Texas A&M Should Not Do Away With Academic Admission

Like the wealthy parents who paid ‘admissions counselors’ to take the SAT/ACT for their students? Or, do you mean like the wealthy parents who can and do pay thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars for their kids to “prep” for their ‘intelligence tests’, with a veritable unlimited number of sittings to get to the desired score or superscore?

What well-qualified Asian kids are barred from college campuses? Do you mean the campus of their choice, 100% of the time. What race or culture gets to self-select both the qualifications, and the decision on behalf of a university, and in their own favor? In the real world, the universities do the selecting. Not the students who decide (unsurprisingly) that their own strongest qualities must be the golden keys to admission.

Your personal politics aside, have you ever been on a college campus…? Real college, not the TV version. It’s the melting pot of teens and young adults transitioning into adulthood. This is the place where students of every socio-economic class go to get an education, try new things, research, study, experiment, find their path. Most kids who start down a research path know very little about the subject matter, LOL!!! Typically, they show aptitude for, or interest in (or both, if the lead faculty member is lucky) the subject or the research.

No system is ever “perfect”. It doesn’t have to be. I’m a “regular parent” of a “regular kid” who has been able to navigate college admissions. For holistic admissions, I don’t see “nightmare”, I see level playing field for all students, not just the ones (like mine) whose parents can afford an advantageous college prep education and obstacle avoidance.

Gotta love the the common data set, and a sound understanding of objective vs. subjective measures are and how they’re evaluated.

Rigor of school record: Each school district or independent school defines the specific criteria that must be met (a number or combination of advanced/IB/AP/honors/dual enrollment, or on-level core classes that are the most academically challenging) to qualify as having taken the ‘most rigorous’ courses available. This is a box checked by a school counselor. Either the student did or the student didn’t meet the standards that are defined in the district catalog, and recorded with the Texas Education Agency. What do you think is NOT objective about a school providing the recorded standard, and checking the box (or not) that a student met the standard? The requirements are clearly documented. The college wants to know if the standard was met. The box is either checked or not checked. The counselor doesn’t base this on whether or not they like the kid, or whether or not they think the kid deserves it. There’s a referenceable benchmark. A kid either did or didn’t reach it. You imagine that’s not an objective measure…?

Class rank: This is about as objective a measure as it gets; simple math. For the schools that rank, each school district or independent school has a grading scale. Referenceable standards are documented on what that scale is, and how it’s measured (state law). From the scale, a cumulative GPA (grade point average) is used to rank students on either a weighted or unweighted scale. Student GPAs are aligned from highest to lowest. Rank is the objective measure of GPA positioning divided by the number of students in the graduating class. If a student has the 4th highest gpa in a class of 100, then the rank is 4/100.

Academic GPA: A letter or numeric value is applied to academic performance results. Each school district or independent school district sets what that scale is. It doesn’t change by the individual. The school board or governing body would have to vote or go through an applicable administrative process to change it, so it’s not a moving target. When evaluating GPA, colleges are evaluating the the computation of the cumulative alpha or numeric values, divided by number of classes relevant to that academic environment.

Strength of writing: Mechanics, use of language & conventions, organization, development of ideas, grammar & spelling, are all scoreable measures that colleges typically have a defined rubric to rate admission essays. As your high school student, in any English/Language Arts, literature, or writing class. Or, if they go to a real “competitive school” all or most of their core classes have a strong and definitive writing component to every assignment, project, and test (including STEM classes).

Subject matter is and style selection are subjective. The strength of the actual writing is not. Strong writing and critical thinking skills are actually a really big deal right now, and identified (out in the business world) as one of the critical skills gaps. ← That influences what colleges and universities look for in truly strong students.

Academic record in relation to requested major: Competitive colleges & universities have a recommended high school course target, a minimum high school course target to be considered for admission, and a list of readiness targets that they use to score ‘fit for purpose’ for either admission to the college, and/or to the major. For example, “math readiness” for an engineering applicant might have the minimum requirement of, “math sequence progression that includes algebra, geometry, algebra II/trigonometry, a fourth math class that requires algebra II/trig as a pre-requisite.” They have the high school transcripts, so they can see if you’ve met their objective minimum standards for a high school academic record.

Some Examples of Personal achievements that are objective:
*Presidential Service Awards
*Scripps National Spelling bee winner
*IB diploma
*National AP scholar
*National science bowl winner
*ISEF winner
etc… There are documented standards, and internationally recognized award tiers. Either you do, or don’t make the cut for one (or more).

A few examples of objective talents & abilities

  • Demonstrated fluency in a coding language
  • Meeting or exceeding athletic recruiting thresholds (example: a 100m sprinter might be required to have some number of sub 10.5 (FAT) times at sanctioned meets)
  • Achievement of Professional certifications

Either you did, or did not achieve these benchmarks or results. That’s the very nature of objective.