<p>Barry Schwarz, a leading psychologist on decision making, judgment, and choice from Swarthmore gave his second or third TED talk this past weekend. He discusses the power of luck and how to implement justice in the college admissions process. It's a really cool talk. </p>
<p>TEDxSwarthmore</a> - Barry Schwartz - Why Justice Isn't Enough - YouTube</p>
<p>Bump 10 char</p>
<p>Interesting. I buy the part about there being a scarcity of opportunities at certain schools vs the number of qualified applicants. I do not know if anywhere there is a benchmark for qualified, or even a culling into two basic piles.</p>
<p>But I do believe that the lottery happens AFTER a number of steps sorting the candidates into piles according to their possible roles and what they can offer to the class, be it geographical or cultural or ethnic characteristics, or EC interests, or temperament, or academic goals, high school… The admission officers are building a class with a variety of components, and a given applicant will be compare to those with similar attributes. Tough luck if there are a ton of applicants who play the flute like you, and that can vary rom year to year, so it can be about luck.</p>
<p>The questions is whether the academics and experiences at the schools so sought after with their limited number of slots really deserve this relatively high number of applications? Is the education there really better? Are the students more stimulating? Are the facilities better? Do the grads go on to do better things? and so on</p>
<p>Or are we spinning onto believing that low acceptance rates MUST mean two things (tongue in cheek, cutting to the chase):
the lower the acceptance rate, the better the school
the lower the acceptance rate, the better the students
the the lower the acceptance rate, the more prestigious</p>
<p>The gaming comments are true. Same as on Wall Street, LOL.
And just look at the tuition increases= whew, maybe a sign of a bubble at the moment.</p>
<p>The next question is: should we be adding slots everywhere, or at some schools/which ones?</p>
<p>There are plenty of “good enough” colleges.
And maybe the top colleges should stop the mass marketing. For this way over-bought/applied set number of slots. Limited resources, for sure.</p>
<p>And maybe not so many should go to college… and would better off getting their training other ways.</p>
<p>Performersmom – I mostly agree with what you say. Especially the part about gaming the system. I have been posting about that in other threads on CC, and am absolutely amazed at the number of people who believe that the system works the way it is today. Unbelievable!</p>
<p>And then there are the number of people who feel entitled to get into certain schools or feel they deserve it more than others. They simply don’t acknowledge how much luck has allowed them to get to they points they are at.</p>