Andrew Delbanco, through the utilization of a variety of essays, conveys an underlining problem within the university system. Colleges are failing to provide an equal opportunity to students of disadvantageous upbringings. The elite campuses of America remain a stronghold for wealthy Americans, while erroneously proclaiming equality in regards to the application process. Qualified students are being left behind. The blame is not solely the universities, but can be attributed to the society we live in today.
The college admission process is complicated, often leaving students in a vague grey area in regards to top-flight school. The process is neither fair nor unfair to all students. Standardized tests, once thought to be the great academic equalizer, reveal the systems problems. Universities publish reports of the median scores of its accepted students. According to these scores, students can gauge their possibility of admission. The system rewards good scores. Good scores can be obtained by anyone, but not everyone. Wealthy students score higher due to the resources available to them, so elite schools are riddled with privileged students. Not to stay that they are not qualified, but a test score is not the only marker of intelligence and often discredits qualified students. Society is consumed with the importance of numbers. Whether test score, ethnic, or gender diversity colleges are expected to portray themselves as being a place of equality in regards to educations.
The removal of standardized testing, however, is not the solution to the growing class disparity. The intent of the test is to indicate natural ability, and give an opportunity to students from poor high schools.
I sympathize for the deans of admission. Applications struggle to convey the entire person, which makes the decision process difficult. I do not believe in any quick solution to this problem, and question where the middle class comes into this debate.
So many people are disgruntled over the current system, but it is what we have. Play the game.
I believe that removing standardized testing may be beneficial for some students as well as universities, to strictly look at the accomplishments and GPA's of each student. After all, we didn't spend four years of high school studying for the SAT or ACT- there is so much more to a student then a number on a standardized test. I know of many schools who have made it unnecessary for students to submit a test score, Gustavus Adolphus College being one, and it actually benefits the poor students who couldn't afford to take the ACT or SAT in the first place. Also, now the tests aren't demonstrating students "natural ability". Instead they demonstrate how much better affluent students are doing because they can afford the expensive tutors necessary to get the highest test scores.
ReplyDeletehttp://american.com/archive/2007/july-august-magazine-contents/abolish-the-sat
I agree, the admission process is a very difficult one and should be looked at to fix its unfair flaws. The standardized testing on the otherhand, in my opinion, may not "indicate natural ability, and give opportunity to schools from poor high schools." Most of the time low income schools score much worse, not because they have little nautural ability, but because their school did not prepare them. The test in that essence just reinforces what there application says, they came form a poor school. In an article on education.com these poverty issues are addressed as one of the seven problems they find in standardized testing(http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Test_Problems_Seven/).
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you're saying, but have two possible counter-arguments. The first thing that caught my attention in this post was that society is also to blame for these problems regarding the university. While this may be true, the universities do control every aspect of admission. They decide what test scores they want to see, they decide what essay questions they want applicants to answer, and they decide where their representatives go throughout the country to recruit. They play a huge role in deciding how to evaluate an individual to see if they can succeed at their school.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, you talk about the fact that we are obsessed with numbers and statistics. While this may be true, I believe scores are becoming less of a dominant role in the admissions process. Schools don't just want to know your high school GPA and ACT scores, but they also have you write answers to essay questions. They want to know what kinds of clubs and activities you were involved in in high school. Many, if not most, applications also give a space to explain anything that might have had an effect on your academics. For example, I could have explained that my parents got divorced when I was in high school and in the 12 months after that, my grades were not as good as they could have been because of this huge change in my life. Or you could talk about choosing to take a hard honors class instead of taking an easy "A" in the regular one. I think universities are trying to see and evaluate you more as a person than as a statistic.
This article talks about the declining importance of test scores in university admissions:
ReplyDeletehttp://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1683&dat=20010318&id=vKcaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WjAEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6773,8719204
Even more, it is clear how many students take advantage over their wealthy parents. They may or no work themselves, but when a family is spending around $40,000 per year without federal aid or scholarships, it probably crosses their minds that they may just be above-average rich. Meaning, in elementary and high school, when a snow day is announced, an additional day is added to school year calender. But in college, this does not happen, thus, snow days are then detrimental to the tuition payers. Universities lose nothing finance-wise, but whoever may be paying for college is.
ReplyDeleteRecently, a large snowstorm hit the D.C. area allowing classes to be canceled for five consecutive days. Without this major weather event, the students would have had President's Day off, too, but in light of the melting snow, the administration decided that classes would indeed be in session that day. Upset, the students decided to boycott this injustice.
We, the students of the University of Wisconsin, can appreciate many days off, but we can also hike through the snow and make it to class.
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-404752
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ75RN09aH0