Admissions Lotteries v.s. Merit
[link removed][UNIQID]
CounterCurrent: Week of 4/26
Admissions Lotteries v.s. Merit
CounterCurrent is the National Association of Scholars’ weekly newsletter, bringing you the biggest issues in academia and our responses to them.
[link removed][UNIQID]
Category: Admissions; Reading Time: ~2 minutes
------------------------------------------------------------
** Featured Article - No More Merit by Christopher Kendall ([link removed][UNIQID])
------------------------------------------------------------
The COVID-19 pandemic will adversely affect college admissions and enrollment this year and beyond. High school graduates will be less likely to attend colleges and universities far from home after witnessing a nationwide lockdown. They will hesitate before risking extended separation from family, were a similar emergency to occur during their studies.
They may also opt for a cheaper, local option over the expensive, fancy, far-away school, knowing that they may not have the full “college experience” we currently see disrupted by distance learning. Some schools remain uncertain ([link removed][UNIQID]) about reopening campus in fall 2020, and many others are quickly approaching insolvency due to the sudden loss of income.
These same students may also have weaker applications than those of past years. Extracurricular activities have been cancelled, and high school grades may suffer from the abrupt shift to distance learning. Some who planned to matriculate may choose to take a gap year to wait out the storm.
It is clear that admissions, like every part of higher education, will have to adapt not only to the present crisis, but also to its future implications.
So how exactly should admissions change? Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute proposed a radical idea in a recent article ([link removed][UNIQID]#3d960c9e3270) : colleges should base their admissions on a random lottery. You read that right. All aspects of college admissions—grades, test scores, essays, interviews, extracurriculars, letters of recommendation—should be scrapped and replaced with random selection.
Hess argues that the current admissions system is broken and depends on metrics that are ambiguous, unreliable, and susceptible to malfeasance. These include standardized tests, the flaws of which were brought to light by the Varsity Blues cheating scandal. Another example is Harvard’s infamous “personality scores,” which are alleged to discriminate against Asian-American applicants. We at the National Association of Scholars agree with his premise—admissions requirements that do not measure student merit in a fair and clearly quantifiable way should be left behind.
But we disagree with Hess’s conclusion that merit should be discarded altogether. In this week’s featured article ([link removed][UNIQID]) , NAS Director of Development Chris Kendall lays out the case for merit as the essential component of college admissions, while also pointing out the flaws in Hess’s proposal. We should not throw the baby out with the bathwater, but rather move forward with admissions policies that target the most promising students through objective metrics. Besides, random lotteries are unlikely to solve the problems Hess thinks they would.
As Kendall writes: “Hess’s solution is not an alternative for those committed to the renewal, much less the survival, of the institutions that shape modern life and contemporary culture. Throwing in the towel on higher education admissions is not an answer.” Radical solutions such as these, while intriguing, are often ill-suited for real-world implementation. This proposal is best left on the shelf.
Until next week.
John David
Communications Associate
National Association of Scholars
Read More ([link removed][UNIQID])
For more on college admissions:
[link removed][UNIQID]
April 08, 2020
** Rethinking University Dependence on Foreign Students ([link removed][UNIQID])
------------------------------------------------------------
David Randall
Once the coronavirus pandemic subsides, might it not be better if we tried to attract American students and their tuition dollars by competing to provide a rigorous, remunerative education?
[link removed][UNIQID]
February 26, 2020
** Department of Justice Files Amicus Brief Supporting SFFA ([link removed][UNIQID])
------------------------------------------------------------
NAS
The Department of Justice joins NAS in filing to support racial equality in admissions.
[link removed][UNIQID]
November 01, 2019
** The End of Meritocracy ([link removed][UNIQID])
------------------------------------------------------------
NAS
In an excerpt from The Diversity Delusion, Heather Mac Donald describes the "diversity mania" taking over the academy.
[link removed][UNIQID]
March 18, 2019
** Oh, the Varsity Blues ([link removed][UNIQID])
------------------------------------------------------------
David Randall
What's wrong with American colleges? Admissions departments are a small microcosm of large scale corruption.
** About the NAS
------------------------------------------------------------
The National Association of Scholars, founded in 1987, emboldens reasoned scholarship and propels civil debate. We’re the leading organization of scholars and citizens committed to higher education as the catalyst of American freedom.
============================================================
Follow NAS on social media.
** Facebook ([link removed][UNIQID])
** Twitter ([link removed][UNIQID])
** YouTube ([link removed][UNIQID])
** Website ([link removed][UNIQID])
** Donate ([link removed][UNIQID])
| ** Join ([link removed][UNIQID])
| ** Renew ([link removed][UNIQID])
| ** Bookstore ([link removed][UNIQID])
Copyright © 2020 National Association of Scholars, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website, membership or donation forms, contact forms at events, or by signing open letters.
Our mailing address is:
National Association of Scholars
420 Madison Avenue
7th Floor
New York, NY 10017-2418
USA
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
.
