect of affirmative action of females > males and keep the rest in tact.
[/quote]
I think you've got this backwards. On average, females are now better prepared for college than males. At least one school, Kenyon College, practices affirmative action for males in order to maintain some semblance of gender balance.</p>
<p>hmm... well there are twice as many male MIT applicants than female MIT applicants and the study body make up is about equal... and ive never heard of kenyon college. where is it?</p>
<p>I would reform standardized testing. Get rid of SAT, ACT, subject tests, AP tests, state tests, etc. I would make a single standardized test that would be taken at the end of every single course, and would serve as a final for that course. Your test scores at the end of every course you take would be used for admission. College credit would be given for high enough scores in college-level classes.</p>
<p>The amount of testing one has to do now is ridiculous. We take standardized tests for the state, for AP classes, for IB classes, finals in school, SAT and ACT for college admissions, and subject tests. All of this testing should be consolidated.</p>
<p>I want them to care less about GPA because GPA is different from each school and so many little things can affect it.. And more standardized testing</p>
<p>man this is getting really interesting</p>
<p>mom2three,
It wouldn't work. Not because they don't know if they need an oboe player,
or because that might over-encourage too many oboe players to apply, but because the college priorities change with the applications received. They may be able to anticipate what they hope to get next year, based on graduating seniors this year, but they do not know the other talents (not yet perceived as being "needed") which will not present themselves until the same admission round in which your S or D is applying. Suddenly the oboe player takes a back seat to Sarah Hughes (Yale) or Emily Hughes. Or to the S or D of a Tiger Woods or equivalent. Or to a child science prodigy about to be profiled in Newsweek or on 60 Minutes. Similarly for parallel talent which is less in the celebrity category. Or they'll accept merely an oboe player with slightly 'lower" stats from a high-density state, but also accept many high-stat kids from Montana, Idaho, and Tennessee, due to an unexpected surge of applications from there or take-your-pick State. (When there's a spike of apps from a particular region or State, the top-tier schools try to adjust for that & be inclusive.)</p>
<p>This is a real-time, fluid situation. No way to out-predict "chances." At minimum you can look at the history (esp. recent), and I don't mind agreeing with you on that account. (I obtain some of my own partial histories from CC Results reports, which can be quite comprehensive in such matters.)</p>
<p>That said, what I would prefer they do is concentrate on transparency in nonacademic aspects of campus life. Of course, the marketing people wouldn't like this idea (because they couldn't control it), but I think the colleges should do 2 things in that regard:</p>
<p>(1) Open up an ongoing blog about campus life, on their websites (a mini-CC), wherein current students & recent graduates can post & answer questions, submitting their student ID in the password login only. This would be a 'virtual visit' link, maybe in some cases including video & audio.</p>
<p>(2) Do more active sponsoring of earlier visits than hosting days, during the app process itself. For those needing funds for that, earmark future financial aid with such earlier visits, first extending the visit $, then debiting it against the f.a. package if the student enrolls. The visit opportunity and cost could be linked to the Profile or FAFSA, which would control the number of visits any student could select. (Kind of self-limiting anyway, due to junior & senior year h.s. academics)</p>
<p>There are several examples on CC of students who enrolled in ivies or other "desirable" schools, only to suffer culture-shock or culture disappointment, due to lack of transparency about these aspects. (Socioeconomic realities & dynamics, social priorities of students enrolled, etc.) Students and/or their parents have posted about this.</p>
<p>Consider requiring a minimum standardized test score be achieved before one could even apply. This could be done just for the flagship state universities, for example. This would substantially elevate the prestige of & competition for places in "The Top 50 Public Universities".</p>
<p>The people who would like the idea in post 18 the least, are the colleges themselves, particularly the privates. Ain't going to happen.</p>
<p>For many state university systems, you are simply not eligible for consideration without a quotient consisting of ratio of weighted grades to scores. You can send your app. in & throw away your money, but your app will go into the auto-reject pile and will not affect the chances for, or consideration of, those eligible to be looked at in-depth. Their app will have zero affect on your admission chances.</p>
<p>Limit the number of schools each kid can apply to definitely (and add in a collaborative admission system among colleges)</p>